Sermon date: Sunday, October 28, 2012 (First Baptist Cornelia)
Into a world of political and societal uncertainty, Jesus speaks Good News into our lives. Here's my sermon for the days leading up to the election.
Time
moves in cycles. The closer we move to
November 6, 2012 – the more I reflect on life in in the fall of 2008. I was the interim pastor of The Baptist
Church of Beaufort. The floor to the
world as we knew it seemed to be falling and no one seemed to where we would
stop. I remember coming into a meeting with
our stewardship committee budget planning meeting and announcing the latest economic
news of the day – the Dow Jones stock index dropped another The faces around the table gathered to plan a
church budget for the coming year just dropped.
In the one month leading up the election of 2008, we had 5 of the single
worse days in stock market history. The
world felt completely uncertain. How
could we plan for the future when no one knew what would happen.
Over the last 4 years uncertainty
has followed us in all areas of our lives.
There has been uncertainty in the economy through the drop of the
housing market, bank failures, and foreclosures. There has been uncertainty with our
safety. Just when we think we can
breathe easier with a world’s greatest terrorist no longer threatening us,
terrorism still raises its ugly head. There
has been uncertainty in our world – just as we watch countries around the world
celebrate freedom we find new threats and wars and dangers.
In the middle of the last 4 years,
Daniel Gilbert (a psychology professor at Harvard) began studying the Gallup-
Well-Being Index. This index tracks
daily the percentage of Americans who, reflecting on the day before they were
surveyed, say they experienced a lot of happiness and enjoyment without a lot
of stress and worry versus the percentage who say they experienced daily worry
and stress without a lot of happiness and enjoyment.
Professor Gilbert found that "that
Americans are smiling less and worrying more than before the Great Recession,
that happiness is down and sadness is up, that we are getting less sleep and
smoking more cigarettes, that depression is on the rise."
He
stated that the real problem is not financial—not having enough money, but
something else: Uncertainty. People
don't know what's going to happen. Will I have a job next week? What's ahead in
the future for me? Professor Gilbert pointed to a Dutch experiment where some
subjects were told they would be intensely shocked 20 times. The researchers
told a second group that they would receive three strong shocks and 17 mild
ones, but they wouldn't know when the intense shocks would come. The results?
Subjects in the second group sweated more and experienced faster heart rates.
Uncertainty caused their discomfort: they didn't know when the shocks would
come next.
Daniel
Gilbert summarized, "An uncertain future leaves us stranded in an unhappy
present with nothing to do but wait … . Our national gloom is real enough, but
it isn't a matter of insufficient funds. It's a matter of insufficient
certainty."
I
wish I could say this was not true for followers of Jesus – but I have a
feeling this – “insufficient certainty” quotient extends to us as well. As I listen to many us preparing for this
year’s election – this is what I hear – continued fear of uncertainty.
How
do we live our lives when we never know what tomorrow holds?
It
starts with an understanding of Kingdom Living.
When
Jesus was born – he initiated a new reign of God – we call this the Kingdom of
God. The angels announced this new
kingdom – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
men.” Jesus describes the Kingdom this
way when he begins his ministry: “the
time is fulfilled the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the
good news.’”
Dr.
David Gushee who spoke last week says in his book Kingdom Ethics - The kingdom of God is performative: it is God’s
performance in which we actively participate.
As we practice spiritual disciplines – such as worship, Bible study,
Community, mission – we grow to be more like Jesus - and the Kingdom of God
marks us. When our lives are marked by
the Kingdom of God – this means we are longer characterized by the things of
this world – but of aspects of God’s Kingdom.
Uncertainty,
fear and worry are marks of the Kingdom of the world. Trust is the mark of the Kingdom of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes
what Kingdom Living looks like. As our
lives are being shaped to look more like Jesus – we will begin living in new
ways.
In
Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus describes one set of the marks of the Kingdom of God in
our lives. Listen to this Good News of
the Kingdom for your lives - first from the NRSV – and then from the
Message.
NRSV
‘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. Is not life more than food, and
the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow
nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single
hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell
you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if
God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?”
or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these
things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
34
‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.
The
Message
If you decide for God, living
a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table
at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far
more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance
than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered,
not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count
far more to him than birds.
27-29
“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as
an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that
much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields
and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen
color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the
country look shabby alongside them.
30-33
“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are
never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his
best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so
preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t
know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and
how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.
Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns
will be met.
34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and
don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help
you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
The
birds of the air and the lilies of the field live lives in uncertainty. The birds of Habersham County – the wrens,
the hawks, the buzzards – do not know where their next meal will come
from. Each day is a day of
uncertainty. Each day they take off
waiting to see what the day will hold.
Will the wren find food in the Spivey’s feeder? Will the hawk find and catch the rabbit in the
pasture behind the Spivey’s house? Will
the buzzard find fresh road kill. There
is no guarantee. The wildflowers of Tray
Mountain also live lives of uncertainty – will there be enough rain to
sprout? Will there be enough wind to
carry their seeds and repopulate. There is
no guarantee – yet God will provide for them.
God will provide. And because God
provides – uncertainty turns to certainty.
While they live in uncertainty – their lives are marked by trust – not fear
or worry. This is the mark of the
kingdom Jesus wants exhibited in our lives – While we live in uncertainty – our
lives are defined by trust not fear.
Where are you searching for
certainty in your life? In your checking account or portfolio? In your home life and family? In your possessions – your house, your
clothes, your status? In your play – you
hunting gear, hiking gear, or golf time?
In your work, job or vocation? In
your government, your political leaders, your nation?
Jesus says – Seek first the Kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things – the certainty you crave - will
be added.
Do you notice the results of Kingdom
living there in v. 34: When we put the
Kingdom of God first in our lives, when we seek God’s righteous before all else
- God will help
you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
In 10 days our country will vote on
our new political leaders. We will carry
our own sense of hope into the ballot box.
Many of us will be voting for a sense a certainty – a hope that if our
candidate wins the country will get stronger or more certain.
Here’s our reality check – no matter
who wins – we may be celebrating or we may be crying – but certainty in our world
will not return. There will still be a
Middle East crisis that exists out of our control. There will still be terrorists
willing to give their lives to hurt Americans.
There will be still be the high ups and downs of a sputtering economic
recovery. There will still be a sharply
divided political environment.
Here is the Good News: Jesus offers us certainty and security in a
world of uncertainty. Jesus described for
how to live in these uncertain times to hundreds of Jewish peasants on the side
on a mountain. These folks worked every
day to scrap together food and shelter for their family. They lived in an occupied land where a
foreign government ruled with a iron fist and an occupying army. There was no medical care, no retirement, and
no security. The same good News Jesus
gave to them – still applies to us in the year 2012: Steep your life in
God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out.
You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
In
our uncertain world – may our lives of certainty be the marks of God’s
Kingdom. Amen.
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