Apprentices of Jesus have to try and do what he did, live like he lived and love like he loved. Well, if our goal this month is to strive to live simpler and therefore more obedient lives this is one of the best passages to study & try to live out.

"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.

Next, we sang - "’Tis the Gift to be Simple"

Simplicity of heart brings us down to where we want to be as children of God and disciples of Jesus. A pastor friend of mine once said, "As we progress in the spiritual life, the lessons become simpler, not easier but simpler." Two weeks ago we talked about giving up perfectionism and how much perfectionism distracts, complicates and frustrates our lives. Last week Linda talked about the simplicity of love. Augustine said, "Love, then do what you please," because if we’re truly loving then we’re in the will of God. Well, let’s look at this great passage before us today and see what simple truths God has for us and for our lives.

"Do not worry about your life," Jesus says. Worry complicates life.

It diminishes life. It distracts us from truly living. Jesus says it also doesn’t add a day to our lives. The antidote to worry according to Jesus is faith - trust in God. Look at the birds - they’re not farmers - they don’t plant and harvest and store their food in barns - yet your heavenly Father feeds them - aren’t you more important than the birds? Have you ever seen a stressed out bird? If birds don’t get stressed out, why should you?!! You’re more valuable to God than the birds. Trust God.

Illustration. Imagine if your child got up every morning and said to you - "Are you going to feed me today? Will you give me some milk please? Please! Do you promise?" And so you’d calm the child down and give them breakfast. But what if they woke up the next day and said, "I couldn’t sleep last night. I was up all night worried you wouldn’t be feeding me today." Wouldn’t you say, "Honey, don’t you trust me? Don’t you know my heart and the overwhelming love I have for you in my heart." And the child says, "I know all that - but are you going to feed me today?" "Where’s you trust in me? Don’t you know my love for you?"

If I understand this passage, that’s how God feels when we’re consumed with worry - "Don’t you trust me, my Child?" "Oh ye of little faith"

Faith is trust. It’s trusting that your life is held in the loving arms of God. It’s trusting that you are in God’s heart as God is in your heart. It’s trusting that the God who gave us life will not abandon us in this life. There’s a Gospel song I heard long ago that says, "He didn’t lead us this far to leave us. He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown."

We’ve been trying to take a critical look at our culture recently. We’re products of the culture in which we live, and therefore it’s crucial to carefully study the world in which we live and how it seeks to shape and mold us. Worry is a by-product of the culture in which we live - a culture driven to excess, laden with perfectionism, a culture that values people based on what they produce and what they possess and consume. Worry is very me-centered and flourishes in a consumeristic society like ours.

Jesus says, "Don’t spend all that energy being a good consumer and worrying about what you can consume next - "the Gentiles strive after these things" - that’s a very telling statement by Jesus. He’s saying, people without faith sell their souls striving and worrying about physical/material stuff - don’t you do it, too." Worrying is such a self-absorbed behavior. It’s probably no surprise that a self-centered culture is also an anxiety-ridden culture, and that stress is a primary issue for people today - something that diminishes peoples’ physical health and emotion/spiritual well-being.

Well, if worry is self-centered, faith is being God-centered. If worry is all inward thinking, faith is God-thinking - seeking first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. So, if we’re trying to simply our lives this month - we must attend to our faith and utilize it. Because worrying complicates life. Faith simplifies it.

I’m reading Max Lucado’s recent book about "Facing your Giants." It’s based on the David & Goliath story. He says the ancient story provides a much needed truth for our modern world. Young little David is more focused on God than on the Giant from Gath. Worry and stress is focused on the problem. Faith is focused on God.

I Samuel 17 records the story. The chapter goes into great detail in mentioning Goliath’s height, his bronze helmet, his bronze armor, his javelin, his spear, and so on. David comes on the scene and isn’t focused on Goliath at all. Instead he’s focused on God. David says to Goliath, "You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of host, the God of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand . . so that the earth will know that there is a God of Israel, and that this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand."

David’s faith is stronger than Goliath’s armor. So David fortifies himself with his faith. His faith overcomes his fears because his focus is on the greatness of God and not on the greatness of Goliath. The story calls us to be mindful of God right in the midst of our conflicts and battles.

Years ago I was wrestling with a personal problem and I went to see a counselor who was a Christian and pastor (a pastoral counselor). "What’s it like when you pray about this problem?" she said. "Oh, I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about . . . . cause I guess I haven’t really prayed about it." Oops.

So, whatever your greatest worry and fear is this morning, bathe it in prayer. But even more so than that - focus on God, draw near to God, love God in the midst of life and all its stressors!

Illustration. My little boys and I go to Bugaboo Creek Restaurant from time to time. They’re presently afraid of the talking buffalo. But when they sit on my lap, or if I put my arm around the one who was afraid, he’ll be fine looking at the buffalo.

So part of the reason we worry so much is we’re not feeling the touch of God enough. And we need to put our hearts and souls in situations where we can feel God’s embrace - worship, sacraments, meditation, spiritual support groups.

There’s one other teaching in this passage that can really help us lead simpler lives and that’s the idea of being fully alive today in the present moments of our lives. I’m calling it "Fully present, Fully alive." It’s about being fully present to others, to life all around us and to God.

Illustration. I once received a phone call in my office that I’ll never forget. The person on the other end of the line said, "I’d love to be married in the room where you have the Bean Suppers." I replied, "That’s fine but have you thought about having it in the church?" She then said, "Where’s that?" In all due respect - that’s not being fully present.

In Thorton Wilder’s play "Our Town" there’s that sad, sad scene where Emily is looking back at her life (she’s deceased and asks to go back to her 12 birthday) and she recognizes how little people really comprehend the joys of living. She can’t stand it any longer and asks to be taken away. Her parting words are:

"Good bye! Good bye world! Good bye, Grover’s Corners . . . Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking . . . and Mama’s sunflowers, and food and coffee. And even ironed dresses and hot baths .. sleeping and waking up. O earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you." She stoops, hesitates, and asks with tears in her eyes, "Do any human being ever realize life while they live it? Eh? - every minute?"

Do we realize life while we live it?

"Cotton Patch Gospels" is a musical of the gospels presented in a southern style. On the closing night at one of the stops on the tour there was no energy in the audience. The actor playing Jesus was reciting part of our text for today, and said, "Look at the lilies of the field." -Every other night on the tour people had turned and looked at where he had pointed, even though it was just at the theater wall. "Look at the lilies of the field" he said again. Still they didn’t look. Finally he turned to the other disciples and said, "I just can’t get them to look!"

I suspect God feels that way a lot. God wants us to look at life all around us and take it in! It’s not just "Stop & Smell the Roses." It’s smell the roses, enjoy the beauty of the roses, stop and praise the One who created the roses. Meditate in the rose garden. Take in the message of the roses - about beauty and thorns and nurturing. Jesus is calling us to be fully alive in the moments of our lives. "Look at the lilies of the field" "Look at the birds of the air." "Do not worry about tomorrow - tomorrow will take care of itself." Live today today!

Here’s a pretty good refrain to utilize - "I"m gonna live today today!"

I’ve talked before about how all too often we live in the past - either in the nostalgia for the good ole days or regret over what’s occurred in the past. We relive it over and over and over again. We just keep living it - and it’s all in the past. We’re not living in the present.

Other times we live in tomorrow - worrying about tomorrow, stressing about tomorrow, planning tomorrow in such a way that we live it a day early. We live tomorrow today. And when sometimes we have to do that to plan for events.

But it can become such a habit of the heart that we seldom enjoy the moments of our lives - we’re too busy living in the past or in the future. And most of the moments of our lives are pretty good. This isn’t a bad moment - I’m almost done. It’s a beautiful day. We’re spending part of it in an inspiring faith surrounded by people seeking God together. This is a pretty good moment.

Be open to it. Enjoy it. Embrace it. "Tomorrow will have it’s troubles. You can live tomorrow tomorrow. But live today, today!"

A letter came to us two days after Christmas critiquing one of our Christmas services. It was a page & a half long, with nothing encouraging, just suggestions for improving the service - from a person who only comes Christmas & Easter. I find such a letter very sad. It had to be mailed the day after Christmas, which means it was written that day or on Christmas day itself. Linda offered to write a pastoral letter back in response. I thought this was probably a good idea since I was afraid that I might write a very honest and frank letter. Just recently I thought about what I could have written - "Sorry you missed Christmas. Hope you celebrate it next year!"

In the book Baby Boomer Blues Gary Collins & Timothy Clinton write this: "Never in the history of our country has a generation been taught to expect more from life. And never has a generation been more disappointed and disillusioned as adults."

The message of Jesus is to be fully present and fully alive. Open, embracing, curious, hopeful, expectant, alive in the moment. Living today today.

Let me close with reading this passage again - this time from The Message - a modern paraphrase by Eugene Peterson:

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

"’Tis the gift to be simple. ‘Tis the gift to be free."

Think about it.