[This sermon was preached at an all-age outdoor harvest festival at the local allotments]
[props required - toy bird with a small watering can and a spade; flower in a pot, knitting needle and knitting and pair of sunglasses]
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Today we celebrate Harvest Festival. It’s something that as we heard in the reading that Heather and Mandy read us started goes back thousands of years ago to the Ancient Isrealites celebrating God giving them their crops. It is something that we re-started in this country 200 years ago. And here we meet again at the allotments - celebrating all these plants and collecting food for the food bank. But what’s it really about?
One of the things Harvest is about is not having to worry.
If we let ourselves get into the habit of it Worry can ruin our lives. There are so many things that we can worry about. When it gets so extreme we call it a phobia
Perhaps you’ve heard of Arachnophobia - what does that mean? (fear of Spider)
Claustrophobia - what does that mean? (fear of being shut in)
here are a few more:
Peladophobia: fear of baldness and bald people. Aerophobia: fear of drafts. Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple. Chaetophobia: fear of hairy people. Levophobia: fear of objects on the left side of the body. Dextrophobia: fear of objects on the right side of the body. Auroraphobia: fear of the northern lights. Calyprophobia: fear of obscure meanings. Thalassophobia: fear of being seated. Stabisbasiphobia: fear of standing and walking. Odontophobia: fear of teeth. Graphophobia: fear of writing in public. Phobophobia: fear of being afraid.
[taken from Fraser Kent, Nothing to Fear, , Doubleday & Company, 1977. quoted in a sermon on this site]
Whether we have an actual phobia - or just worry about whether my friends at school like me, worry about whether I am going to do all right in the test on Monday …. Worry can ruin our lives. Indeed scientists have even shown that worry makes us live less long that other people.
Vance Havner said “Worry is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere!” (From a sermon by Jimmy Haile, Consider the Lilies!, 12/25/2010)
What can we do about worry?
A man went to a psychiatrist with a worry problem. "Every time I get into bed," he said, "I’m convinced there is somebody under it."
"I can help," said the psychiatrist, "But it will mean a session a week for a year, costing £30 per visit."
The man never returned, so when the psychiatrist met him in the street he asked why he hadn’t come back. "Oh, a friend cured me for nothing," he explained.
"How did he do that?" asked the psychiatrist.
"He simply told me to cut the legs off the bed!" replied the man.
Perhaps if we were more powerful we would not have to worry? Perhaps if we were as powerful as Barack Obama or David Cameron, we wouldn’t have to worry? Have you heard for Joseph Stalin, the dictator of Russia at the start of the twentieth Century? If power could deliver us from fear, then Joseph Stalin should have been fearless. Instead, this infamous Russian premier was afraid to go to bed. He had seven different bedrooms. Each could be locked as tightly as a safe. In order to foil any would-be assassins, he slept in a different one each night. Five chauffeur-driven limousines transported him wherever he went, each with curtains closed so no one would know which contained Stalin. So deep-seated were his apprehensions that he employed a servant whose sole task was to monitor and protect his tea bags.
[Stalin; Ian Grey (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979), 457 quoted in a sermon on this site]
Ok - Maybe if we had more money we wouldn’t have to worry?
An interesting article appeared in the Wall Street Journal. It was an interview of 6 top executives, all of them making 6-figure salaries. That means that they made somewhere between $100,000 & $999,999 a year.
Now you are probably thinking what I thought, "If I made even $100,000 a year, I’d be in great shape. No worries, & no problems."
But in the interview each was asked, "What is your greatest fear?" Each answered pretty much the same, using different words. Their greatest fear was that they would not have enough. When they were asked, "How much is enough?" they always answered, "a little more."
It seems that the world’s goods never completely satisfy. You find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, & the price of gold falls. You strike oil, & the oil market deteriorates. Your ship comes in, & it sinks in the harbor. It seems that everything in life is so uncertain.
Like the story I heard about a lady strolling in the park, & a little frog came hopping up to her. The frog looked up at her & said, "If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a bank president."
She looked at the frog for a moment, then reached down, picked up the frog, put it in her pocket & then kept on walking.
Another stroller who had seen & heard everything, asked her, "Lady, I’m curious. Why didn’t you kiss the frog?" She answered, "Well, in today’s market, a talking frog is worth a whole lot more than a bank president."
A few years ago we were envious of bank presidents, but today we would just as soon have a talking frog. You see, things of life are constantly changing.
[from illustration archive on sermon central]
Money is not the answer to our worries
One man was always worrying. He worried about his children, his job, his wife, his health. One day a friend of this man noted that he was extremely calm and peaceful. "Why are you so calm?, he asked. "You always worry about every-thing. What happened?" The former worrier replied, "I just hired a man to do the worrying for me." "Well, how much are you paying him?" His friend inquired. "A thousand dollars a week," the man replied. "A thousand a week? You can’t afford a thousand dollars a week." The worrier responded, "That’s his problem!"
[from illustration archive on sermon central]
Neither Money nor power are the answers to our worries.
So what does Jesus have to say about Worry?
[take out toy bird] How does this bird feed himself?
Does he have to get out a trowel [use one and get the toy to act it] and start digging?
Does he have to get out his watering can [act it out] and water his crops?
Does he even have to queue at Tescos?
"No" says Jesus - he doesn’t have to worry - God feeds him
Look at this flower [get out prop]
if she wants to look stylish and fashionable, does she have to make her own clothes? [take out knitting needles and half started knitting]
Does she have to go to Westfield and buy the latest fashion accesories [put Sunglasses on the flower]
No says Jesus - she doesn’t have to worry - God clothes
So why worry - If God looks after a mere bird (squark squark) or a mere flower - how much more will he look after you and me.
A little bit later we are going to sing he’s got the whole world in his hands - you know that?
IT DEPENDS WHOSE HANDS IT’S IN
A basketball in my hands is worth about $19
A basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands is
worth about $33 million
It depends whose hands it’s in
A baseball in my hands is worth about $6
A baseball in Mark McGuire’s hands is worth $19 million
It depends whose hands it’s in
A tennis racket is useless in my hands
A tennis racket in Pete Sampras’ hands
is a Wimbledon Championship
It depends whose hands it’s in
A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal
A rod in Moses’ hands will part the mighty sea
It depends whose hands it’s in
A sling shot in my hands is a kid’s toy
A sling shot in David’s hand is a mighty weapon.
It depends whose hands it’s in
Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands
is a couple of fish sandwiches.
Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God’s
hands will feed thousands It depends whose hands it’s in
Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse
Nails in Jesus Christ’s hands will produce
salvation for the entire world.
It depends whose hands it’s in
As you see now it depends whose hands it’s in.
So put your concerns, your worries, your fears,
your hopes, your dreams, your families and
your relationships in God’s hands because
It depends whose hands it’s in.
[Author Unknown - from illustration bank on sermon central]
Worry will make us ill. Worry will do us no good. But if we trust Jesus and place things into his hands we don’t have to worry.
As Paul Fritz says: “I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air. A John Hopkins University doctor says, "We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact." “
Karl Barth says “Courage is fear that has said its prayers”
Some missionary bible translators were working very hard to find a word for peace in a primitive tribal language. At last, a native who was working with them found a combination of words that had the concept—“a heart that sits down.” So they translated John 14:27 as having Jesus say, “I will make your heart sit down.”
That’s what God wants to give us - a heart that sits down
