Matthew 6:25-34
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
When you are really worried about something or have a lot of anxiety, doesn’t it just warm the cockles of your heart when someone says to you, “hey, don’t be worried, just stop being anxious, calm down, relax”. Ah yes, of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait, you did. You have tried that. And if it were that simple, if you could just stop, you would. If anything, someone telling you don’t worry, stop being anxious, makes you more worried and more anxious. Why then, does Jesus say don’t worry, don’t be anxious. Doesn’t he know this? Apparently not because he says, be like the bird and the lilly who have no worry or anxiety. The birds aren’t concerned about where their next meal comes from just as lilies don’t worry about what they look like. It’s so easy to read or hear this and think Jesus is saying, be like plants and animals - don’t worry. Which got me thinking, but don’t animals worry? Do they feel anxiety too?
Take for example my goldendoodle Mazie. All you need to do is come over on 4th of July to see her cower in fear from all the fireworks, shaking with anxiety until it’s all over. Perhaps the same is true for you and your four legged. Or maybe your furry friend suffers terrible separation anxiety everytime you walk out the door.
It’s not just dogs. There are other, more complex examples and anecdotes of animals that worry or have anxiety. Young elephants that have witnessed the hunting and killing of close family members develop something akin to Post traumatic stress order, causing them to be very aggressive and even have nightmares. Tell me that’s not anxiety…
Or a lab study from the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse found out that fruit flies that have been socially isolated suffered from sleep deprivation. Do you ever have trouble sleeping when you are worried about others? Apparently so do fruit flies.
Or perhaps even crazier, researchers from Ohio State found that when small fish called sticklebacks experienced lots of exposure to predators, they passed that trauma off to their children in the form of anxiety and risk taking.
Marc Bekoff an evolutionary biologist from the university of colorado put it this way: “It's clear that animals can be worrywarts and stress out and be anxious about many different things. We are not alone in worrying about events in our lives although we may be unique in having the luxury of obsessing on what's causing us stress.”
So we all worry, animals and humans alike. What then do we do with Jesus' command “not to worry”? Well I think there is a difference in the kind of worry from the animal examples and the kind Jesus says not to do. I don’t hear Jesus saying don’t worry about basic needs, after all he tells us to pray for daily bread. What I do hear him saying is don’t obsess over them. Let enough be enough. Trust more that God will provide and less in our desire to get more than we need. In other words, don’t worry in such a way that turns you inward, that focuses on yourself, that makes you unaware, or worse unconcerned, about your neighbors needs, people and animals alike.
Instead, worry like the animals. What I mean is we ought to worry when we are disconnected from others, like the dogs and the fruit flies, or when we see others harmed, like the elephants, or when we fear for our children, like stickleback fish. In other words, worry because things aren’t right. Have an anxiety of love, of care and concern for the wellbeing of our family, our neighbors, the people of the world, the animals in our homes, and all creation. We know this worry, you likely felt it all week, like for the people in Florida as we watched and waited for hurricane milton to make landfall. Or the worry we have about the ever increasing conflict in the middle east, the lives already lost, and the carnage of creation that continues. We worry about our children and grandchildren and the kind of world they will inhabit. We worry about the devastation of creation and how we humans contribute to it.
That’s the kind of worry we should have and the kind I’d say Jesus has too. And the normal reaction to worry or anxiety is to do something or do more, or to help in some way. And we should. But I want to make the case this morning that in the midst of our worry or anxiety, our first response shouldn’t be action, but praise. Because when we give praise we acknowledge to God, to ourselves, and to all creation that we are not in charge of the world, let alone our own lives. When we praise God, we are acknowledging that God is God, and we are not, and we need God’s help.
And here again we can learn from creation and our animal companions. The psalmist tells us that all of creation praises the Lord: sun and moon, the seas and all that's in them, wild animals, trees, flying things, and even creeping creatures, they all praise the Lord. How, you ask? Simply by being the creatures they are. Nadia bolz weber puts it this way “creeping things of the Earth praise the creator by simply being creatures. Their being is praise of the source of their being.”
When the dog barks and the fruit fly buzzes, when the elephant sways their trunk and the fish swims, they are praising their Creator, even in the midst of their worry. The same is true for us. You are a part of creation and your being is an act of praise to the One who created you. And even in our worry and anxiety, no matter how great, we give praise when we do the things that we were created to do: love God, love our neighbors, and care for creation. So this morning I won’t say don’t worry, but rather when you worry, give praise. Amen.
