EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Nov. 21, 2018.
I have mentioned this before, but one my favorite comic strips is called “The Awkward Yeti.” … In this comic strip, the characters are humanized versions of our bodily organs. And the two main characters are the Brain and the Heart … which you can imagine are often portrayed as being at odds with each other.
Well, in the most recent edition of the comic, the right half of the single frame is dominated with The Brain that is fixated on a single ball that has the word “bad” written on it.
The left half of the frame is dominated by the heart which is staring at an entire pile of balls, each labeled “good.”
I think this simple cartoon characterizes tonight’s scripture readings.
In the lesson from Timothy and in the Psalm we are exhorted to praise God for all things. We’re told the Lord has done great things for us, and thus we should be grateful.
And in the lesson in Joel and in our Gospel of Matthew, we are told that we also should not worry. ... As Matthew writes, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.” … And, the scripture in Joel repeats, “Do not fear.”
I see both of these messages wrapped up in that single cartoon. … Now admit it, most of us are more like the Brain in this comic: Despite all that we have to be thankful for, we easily get fixated on the bad in our lives.
This, of course, isn’t to say that there aren’t extremely difficult trials that we live through. But for most of us, it’s the small daily challenges ... or hurdles ... or obstacles that we seem to spend most of our time obsessing over … over her (Look to the right). … When almost all of the time, if we just looked over here (Look to the left), and through a different lens, we’d see an entire pile of good just waiting there to be praised.
And, so being human we tend to fixate on what is wrong, leading to more worry about our human situation, rather than focusing on all of the gifts that God has bestowed upon us. So, not only do we fret about the bad, we let that crowd out our gratitude for all of the truly wonderful things God has provided for us.
Well, you might think, if this is part of the human condition, then what is wrong with this preoccupation over what is troubling? … And what is wrong, in God’s eyes, is that this leads us to forget about praising what is good, but instead we live our lives according to earthly standards.
For some context, it may help to know that our Gospel today is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And in verse 24, just before today’s Gospel begins, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve two masters. For instance, we cannot serve God and wealth.
And from the beginning of our scriptures, God repeatedly tells us that he will provide for us, just as he provides for the birds of the air. … You’ll notice that they have plenty to eat, and yet they don’t fret about storing up food for a rainy day.
This Gospel passage reminds us that worry and preoccupation is essentially futile: We as people desire a long and prosperous life, but frankly worrying about our earthly needs does not lengthen our lives one single day. … If you think about, name the last time that your worrying actually solved a problem?
And the writer of Matthew adds that if God cares that much for a bird … or a lilie, also used in this scripture passage … then how much more he must care for us, his holy people? … “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat? Or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’”
First off, the human aspects of worry are just devastating to our health, but beyond that, Jesus tries to teach us in this passage that it is those who do not follow Jesus who do not know of God’s grand benevolence. And it is those who are not in relationship with God who seek their security in possessions and things of this world.
Additionally, the other troubling aspect of this worry is that demonstrates our lack of faith that God really does know the needs of each of us.
Worrying about these needs portrays the message that we are suspect about God actually providing for us, that it might just be possible that God could forget about us or neglect us. … And that in anyone’s book should just be downright blasphemous.
Finally, all this worry that we are prone to blocks our views about what truly is good in our lives. Each of us probably could recount a tale in our own lives when we were so fixated on something that was bad, that we just plain missed seeing the many things that were good. … But we are an adaptable people, and once we begin to take anything for granted, it becomes less noticeable in our mind, as the good often does.
This reminds me of a video that a church in North Carolina produced last year for Christmas. It seems to be making its rounds on social media again this year as the holidays roll around.
The video opens with a guy waking up in his bed, but he is all wrapped up in Christmas paper. You can see him begin to pull the wrapping paper off his face, and he shouts, “I’m alive!”
And then next to him, another person starts stirring, and you see them sit up, and he removes the wrapping paper from that person’s face, and it turns out to be his wife. “Oh, you’re here too! I love you!”
The next scene cuts to him entering the bathroom, and when he goes to turn on the light, you can see that the light switch is wrapped in Christmas paper too. He stands there and flips the switch on and off several times, exclaiming, “It works. Wow! Just like that!”
Next, the man moves to the shower, which has a wrapping paper curtain and there is a bow on the shower head. “Wow, and clean water too!” he shouts.
You get the picture: For the rest of the video, all of the things that we just take for granted are wrapped up in Christmas paper. His shoes, his breakfast, his briefcase, his coffee and finally his car.
It’s a mighty cute and powerful way to remind us that despite the bad we encounter in this world, the small miracles that we have in our lives so outnumber the bad that it’s ridiculous.
I think back to the Heart character in the comic I talked about earlier. The Heart would most certainly see each of those things, a loving partner, electricity, clean and running water, shoes, breakfast, coffee, cars … as good. The Heart would celebrate all of those items in our lives.
But then along comes that pesky Brain, right. … And it begins to think, “Yeah, sure, I have a loved one, but man do they snore! Or they left their dirty clothes all over the bedroom floor last night when they got home.” … Right? We allow our brain to go there because rather than believe in the miracle of relationship that God gives us, it’s far easier to pick apart why that partner isn’t perfect.
And what about that electricity. Well, sure I have electricity in my house, but it’s the house I want. It’s not as big as the neighbor’s … or it doesn’t have the three-stall garage I’m looking for.
And don’t even get me started on my car, am I right? It’s got 100,000 miles on it; it’s dirty; and there’s even some rust spots showing!
We do this, don’t we? Despite all of the good things we have in our lives, we belittle them, thus negating the blessings that God has already provided in our life.
We fixate on what we don’t have, or what would be better, or newer. … We fixate on the bad despite all of the good. The inevitable battle between our heads and our hearts. Between trusting in God’s promises and celebrating his faithfulness, and letting the earthly concerns suck away our faith and convince us that we need more, we need newer, we need bigger, we need … need … need.
But on this Thanksgiving Eve, I wonder what it might look like if we stopped asking for more, and starting thanking God for what we have?
Setting aside the fact that this is exactly what God asks of us, let me share this news with you.
According to the journal Psychology Today, science proves these seven things:
Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. Simply put: Acknowledging other people’s contributions can lead to more opportunities to find friends, and it generally makes you a more pleasant person to be around.
Gratitude improves your physical health. Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and report feeling healthier than others. … Even more importantly, grateful people are more likely to take care of their own health.
Gratitude improves psychological health. It reduces many toxic emotions, including envy, resentment, frustration and regret.
Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. So even if someone hurts you, grateful people are less likely to retaliate.
Gratitude helps you sleep.
Gratitude helps improve self-esteem.
And, maybe most importantly, gratitude helps increase mental health. Research shows that gratitude plays a major role in helping us to overcome trauma. … So, in a sense, grateful people are just more resilient to what the world throws at us.
And not surprisingly to me, every single one of those benefits seems to align with God’s plan.
But so where do we go from there, right? … What does this mean for us as Christians? It seems pretty intuitive that God wants us to worry less and praise more. But I guarantee when you walk out that door tonight, it becomes a lot more difficult to live this lesson.
And I absolutely understand that. After all, there’s always going to be a neighbor that has a newer car, or a bigger house, or gets to take fabulous trips. Someone will always have more … or have newer .. or have bigger. And how do we stop focusing on that and focusing on what we actually do have.
Well, this is one of those times as your pastor, I have to say … I don’t know. … I don’t have that answer for you. … I suspect that this is a personal struggle that is going to be different for each of us.
But for me, I’m going to start tonight by telling you all that I am grateful to be here among you, worshiping with you tonight. And I am absolutely thrilled to know that we have many more Sundays together in sight.
And then I’m going to go home tonight and hug my kids a little tighter, and remind myself that when they start yelling at 11 p.m. because they are engrossed in a game of Fortnite, that my kids are healthy enough to yell … at 11 p.m. at night.
And then tomorrow morning I’m going to celebrate with getting up early and heading to the YMCA where I am going to participate in a 10K run, just to celebrate my improved health this past year.
And then I’ll return home where our home will soon fill with new friends, a tradition we started last year, where we welcome families who have nowhere to go on Thanksgiving into our home. I think we have 10 new people coming tomorrow that I get to call friend. That’s pretty awesome.
And for a change, tomorrow night, I’m going to settle into my favorite chair with a fiction book that has nothing to do with theology, and probably read myself to sleep because for the first time in 75 consecutive days I have nowhere to be on Friday!
But that’s just me. … I also wonder about you, and how you might begin to celebrate the good in your life. … I wonder what that will look like for each of you. … As a member of your faith family, I wish for nothing less.
I hope, as we begin to slide into this next new year, that we as a faith community can hold each other accountable for these two simple things:
First: Can we help each other be more grateful? … Not only because it can improve our lives, but God asks this of us.
And second: Can we help each other worry less? … Also not only because it can improve our lives, but God also asks this of us.
“More faith. Less Worry.” … That’s a sign that hangs in our house, and in my most troubling times, I return to that sign for inspiration. … And tonight I’m asking if we might as a congregation be that inspiration for each other: More faith. Less worry.”
And that is the Good News on this Thanksgiving Eve. … Amen.
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