One Day at a Time
Matthew 6:25-34
April 17, 2005
I don’t know if you know anything about the Jesus Seminar or not. We actually haven’t heard from them for several years now. I’m not sure that they are meeting any more or not. The Jesus Seminar was a group of biblical scholars who met over a period of several years back in the early and mid nineties for the purpose of finding an answer to the question, “What did Jesus really say?” The conclusion at which they arrived was that the gospels are colored by the individual biases of the writers, by the situations of the then contemporary church, and by the society and culture ‘round about.
They took a whole lot of flack and criticism for their work. They have been accused of denying the divine inspiration of Scripture and the possibility that God works in ways we don’t understand. A few years ago, I attended a continuing education seminar which was led by one of the members of the group. I half way expected him to have horns and a forked tail, but he turned out to be a warm, generous, and engaging personality.
One of the reasons the Jesus Seminary raised such ire among many people, and why they have been so roundly criticized, is that their work was decided by vote. After studying a particular saying of Jesus, they would cast their votes by the means of colored beads. Red meant that these were the actual words of Jesus. Pink meant that Jesus probably said something like this. Gray meant that the sentiments of the saying were certainly consistent with Jesus, although perhaps not in these words. And a black bead meant that Jesus did not say this, but rather this saying represents a later or different tradition.
What they produced was a new translation of the Gospels, decided on by vote of a committee. If 49% of the committee thought a saying was the actual words of Jesus while 51% didn’t think so, majority ruled.
You will obviously, and appropriately I think, have some questions and comments about the work of this committee of scholars. Probably you think that they have too much time on their hands and need to get a real job! But I purchased their translation and commentary a few years ago and find it interesting to read.
I consulted it when I started to write this sermon on Matthew 6 and found that they say something interesting about the lesson for this morning. They say, “Among the more important things Jesus said are a series of pronouncements on anxieties and fretting. It is possible that we have before us here the longest connected discourse that can be directly attributed to Jesus…” (“The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. Robert W. Funk, Roy. W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1993, page 152). So if the Jesus Seminar folks feel good about this lesson, that makes it doubly impressive for me!
The Bible is full of passages about trust in God, but this one is by far the most remembered. There were some in the early church who used this passage as license to be lazy. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and warned them against idleness. His famous words, “If a man will not work, he will not eat” (II Thessalonians 3:10) are directly aimed at those who think that they don’t have to do anything because God will care for their every physical need whether they work for it or not. But to see this passage from Matthew in the original context, we realize that it is aimed at the disciples who left everything to follow Jesus. They abandoned their vocations in order to learn from him and work with him in the establishment of the Kingdom. Because of that, they became as dependent on God as the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. The birds and flowers are not really models to be imitated, but symbols of God’s care in all things.
One commentator I read said that the hearers and the readers of the Sermon on the Mount have their attention drawn away, from what he says is the “frantic pursuit of the necessities of life to a calmer vision of God’s bountiful care…” (Douglas R.A. Hare, “Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching – Matthew” John Knox Press, 1993, page 74). This lesson was aimed at those who were preoccupied with gathering enough to secure their everyday existence and is testimony to the fact that Jesus believed that God would provide for human needs.
It is easy to find all sorts of things about which to worry. The risk we run is that we can be overwhelmed by the number of problems we face. We can get so preoccupied with a myriad of problems that we never solve any of them.
There was a group of women engaged in a Bible study in the church parlor. They were a mixed group – some young mothers, some never married, some had been married for a number of years, while still others were widows. But they discovered that one thing they shared in common was the daily frustrations and struggles that are just a normal part of life. None of the group could report a stress free life. One of the women was talking about all of the competing claims on her life. She said that she was over-extended, had too many commitments, too many things to do. She finally said, “I just have too many irons in the fire.” One of her friends then said, “Well, iron with the one that’s the hottest.” When you read the sixth chapter of Matthew, you can see Jesus saying the exact same things. “…do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
I remember my grandparent’s farmhouse just across the Michigan line north of Orland. It was the late fifties, yet they still did not have running water. A few years ago, Toni and I went up there to find the house. I stood beside the depression in the back yard that used to be the outhouse and I remembered those blazing hot days and cold winter nights when we’d make that pilgrimage.
I remember the old wood fired cook stove in the kitchen and the irons that sat there. Grandma would touch her finger to her tongue and then to the irons to determine which one was the hottest. It was the hottest iron that got used. That is what Jesus said. Tackle one problem at a time.
Do you remember when Jesus was at the home of Mary and Martha? Martha was busy in the kitchen being the good hostess, and she got angry with Mary who was just sitting in the living room carrying on polite conversation with Jesus. Martha asked Jesus to tell Mary to get to work and help in the kitchen. And Jesus told her that she was troubled with many things that she needed to relax and calm down and realize what was really important. When so many things come at us, we often have trouble handling them. We get disorganized and worry about what is going to happen tomorrow if we don’t get everything done today.
On of the things lion tamers carry into the cage with them is a chair. I understand that the chair is the most important piece of equipment they have. They will point that chair at the lions and the animals will try to focus on all four legs at once and become sort of paralyzed. Their attention is fragmented and they are disabled and weakened. That makes sense, doesn’t it?
Think about your own life. When you try to think about a number of different things at the same time, it’s easy to get distracted. When you worry about how you’re going to get everything done tomorrow, you lose your ability to get anything done today. You can get so preoccupied with tomorrow that today loses its power.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all share the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Matthew and Mark, in addition, tell of the feeding of the four thousand. After this second feeding, the disciples and Jesus were on their way across the lake when somebody got worried about supper. Somebody had forgotten to bring bread. I can imagine Jesus just shaking his head in despair. He asked them if they had forgotten what had happened. He told them not to get so preoccupied with tomorrow that they forgot about what happened today. Don’t get so worried about how you are going to eat tomorrow that you can’t celebrate the meal you just had.
Remember the Apostle Paul. He had such a big job. He had so many tings to do, so many people to see, and so many places to go. It would have been incredibly easy to get bogged down in the details. But remember he said, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” There was a man who knew how to focus.
Remember the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus didn’t say anything about accumulating bread for tomorrow. He didn’t say anything about having a bread bank from which to draw. No, he said, “Give us today what we need today.” Focus on what we need now, not on what we’re going to need in the future.
In the Scripture lesson, Jesus tells the people around him not to worry about tomorrow. Don’t worry, he said. Seek God’s kingdom first and all the other stuff will take care of itself.
As the Children of Israel prepared to cross over into the Promised Land, they sent twelve spies over first to look around and get an idea of what lay ahead. Ten of them came back and reported what they had seen. It was a great land full of giants, they said, and we cannot dare attack. They expected to be squashed like grasshoppers. This is a classic example of people who see all of their problems before they see God.
I have a feeling that we need to hear this portion of the Sermon on the Mount more often. We need to hear Jesus tell us not to worry. We need to hear Jesus reassure us that we are so much more important to God than the grass and the birds, and that just as God cares for them, so he watches over us. I have a real feeling that we have a tendency to let our problems run over us.
Maybe I ought to speak just for myself. I have a tendency to become confused and bewildered by the many problems I face because I see them first and my Lord second. There are times when I need to be intentional about slowing down to determine my priorities for the day.
One of the things that I try to do which drives my wife nuts is to keep a completely clean desk. Obviously I am more successful some days than others, but I try. I do my best to have only one project at a time on top of the desk. Things that are not being used are in a drawer or a file somewhere out of sight. That helps me concentrate fully on the task at hand and not get distracted by the other stuff that piles up. I don’t need to tell you that I am still going on to perfection and that there are days that my desk gets out of hand, but I have discovered that I work better when I limit my concentration to just one thing at a time.
I need to hear Jesus tell me to worry less and concentrate on him more. I need to be reassured that God loves the birds and the grass and the lilies..and me. I need to have more faith to get me through the confusing times. I need to find greater joy in God who knows my needs before I ask. I need to rejoice in the love and the power of God.
Let us all strive to take one day at a time, knowing that God will bless us and will provide for us. Let us remember that God is greater than our needs…today, tomorrow, and forever.
