My Talk at the Service Last Night

I don’t have much of a chance to read a book or watch tv or movies or anything. I mostly run around after my six children yelling at them to Pick Up, pick up your sock, your shoes, hang up your coat, put away your toys, your books. All the time, pick up. So I don’t sit down much but I happened to the other day and I saw a Christmas themed advertisement. It was a brightly dressed cheerful lady, with two brightly dressed ladies behind her, and, she was singing and they were backing her up. And what she was singing was this happy cheerful song, all glittery and cheerful, about how she had “nailed” Christmas. You know, that expression for being a great and wonderful success, for being the person everyone else envies and admires. I sat there, watching her dance around and I had one big mean evil thought, but my second mean evil thought was that I can’t nail Christmas because I’m trying to nail thanksgiving, which is why we’re gathered here tonight, because we want to give thanks. And the chances of me nailing thanksgiving are slim to none, because, well, I just don’t have it together at all. And even if I went to shop at the store that helped her nail Christmas, I would still ruin it somehow. No amount of organizing or buying or decorating or cooking or anything is going to help me nail Christmas. But the tv doesn’t want me to know that, because then I won’t go shop in their store.

It’s bewitching, isn’t it? The idea that if I just bought one more thing, or wore something beautiful, or had my hair done a better way, or had matching outfits for my children, or had brined the turkey four hours more, or had two kinds of vegetables instead of only one, plus special juice for the children, or you know, not these shoes, but those ones in the shop that I saw last month, or a real miniature rosemary Christmas tree to put in my dining room, then the holiday would become a magical dream and everyone would admire and praise me and I would be perfectly satisfied and untroubled and happy.

It’s me Jesus is talking to, and you also, in this haunting and comforting and troublesome text. In verse 25, which we didn’t read, he said, “you cannot serve God and money”, like its some sort of obvious thing, the way I say to my kids, “you can’t jump off the roof, or, you can’t smear yourself with peanut butter”. I’m surprised that I have to say it, because it seems so obvious, but then, because you don’t have a grain of sense, I did have to say it after all. “Therefore” Jesus says, because you can’t serve God and money, that being the obvious case, “do not be anxious.” Isn’t it great how Jesus just says that? Don’t be anxious. Now go on. Stop being anxious. Go on. What’s the matter with you? Just stop it. Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus died and rose, to do for us what we cannot do. Because I don’t know of one single living human being who can follow this command. Do not be anxious. Anxiety is who we are. We are anxious. We have piles of anxiety and worry and problems. This is as bad as Jesus saying, Be Perfect. Go on, do it. Of course you can’t. You can’t not be anxious. It has to be Jesus to does this for you, in you, through his grace and the Holy Spirit.

So he narrows down three areas of anxiety that really encompass, especially this time of year, the locus of human anxiety, Food, Beverages, Clothing. And boy, that is the totality of thanksgiving dinner. Do not be anxious, Jesus says, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? Those are the things that we ask. What shall we eat? How are we going to afford the extra expenses of the holiday. How will we get it all cooked and on the table at the right time? How will we have the energy to cook it and serve it and clean it up? How will we accommodate all the different tastes and needs and expectations and desires? How will we have enough? And as for what we will wear. Goodness. That is the primordial question. The question that Adam and Eve asked first in their sin. Oh my goodness. All these leaves, and not one that’s suitable.

What is the remedy for this? What can you do? Jesus is commanding you to do something that is completely contrary to everything that your flesh and heart and every single person on the radio and the Internet and the television are telling you. It’s like you’re jammed up against the Red Sea with no way out. But there is a way. There is always a way out. That’s verse 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. It’s not that through some magical formula God will take away all your anxiety if you manage to be good and holy enough, which is really the way we live, isn’t it? As if it’s possible to not be anxious just by trying really hard. No, it’s that you seek out Jesus. You look for him. You don’t hide from him and who he is and what he says. You look for him first. Before the table is set and the shopping list is made, before Black Friday, before consideration of the fact that your Aunt Edna and your Cousin Louise aren’t speaking and so they shouldn’t sit next to each other, before the pies are made, before you discover that the children have taken all the sugar and sprinkled it carefully on the floor. Before, first, the primordial thing, you come out from your hiding place of anxiety and pride, and you present yourself to the Lord, and you let him clothe you. You let him add all these things to you. You look him in the face and let him see it all. And then, as you go racing around trying to nail it all down, it won’t be the glitter and the money, it will be the nails from his hands, the grace and mercy of his blood, the glory of his power that will flow from your table and your smile and your heart. And the people singing won’t be backing you up, they’ll be singing their own song because they saw Jesus and his kingdom, because he was enough, and everyone had enough, and it was all beautiful.

Do not be anxious. Jesus himself is sufficient for the day, for your trouble, for your needs, for everything.Amen