Worry

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Scripture: Matthew 6:25 – 34

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Read more…

Looking to Sunday

by Elaine Poproski

What are you worried about these days?

There’s a lot going on in our world that’s worrisome: there’s the on-going war in Ukraine, and the constant possibility of it erupting beyond Ukraine’s borders into the rest of the world; there’s the sky-high cost of food and the even higher cost of housing; there’s the violence all over our city, some of it frighteningly close to home for some of us. And then there are the things in our individual lives that are worrisome: some of us are waiting for medical tests or the results of medical tests; some of us are out of work; some of us are looking toward retirement, with no or insufficient retirement savings. To all of these worries, and to the countless others I haven’t named, Jesus says this: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?[i]

I don’t know how you hear these words, but to me they sound dismissive. If it wasn’t Jesus saying them, I’d assume the speaker was so wrapped up in their own privilege that they were speaking out of ignorance. I’d assume the speaker didn’t have a clue about the lives of regular people or didn’t care about the lives of regular people. I’d assume the speaker had never been cold or hungry or in danger. How else do we explain such a statement? Except it was Jesus who spoke these words. And Jesus knew full well what it was to be cold or hungry or in danger. Jesus wasn’t speaking out of ignorance. He absolutely understood and cared about the lives of regular people.

On Sunday we’re going to be considering these words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:25 – 34. We’re going to be wrestling with what sounds like a simplistic, tone-deaf instruction, but that can’t possibly be that given that the speaker was Jesus. As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time meditating on these words. What do you hear when you read them? Have you ever shared a very real and serious concern with someone, only to have them respond with “Don’t worry about it, God will take care of it/you”? How did that response make you feel? We know that Jesus is never dismissive; he’s never glib or superficial; and he cares deeply about our suffering, about poverty and injustice, about violence and war. As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time asking Jesus to explain what he means by these words, particularly as they relate to your life?

 

[i] Matthew 6:25-26