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. Worry is as irrational and compulsive as a dog blankly gnawing away and most people do it in an odd attempt to comfort themselves.
Worry is a powerful, intrusive sub-person within us. At least that is how I experience it. It is like having another person in me. There’s my voice and then there’s this other thing that keeps throwing fearful scenarios at me causing me stress. Sometimes, it seems we are powerless before worry. In fact, I would offer that we are addicted to worrying both emotionally and physiologically because it releases certain hormones and what not in us that our bodies actually become dependent on having in the system. Then, if we do not get them we will go into withdrawals and go and find something to worry about to get them back. Worry can only be silenced by the truth but to get to the truth of why we worry we must look beyond the circumstances that we are worried about and start asking ourselves “Why do I need to worry?” and, more importantly, “Why do I, a beloved child of God, need to worry?”
That’s a good question because it leads us to think theologically about worry. As I see it worry is the exact opposite of faith. As faith is the proof that we belong to God so worry is the proof of our broken relationship with God and that leads us to talk about sin for a moment. We tend to think of sin as simply being morally bad behaviour, but that’s just reducing a disease to one of its symptoms. Sin is a spiritual disordering of the mind with respect to our relationship with God that exhibits itself in broken trust and broken behaviour in all our relationships. The story of Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden describes this fairly well. The Serpent came to Eve and 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. And then, Adam and Eve having reasoned themselves into not trusting God strove to become gods themselves and ate the fruit God said not to eat. Thus enters the mental disorder we call sin and its mental evidence, worry, has been with us ever since. Worry is like the Serpent it is a cunning and deceptive rational sounding irrational voice within us that tells us if there is a God we cannot trust it, so be your own god.
Looking here at Mathew’s Gospel, in verses thirty-one and thirty-two Jesus is doing the exact opposite of the Serpent he’s confronting us with the truth that we don’t need to worry and can trust God. Jesus’ first point is that we who know that God is our loving-kind Father because we know Jesus should know God 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 like non-believers do. Rather, we can now strive first for God’s kingdom and his righteousness.
Jesus uses two words for striving in this passage and that is a clue we should dig deeper. The first word 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 the striving of the Gentiles. It is the striving that we do when we serve the idol known as Wealth, the striving to provide for ourselves out of a lack of trust in God and take to ourselves more than we ought.
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 first for God’s kingdom and his righteousness. The word Jesus uses here for striving is zeyteo rather than epizeyteo. Epi- means beyond. Zeyteo means to strive with a purpose or result in mind, the purpose of knowing. It means to seek as if it was a scientific pursuit. Seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness is not a futile pursuit. We can know them both. We can actually know God, his kingdom and his righteousness. They are part of our observable reality and not simply subjective matters of personal belief and metaphysics. They exist. If you want to know an orange you must observe it and interact with it indeed eat 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 strive for the kingdom and thereby counter worry? Well, looking at the context that this passage finds itself in, Jesus talks about worry when he talks about giving, prayer and fasting and more specifically when he talks about our attitude towards wealth. This passage on worry comes immediately after Jesus says, “You cannot serve both God and wealth.” His point is quite obvious. We can either live in faith, striving for God and his Kingdom and experience ourselves wonderfully and beautifully and adequately cared for by our heavenly Father or we can pursue wealth and experience worry.
Let’s talk about wealth. Let’s face it folks. On a global standard, we Canadians are materially wealthy (or at least appear that way. It’s a pattern in our culture for people to go into excessive debt in order to appear wealthy). The amount of disposable income that we have in comparison to most of the rest of the human population is pert nigh vulgar. We may not consider ourselves to be wealthy particularly if we’re living paycheck to paycheck. Nevertheless, compare us to most of the rest of the world and we look filthy rich and there’s a down side to this. Wealth and the opportunities it presents have had a dramatic affect in our culture particularly on community. Wealth and the opportunities it presents have made us more isolated. With respect to how it affects our faith lives it is at the top of the list as to why even long-time committed Christians are attending church less than they did just a few years ago. I would even go as for as saying wealth and the opportunities it presents is the number one reason why congregations struggle financially. It seems it would be the other way around but its not.
There is a way to counter the effects of wealtholatry. It’s called live to give. We have a lot of disposable income in comparison to the rest of the world. What if instead of spending that excess on stuff that we don’t need, or spending more than we need to on scaled up versions of the things we do need, or banking it so that we can pride ourselves on how much money we have, what if we disciplined ourselves to give it away. I call it live to give. It’s based on how Jesus gave his life. He the Son of God became poor with respect to his divinity and became human, a servant who gave his life on the cross so that we may be rich in the God-stuff. We are to live the same way giving of ourselves and the wealth he has entrusted to us which means ordering our lives, disciplining ourselves to live a lifestyle in which we are able not just to give but to give more and more.
You know, people budget to save. You go to the financial advisor who tells you you need to save x-amount a year to retire and not starve. You look at her and laugh because there ain’t no way. But, realizing you need to save you start with a percentage you can afford and strive to simplify your life so that next year you can save a little more until you’re putting away the amount you need to. I would propose doing the same sort of budgeting for giving as well. Start with a percentage of your income you can afford to give and strive to simplify your lifestyle so that next year you can increase the percentage. This is giving to the extent that we have to simplify our lifestyles to be able to afford it.
With that kind of giving in mind I would suggest that the local church is a good place for us to discipline ourselves to support financially. Giving to your local church provides face-to-face opportunities for growth in Christ through worship, fellowship, outreach, service, and study—opportunities that would not be there if the local church ceased to exist. The church is different than a club. We’ll pay dues and fees to be a part of other organizations and occasionally those amounts have to go up. In some ways churches are like that. But it’s different. Churches don’t charge dues and fees. We trust in the Lord to move his people to generosity and that they grow in generosity giving more and more to support the bricks and mortar and ministries of your church. These are difficult days for churches. Church boards and treasurers are monthly facing difficult decisions as to which bills to pay and which to let slide. If your own personal financial situation has ever been so that your family had to live under those circumstances, then you know what a living hell it is. Why do we have to let our church family live that way? These are difficult times for the church, but times in which we can grow in Christ and grow in generosity. I’ll leave it at that. Amen.
