Do Not Worry: Our Carefree Calling

Luke 12:22-34

There’s a rule that interpreters of scripture follow when unfolding texts for meaning. And because I want you to feel empowered to interpret scripture for the edification of your own faith journey, I’m gonna teach it to you. In a nut shell the rule says, “don’t interpret scripture in a vacuum.” It wasn’t written in a vacuum, it isn’t being applied in a vacuum, don’t interpret it in a vacuum. Sometimes this means looking at historical background, but most importantly its a rule that keeps us from pulling bits and pieces out of context and using them as stand-alone truths. This rule encourages us to connect the dots and look at the big picture, or to look at the moving picture rather than just a single still frame. Often times, responsible interpretation a single text requires reading what comes before and what comes after. I know what you’re thinking, “you’re just trying to get us to read our Bibles more!” Well…yes, that’s part of it. But what I’m really trying to do is train you to fulfill your calling, which Jesus sums up in today’s lesson: “seek the Kingdom.”

I bring up the rule of context, because Scriptural excerpts like the one we have from Luke, today, always remind me of its importance. Our passage begins with Jesus speaking to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you…” The words “therefore”, or “so”, or “because of this”, are context clues that harken backwards. These context clues indicate that a point is about to made: “therefore, I’m going to wrap up with my point”, “so, here’s my point”, “because of this, I can make this point”. But if we only look at isolated points, we miss the big picture, we miss the movement of God. And that’s where our calling is, to participate in this movement. The Kingdom of God is, and has always been, a movement.

Simply put, you don’t start an argument with the word “therefore.” I guess what I’m trying say is we can’t simply extract phrases like: “Don’t worry” or “don’t be afraid” from today’s passage as use it as a self-adhesive scriptural bandaids. To the father of a sick child, or to orphaned children in the war-torn streets of Qamishli, Syria: “Jesus says not to worry.” or “Jesus says not to be afraid” are not going to be heard as Gospel. Elsewhere in Scripture we see countless examples of the movement of God in the context of the sick and the orphaned, a movement that calls us to worry about these vulnerable people, to participate in comforting, healing, defending, sheltering, or even adopting, but that’s not the context of today’s passage. So what is?

Last week we looked at the parable upon which today’s “therefore” rests. What do we remember from the “Parable of the Rich Fool”? What does that parable teach us about the movement of God? How does that parable fit into the context of Jesus’ ministry in Luke? Remember how his sermon on the plain started? Bottom line, Jesus’ message isn’t directed just as words to comfort the poor, or words to condemn the rich, but as words of wisdom to anyone, rich or poor, who has placed their faith in possessions, who has moralized greed and the pursuit of self-interest. “Life doesn’t consist in an abundance of possessions. To think that it does is foolish.”

This creates a very specific context for the anxiety to which Jesus speaks in today’s verse. Sometimes in the New Testament, worry is positively regarded: such as Paul’s worry for the churches, or Timothy’s worry for the welfare of the Philippians. And the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament, as I mentioned earlier, call us to worry about the especially vulnerable in our communities. Jesus’ words against worry are in the context of a preoccupation with material things. Before teaching us that we should live richly towards God, Jesus told a parable about the foolishness of living richly towards earthly wealth. Fred Craddock mentions the common rebuttal to Jesus’ powerful words against possessions: “Everyone, of course, protests that he or she only wants enough, but no one knows how much is enough until one has too much.” Not knowing how much is enough is a source of the worry Jesus targets today, within the context of calling his listeners to participate in the movement of God. In his book “How Much is Enough?”, Arthur Simon summarizes the danger of wealth for those of us seeking to participate in this movement: “the pursuit and enjoyment [of wealth] pulls people away from God and from others…especially at the expense of the most vulnerable.”

In the big picture, the movement of God has always been towards the most vulnerable. In Luke, Jesus’ beatitudes highlight these vulnerable ones as the poor, the hungry, those who mourn, those who are despised on account of their faith. In the books of the law and the prophets, these vulnerable ones are widows, orphans, foreigners, ones without a home or family. “Treat these people well,” God says, “remember you were once vulnerable foreigners in Egypt.” (I’ll come back to this in a moment.) In the even bigger picture, connecting the introduction of sin to the human story with the theology of Paul in his letter to the Romans, reminding us that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, we are reminded that we are all vulnerable, and that God is still for us.

It does us well to remember that Jesus preaches and teaches within the grand scope of this big picture, opening blind eyes to the movement of God. When he says “Don’t worry about what you’ll eat or what you’ll wear,” he’s not saying that food and clothes are unimportant. Jesus isn’t telling us that we should stop grocery shopping or quit doing the laundry. I think Jesus is making a very specific appeal to the place of vulnerability in each of us. He mentions food and clothing, without which we would be hungry and naked. Does that remind you of any particular couple? Perhaps a naked couple who were swayed by hunger to pursue self-interest…say took a bite of something they shouldn’t have?

Don't worry about food and clothing, Jesus is reminding us of the basic vulnerabilities we all share.

People don’t like being vulnerable, and we get into all sorts of trouble trying to avoid, hide, or overcome our vulnerabilities. This is the main conflict in the story of God and humanity: a person tries to avoid their own vulnerability through the exploitation of their neighbor’s vulnerability, God says, “Hey don’t do that!”, takes the side of the exploited one…the exploited one is temporarily grateful then decides to pursue their own interest at the expense of some other vulnerable chap. The cycle repeats itself.

Let’s come back to the specific example in the story of Exodus (and this is on my mind because we just watched this movie two weeks ago). Israelites are foreigners, severely exploited for the perpetuation of Egypt’s wealth. God calls Moses to speak on behalf these exploded people. “Hey, Pharaoh! Don’t do that!” Pharaoh doesn’t listen. God takes the side of the exploited people, scary stuff happens that I don’t feel like unpacking in this sermon. People are set free from the yoke of their oppressors. People like their freedom, are temporarily grateful, then their reminded of their vulnerability to hunger and the situation quickly degrades to grumbling, God’s provides food, people take more than enough. People quickly forget God, create their own God literally turning their wealth, their possessions, their gold into an idol, another god that they can manipulate to provide for their own protection from their vulnerabilities.

If we’re not careful, wealth and possessions can easily take the place of God in our lives. The more we have, the safer we feel…perhaps. But nothing, save the grace of God, can truly protect us from our vulnerabilities. Jesus is trying to open our eyes to the illusion of wealth that can easily trick us into thinking that possessions can save us from our ultimate vulnerability our sin. Wealth causes us to believe that the only ones who are vulnerable are the poor, the sick, the foreigner, the homeless. God shows special favor towards these, not because they’re the only ones in need of God, but because the wealthy who refuse to acknowledge this need prey on these people. The pursuit of self-salvation through stockpiling possessions exploits the vulnerability of other human beings and of creation. This predatory, exploitative, manipulative behavior makes it seem as if predatory, exploitative, manipulative behavior is necessary for salvation. This behavior infests the human predicament with overwhelming worry, which unchecked easily becomes justification to participate. But participation in the perpetuation of wealth and worry is contrary to our calling to participate in the movement of God. Now you know why Jesus doesn’t want worry to win.

Confession and grace are our great weapon against worry. But worry can also be a great weapon against confession and grace. Confession is the act through which we all, rich and poor alike, are called to acknowledge our vulnerability, our sin, our need for God. But this seems like a dangerous thing to people who have grown accustomed to hiding their vulnerabilities lest they be exploited. Confession is our refusal to participate in the exploitation of vulnerability for personal gain, and our participation in the movement of God. In confession we all stand hungry and naked before our God and a beautiful thing happens. When we strip away all that we hide behind we expose our own hearts to see the invitation that God has written there. Indeed, our hearts bear our invitation to this table, the table of grace where the abundance of God is made known to us in the breaking of bread and sharing of cup. At this table, God also invites us to participate in the broken body and shed blood of Christ. In this, we are asked to remember that God himself became vulnerable and faced the ultimate exploitation of human weakness: crucifixion. But through his resurrection, God’s power was shown as greater than even death…Up to that point, fear of death had been the greatest justification to participate in the exploitation of vulnerability. There’s a lot going on in this seemingly simple sacrament.

At the table we receive a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. At the table we come before God, hungry and naked, and are served by God and clothed in Christ. At the table we are reminded of our calling to participate in the movement of God in the world. From the table we are sent to serve the vulnerable without forgetting our own vulnerability. And when fear of exploitation distracts us from our calling, when worry about our own vulnerabilities gets in the way…we’re invited back to have our worry wiped away by God’s grace, to be fed again, and sent again to fulfill our carefree calling.