Bare Necessities

Bare Necessities

Text:  Matthew 6:25-34

            “Don’t worry.  It’ll be alright!” we’re told. 

            “That’s easy for you to say!  You don’t know what I’m going through.  You have no idea what it’s like!  If you were in my position you wouldn’t be able to say it so easily.” 

            It’s hard to explain the frustration we feel when we confide to someone about the thing that’s eating us up and all we get is, “Try not to worry about it.  It’ll probably come to nothing.  Relax.  Don’t think about things too much…chill out.”  We try to explain, “I’m a worrier by nature.  I can’t help it.  It’s just the way I am.” 

            Those of us who carry the ‘worry’ gene look with envy on those who seem not to have a care in the world.  You know the kind of person I mean don’t you?  They sail through life without a care in the world.  They’re so laid back they’re horizontal.  Nothing seems to faze them or ruffle their feathers. 

            How many of us wouldn’t like to be like Baloo, the laid back bear in the Jungle Book?   Baloo’s man-cub friend Mowgli doesn’t want to go to the man-village to live.  He likes life in the wild.  He thinks that Baloo is the greatest and asks him to teach him to be a bear.  Baloo, with the uninhibited enthusiasm of a child, promises to teach Mowgli to dance, growl, and fight like a bear.  Mowlgi pleads with Baloo to let him stay with him in the jungle.  Baloo smiles at his wee pal and breaks out into the famous Disney song, “Look for the bare necessities, The simple bare necessities, Forget about your worries and your strife….”  In the final stanza Baloo advises Mowgli, “And don’t spend your time lookin’ around, For something you want that can’t be found.  When you find out you can live without it, And go along not thinkin’ about it, I’ll tell you something true, The bare necessities of life will come to you.”

            Alison Geisler knows the wisdom of Baloo’s philosophy.  The Thursday news carried a story about this lady, aged 101 years.  An artist and glass engraver, she returned to the Edinburgh College of Art to see an exhibition of her work.  The interview concluded with the inevitable question, “What is the secret of living to one hundred?”  Throwing her head back and laughing, she revealed, “Don’t worry.  Just enjoy life.”

Deep down we all know that worry doesn’t get us anywhere.  How many restless hours and sleepless nights have we spent wrestling with an intractable problem?  Nine times out of ten, the thing never happens.  Even when our worrying situation does materialise, it usually turns out not to be as bad as we thought it might be.  The reality is that some of us are so addicted to the habit of worry that we get worried if there’s nothing to worry about!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry,” Jesus says.  We know he’s right.  It’s a great idea.  But how do we stop worrying and get on with life?  Is it simply a case of having a carefree…laissez-faire attitude towards everything…accepting that whatever will be will be? 

            Living a worry-free life flows from Jesus’ words in verses 19-24. Worries arise from a life focused on ‘things’ rather than God.  Jesus doesn’t pull any punches saying that material accumulation is a dead-end pursuit.  Everything wears out eventually:  fabric becomes moth-eaten, and metal corrodes.  The nest-egg hidden in a drawer or underneath the mattress may be taken by thieves.  Savings and investments are at the mercy of financial markets. 

Worries evaporate when we discover that storing up treasure in heaven is the only investment worth making.  This is not a vision of opulent wealth in Beverly Hills style mansions or gold-paved streets in heaven.  Treasure in heaven is stored as we live our lives in obedience to God.  Heavenly treasure is when we trust God for everything we need. 

Jesus compares a life centred on God to having healthy[1]eye-sight.  A healthy eye is focused on God.  The healthy eye is generous, knowing that material things are secondary to loving and serving God. 

Being a disciple requires undivided loyalty.  A person either loves God and is filled with light, or loves money and things and is filled with darkness.  A choice has to be made.

Christians down the ages have known that storing up treasure in heaven is when a life is lived in total surrender to God.  Paul declares in his letter to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20).  Then in his letter to the Philippians, “…I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”

Complete dedication to God through the knowledge of Jesus Christ was captured by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, when he writes, “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.”  The larger catechism of the Westminster Confession resonates with Ignatius when it asks, “What is the chief end of man?”  The answer to be given is this:  “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy him forever.”

Put God first.  If our top priority is to do things his way…to do what is right…to be fair and just…then everything else will fall into place.  Why worry about food, drink, and clothes when we trust in the Creator of everything that exists?  God feeds the birds.  Are you not of greater value?  Will he not feed you?  Are not the flowers and grasses of the fields splendid in beauty?  If God clothes that which is here today and gone tomorrow in the fire, will he not clothe you?  In any case, will worrying change anything anyway?  Will worry stretch out your life-span or shorten it?

Put God first.  Don’t worry.  Right.  But what about the birds which starve to death or die of disease?  What about the seeds which never sprout and the flowers that never bloom?  What about all the violence that exists within nature…animals preying on other animals…earthquakes and hurricanes, cyclones and tornados?  What about those people who put God first in their lives and yet live in poverty and die of starvation? 

Jesus acknowledges that even for those who put God first there is still trouble to contend with.  “Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Even when there is the prospect of a troubled future Jesus says, “Don’t worry.”  But how can he say this to us?  Isn’t he simply recommending that we bury our heads in the sand?

Putting God first and storing up treasure in heaven reminds us that there is more to life than this life.  Death is not the end.  So even when life goes horribly wrong and we die, we know that we have life with God. 

This is not some kind of get out clause for God or his disciples.  Seeking his kingdom means doing what is right.  It means seeking justice.  It is the acknowledgement though our world is scarred by sin:  the disease of selfishness.  Seeking the kingdom of God is to live generously, with a lose grasp on our possessions.  The truth is that there is enough food, water and clothing for all people in the world.  The harsh reality is that where people starve or drink filthy water or exist in rags it is because of human greed.  The storing up of treasure on earth…the hoarding of vast wealth for selfish pleasure…is not seeking God’s righteousness and justice.  It is greed that means that the few have much and the many have little. 

What does it mean to put God first?  Is it really possible to live a worry-free life?  Isn’t seeking God’s kingdom risky and dangerous?  Isn’t it better to make sure we look out for ourselves and store up that ‘little something’ for a rainy day? 

Patty Hansen tells the story of two seeds that lay side by side in the soil in the spring time.  “The first seed said, ‘I want to grow!  I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me….I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring….I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!’

The second seed said, ‘I am afraid.  If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark.  If I push my way to through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts…what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them?  And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground.  No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.’  And so she waited.

A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it. 

MORAL OF THE STORY

Those of us who refuse to risk and grow get swallowed up by life.”[2]

            The first seed lived by faith.  The second experienced death by worry.  Living by faith is putting God first.  It doesn’t mean that we stop working hard, or that we are not prudent with the resources we’ve been given, or that we don’t care about things that are happening around us.  Putting God first is about recognising that what we have doesn’t belong to us.  It belongs to him.  Putting God first is gladly sharing what he has given to us.  It is growing our roots deep down in him…stretching our leaves up to the heavens.  It is risking the whole of our lives trusting that God will keep us in life and death. 

            We can only grow in God, trusting him with our lives in the life of prayer.  Worries are worked into prayers which lead us to greater faith and deeper peace.  Prayer is where it all begins.  That’s why Jesus gave us the words of the Lord’s prayer.  This is the prayer we are to pray until this prayer becomes our way of life.        The Lord’s prayer is all about putting God first:  praying for his kingdom to come…for his will to be done…for daily supply of our needs…for forgiveness of sins…and freedom from the power of evil.  Putting God first is asking and receiving, seeking and finding, knocking and entering open doors. Centenarian, Alison Geisler, disclosed her secret to a long life as, “Don’t worry.  Just enjoy life.”  We might adapt this for ourselves, our motto being, “Don’t worry.  Trust God through prayer.”