8 Epiphany Yr A

We have been hearing the Sermon on the Mount now for a few weeks. Jesus has been teaching about the Kingdom of God. Jesus has been telling his listeners what that kingdom looks like. Blessed are you, for you are a child of God. You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world. Your relationships shall have dignity, your words have power, you need to live with each other with honesty and integrity. You shall love your neighbor. This is kingdom life. Today Jesus tells his listeners, and us, not to be anxious about earthly things. God takes care of the birds and the flowers of the field, and so God will take care of us too.

However, telling people in this day and age not to be anxious about anything is like telling people not to breathe anymore. It's almost ridiculous. What would we do with ourselves if we didn't have to worry? As a culture, we're anxious about everything. And, if we aren't, we have 24-hour news and color coded threat levels to help us along. We have instant reports of unrest in the world, and of earthquakes and devastation. We live in fear; fear of not having enough, fear of those who are different from us; fear of the other.

But, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount tells us that one of the prime values of the Kingdom of God is that we not be anxious, because God takes care of us all and, if we are in God's hands, what do we really have to worry about? So how do we live as Kingdom people, how do we follow Jesus in a culture of fear, in a culture where anxiety is sold on the evening news?

The whole Sermon on the Mount is a text that we need to seriously absorb into our lives. And, at times that absorption will be incredibly difficult, because it's values are so contrary to the values our world typically lives day-to-day. Blessed are you, for you are a child of God. God takes care of the birds and the flowers of the field, and so God will take care of us too. As my friend Larry posted on his facebook, if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

The difficulty for us is living in this assurance; the difficulty for us is living as citizens of the Kingdom in the midst of the conflicting messages, in the midst of the anxiety that is perpetuated everywhere we look. We are people who seem to be mightily afraid. However, anxiety is not unique to us in this particular age. Anxiety and fear have been recorded in history since history has been recorded. Anxiety is part of the sacred story of our people; anxiety is part of the story of each one of us. In Isaiah today, we are assured that God will not forget us, people may forget, but God does not forget, don’t worry about that.

Fear motivates us in strange ways. It is fear that helps us to protect our children from danger; it is fear that causes some of us to step into danger. We often fear that which we cannot change, and then ironically, we fear change. And fear causes us to hold on tight to what we have, whatever it is we have. Wealth, luxury, housing, one another. We are afraid of what tomorrow might bring. We hold on so tight to those we love; we can’t let them go to live their own lives.

This is what Jesus addresses in this part of the teaching. We hold on so tight to our money and possessions, what we consider our wealth, we can’t see beyond any of it to the abundance that God has for us, to the love that God pours upon us.

But fear only holds us hostage; it keeps us in bondage. What are you afraid of? What causes you to be anxious? The dark or the light? Having enough or having too much? Death or life? Growth and change, or the status quo? What is it that holds you hostage; that keeps you in bondage? What is it that gets in the way of your relationship with God? That’s what this passage is about. It’s about slavery to that which is not God. It is about the freedom that God offers.

It is about the priority of God’s gift of love, God’s gift of new life, God’s gift of mercy and compassion. Because Jesus was born into this world, because God came to be one of us, we are free to live fully and completely as a beloved child of God. We must remember, especially when we read a passage like this, which seems rather glib, that in the struggle, in the muck and the dirt, in the pain and suffering that is life, this God we trust in walks with us, by our side. That’s what incarnation is about. Only a God who is willing to be in this life with us, is a God in whom I can place my trust.

What does that mean to you and to me? It means we are free to be the people that God loves. It means that we live in the midst of God’s abundant love for us, even when we don’t feel that love all the time. It means that we live in the midst of abundance, not of scarcity. It means that we no longer have to spend our lives searching for whatever it is that will fulfill us, because God has already given us all that we need, God has given us new life. No longer do we need to look for love in all the wrong places, in money, in work, in power, in our 15 minutes of fame, because God’s love for us is enough.

It is so hard to trust in God’s abundant, extreme love for us, to not be anxious. But that is exactly what we are asked to do. In trusting in that abundant, extreme love, we are free. Not trusting in that abundant, extreme love, we remain in bondage; we remain afraid to really live.

The freedom of God’s love is freedom from being attached to status and honor and power. It is being freed from the slavery of making money just because we can, and spending money, just because we can. It is being free to make and spend and give our hard earned money as a steward of the gift of life and the gift of hard work.

The freedom of God’s love is freedom from being consumed by the worry about the value others assign to each of us. Value is not based on what we can produce, or on what we look like, or on what we consume, or on what we eat, or what we wear, or on how we sing, or dance, or our athletic ability. Value is based on being God’s creation, God’s beloved.

Strive first for the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Be free to be a steward of that abundance.

The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.