CONSIDER
Luke 12:22-31
Stephen A. Hamilton Wright
First Presbyterian Church, Wausau, Wisconsin 15 August 2010
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Have you had a good summer? Oh, there are problems, of course. It’s been hot lately, very humid. Some of you have dealt with illness or death or job loss, or other situations. As a congregation, we are aware of some ongoing situations for members that are pretty tough. Still, most of us probably would say that summer is pretty good. A lot of you have spent time up north or on a lake somewhere; some still are, so they aren’t here today. We had a wedding in our family, and I’ve been able to travel to General Assembly in Minneapolis, to Pittsburgh for some study time with old friends, and to the U. P. for some family time. College friends came to visit, I had an article about Advent worship published recently, and we are getting ready to host an exchange student. So life has been exciting and good. I haven’t always felt good; I had a nagging cold for about a month, and my knees have bothered me, but all in all, summer has been good. Life is good. I hope you are able to add things up and feel the same way. Life is good.
We talked about gratitude this week. We talked about giving thanks. Your worship and formation staff talked about gratitude and praise while we were talking about worship. We listed the reasons people most often give for coming to church. You know them, because you give them. They include challenge, encouragement, inspiration, learning, and being with other Christians. Those are good reasons, but something was missing from the list. What about gratitude and praise? Isn’t worship first of all our response of thanksgiving and reverence to the most amazing Being that exists? That’s why we’re here, right? Even when our personal lives are a mess, with parents headed for nursing homes and kids crashing their cars, and on the larger world stage we’ve got wars in the Middle East, oil sloshing around the Gulf of Mexico, storms and wildfires racing around the planet, and poverty gripping billions of people, we still have reasons to say thanks. Maybe those reasons start with gratitude just for being alive, and for confidence that suffering and pain are not the way God prefers things to be. We talk about social justice, about ending war and caring for the sick and prisoners, because the Bible shows us that such things really are not part of the divine plan. We are grateful for that, glad of the vision of a better way, a holy way, that we can experience right here, on earth, as followers of the One Jesus teaches us to love. Praise God! Worship is first of all about saying thank you that the Being who imagines atoms into existence and spins the stars in splendor also cares about our business. Praise God! It’s about gratitude. It’s about praise. We have a lot to talk about.
We have lots of reasons to praise God. We have many reasons to worship. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Consider the ravens: they don’t farm, they don’t store food, but God feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than the birds? Don’t worry—God knows what you need.” He asked a question: “can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If not, then why worry about the rest?” We don’t want to be naïve about this. Jesus did not mean “just kick back and everything will come to you.” Instead, He wanted followers to focus on God’s way of community and cooperation, the kingdom of peace, and trust that in such a world, we will all find a way to what we truly need. It will not be without trouble. Some people can’t make it through a morning without stubbing a toe or spilling coffee. More than that, disease and aging are part of life, and so are storms and earthquakes. But if we accept those realities, instead of pretending that we can control them, think how much happier life would be, and how much more ready we would be to give credit to God, instead of blame. I read a story recently about a man who had worked as an assistant cook in a restaurant. There were two older guys who worked near him. Every day, one got more and more frantic as the day went on, and always left frustrated and exhausted. The other was relaxed in the morning, and even more relaxed at the end of most days. How did he do that, the young man wondered? The man explained: “Old Joe over there comes to work every day thinking everything will be perfect. Thinks he can control everything, and of course he can’t. Now, me, I don’t expect any day to be perfect. There will always be some kind of problem. I deal with it, and a lot of days end up less troublesome than I expect.” If we carried that kind of attitude through every day, we would notice a lot more good. We have lots of reasons to say thanks.
Something special starts here tomorrow. Something special starts in the morning, something both old and new. Vacation Bible School, as old as most of us can remember, is back in a new way. It’s not one of the mass-marketed themes we’ve seen recently, like Lava Jungle Safari or Road Race with Jesus. The main Scripture for the week is the parable of the sower. We’ll hear that next Sunday. Forty-seven kids from at least four churches and the community will be planting seeds and learning about the connections between faith and caring for world God created to care for us. The motto for the week is “Have Fun, Grow in Faith, Change the World.” Think about that. Try it turned around: change the world, grow in faith, and have fun while you are doing it. Have fun following God! It sounds like the advice Jesus gave his disciples: don’t worry so much about your daily needs, but trust God and watch what happens. The seeds that are planted this week will not be only plants. They will be seeds of learning, seeds of faith, seeds of change. There will be music, Bible stories, games, snacks, friends, and dirt. How could there be a good vacation Bible school without dirt? We will hear about all of it next week, when some of the kids make a presentation during worship. Meanwhile, they will be learning that Jesus not only used animals and plants in His stories; He used them because He cared about them, and we all care about them, as part of God’s creation. Birds and flowers are further reminders of how much God loves us, too, and how much we have for which to say thanks. Caring for animals is actually a way to offer praise; so is raising flowers and trees and food. There are lots of reasons to worship, and lots of ways, too.
Don’t worry so much. Don’t expect too much, so you can rejoice at the good you discover. Creation is beautiful, and faith can be fun. Give thanks for the life God gives us.