Luke 12 v22-34
Part three of a three part mini series ‘Hope for a troubled world’ by Nat Charles.
This week: How can we find peace in traumatic times?
Please note: this is a recording from our Sunday Zoom service. Everyone is welcome to join us, see details on our home page.
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Transcript
One of the features of life over the past few months has been a heightened sense of anxiety. At first we were anxious about what we were dealing with. A virus that puzzled both the scientific and the medical communities, and no-one seemed to know how to respond. And in those early days, as the lockdown started, all of our familiar bearings were lost. The rhythms and routines that give shape to our lives and get us through each day and each week were gone in an instant and we struggled to know how to respond.
It shouldn’t have been surprising that retailers reported a spike in sales in March and April not just of toilet roll, but of alcohol and chocolate. Everyone needed a sense of reassurance in the midst of deeply concerning, traumatic times.
But for many of us, that sense of anxiety hasn’t disappeared as time has gone on. More recently, we’ve been anxious about how we ought to re-engage with the ‘new normal’. How safe is public transport? Should we wear a face mask? How socially distanced will the office really be, especially if there is a lot of hot desking going on. Should we go to see elderly relatives and parents? Should we go to cafes and bars?
On one level, it was fairly easy to go into lockdown. You just stayed at home. But coming out of it is much more complex, and still causes a great deal of anxiety.
As we’ve been going through all of that, what help does Christianity have to offer?
In the passage that we had read from Luke’s gospel a moment ago, Jesus Christ outlines two radically different perspectives on anxiety and worry. He claims that his followers have all of the resources that they need to approach this issue very differently to anyone else, and begins to sketch out what that will mean in practice.
I want to us explore what he says through two instructions that he gives to his disciples. Do not worry, and do seek.
DON’T WORRY
First, do not worry.
You can’t miss the heart of Jesus’ teaching in these Vs. Right at the start, in Vs 22, he says ‘do not worry’.
It might be tempting for us to imagine that because Jesus was around a long time ago, and life was so much simpler, that there would be much less to worry about, so it was easy for him to say these words.
But a moment’s reflection ought to make us see that can’t be the case. Jesus’ contemporaries lived in an agrarian society that was entirely dependent on the weather. Imagine being in a position that a wet, gloomy summer doesn’t just mean that we can’t get out to the park as much as we would like, but that there might not be enough food for the winter. My guess is that Jesus lived in a society and a culture where life was much more precarious than ours is today – and yet he still says ‘do not worry’.
Jesus roots his instruction in the reality of who God is. There’s a reminder that as creator, God cares for every individual life, every life matters to him. Because human beings are made in his image, we are much more valuable to God than the created order.
But we’re not made in the image of a distant, unknowable deity. The God who made us is the God that Christians call ‘Father’. God is relational, and he knows what we need.
And for evidence of that, Jesus says, look to the natural world. Look to the birds. They don’t spend their lives saving up, putting a bit by every month in case of a rainy day. Yet God feeds them.
And what about the flowers? Yesterday I had the joy of taking a wedding. Perhaps because of the unusual circumstances, there were only 20 people there and it was socially distanced and all the rest of it, it felt even more joyful than usual. The bride looked truly beautiful, but what really lifted the occasion was seeing a building full of flowers. They were glorious. Even though they last just for a moment, their radiance couldn’t be matched by Solomon in all his splendour.
Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater. How much more valuable are you, made by God in his image, a child of a heavenly father, then the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Much more. And your Father knows what you need. So do not worry.
All of that is not to say that hard times won’t come to us. Jesus isn’t saying here that his followers will automatically be protected from the hardships of life. Illness or bereavement, suffering or pain. If you’ll excuse the double negative, we don’t not worry because there is nothing to worry about. But we know that when hard times comes, our Father has us. He knows what’s good for us and he knows what we need.
Neither is Jesus saying these words to condemn us, or to make us feel bad if we do worry. Some of us here will experience anxiety not just as a low level, occasional feeling, but as an illness that requires medical help and attention. If that is you, please don’t hear these words as Jesus just trying to get at you that makes you feel even worse. He is speaking to reassure you, and if you do need medical help for your anxiety, please go and find it.
DO SEEK
But there isn’t only an instruction here about what not to do, Jesus also offers a positive.
Don’t worry, but do seek.
Now maybe you’ve been thinking so far, all sounds a little like a romantic, slightly hippy like idealised version of life. Look at the birds and flowers and don’t worry.
But there’s something much more subtle going on here. Jesus offers a significant insight into human nature and what drives us. He draws a contrast towards the end of the passage, between what he calls the pagan world, and the his own followers.
But the contrast isn’t what we might think. He says that the pagan world is characterised by anxiety. Vs 29, don’t set your heart on what you will eat or drink… for the pagan world runs after such things. Doing some reading this week around this passage, I came across a really helpful insight in one commentary on this passage around anxiety. ‘Anxiety is driven by a very simple insight… the insight that we are limited creatures. If you know that you can’t manage the future, yet you try to manage the future, there can only be one result: anxiety.’
And it’s anxiety that keeps the world going round. Anxiety is the governing principle of the world. Anxiety keeps shops open 24/7. Anxiety means we are rushing to get back to work as soon as humanly possible. It’s anxiety that keeps the construction industry open even through a Pandemic. Anxiety, you could say, builds skyscrapers.
So what’s the contrast? Here’s the interesting thing. Jesus doesn’t say that being his disciples means getting out of the rat race. His followers are also people who seek something. Vs 31, they seek his kingdom. His kingdom is the place where, to put it simply, God is king.
But here’s the difference. In the very next vs Jesus says, you have been given the kingdom. In other words, Jesus followers seek what they already have rather than seeking what they do not have.
According to Jesus, everyone is seeking something. Looking to achieve something. Living from and for a particular vision of the future, living towards and in hope. But Christians seek differently, because the future is already secure. So our striving isn’t driven by what we don’t have, but what we do have. And what do we have? In Jesus, we have the Kingdom. It’s been given to us already.
What might all of this look like? This week I read an interview with the comedian and actor and writer Sally Philips. You’d know her from shows like Miranda and Smack the Pony. In recent years she’s had more profile as she’s worked through issues around Down’s Syndrome, as her eldest son has Down’s himself. In the interview that I read she was asked whether her Christian faith has helped her in the difficult times, and she that because of her son, ‘I think I’m being particularly blessed by God in this family unit… ‘I’ve been given a Narnia cupboard through which I can look through and see things God’s way.’
There hasn’t been miraculous healing for her son. There have been plenty of tough moments as a parent of a Down’s Syndrome child. Although his life will look hugely different from what many would consider successful, nothing has been lost.
Don’t worry, seek God’s Kingdom. The kingdom that you have been given as his children.
SILENCEPRAY
MUSIC – The Lord’s my shepherd.