Worry Not
The passage we read today from the gospel in Matthew 6: 25-34 can be titled as ‘Worry not’. That may sound like an advice you get from your mother or father or both. Sometimes, in today’s world, you may hear a patronizing sermon from your son or daughter. Most often, it may be your wife who tells you these words, as it quite frequently happens in my life. In fact, there are so many gurus who make crores of rupees worth of wealth by preaching this same sermon.
We all know that fretting, or being irritated or worried is not good for personal well-being. As a cancer doctor, one of the common questions I hear is whether anxiety or worry causes cancer. Now that’s something I do not know about. But there is sufficient evidence that worry causes heart problems. Worry is not bad not just for your personal health and well-being, but it is horrible for your family as well. It brings down not just your personal life, but also your family life. In short, it is a highly destructive emotion.
So what is different from what we hear from our family and these millionaire gurus and what we hear from Christ? The answer is in the passage we read today. In verse 30, Jesus says, “Oh, you of little faith.” He attributes our emotion of constant worrying and anxiety to our lack of faith. What is faith? It’s the awareness that a higher being or a thing is in control of your life, and that the being will do things in our life for our greater good. Some have faith in the government, like it is in the Christian Bible belt in the US. They trust Trump to make their nation great with whatever he does or says. Some have faith in money and wealth, which is why in the previous passage, Jesus talks about our earthly treasure. Some have faith in their own abilities – which is what a lot of new age cults and movements emphasize. But for a Christ follower, where do we rest our trust and hope? Where do we place our faith?
Again, look to the word for the answer. In verse 32, Jesus says that you trust in the heavenly father. The emphasis is on the word FATHER. There is a story of a tightrope walker. He was a world famous acrobat. He once tied a rope across the mighty Niagara Falls and walked across the falls. One time, he tied a rope across two tall skyscrapers. He first walked across the rope and showed his skills to everyone. People applauded his feat. Upon seeing the response of the crowd, the acrobat challenged the crowd. “Who wants to come with me? I will carry you in my arms safely to the other skyscraper by using my skills”. He waited to see if someone volunteered. Clearly, the crowd knew he was skillful. They saw it with their own eyes. But no one came forward. There was an eerie silence in the crowd. A child’s voice broke the silence. “I will come”, a little girl, all of seven years shouted. The acrobat called out to the girl, “daughter, come, let’s show them what we can do together”. That was his daughter. She knew what her father was capable of. She trusted her father. She had faith in her father. This may just be a story. But it illustrates what Jesus is saying in this passage. Child, why do you have to worry when your heavenly father knows what you need to live? We place our faith not in our abilities, or our wealth, or the government that rules our land. We place our faith in our father who knows what we need and would do nothing to harm us.
Is it then correct that whatever happens in our life is brought on by our heavenly father? Yes and no. Why did I add a disclaimer here? For our father in heaven, our God and our savior Jesus Christ, to work everything in our life for good, we must seek his kingdom first. Verse 33 says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness”. If we seek his kingdom and we allow Him to rule our life and be the master of our situations, then, you can say with confidence that whatever happens in our life is for the good, and is controlled and permitted by our heavenly father.
There was a bishop in a church who loved mangoes. So he planted a of a mango tree sapling. He then prayed, “Lord, pour out a gentle rain on the sapling so it can grow”. God gave him the answer to his prayer. After a few days, he prayed, “Lord, shower some rays of sunbeam on to the sapling so it can grow into a fruit bearing tree”. God gave him the answer to his prayer. Few days later, the bishop came back from a tour and excitedly went to the field to check on his sapling. He was devastated. His lovely sapling had died off. Dejectedly, he walked into the aramana. His boss, the senior bishop was sitting in the foyer sipping a cup of hot tea. Seeing the junior bishop sad, he asked, “What’s wrong with you? Did the edavaka sangham fight again?”. “No sir, my mango tree sapling died”. The bishop then narrated the events and his prayers to the elder bishop. “That precisely was the problem, son”, the elder bishop replied. “You prayed certain things and God answered. However, if you had prayed the prayer of submission, my experience suggests that you may have enjoyed the fruits of your labor.” What was that prayer? A prayer that said, “Lord, I planted this sapling. I want it to bear fruit. Give it rain, or shine, or frost, or dew, or whatever you want it to face, so that at the end it will bear fruit”.
Our prayer should be like that. A prayer of submission – “Lord, you have given me this life. I put my faith in you my heavenly father. Do to my life what you need to do, so that my life becomes a fruit bearing life like you so desire.” If we give control of our life, submit the desires of our heart to His will, and place our absolute faith in our creator, then he will make us worry less about things in our life that will ordinarily make us fret. If we know that the creator of the universe is our heavenly father, we can cast away our worry and anxiety.
Let me now modify the title of my sermon. I had initially called it “worry not”. But now, I want to change it – “Worry not, for our heavenly father loves us”. Dear church, trust the man who died for you. Put your trust in Jesus.
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