Matthew 6:25-34
[Jesus said,] “Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Of how much more value are you, 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, and yet, truly I tell you, even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not clothed like one of these. But if your heavenly father so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith?
“So 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 after all of these things and indeed, your heavenly father knows that you need all of these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be give you as well.
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring trouble of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
I love a good rescue dog story. You know the ones you see on social media vignettes where some wayward hound is living under a bridge or beneath a house – and has been for a while – chained to a tree or trapped in a hole until someone finds them, convinces them they are safe, carries them off in a blanket or lures them into a car with a leash to be shaved, de-loused, operated on, in some cases, socialized to tolerate people and other pets, and then re-homed with someone in suburbia who now lets them sleep on the bed, eat at the dining room table from fine china, and swim in the pool. If we were inside, I’d just share one of those videos and call it a sermon. I watch those things from start to finish, every time.
But that would be too easy. And I like a good dog rescue story, even more, where the dog does the rescuing. So I found a few to tell you about…
There’s a story about a man who slipped in the snow and ice in the winter wilderness of Michigan, and broke his neck. Laying there paralyzed, he just waited to freeze to death. But his golden retriever, Kelsey, stayed with him, laid on top of him for 19 hours, keeping him warm and barking incessantly until help arrived, long after her owner lost consciousness. And the man survived in the end.
Then there was a German Shepherd named Sako who survived a car accident that killed a handful of passengers, leaving his teenage owner alive, but wounded. Sako the dog took care of his boy for 40 hours by keeping him warm, leading him to water, and fighting off coyotes.
There’s another story about Major, a Labrador/Pitbull mix. His owner was a combat veteran who suffers from PTSD and he was having a seizure. Major – the dog – called 911 by stepping on his owner's iPhone. Thinking it was a prank or an accidental call, dispatchers repeatedly hung up, which forced Major, the service dog, to keep calling, over and over again, 10 times until someone showed up to save his dad.
And there’s the simple, sweet story of another Pitbull puppy (if nothing else, maybe we can redeem the reputations of Pitbulls if we tell more stories like these) who was adopted by another military veteran, also suffering from PTSD. When she found her new dad on the verge of suicide, sitting on the kitchen floor, holding a handgun, Cheyenne the puppy sat beside him, licked his ear, and made him laugh. It was enough to make him change his mind, and live another day.
So, back to this morning’s Gospel… Some people think it’s hard to follow Jesus when he says to love your enemy, to turn the other cheek, to love your neighbor as yourself, or – like we heard last week – to deny yourself, to take up your cross, and to follow him. But these days, today’s command to “NOT WORRY” ranks right up there with some of Jesus’ tallest orders, don’t you think?
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring troubles of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
No kidding, right? We have plenty to worry about these days – today, tomorrow, yesterday, whatever. I don’t care what day of the week Jesus pretends we can focus on at any particular moment. And I don’t have to list them all for you – our shared list of worries is as full as whatever list of concerns we carry all on our own.
And I’m not about to suggest that a puppy’s wet nose is enough to cure or cast out every one of those demons, all of our diseases, or every ounce of our despair. (I might bet on it – the power of the puppy, I mean, but I’d never promise such a thing.)
Because the truth is, Jesus doesn’t tell us not to worry “at all.” I think he knows us better than that. Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow, because there’s enough on our plate today – at any given moment – and tomorrow will come. Jesus just wants us to remember that God’s love is bigger than whatever today can bring, or tomorrow, or the next day, too. “Look at the birds of the air…” “Consider the lilies of the field…” “If God feeds them…” “If God clothes them…” “If God cares for them…” How much more will God tend to each of us, in the end?
And all of this reminded me of something else I heard not long ago, that “Everyone who has a dog, believes theirs is the best. And everyone is right.”
“Everyone who has a dog – or a cat or a bird or a bearded dragon or whatever – believes that theirs is the best – dog or cat or bird or bearded dragon, or whatever. And everyone is right.”
And I believe God is that way, too. The love and grace and mercy of God is so powerful that each of us, as far as the creator of the universe is concerned, is the best dog … the goodest boy … the sweetest girl … the most worthy, loveable, forgiven, valuable, worthwhile, treasured, prized, cherished child there is. Only God’s love is that deep. Only God’s grace is that mighty. Only God’s vision is that vast. Only God’s reach is that wide.
And if you brought a pet with you today – or if you’ve ever been lucky enough to have a pet like these – you know what that kind of unrestrained love and devotion and grace feels like.
So we bless our animals this morning as a reminder of their importance in our lives, as a celebration of God’s creation and of our place in the midst of it, and as an experience of grace – given and received – by the one who rescues and redeems us all, from whatever worries us most – always and forever – in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
