Sermon on the Mount: Don't Be Anxious

A Sermon preached at United Presbyterian Church in Lone Tree, Iowa on June 21, 2015

In memory of the 9 Mother Emmanuel members who lost their lives in the Charleston Massacre

Scripture passage: Matthew 6:25-34

So, Friday was our Son's sixth birthday.

It's hard to believe how quickly the last four years have blown by.

We've gone from a kid who spoke no English and who waddled around in diapers when we first brought him home from Ethiopia, to a spunky and fun loving little boy who talks all the time and who had his pre-school friends over yesterday for a superhero birthday party.

For some reason, a sixth birthday seems like a really big milestone. It's so much larger than the past three birthdays we celebrated with our child. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but there is definitely a marked difference with a sixth birthday.

It is awesome to watch your child grow up right before your eyes. To see them change, to mature, to grow and develop, to see their personalities come to full bloom, to see them develop their own loves and interests.

And yet, I worry.

I worry because my young child is starting to pull away. He's growing up way too quickly. He's got a strong sense of independence and a strong will which means I can't always control the choices and decisions he makes. Or protect him from his mistakes.

I worry too because I am an older parent. Occasionally, I wonder if I'll make it to his college graduation or see him get married, or hold a grand baby in my arms for the very first time. Every creek in my body or pain I haven't felt before sets off a tiny, little wave of anxiety.

But do you know what my biggest worry is regarding my son's future?

It's that one day Teddy will be a black teenager and then of course he will be a full grown black man - in today's society.

The events of the last several years but especially of this last week have raised my anxiety off the roof.

From Trayvon Martin, to Tamir Rice, to Eric Garner, and now to the 9 out of 12 African Americans who welcome a 22 year old man into their midst, and after sitting in a prayer meeting for a whole hour he finally opens fire and kills them.

As the events of Wednesday night and Thursday unfolded and we learned of the shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston - my wife looked at me and said, “What have we done, were we foolish to bring this beautiful and wonderful boy, into this country?”

It makes me so angry. That shouldn't even be a question we have to ask. Our world should be better than this.

Moms and Dads of black children should not have to worry that their children will constantly be under suspicion, that by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time their kid's life might be extinguished at the point of a gun, and that not even the sanctity of a church or a prayer meeting is able to keep their loved ones safe.

Today's sermon is not the sermon I was going to preach. It is not the sermon I wanted to preach.

But as I was reminded over and over again by friends and by other people of color I have tried to listen to over this past week, to ignore it, to not speak about it, is a luxury that only I possess as a white pastor in a white church, in a predominately white community.

This my friends is the definition of White Privilege.

Today, in their worship services, our black brothers and sisters in Christ do not have the luxury of ignoring this week's events. Clergy cannot fail to address them. They cannot gloss over and ignore them in their churches this morning.

And I think the Spirit says, today, neither must we.

As I read and considered today's scripture passage in light of this week's events and my own anxiety surrounding them along with all my worries about the future for my precious child, I have to say, at first glance Jesus' words seem totally naïve.

Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ... Don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will have worries of its own.

In a nutshell: Live anxiety free!

Come on, Jesus, you're kidding, right? Don't you know the harsh reality of the world we live in?

The interesting thing is that Jesus does not point us toward the challenges and the difficulties we face in this broken world of ours. Instead he points our attention in a different direction.

He points our attention towards the natural world to teach us about the love and care of the creator.

Jesus points us to the birds and the flowers. Observing the birds he invites us to see them darting about, playing, and simply enjoying their God given life. Showing us the flowers he points us toward their natural God given beauty.

As Jesus observed the birds and flowers, he notes they simply do what they do without effort and without worry. They simply live into and depend on the love and care of the creator. They simply trust and lean into God’s love and care.

And he invites us to be like those birds and flowers. He invites us to live into, to trust, and to lean on God’s care and love for each and every one of us.

This is Jesus' antidote for worry :: God created us and God sustains us. Trust that. Live into it.

But then, Jesus goes one step further:

He tells us to pursue the kingdom, to pursue God's work.

This seemingly naïve passage, is actually the foundation for living out the call of Jesus as expressed in each and every teaching we've heard so far from the sermon on the mount.

The demands of the sermon are difficult. I've preached on some very hard and challenging things.

Jesus calls us to a different way of life, he calls us to think about ourselves and others differently. He calls us to the work of forgiveness and reconciliation, to forego our ways of violence, to pursue the paths of peace, to love our enemies, the list goes on...

I'm convinced the only way to live into the demanding call of Jesus in this Sermon, is to take to heart Jesus' words in this seemingly naïve passage.

He calls us to place our full trust in God's care and provision for us. To trust that no matter what happens we are always and will always be in God's hands. And that no matter what, in both life and death we belong to God.

But also to see our brothers and sisters as those too who are created in the image of God. And to value them, to care for and to provide for them as God does the very same thing for all his creation. And to do that hard work of reconciliation and building relationships.

I can only imagine that's how the daughter of Ethel Lance was able to look at the person who shot her mother and to say,

I will never talk to her ever again, I will never be able to hold her ever again. But I forgive you...You hurt me, you hurt a lot of people. May God forgive you.

Or how Felecia Sanders, the grandmother who shielded her 5-year-old granddaughter from gunfire, but also lost her son in process, could say to him:

We welcomed you Wednesday night at our Bible study with open arms. You have killed some of the most beautifulest people that I know… And it will never be the same. But as we said in Bible study, we enjoyed you. May God have mercy on you.

Or how, Allana, granddaughter of Daniel Simmons could say:

Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate…everyone's plea for your soul is proof that they lived and loved and their legacies will live on.

And how she could firmly conclude: “Hate won't win."

“Hate won't win.”

Friends, if this world is ever going to be the sort of world that we want it to be. That God wants it to be. Then we've got to step up and be courageous. We've got to be bold. And we've got to place our full trust and confidence in the love and care of God so that we can:

Let go of our anxiety.

Let go of our defensive posture when we get called out on racism.

Let go of our fear and desire to keep the peace that keeps us from addressing racist remarks head on when we hear them amongst our friends and our family.

Let go of our pretensions that keep us from hearing the cries of our black brothers and sisters or that keep us from doing the hard and necessary work of learning about the realities of this world they face each and every day.

Now admittedly, sometimes we just don't know what to do. The issues are so huge. The systemic roots are so deep. But we must find something to do, no matter how small.

My friend Suzi, a children's librarian in Pittsburgh wrote a poem in response to the tragic events of this past week. And I'd like to share it with you.

She titled it:

Poem for the five year old child who played dead and survived the Mother Emanuel church shooting

She writes:

I can’t do much
I shelve books.

I can’t just fly on my magic carpet to Charleston
To bake some cupcakes.

So I do this:
I take down all the books on display.

Now
Every displayed book has
an ebony face,
Or faces that seek justice

(Including one on online bullying
Which has a white girl with blonde hair
On the cover.)

Biographies:
Rosa
Martin
Bessie (the pilot, not the singer)
Obama’s book to his daughters

Fiction:
Hold Fast (Blue Balliett)
Stella by Starlight (Sharon Draper)

Picture Books:
Back of the bus (Aaron Reynolds/Floyd Cooper)
Beautiful Blackbird (Ashley Bryan)

I ran out of room.

But when these books
Check out,
I have more:
Sonya the Hispanic Supreme Court Judge,
Clemente the Pittsburgh Pirate.

Even the Pigeon is seeking justice,
as misguided as he might be.

Friends, let us lean into the love and care and grace and providence of God and let us find ways each and every day to live out the words of this Sermon on the Mount.

The world is depending on it. I'm depending on it. My child is depending on it.

So Help Us God, now and forever. Amen.