Inside Out & Upside Down

Sunday, February 27, 2011, Eighth Sunday after Epiphany
Morning Service

Matthew 6:24-34

“Inside Out & Upside Down”

As we have studied the Sermon on the Mount over the past few weeks, I hope that you have seen what a true radical Jesus really was.

I do not say this to be disrespectful; I say it because it is true.

Jesus stood in the midst of the religious leaders of his day…

Men who believed in and taught a faith rooted in thousands of years of divine revelation and promise…

He stood up and boldly proclaimed a new way of being in relationship with God
and with each other.

He turned the old law inside out and the religious hierarchy upside down.

He brought hope to those who lived at the bottom, on the margins,
and thrust them to the top.

He surprised the “IN CROWD” by telling them to get out of the way of God’s idea of who was out and who was in.

Oh yes, Jesus was a radical then, and his teaching is just as radical now.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.”

This morning Jesus tells us not to worry…REALLY? Don’t worry?

For most of us, worry is as common as weeds in the lawn or today’s newest gray hair!

What we all need to hear and feel this morning is Jesus turning us inside out and upside down!

Let us pray…

Gracious and loving God,
I pray that the words of my mouth will come from You,
and that the meditations of our hearts will be pleasing to You,
in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I really don’t think that I’m the only person here who worries about stuff…

Worries at work…Worries at home…
Worries about the economy…
Worries about the friend with cancer…

We live in a pretty anxious culture…

The evening news depends on worry to attract viewers;

Commercials encourage us to worry about something their product is certain to solve;

More and more homes display home security signs in the front yard;

No matter where you are or where you look someone or something reminds you of how much we have to worry about.

We need to make the connection between Jesus’ command to “NOT WORRY”
and how this passage begins…

“You can’t worship two gods at once,” Jesus says. “Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.”

If we can follow the thread that ties this reading together, I believe we can begin to see our lives where not worrying actually becomes an option.

We need to notice that Jesus does not characterize money as either good or bad;
he certainly doesn’t say it is evil.

What he says is that money doesn’t make a very good Master.

If money becomes the object of our devotion, we fall into the trap of the worldview that makes money a god in the first place – SCARCITY.

It’s not the money that causes the problem; it is the belief that – like a god – we can trust money to satisfy our deepest needs.

If we trust money for our every need we soon discover that we never have enough.

Money is finite…it is limited.

Once we begin to depend on money for our security, we begin to track it, count it, stockpile it, and hoard it.

Of course we worry – in a world built on scarcity we never have enough of anything.

Here’s where Jesus steps in with a radical new idea…

Enter into a relationship with a God who is infinite, whose love is infinite, and whose whole being is based on abundance rather than scarcity.

If love is your Master, scarcity is no longer an issue because love operates from a different “economy” than money.

Consider this:

When Linda and I got married I loved her with all my heart.

Now, I didn’t have to steal any love from my family to bring some to Linda; the amount of love just grew to meet the need.

When Chris was born, I didn’t have to borrow love away from Linda in order to love Chris with all my heart.

Then when Brian was born, Chris didn’t lose any love so I could give my whole heart to Brian.

I’ll bet you’ve all noticed the same thing – the more love you give,
the more love you have to give.

It’s a self-multiplying commodity – it’s an economy of abundance.

When you live in this kind of relationship with an infinitely loving God who constantly replenishes your supply, you never need to worry about running out.

Your basic core needs will always be met.

This is that world where “NOT WORRYING” actually becomes an option.

I realize it can be hard to believe in this world of abundance…

High unemployment screams scarcity.

Cholera in Haiti; rebellion in the Middle East; wars on two fronts; poverty in America;

All these seemingly impossible situations cause us to wonder
if God really cares about us at all.

If God cares for the birds and the flowers so much, how does God truly feel about us?

This fear that God no longer cares is born in an attitude of scarcity…

Scarcity creates fear, and fear breeds devotion to things that we think might protect us and provide for us…

Being invested in a world of scarcity caused the people to reject Jesus and put him to death rather than believe in his vision of abundance.

God doesn’t operate based on scarcity…God works out of infinite abundance.

God didn’t respond to the crucifixion by looking for ways to get back at people;
no – God resurrected…the ultimate act of abundance: bringing life out of death.

Jesus invites us into this same world of abundance – a world where generosity
and new life get our attention.

This is a world where love and care are unlimited commodities; sometimes we just have to look beyond our fears and worries to see.

I’m not saying that we should stop caring about our needs and the needs of others…

“Que sera, sera – Whatever will be will be”

What I’m suggesting is that we turn our vision inside out and
our expectations upside down…

Instead of focusing our attention so much on the scarcity of things – on what’s wrong with the world and how hopeless life can be…

Look around you and really see all the ways that God is at work caring for the world.

Remember the picture of hope we saw last week when we baptized Kenley Brooks.

Think of the faces of the children we feed every day during the summer.

Rejoice in the courage of people who take back their lives from ruthless dictators.

This is a world where not worrying is an option…

A world where we celebrate the abundance, courage, and trust that we see all around us in the lives of God’s people…

A world where we are not always focused on the doom and gloom predictions of newscasters and pundits…

A world where God’s abundant love feeds us and gives us more and more to share with one another…

A world where you: “give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.”

I dare say this would be a radical new world where God’s shared abundance could turn everything inside out and upside down.

Amen.