May 26th 2013
Lilies of the Field
Reading:
Luke 12:22-34
Do Not Be Anxious
22 And
he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your
life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more
than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither
sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being
anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 26 If then you are not able to
do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the
lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,[b] yet I tell you, even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass,
which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much
more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to
eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world
seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead,
seek his[c] kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32 “Fear
not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves
with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does
not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The great comedian, Tommy Cooper, was known for being very careful
with his money. If he hired a taxi he would sometimes pay the fare and say
to the cabby “Have a drink on me”. He would then put what looked like a £5
note into the taxi driver’s top pocket. “Thanks, guv” the driver would reply.
Tommy would then get out of the cab. And later the driver would reach into
his pocket and discover he’d been given - a teabag! (Have a drink on me!)
To put it nicely, the cabby would be disappointed.
Some people have looked into the claims of Christianity and have also
been disappointed. They say the Bible is all about “you must nots”. They
say it’s so negative “I want to enjoy myself. I want to be free to do what I
want to do. It’s my life – don’t give me any rules”. But, this is to get the
Bible, particularly the gospels, all wrong.
Any good parent will instruct his or her children not to put their hands in the
fire or not to try and cross the M25 on foot. Someone has described the
Bible as a love letter from God to his children. He wants the best for them
and the instructions he gives are all for our benefit.
Our reading is from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus follows the
same pattern. He shows his disciples the best way to live. Someone has
called this sermon “a self portrait of Jesus himself”. It has also been
described as “Christian counter-culture”. It’s not the natural way we want to
go. It’s a diagonally opposite path. It goes right against our natural desires
which are to be self-centred, greedy, vengeful and protective. And these
attitudes produce anger, wars, poverty, discrimination and prejudice –
situations we see all around us in the world today.
Many of us have been walking round the beautiful gardens in Bures this
weekend. There the ugliness of our natural desires doesn’t seem very
evident. Neatly tended beds, flowers in full bloom, leaves in the first flush of
growth produce a wonderful sight. And Jesus uses the beauty of nature as
a powerful illustration in this sermon where he addresses 4 different issues
which can cripple our lives. They are hypocrisy, fear, greed and worry.
Here he is particularly looking at worry.
More and more in modern life we are facing stress. As a country we are in
recession. That produces stress. There are few jobs. That produces stress.
There is the fear of losing our jobs. That produces stress. Money is short.
How are we going to pay the bills? Fear of the future; stress, stress, stress.
If we could get rid of stress there certainly wouldn’t be a shortage of
hospital beds.
Stress makes us ill. Stress petrifies our lives. Someone described himself
as “all stressed up and nowhere to go”. Another said “I only feel stressed
twice a day, when I’m awake and when I’m asleep.”
Here’s the same sentiment in verse:
There was a young woman my grandmother knew
who had so many things that she wanted to do
But when she thought it was time to begin
she couldn’t because of the state she was in!
But Jesus says, “Look around. Look at the birds of the air, the lilies of the
field. Solomon was the richest man in history. He made Bill Gates look like
a pauper. He owned thousands of horses and soldiers and even a few
cities. His annual income was calculated as worth 23 tonnes of gold; he
had 700 wives. Naturally he wore the most beautiful clothes. But Jesus
says that even he was not dressed as beautifully as the lilies. The birds of
the air don’t worry about being fed. God provides for them. (The only thing
they have to fear is man’s pesticides!).
But, we say, it’s all very well Jesus telling us,“Don’t worry. Look at how God
feeds the birds and paints the lilies”. But what about my mortgage, what
about food on the table: what about my pension? The key, Jesus says, is
this “Seek first God’s kingdom and all these things will be given to you as
well”.
But what does that mean? That means putting our lives in his hands.
I hate going to the doctor, or the dentist, or hospitals or anything to do with
medical things. In fact I’m the greatest coward I know! But over the past six
months I’ve had four operations! When I was told I had a high prostate
cancer reading, when I was fast losing the sight in my right eye and when I
had raging toothache, there was nothing I could do but put myself
completely in the hands of the surgeon, the eye specialist and the dentist.
(my dentist is with us now). It’s a scary thing to do to put your body in
someone else’s hands. But if you want to get better you have to do exactly
what the experts say. Thankfully I was told my prostate was clear of
cancer, now my right eye is on the mend and, although I am missing one
tooth the pain in my mouth has gone.
Yes, it’s a frightening thing to put your body, your future, in the hands of
someone else but if you know he is an expert it is in fact wonderfully
comforting and gives you great peace. And what greater comfort could
there be than putting our lives in the hands of the one who made the World,
who created each one of us and who died to pay the cost of all the things
that we have done wrong? Because that is what Jesus is saying here:
follow my instructions, walk in the way I walked, put your hand in my hand
and you will have the peace and comfort you are looking for. No worries.
Many of us here would say that we are Christians; we have given our lives
to Jesus Christ. But when troubles loom do we worry? Do we obey him and
put those worries in his hands? That’s the test. But, on a personal note, in
all my operations it was wonderful to know I was being prayed for by my
wife, my home group and this church. That in itself is a great worry-reliever.
There’s a lovely story about a cockney woman who lived in London during
the War. We’ve all seen those black and white pictures of men and women
huddled on underground platforms in the 1940’s when the sirens went off.
She went down there too and unlike almost all the others she lay down and
went straight to sleep. Someone asked her how she could do that. She
replied, “Oh I leave the worrying to God. There’s no point in both of us
staying awake”.
Many years ago a Christian man called George Muller felt led by God to
start an orphanage. He made a pact with God that he would do all the
organising but God would have to provide all the funds. George made
people aware of the needs and he would then pray for the necessary
finance. The funds came in. He bought a big house, hired staff and was
able to clothe and feed hundreds of orphans. One day, however, there was
no food in the house. It was nearly breakfast time. The children came into
the dining room. At 7.55 am George asked for quiet. In the silence he said
grace as he always did, thanking God for the food that he had provided.
But there was nothing in the house. George remained calm. God had
always provided before. He would provide again. Breakfast was always
served at 8 o’ clock. As the clock struck 8 the doorbell rang. A huge cart
pulled by two horses had drawn up outside. It was laden down with food.
The man driving the cart handed George a letter. It read; “Dear Mr Muller, I
woke up last night and had a clear picture that you needed food for your
orphans. I haven’t done this before but I thought I would load up some
provisions for all of you. Have a great breakfast on me”. And it was signed
by a local farmer. God had provided again.
Just this week I saw that an ex Page 3 girl had written a book. She has a
wonderful name – Suzie Flashman Jarvis. In the book she says she was
brought up in a Christian home and baptised at the age of 17. But, she
writes “The World started to shout louder”. She became a heroin addict.
And then she became pregnant. One day her sister took her to church.
She said, “It felt like coming home”. Her life started to turn around. She
came off drugs, married her partner, and went on to have three other
children. Suzie wants all girls in the situation she was in to know that there
is another way. She says she wants to tell other girls, ”God loves you
where you are. He just waits to wrap his arms around you until you are
ready”. Her book is called, “Potholes and Belly flops – thoughts from a
woman who knows!”
It’s a lovely thought that “God loves us where we are. He just waits to put
his arms around us when we are ready.” But we say, “I know that God
loves me and I try to walk with him but I still worry. What practical things
can I do to release me from this worry, this stress?”
You’d think Jesus would advise us to be careful to save our money and
“look after Number 1“. That would give us the security we need to stop
worrying. But he says something quite astounding, and that is why the
Sermon on the Mount is described as “Christian Counterculture”. He tells
us not to save, but to give. He tells us not to make great efforts to stuff
money away in Worldly banks. He tells us to give to the poor. In that way
we shall build up credit in the Heavenly bank. There’s no recession in
Heaven. There are no banking scandals in Heaven. Now, of course, we
must look after our families, feed them and put roofs over their heads. But
he tells us to start looking outwards, not inwards, to give to those less
fortunate than ourselves. As we care for others then our own worries will
start to seem much less important.
As we saw earlier, the cabby, not surprisingly, was disappointed in Tommy
Cooper. Someone who only takes a brief glance at the Gospels could well
be disappointed too. If they turn away they will only have themselves to rely
on to get them through the trials of life. But anyone who looks at Jesus’
words closer will begin to see the riches that are in them, the cures for life’s
troubles, the promise of walking through life with the Son of God and the
teaching which turns Man’s “wisdom” on its head. Apply this teaching to our
lives and it will give us confidence to face the future, not only in this life, but
for all eternity.
ME