Sermon on the Mount (4)
The Paradox to Worry - Mt. 6:24-34
Story: A business manager went on holiday to an island in Greece.
One day, while he was on the beach, he was called up on his mobile phone by his secretary, wanting some help.
He gave her some instructions and told her to call him back when she had finished.
As he was pacing up and down waiting for a return phone call, he came across a fisherman, dozing in the shade of his fishing boat, that had been pulled up on the beach.
As the manager passed, the fisherman woke up and the manager decided to talk to him.
“The weather is great and there’s lots of fish. So how come you are sitting about here - when you could be out there - catching more fish?”
Gently, the fisherman replied: “Because I caught enough this morning”
“But just imagine” the manager replied “if you went out twice a day, you could bring home twice as much fish.
And do you know what could happen?
Puzzled, the fisherman shook his head.
“Well” the manager continued - waxing lyrical to his theme “you could buy yourself a motorboat.
And then, after say a couple of years you could buy a second one. Then perhaps after three years you could have a cutter or two.
And just think, one day you might be able to buy a freezing plant.
Then you could go on to get your own helicopter to help you trace shoals of fish for your fishing fleet.
You could then buy your own truck to ship the fish to the capital thereby cutting out the middle man”
“And then what” the fisherman replied.
“And then “ the manager concluded triumphantly “ you wouldn’t have to worry.
You could then sit down calmly on the beach, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean.”
“ Well, what do you think I am doing now!” the fisherman replied.
We all worry at some time or other, often about money and the future.
Story: Maddy has this wonderful saying, when I start to worry: “Why pray when you can worry!”
Worry is the scourage of our society.
Story: I just read in the news yesterday how a mother took her life and that of her child due to worry – and she was a good Churchgoer
Why do Christians worry about a lot of things
Our Gospel reading this morning sums it all up – who is in charge of my life
Jesus said:
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Mt 6:24)
Because it tell me what is my PRIME MOTIVATOR
And Jesus said in Mt 6:21: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
So where is my heart.
God tells us in the Book of Proverbs
My son, give me your heart (Pr 23:26)
And so if I worry about accumulating money it tells me which master I am serving!
Or put another way, it tells me which God I am worshipping
Is it the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Or that unholy Trinity of I, Myself and me?
Having said that – let’s be honest we all worry – it is man’s human nature to worry
But the question is “How do we deal with worry?”
May I suggest a couple of antidotes to worry this morning?
1. The first antidote to worry is to get our ambition right
Or put it another way - focus away from our problems
It sounds strange doesn’t it – but the Christian life is full of paradoxes.
We heard a couple in the Gospel reading last week
Love your enemies????
Go the Extra mile???
And you might have said ton yourself:
Who are you kidding?
In fact if you think about it, the whole of the Sermon on the Mount is a paradox.
And there is a paradox here about worry
As we focus away from our problems and make God’s Will our goal, we find “he looks after the rest”
Jesus put it more elegantly when he said :
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
God gave his Church ONLY one Commission – and that was to go and make disciples.
Do we look for opportunities to do that
Imagine a business where the executives only spent one day a week focused on their core business.
How long would it last?
Yet so many Christians only think about the things of God on Sunday – and let’s get our religious duty out of the way so we have the rest of the day to ourselves.
I know none of you think that but I know my thoughts can stray in that direction!
One antidote to worry is to focus on the things of God
2. The second antidote to worry is “resting in Christ”
We learn to trust Jesus, not in blind trust but in experiential trust
One step at a time
And that means taking time to get to know him
I think the key is found in Jesus words in Mk 6:
"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." (Mk 6:31)
We live in a society where we are often very busy.
Often I look in my diary and wonder how I will survive the week. I am in such a rush.
Jesus used to get up very early in the morning not to have a shower – but to go up on a mountainside to pray
And he left his mobile behind!
There seem to be so many distractions when we try to pray
The phone goes off – is my usual distraction
Yet Mother Theresa once observed:
God is rarely found in the midst of noise and restlessness. Instead he is the friend of silence.
Conclusion
We will all be faced with problems in our life here on earth.
How we deal with them is OUR DECISION
You can either
1. Focus on God’s things – and trust Jesus’ words
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
You can
33…seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (ie your needs ) will be given to you as well.
2. Or you can enjoy worrying!
The choice as they say - is yours
Be my guest
