Be an Explorer! – Sermon, 7 July 2019
It’s words like today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 6:22-33) that make many people smirk at the name of Jesus. And I don’t just mean people who don’t believe in him. I mean people who claim to believe in him – or, to be more accurate, people who believe in the versions of Jesus which they have created. You can just hear the reactions: “Really, Jesus? Really? You’re going to compare our needs and our concerns to feed our families to how your Father feeds the birds? We are not birds, Lord. And you’re telling us not to be anxious about our basic necessities because lilies are not anxious? We are not lilies, or any kind of flower, Jesus, we are humans, and being anxious is something we are good at!”
Yes, how unrealistic of Jesus, how out of touch with reality, how pie in the sky! No wonder the church is out of touch with reality. Right? Wrong. Why? Because of the last sentence: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well – or, more correctly, all these things shall be added to you – προστεθήσεται is the Greek verb, “shall be added.”
We humans are good at being anxious, it’s one of the things we do best. And not only do we get anxious, we get anxious about being anxious! So we take pills or go to counselors and pay big bucks. Here’s what I believe Jesus is saying to us: Okay, so you think I’m being ridiculous talking like this, telling you not to be anxious, to be like the birds and the flowers. Okay, so don’t worry about it. Don’t worry that you’re going to be anxious. Don’t get anxious about being anxious! So here’s what you do: Seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else will fall into play, including all your anxieties and all your anxieties about being anxious! You don’t need any pills or expensive therapists. Just seek the kingdom of God.
Jesus knows that we are weak. As I said four weeks ago, that phrase of the Lord’s Prayer, “bring us not to the test”, is an acknowledgment that we are weak. So we are saying to God, don’t bring us to a place or situation that will test us severely. Jesus taught us that prayer because he knows we are weak. But he also knows we are capable of great things. And among the great things we are capable of doing is seeking things out We are great explorers and discoverers. In two weeks we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Man’s Landing on the Moon. If you were alive in the summer of 1969, you must remember how amazing were those first images from the landing site and those unforgettable words spoken by Neil Armstrong: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He meant to say “One small step for a man,” but who can blame him for a small mistake in that overwhelmingly exciting and emotional moment?
We are good at exploring, at discovering new ways to do things. Which is why it’s puzzling that we stubbornly refuse to explore ways of defusing the greatest threat to human existence, namely climate change. People in many parts of the world are not even calling it climate change any more; they’re calling it climate crisis and even climate catastrophe. But somehow, in this country, the country that landed men on the moon and which has been on the forefront of exploration and discovery, we seem to have little interest in exploring ways to lessen the damage. I’m sure we will eventually get interested. I just hope it won’t be too late.
Father Alexander Schmemann said in one memorable sentence: “The moral teaching of the Church is eschatological, not ethical” (The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, 1973-1983, page 250). Jesus did not come to teach better morals. He came to announce the kingdom of God. In teaching us how to live, he did stretch the boundaries, as when he told us to love our enemies and do good to them; or when he told us that even if you look at someone with lust you have committed adultery; or when he told us that if we call someone a fool we’ve committed murder. (For all these statements, see Matthew 5:21-48.) But when he stretched the boundaries, he was doing the same thing he did in today’s Gospel reading. He was teaching an impossibility in order to take our minds off rules and regulations so we could focus on the one – and the only one – thing needful: the Kingdom of God. Jesus invites us to do what we do best: Seeking, discovering, exploring!
Become an explorer of the kingdom of God. Research it, look for it in the most unexpected places. Allow the kingdom of God to surprise you in random acts of kindness – kindness that you receive and kindness that you give. But please, please, also take to heart the other thing you heard Jesus say today: You cannot serve God and mammon. If you are a slave to money, you will have less freedom to seek the kingdom. Money will hold you back. Money will be the source of all the anxieties. Put it in its place. Serve God, seek his kingdom and his righteousness! And everything will fall into place. That’s a promise. Not from me, but from the Lord himself.