Have
you ever heard the phrase “like a dog worrying a bone”? That’s Southern for describing the way a dog
goes about gnawing a bone. For the dog,
this seems to be some sort of stress relieving compulsive obsession. They get this determined blank stare that
says content but obsessed. They will gnaw
until their mouths bleed. A dog worrying
a bone fairly well describes the way worry gnaws away at us. It is as irrational and compulsive as a dog
with a blank stare just gnawing away and most people do it in an odd attempt to
comfort themselves.
Worry is a powerful
sub-person within us. At least that is
how I experience it. It is almost like
having another person in me. There’s my
voice and then there’s this other thing that keeps throwing fearful scenarios
at me that cause me stress. Worry is intrusive. Sometimes, it seems we are powerless before
worry. In fact, I would offer that we
are addicted to it both emotionally and physiologically because it releases
certain chemicals in us that we become dependent on having in our system. Then, if we do not get them we will go into
withdrawals and indeed find something to worry about. Worry can only be silenced by the truth and
that usually involves going to the source of your worries both the internal and
the circumstances we are worried about.
If I had to define
worry theologically I would have to say that it is the exact opposite of
faith. We worry because we do not know
down deep within our hearts and minds that we can trust our heavenly Father. The part of us where worry comes out of is
the part that needs to hear and be transformed by the Good News of God’s
loving-kindness the most. Worry is the
proof of our broken relationship with God.
We tend to think of
sin as morally bad behavior, but that is reducing a disease to just one of its
symptoms. Sin is relational. It is broken trust. The story of Eve and the Serpent in the
Garden of Eden describes this fairly well.
The Serpent came to Eve with the intent to make an untrue scenario seem
like the truth to get her to not trust the word of the Lord. They had a conversation by which they made
the loving-kind God out to be an irrelevant, power-mongering, jealous liar who
could not be trusted. Adam and Eve,
having reasoned themselves into not trusting God, therefore strove to become
gods and ate the fruit God said not to eat.
Worry has been with us ever since and it is still a rational sounding
irrational voice within us that tells us there is no God and if there is we
cannot trust it, so be your own god.
In verses thirty-one
and thirty-two here in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is doing the exact opposite of
the Serpent by making a rational argument for why we don’t need to worry and
can trust God. Jesus’ first point is
that it’s the pagans who don’t know God nor the Truth of his loving-kindness who
worry and strive unfulfillingly to meet their needs. This is sort of a backdoor way for Jesus to
highlight to his disciples that they do know the Truth about God for he, Jesus,
has shown them that our Father in heaven is loving-kind. Secondly, we who know God is loving-kind
should know he knows our true needs even before we ask and will provide. This is the Truth. Therefore, we do not have to worry and we do
not have to strive in an unfulfilling pursuit of meeting our own needs. Rather, we can now strive first for God’s
kingdom and his righteousness.
Because we humans
have a broken relationship with God and do not naturally know in our hearts
that we can trust our Father in heaven who knows our true needs and will
provide them, we spend our lives on delusional wishes and in turn strive rather
aimlessly in the pursuit of acquiring what we think we need to survive and to
be fulfilled. In turn, we miss our
created purpose. Oddly, the New
Testament Greek word for sin is a word from archery, hamartia. It means to miss the mark. We miss the mark because deep in our hearts
we do not know or do not believe we can trust God and so we worry.
Jesus uses two words
for seeking or striving in this passage and that is a clue we should dig
deeper. The first word that the NIV
translates as “run after” is epizeyteo.
It means to strive wishfully, with no aim. It means to seek but not know what you’re
really searching for. It is a wishful
way of life that is ambiguous, worrisome, and indeed prone to idolatry. This is what we are doing when we serve the
false idol of Mammon by trying to provide for ourselves out of a lack of trust
in God. But, we who know the Truth, that
God is loving-kind, cannot serve two lords.
A slave cannot have two masters.
Therefore, Jesus says
that we who know the Truth must strive or seek first God’s kingdom and his
righteousness. The word Jesus uses here for seeking or striving is zeyteo
rather than epizeyteo. Zeyteo
means to seek or strive with a purpose or result in mind, the purpose of
knowing. Seeking the kingdom of God and
his righteousness is not a futile pursuit.
We can know them both. Zeyteo
means to seek as if it was a scientific pursuit. We can actually know God, his kingdom and
righteousness. They are part of our
observable reality; not simply matters of personal belief and metaphysics. They exist.
If you want to know an orange you must observe it and interact with it
and it will reveal its orange-ness to you.
So, it is with God, his kingdom and his righteous, loving-kind rule. We
must interact with God and pursue his kingdom and God will reveal himself and
his reigning power of transforming love to us.
So, how do we seek or strive? Well the answer to that question is in the
Gospel itself. Jesus came proclaiming the Gospel that the kingdom of heaven is
at hand, repent and believe the Good news.
Repenting and believing is how we seek.
Repentance is letting faith become deeper and deeper in our hearts and
minds to take the place of worry. The
Greek word for repentance, metanoia, actually means to change the
mind/heart where worry takes place. To
repent is to let faith replace worry and to let striving for God’s kingdom and
his righteousness replace the aimless pursuit of serving the false god of
self-provision called Mammon. It is to
think upon the things of God rather than the things of man letting God’s
loving-kindness take over our hearts and dispel the compulsion to worry. We do it by striving to forgive, to love our
enemies, to be faithful to our vows – marriage especially, to love our enemies
and make peace, and being aware of our poverty in Spirit. Moreover, we strive by storing treasures up
in heaven not on earth through giving to the poor, by praying under the
guidance of the Lord’s Prayer, and by living just and equitable
lifestyles. These pursuits leave us with
a sense of God’s loving-kindness, the Truth that dispels all worries. Amen.
