Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday October 10, 2021 – Thanksgiving Weekend
Scripture: Matthew 6:25-33
Time for a Covid check-in. How are you feeling these days? How are you really feeling? This is our second Covid Thanksgiving. I can’t know how you are feeling unless you tell me, but as I scan through Facebook posts, I’ve noticed a couple of trends.
I’ve noticed a lot of anger – anger at the virus, anger at the government, anger at people who haven’t been vaccinated. I’ve noticed a lot of grief – grief over plans that have had to be cancelled, grief over divisions within families, grief over celebrations and commemorations that have been delayed. I’ve noticed a lot of anxiety – anxiety over not being able to make plans, anxiety over keeping self and loved ones healthy, generalized anxiety around trying to be human in the world today.
So I ask again – if you look deep into your heart, how are you feeling in this moment in time?
The reading that we heard this morning is part of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount – the sermon that begins with the beatitudes – “Blessed are the poor in spirit” etcetera. This is his first public sermon in the gospel of Matthew – his first opportunity to have his message heard by more than his closest followers.
And even though the crowds he was speaking to weren’t dealing with the Covid-19 virus, they were living with stress in their lives too. Most of the people in the crowd were living a subsistence life – trying to catch enough fish or grow enough grain to feed their family, and hopefully have enough left over to pay their rent to the landlord who owned the fields or who owned the boats. One bad fishing season, or a drought or a flood would be literally life-threatening.
They were also living under the oppression of the Roman Empire – a foreign nation who ruled through fear. Don’t you dare rock the boat or you could end up nailed to a cross.
And to all of this, add the usual concerns of a world without access to modern medicine – a high infant mortality rate, a high childbirth mortality rate, and a high risk from communicable diseases like leprosy or polio or the ’flu.
And what does Jesus say to this crowd who is living with chronic stress? He paraphrases the great poet, Bobby McFerrin and says, “Don’t worry; be happy.”
Jesus points to the birds flying overhead, and says, “Look at them! They don’t worry about where their food is going to come from, and yet God always makes sure that they are fed.”
And Jesus points to the flowers growing in the field and says, “Look at them! They don’t worry about what they are going to wear, but did you ever see anyone with clothing as gorgeous as God gives to them?”
It is challenging to hear this, because it sounds as though Jesus is brushing off their concerns. After all, hunger was a very real risk to his congregation if their crops failed.
But there in the middle of all of that, I also think that Jesus offers a very profound bit of wisdom. “Can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your span of life?” Which cuts to the heart of things. Worrying about the future doesn’t do anything to change the future – it just makes us uncomfortable in the present. Worrying about whether or not I will be able to see my family at Christmas isn’t going to change whether or not I’m going to be able to see them, but it will keep me from enjoying Thanksgiving. Worrying about what today’s Covid numbers are going to be isn’t going to do anything to change those numbers – all that it is going to do is raise my cortisol levels – raise my stress hormone levels – which, in the long run, isn’t good for my health.
I had this whole sermon written before I learned that today, October 10, is World Mental Health Day, so I want to pause here and say that mental health challenges are a real thing. If your anxiety or your depression is something that isn’t going away; if you can’t control the worries that are running through your mind; if your anxiety and depression are interfering with your every-day life and what you are able to do, then it is good to get help. Remember that Jesus was not only a teacher, he was also a healer. Jesus wants all of us to be whole and well, and that includes our mental health. You can love Jesus and see a counsellor at the same time. You can love Jesus and take medication for your mental health at the same time. It isn’t either-or. God loves you and wants you to be healthy.
But getting back to today’s reading – we aren’t talking here about clinical anxiety – here we are talking about the niggling whatifs that can sometimes haunt our brains. Because worrying about the future not only can’t change the future, but it also stops us from enjoying the present moment.
Which brings us to this present moment. Thanksgiving weekend. In the midst of all of the anger and grief and anxiety in the world, Thanksgiving weekend is a call for us to pause and to give thanks. It is a call for us to look around us and give thanks for everything that we have, rather than lamenting the things that we don’t have.
As a group, let’s take a moment to name those things that we are grateful for – let’s take a moment to give thanks for them. I’ll begin, but feel free to shout out your thank yous:
Thank you for this church.
Thank you for the fall colours.
Thank you for my family.
Thank you for music.
Thank you for sunshine and blue skies.
Thank you for good books to read.
…
Looking around and noticing all of the things that we have to be thankful for grounds us in the present moment. When we are giving thanks for the things that we have, for the things that we have been given, we aren’t able to be anxious for the future.
Jesus reminds us that just as God is present with the birds flying overhead, and just as God is present with the flowers growing in the field, God is present with you and with me and with all people. God is closer to you than your very breath. You are embraced by God’s loving presence, within and around you. There is nowhere that you can go where God is not, and nothing that you can do that can separate you from God’s love.
God doesn’t want you to worry about the future – God wants to you be fully present to the present moment, resting in the love that is all around you. And once you find yourself in that love, the only possible response is to give thanks. Amen.
“Trumpet Lily Golden Splendour”
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