September 24, 1988, was the first time
an a cappella song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 – the most
popular, most played song on the radio was … “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby
McFerrin. This is one of those songs that appealed to so many people in no
small part because of its seemingly uplifting message: “Don’t worry! Be happy!”
Do any of you worry? (Mr. McFerrin
would be so disappointed!) Yes! We all do. Worry is a form of meditation. We
spend our time thinking about bad things in our lives. And are there dark,
difficult, and sad things that happen to us? Yes!
McFerrin’s advice is good as far as it
goes, but ultimately, the song says don’t worry, because it’s just going to
make the problem worse. Okay, fine, but that’s not a very positive message
about the future. “You’re going to have trouble in life. Don’t worry. Be
happy.”
But what if something has happened
that makes it possible to see beyond the troubles, struggles, sorrows, and
worries of this life? Wouldn’t it be good to be able to point at something and
say, “Don’t worry, be happy because …!” and then give the reason?
Interestingly, Jesus was talking to
his disciples – that means his students, his followers, and by extension that
includes us! Jesus was talking to his disciples and he said, “Therefore I tell
you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your
body, what you will put on.” Some translations put it, “Do not worry about your
life.” It’s the same idea in anxiety and worry – we’re meditating on the bad
things have happened, are happening, or might happen. We’re filling our mind
with these things – and some of them deserve real attention.
Now, to be clear, if you have cancer, you do well to think
through what treatments and options you have. If you have financial struggles,
you do well to strategize, budget, and plan how to tackle those struggles. But
sometimes, maybe even often, these anxieties become overwhelming and
all-consuming. But there are all kinds of things that make us anxious about our
lives: from our daily troubles to crime and violence, to wars and climate
change.
Our society is riddled with anxiety around what to eat. The
diet industry is worth about $72 billion – this is big business that makes
people anxious about what we’ll eat. This is so bad that there is an eating
disorder called orthorexia, which is an obsession with eating the “right”
foods.
And how about our bodies? We have anxiety around our looks,
the shapes of our bodies, the hair on our heads, the hair in our ears, and much
more. We worry about how age changes our bodies, disease destroys our bodies,
and the many ways we can damage these bodies.
We are really good at being anxious. But Jesus says, “Don’t.”
But he doesn’t say “Don’t” in a shaming, angry way. He says it’s just not
necessary. Look at what he says, “Consider the ravens.” Does God feed the
birds? Don’t you think you are more valuable than they? Don’t you see that God
will provide for you? He says, “Consider the lilies.” Do they worry about being
beautiful? How about the grass with its flowers? It’s here today and gone
tomorrow. If that’s how God clothes the ground, don’t you think he will provide
clothes for you?
He says, “Can your worry and anxiousness add even an hour to
your life?” Nope. Then he says, “If you can’t do something as little as adding
an hour to your life, why are you anxious about the rest?” Isn’t that an
interesting question? When the time comes to die, we die. There is nothing we
can do to add even an hour to our lives, and Jesus says that’s a small thing …
because, to him, it is a small thing.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he defeated death for us. He
didn’t add a single hour to our lives. What did he add? He gave us everlasting
life.
Jesus is saying here, you don’t need to be anxious about all
this stuff because, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I
have overcome the world.” And, in his love, he has given you the victory. The
message is not, “Don’t Worry. Be Happy,” because it won’t do any good anyhow.
The message is, “Don’t be anxious about anything because I love you and I will
take care of you. And if you ever wonder how much I love you, and how committed
I am to being your God, your protector and provider, look at the cross.” Look
at the cross where Jesus died to pay for your sins, to atone for the cause of
all our anxiety, especially our anxiety about God. Jesus’ cross cries out with
God’s love, “Fear not, for I know the plans I have for you” … and those plans are
good, full of hope, because he has given us a future. And that is the cure for
anxiety. Trusting Jesus.
It's simple, but not very easy sometimes. “Let us fix our
eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.” Have you noticed that we
can fix our eyes and our thoughts on the things of this world, which will lead
us to anxiety and worry, or we can fix our eyes and thoughts on Jesus and deal
with the problems of life in the peace, hope, and confidence that God has given
us more and better?
I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who told
me about some things in his life that were making him anxious about the future.
He spoke with one of his colleagues, who is a wise Christian man. My friend
asked him how he could be so calm while it seemed like everything was going
wrong. The man simply responded, “Jesus is Lord.”
That statement has a similar problem to what we talked about
with Jesus’ words, “Do not be anxious.” On the one hand, this could be a harsh
statement. “Jesus is Lord, so we'd better obey and do what He says, and if we do
that well enough, then everything will be okay.” But it can also be a statement
of peace and faith, “Jesus is Lord, and my Lord loved me so much that He laid
down to redeem me. My Lord isn’t some tyrant! He’s my savior. He has given me
his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death that I might be
his own and live under him in his kingdom in everlasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness. This is most certainly true.
I took that statement to heart, or maybe it would be better
to say that I am trying to take that statement to heart – Jesus is Lord. We
have plenty of worries and anxieties, don’t we? Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious.”
And we can take that to heart because Jesus is Lord, and what a Lord He is!
Amen.
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