John 8:31-36

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’

Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

A little over 20 years ago, Rolling Stone magazine published its first list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. They did so because people were talking about the death of the album, probably in large part thanks to Napster and young teens downloading songs from limewire on the family computer and burning cd’s with random songs. Rolling Stone has updated that list a few times since the original release, most recently just last December, 2023. According to them, Blue by Joahnie Mitchel came in at three, followed by the Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds at number 2, and taking the top spot at number 1 was Marvin Gaye’s “What's Going On”.

I am not here to argue about what albums should have been on there or which one’s they got wrong, though I feel I should mention not one Indigo Girls album made the list making one of your pastor’s very sad. The list is quite arbitrary, mainly because it was simply ranked choice voting by a variety of artists, producers, and critics. I think many would argue that like beauty, good music lies in the ear of the listener. And while I agree, there are some things I think great music does to or for a person. Now I am just a pastor who played the Tuba for five years, so take this with a grain of salt, but for me Great music proclaims a truth that we experience in our lives. Through storytelling, the melody, or the art of its composition, It can tell us something that we need to know, a truth we might not have otherwise understood.

On this Reformation Sunday we focus on music and the good it does in our lives and faith, because this year we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the first Lutheran Hymnal. In 1524, Luther took four hymns he had written and four from his friend Paul Speratus to make what was called Acht-lie-der-buch, or in english the “Eight Songs Book”. It was nothing crazy to produce a hymnal, but Luther and the reformation as a whole changed the way the church engaged with music forever.

Luther wanted songs to be written with simple words, words that everyone would know, not just the highly educated. And he wanted the music to be familiar, something people might already know. So he often borrowed popular folk tunes of the day and set lyrics to them that people would understand, making it easy to sing along with.

This was revolutionary, because at the time the catholic mass was done entirely in Latin, most church goers didn’t know the music, and therefore no one but the priests sang in worship. Luther’s approach to music changed all of that. He wanted everyone to sing since that’s how people would not only understand the gospel message, but because the music was catchy and familiar, the good news of Jesus Christ would always be on one’s lips, praising God morning, noon, and night.

He wrote on multiple occasions that next to the Word of God itself, music is the greatest treasure in this world. When done right, it helps one’s heart, quiets and cheers the soul because it teaches the gospel and praises God.

That’s why Luther loved music. You see Luther suffered from terrible anxiety throughout much of his life. In his early years of being a monk, he would fall into these dark episodes of despair. He felt like God didn’t love him, like God couldn’t love him. He wasn’t good enough, he didn’t keep all the commandments like he should, and didn’t do all the things the Bible says Christians should do. He writes about this feeling in one of those hymns from that first hymn book 500 years ago, saying “life had become a living hell, so firmly sin possessed me. My own good works availed me naught, no merit they attaining; my will against God's judgment fought, no hope for me remaining.”

My guess is at one time or another, or maybe even right now, you’ve felt hopeless because you aren’t good enough: not smart enough, not fit enough, not successful enough in the eyes of the world, and certainly not good enough in the eyes of God.

You try so hard to get it right, to pray more, get less angry, be more generous, or even care about all the suffering in this world. And you may for a time, but you can never quite rid yourself of whatever it is that makes you feel like God could not and should not love you.

But then Luther read again what we heard this morning from Romans 3: “No one is justified by what they do. We are justified, we are made right with God only by God’s grace as a gift, through the work of Jesus Christ”.

Later in that same hymn, Luther shares this good news from Jesus’ perspective, “Your ransom, I myself will be; for you I strive and wrestle. For I am yours, your friend divine, and evermore you shall be mine.”

In other words, Luther remembered that it’s not what he says or does or how much money he pays the church or how many prayers he lifts up, none of that takes away his sin or puts him in the right relationship with God.

Only Jesus does that by his work on the cross, taking our sin in exchange for his grace. Only a God who loves me more than I can fathom would do such a thing. And that's something worth singing about. Now there are plenty of songs that proclaim that truth, from ancient hymns to albums on that top 500 list. Yet, recently I heard or more like we heard a new song that shares the heart of the gospel, +Mark and I, I mean.

In August, we went to an Avett Brothers concert together at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. A few weeks before the show, I reached out to a stranger selling her tickets on Facebook only to then check the family calendar and realize we were booked. On the day of the concert, the woman reached back out and said I could have the tickets, no cost, completely free. We canceled our plans, but couldn’t find a sitter so short notice, so Katelyn graciously agreed to stay behind with Clive if I could get someone to go. And I know of no one who likes concerts more than Pastor Mark Havel.

So we went and about halfway through, Scott and Seth, took the stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar and their voices. And they sang a new song. Each verse juxtaposes the many ways we go through life, whether we speak up or are silent, if we are willing or we are done. If we’re courageous or cowards. All the verses go through a series of these conditions, but each one ends with proclaiming the truth “we are loved”.

And the chorus goes, “Every stitch and seam, every wish and dream, even in tragedy, there lies divinity. Even as hope seems lost, it may be found again. I have felt alone, but I have never been.” Their voices filled the fieldhouse and in that moment, I believed them. It was as if they were telling me again for the first time, the heart of the gospel, that no matter what you do in this life, it does not earn you grace. You are loved, and nothing in this life can take that away from you.

As the song came to a close, I turned to Mark and said “don’t even think about it, I'm using that in a sermon first!”

On this reformation Sunday, I invite you to sing, not just today but everyday. To lift your voice, your instrument, and praise God through the gift of music. Find a song, whether it’s 500 years old or brand new, whether it’s on the top 500 albums or not, find a song that proclaims the truth of the gospel, that no matter what, we are loved.

And then sing that song every day over and over again, thanking God for the gift of grace and music. Amen.

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.

"We Are Loved"

Worry and Praise