I was in the seminary in the 60s after Vatican Council II. The seminary faculty sort of lost their bearings. They could no longer teach the way they had for the past fifty years… and the way they had been taught fifty years before that. I remember Fr. Gilbert preaching a sermon to us where he expressed his frustration at the new ideas that were circulating. “You can love, love, love until the cows come home, but you’ve still got to keep the commandments.” When we say the word “commandments” we usually are referring to the Ten Commandments that Moses received on Mount Sinai. “Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal” and all the rest. When we go to confession these are the yardsticks we use to measure how well we are doing in obedience to God. It is good to do so. However, we don’t give as much notice to the other commandments, the commandments which Jesus left us. The Sermon on the Mound contains several of those words of the Lord that we could translate as we do the other commandments. For example, last week the gospel proclaimed: “thou shalt turn the other cheek, thou shalt give to those who ask, thou shalt love your enemy.” Quite a bit more challenging than Moses’ Ten – and not ones we usually bring to confession. The Sermon on the Mount continues and we hear another commandment today. Jesus says, “Thou shalt not worry.” Worrying is so much a part of modern life that we can’t imagine a life without worries. Someone who isn’t worried we figure really doesn’t get what is happening. If you’re not worried you are clueless. You should worry if you are one paycheck away from landing on the street. I know a preacher who worries over his sermon. Our worries motivate us to be careful where we go at night, to work or study hard, to prepare for the future, to buy insurance, to put a little aside for a rainy day. We worry about the best things. But for Jesus to issue this commandment he must think that a life without worries is a possibility. So how do we heed this command in a worry-filled world?
To make matters even more complicated the strategy Jesus suggested to help us eliminate worry – look at the birds of the air, look at the lilies of the field – can have the opposite effect in the modern world. When we look at mother nature nowadays we get worried because what with climate change and environmental damage we need to worry even about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Their very existence is threatened with extinction. We are worried about what has happened in the past. We are worried about what is going to happen in the future. All of which keeps us from enjoying each day as a gift from God full of grace and peace. You can see why Jesus told us to stop worrying – but can we turn off our worry proned minds?
The move from worry to rest, from anxiety to enjoyment for Jesus does not imply blowing up your TV, throwing away the paper, and moving to the country. Jesus does not suggest that we should withdraw from our involvements, far removed from the struggles of this world. We know this from the life of Jesus himself. He led a very busy life, always moving from this place to that, preaching, teaching, healing, multiplying the loaves and fishes, changing water into wine and the occasional walk on the water. So a worry-free existence does not imply sitting on a rocker on the porch. Jesus is not looking for a change in activities, a change in contacts, or even a change of pace. Rather, he speaks about a change of heart. Jesus asks us to shift the center of our attention away from “many things” to the “one necessary thing.” “Set your hearts on God’s kingdom first and all these other things will be given you besides.” When we worry we have our hearts in the wrong place. Jesus asks us, commands us, to move our hearts into the right place, into God’s kingdom. When we do so, God says to us (to paraphrase the prophet Isaiah), “momma gonna take good care of you.”
The way to leave worry behind is the same way that Jesus did – by trusting completely in the will of his heavenly Father. We worry because we have the illusion that things have to come out a certain way. We stop worrying when we realize that if we are living according to the will of God that all will be well. Not easy, but well. Jesus could approach the cross with his eyes opened because he trusted that God was in charge. We worry because we imagine that our happiness lies in things turning out as we planned — in getting ahead, in succeeding, in staying healthy, in living a long life, in being respected. Jesus shows us that true happiness lies in staying faithful to the will of God, even when it involves taking up our cross each day. Once we have decided to live faithful to God in all things as Jesus did, our worry-filled existence shifts.
The way, therefore, to heed the commandment of Jesus and stop worrying is straight forward: we must make our one desire and choice always and only to do the will of God. Once we have made that choice, our prayer consists in quieting our hearts so that we can listen to what God is saying to us, asking for strength, and then acting. That requires, of course, letting go of all of those inclinations, compulsions, tendencies, drives that ordinarily guide our decision making. Instead, we discern as near as we can the will of God for us each day and then do it. The promise of Jesus – and his life demonstrates this truth – is that when we let God be in charge we can weather any storm that life throws at us. Good Friday does not get the last word, Easter Sunday does. As the Psalmist said: weeping might last through the night but joy comes in the morning.
