Isaiah 49:8 – 16a Psalm 131 1 Corinthians 4:1 – 5 Matthew 6:24 – 34
Today’s trouble is enough for today.
I’ll say!
Most of us awaken to the news – The Times on our doorstep, NPR on the radio, reporting on the unrest in the Middle East, the war in Afghanistan, or the latest flash points in the economic crisis – union sit-ins in Wisconsin, the reaction of the banking industry to the investigation of its foreclosures…
And many of us, before we even get out of bed, have mental lists running through the back of our heads of what we need to do that day.
“I’m on a dead run all day!”
Gotta go here, do this, accomplish that…
The world – or at least our families, our jobs, our personal lives – depends on how quickly and efficiently we can get everything done.
Naturally there is some anxiety involved:
We worry we’ll be late getting from one point to another;
We worry about how we’ll look on this or that occasion, and whether or not we can acquit ourselves adequately of our responsibilities …
We worry about money, or appearances, or job security…
Our days are filled with stress: we get up to stress-inducing demands, read anxiety-provoking articles in the papers or hear them on the radio, experience the crunch of traffic or the urgency of our e-mails or the demands of our jobs or the precariousness of our health or the uncertainties of retirement or the future of our children and grandchildren.
Will we lose our funding? is only one of many worries gnawing at the center of our lives.
We don’t know what is going to happen.
And we’ve “gotta go! Gotta go!” Life isn’t going to wait for us!
No wonder these words of Jesus reach out from 2,000 years and resonate:
Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
I know, Jesus, I know.
But if I don’t do it, take care of it, who will?
Gotta go, gotta do, gotta…gotta…gotta…
It’s hard not to get caught up in it all!
And so we continue on our treadmill – which, by the way, doesn’t count as exercise! – and get caught up in the rat race, or whatever we choose to call our frenetic lifestyle.
“The Lord helps those who help themselves!” we quip over our shoulder as we go rapidly from one task to the next.
We feel the weight of the world on our shoulders.
Maybe we shouldn’t worry – is that simply one more admonition, one more thing to put on our to-do list? – but SOMEONE has to take care of all these details…
And then we remember Jesus’ comment about trying to serve two masters: God and wealth.
God and wealth.
I’m not sure that the “two masters” in today’s world ARE “God” and “wealth.”
“God” and “survival,” we might define it, at least as we experience it…
But I’m wondering if today’s “two masters” aren’t God and Self, our own indespensibility – so many, so much, depending on US.
God is over here, split off – on Sundays, during our prayer times – but mostly we go it alone.
And then I hear, embedded in this morning’s text from Isaiah, the antidote to our worry:
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
The image these words evoke for those of us with young children or grandchildren, I’m sure, is that propensity of kids to use markers and write on their hands – or the hands of others!… There is something about that marking, that inscribing…
We seem to have a fascination with “branding.”
We buy Coach bags.
We wear designer jeans, and USC sweatshirts.
Some of us get tattoos.
We monogram pillowcases and hand towels.
Our clothing bears our affiliations, our interests, our accomplishments…
Leaving Disneyland, my grandchildren always like to get their hands stamped. It has nothing to do with RETURNING that day – it has EVERYTHING to do with the stamp, with carrying away with them the mark of their day, their experience. They want to take that little piece of Disneyland with them.
These things are IMPORTANT to us, and people can read our affiliations, our interests, our accomplishments, our travel, on our clothing – and sometimes our bodies.
Boston Marathon.
Holland America Cruise Line.
Pebble Beach Golf Course.
Coors Beer.
It’s revealing to compare OUR branding with God’s: See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
What does that tell us about God?
That God has “bragging rights” to who we are – might God be as puffed up and proud as the fan wearing a USC sweatshirt on game day?
Possibly.
But I think it tells us something even more important:
It tells us that we don’t have to “go it alone”?
When Jesus tells us not to worry, it is not an admonishment, or yet one more thing to put on our “to do” list.
It is a reassurance. A comfort.
The weight of the world is not on our shoulders!
We aren’t “in this” by ourselves!
God is with us.
We are with God.
We are NOT alone! We’re TOGETHER!
If we can relax and allow ourselves to know that experience of being inscribed on the palm of God’s hand, being held in God’s hand, our work, our efforts come out of a very different place; our days take on a very different “feel” and meaning.
What we do – and how we do it – comes from a God-place of power and love!
It may not change the world – but it certainly changes the way we react to the world.
We realize that anxiety is only counter-productive: we do what we have to do – and we let go of the rest, knowing that God has inscribed us on the palm of his hand.
God cares about us!
God is holding us!
We are here – here –
Take a minute right now to know this place-of-being.
In your mind’s eye, see your name, written there in God’s palm.
Take your finger, and trace the contours of your name…
Experience what it is like to be held by God, to have your being in the palm of God’s hand.
As you leave here this morning, and as you go into your week, carry that feeling with you.
For see: I have inscribed you on the palm of my hand, says the Lord.
Amen.
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