The Weight of Worry

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Please pray with me. Guide us, O God, by your word and Holy Spirit. That in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom. And in your will discover your peace. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Today's reading is From Luke, chapter 12, verses 22 to 34. He said to his disciples, therefore, I tell you. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat. Or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food. And the body more than clothing. 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? And which of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory. Was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field. Which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe? You, you of little faith. And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink. And do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things. And your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom. And these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock. For it is of your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out an unfailing treasure in heaven. Where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. This is the word of the Lord. [00:02:01] Speaker B: So, normally when I come here to preach, I like to use the whole time offered to me. But honestly, I don't think I need it this morning. This passage in Luke is pretty simple. I could talk to you for 20 minutes. But Jesus message can be summed up in two words. Are you ready? Stop it. Stop what? Stop worrying. Now. I know what you're thinking. Anneliese. You do not know all the stress in my life right now. And you're right, I don't. But we don't need to catalog every fear and frustration. You. You don't want to go around constantly worrying about your life, do you? That sounds awful. So stop it. Don't worry. Just don't. In the name of the Father. It would be pretty absurd if that was the sum Total of my sermon today. But that's how we often. And I've often read this passage. It's how I've heard Jesus voice when I worry. Annalise, stop worrying. If only it were that easy. Just saying, stop worrying. It just doesn't make the worry disappear, does it? In fact, the more someone tells me not to worry, the more I start worrying about why they're not worrying. You know what does work, though? Control. When I am anxious, control goes into high gear. I plan, I strategize, I problem solve. Because that's what we're taught to do. Worried about your health? Track your diet, your sleep, your steps? Watch every stat your body can generate. It's all right here on your watch. Control. Worried about the future? Secure it with insurance, financial planning, extra classes, extracurriculars, whatever it takes to get the outcome you want. The life you desire is just a few well planned steps away. And parents, you overwhelmed yet about everyone's schedules this fall? Sports, music, school, church, family time, work. You can manage it all with the right system, in fact. And this is not a sponsored ad, though, if you want to be Skylight, I'll take it. There's this new Skylight calendar that I've seen everywhere, and it's this high tech way to organize in one place, on this giant screen, your family schedules, checklists, and even chore charts for your kids all in one place. And when I looked it up, the tagline for it is, effortlessly sink your family's busy schedule in one place. Drop the stress, not the ball. Wow. Thank you. I would love that. I will try to control it all. That sounds very effective. And boy, nowhere have I tried harder to control it all than my son Levi's sleep. When we were deep in the sleep deprivation haze of his first year of life, I remember the first time he slept through the night. Obviously, as any rational person would, I thanked God for this rare, wonderful, and completely uncontrollable gift. No, no, no. Of course I did not do that. That would be crazy. Instead, I immediately started analyzing every variable. Okay, he wore these pajamas. We read this book, and we sung this song to him. The temperature was set at 72 degrees, and we put him down at 7:33pm I very confidently told my husband, if, by my calculations, we do exactly this again, he'll sleep through the night. He did not. It turns out that variables don't matter all that much. In my worry about not sleeping or my son not sleeping, I was trying to control something that was completely out of my control. And honestly, If I had simply accepted that fact, I probably would have slept better myself that night. Friends, this is what Jesus is talking about in Luke 12. He's not giving us this moralistic command to just stop it. He's pointing out the truth to us lovingly, that we keep striving. We keep exhausting ourselves chasing this illusion of security. The things we worry about, the things we try so hard to control, are so often beyond us. And so Jesus invites us to something different, a radical acceptance that we can't control it, a letting go. We release the fantasy, the delusion, and the control that was never really ours in the first place. And instead we put that energy into striving for the kingdom, into striving after the one who truly holds control, to trust that it is God's good pleasure to care for his flock and to provide all that we need for life and faith, even if life is still challenging. In the movie Bridge of Spies, there's a quiet but unforgettable moment. A Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel, is facing trial and possible execution. He is strikingly calm in situations where most people would be panicking. And at one point his lawyer, kind of put off by Abel's calm presence, asks him, you don't seem worried? Aren't you worried? And he calmly replies, would it help? What is so striking to me about this scene is that Abel's not in denial about his situation. He recognizes the gravity of what he is up against, but his calm seems to come from this radical acceptance of what is outside of his control. And that, I believe, is this invitation of Luke 12. It's not a denial of our stress or pretending that challenges aren't real, clicking our heels together and saying, there's nothing to worry about. The challenges are real. But it's about accepting what lies outside of our control and what is ultimately in God's control. Worrying doesn't solve it, but surrendering to God's care gives us the freedom to live in the midst of it. Jesus points the disciples to creation to show them how it works. Consider the ravens, he says. They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them of how much more value are you than birds? I love that when Luke tells this story, he says, consider the ravens, where the Gospel of Matthew just says, consider the birds. It prompts you to wonder why ravens? Ravens are scavenger birds, and according to Jewish law, they are unclean because they scavenge off death. So if God provides for even creatures like ravens that we often deem unworthy how much more will God provide for us? And they're scavengers, but they're also really intelligent birds. They have perfectly adapted to survive without stockpiling. There is this sense of security even in the insecurity of food. They depend on provision that is beyond their control. Then Jesus shifts from the skies to the fields. Consider the lilies, he says, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet even Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? The Greek word translated here as lilies likely doesn't refer to the delicate Easter lilies that we think of, but to the wild flowers of Galilee. Poppies, anemones, irises, flowers that spring up quickly in the hillsides and die just as quickly, often used as fuel for ovens. Which is why Jesus says, today in the field, tomorrow thrown into the oven. This contrast is striking, that if God clothes even these fleeting, fragile flowers with dazzling beauty, how much more? How much more will he care for us, providing what we truly need, even if it's not always what we want or what makes life comfortable? These ravens and the wildflowers serve as a reminder for us that life is fragile and our control is limited. Yet God's care is constant, extending even to the least of creation and to us. To drive the point home, Jesus offers this challenging can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? This isn't just a spiritual principle, it's physiological. We are sold the fantasy that not only can we add hours, but days, even years, to our lives if we just do the right things. But the worry that causes us to try to control everything not only doesn't add hours to our lives, it actually takes away. Dr. Gabor Mate in his book when the Body says no, the Cost of Hidden Stress explains that stress and worry don't just live in our heads, they live in our bodies and wear them down. He writes, stress is not a matter of external circumstances, but of internal states. When we believe we must control what cannot be controlled, the body absorbs the cost. There is a large body of research that shows how chronic stress contributes to real health problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and even cancer progression. He talks about in his book how stress doesn't cause these diseases, but it becomes the soil where the diseases can grow. So in other words, our striving, our worry, our attempts to control the uncontrollable takes a physical toll. It's not just in our heads. Our bodies are literally carrying the weight of what we cannot manage. And it is Jesus who steps in and says, come to me all you who are worried. You're weary and burdened and I will give you strength. I don't think the strength is for us to then control the uncontrollable. The strength is to finally surrender. Surrender the striving and the worry. And what is so remarkable about that is that it's not just for our spiritual freedom, but it's also the path to physical and emotional well being. That ironically, all the self help books are trying to sell us for their tips to control. Anyway, surrender doesn't mean passivity or ignoring real struggles. We still work, we still plan, and we do our best to make wise choices. But we do that without the impossible burden of controlling everything and with the knowledge that it doesn't guarantee anything. But how do we do that? Right? It's not as simple as just stop worrying. Surrender takes practice and patience. It starts, friends, with accepting that it's a process. We have spent decades learning the message of control, achievement and perfection. It's going to take more than a 20 minute sermon to undo that. But we can start with one step. Embracing our limits. Friend, I hate to break it to you. You are human no matter how hard you try. The to do list are you ready? It will never be fully done. Ever. And perfection remains out of reach. Your plans are simply intentions and the future is not bound by your intentions. Freedom begins with acknowledging you cannot do it all. And when we realize that, you'll start to notice that the volume of worry begins to turn down. And next we then redirect the trust that we once placed in our well laid plans and place it fully in the hands of God. We see in the ravens and the wildflowers that if God cares for and adorns them with such beauty and provides for them daily, how much more? How much more will God care for us? Don't be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Even in this world that is messy and unpredictable, God's provision is faithful. This doesn't mean that life will be easy. We know that full well, or that it guarantees comfort or success. But it does mean we are never abandoned. Our needs, our care and our hearts are in God's hands. And with that trust we devote ourselves to the work of God's kingdom, investing in love, injustice, mercy and service here on earth, not for comfort or gain, but because these actions bear eternal fruit. Now, surrender and trust are beautiful principles, I know, but they don't happen automatically. To live them out, we need practical habits. So I offer you. Try noticing the striving. Call it out. When you catch yourself trying to control what you can't control, write it down and consciously hand it to God with prayer. And you'll likely have to do it over and over and over again. It's hard to release control. Or maybe try practicing presence. Try a mindfulness practice like meditation. Or if you're like me and being quiet is really difficult, try doing yoga or even mindful walking to ground you in the present moment, the only thing you actually have control over. Or maybe you review your schedule and your to do lists, look for ways that you are trying to get it all done and see if there is anything you would do differently if you acknowledge that you actually have limits. Or maybe you pay attention to the messages you digest each day. Are they moving you toward trying to control more and more even as you read the news? Before you spiral into worry about the state of the world, ask yourself, how can I, in this moment, strive for the kingdom in this instead of trying to control the state of our country? Or maybe you look to creation as your reminder of God's provision. Watch a bird, notice a flower, or simply spend time outside to remind yourself that life is provisioned beyond your management. Friends, the weight of worry is heavy. I get it, especially right now. But Jesus offers us another way. There is another way. Strive for the kingdom, not for things you cannot control. When we surrender, then the impossible burden of control, we gain the freedom to live fully and in the present of the life that God has given us. You cannot do it all. You never could and you never will. That's the hard news. But the good news. The good news is that we have a God who asks us to surrender that control to Him. To him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine that that is where we find freedom, where we find that peace that transcends understanding. Friends, do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough to worry about. The God who loves you, holds you, and to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.