Second Sunday before Lent

Genesis 1.1-2.3; Romans 8.18-25; Matthew 6.25-34

We've been working our way through the Sermon on the Mount in these weeks leading up to the start of Lent. As Easter is late this year, we've got an opportunity to listen to this wonderful and important teaching of Jesus in a way that doesn't happen in most years. And we are taking it as a preparation for Lent because this teaching is directed at each and every one of us. It goes right to the heart of our discipleship and what it really means to be a follower of Christ, to be a Christian.

I've tried to remind people many times that every Christian is part of Christ's body; we are very much His living presence in the world now. So it's for each of us as far as it lies in us, to become like Him. We are to 'abide in Him as He abides in the Father' as He tells us in St. John's gospel. And this teaching that the Lord gives us in His Sermon on the Mount shows the way. It tells us exactly how we are to be and what we are to do to be like Him, to be Christ-like.

Towards the end of the first couple of chapters of this Sermon Jesus reminds us of the sort of background to which we ought to live our Christian life. The other two readings set for this Sunday are the first creation account in the book of Genesis, and St. Paul's theological reflection on the work of God's creating Spirit as the Spirit brings things to completion in Jesus Christ when the Kingdom of God will at last become fully real and Christ as it's said will become 'all in all'.

But we ourselves are caught up in this great creative work of God and it's a difficult business. Being and living in the world isn't easy. God is bringing in His Kingdom and it's tough going. Being a Christian, caught up in all of God's activity as we are is hard work. And Jesus, conscious of this, part way through this Sermon tells us the frame of mind, the spirit in which we should live in this coming Kingdom. And I think it takes us by surprise because he sums it up in three words 'do not worry'. And He'll say this again and again to His disciples in actual fact. And maybe we are so busy worrying that we don't hear Him. But He says 'do not worry'. But why should Jesus put it this way? Who doesn't have cause to worry in this day and age?

Well in these few sentences we read today, Jesus is telling us to have faith. It's another way, a rather gentle way of telling us to have faith in, to trust in, God. He says, look around you at creation. Look at how God provides for all of His creation. Won't He all the more provide for you? All you need do is not to worry about these things but put Him first. Easier said than done, you'll say.

I think it's true to say that the backdrop to most peoples' lives in the Western world is anxiety, worry. Even if we can't think of something to worry about in our own lives, television, radio, newspapers, the internet, all hold out a whole plethora of things simply begging to be worried about. This world of ours is so small now that we have to be worried, it seems, about what's going on in the likes of Libya just now, not just for the people there but for ourselves, because of the threat of terrorism or that the price of petrol might go up as a result putting increased pressure on our personal finances. That's just one small example. There are hundreds more we could think of right now I'm sure. But among all of that Jesus says - 'do not worry'. Well why does He say 'do not worry'? How can you not worry? Well this is why He says it.

Most people, I guess would think that the opposite of faith is doubt. But it isn't. The opposite of faith is fear. Worry and anxiety are forms of fear. And where there is fear, there is no faith, no trust that things will work out positively. What Jesus is saying to us here today is to do away with your worry and anxiety, do away with your fear by cultivating faith. He says that God has created the world, the universe and He sustains it. Creation gets on without worrying and so should we. And He says that the key to that faith is to live your life as someone in His Kingdom already, to work for it and everything else will fall into place.

Now Jesus is not so naive as to think that there won't be trouble along the way. It came to Him right from the start and came to Him at various points in His life right to the end. But He overcame His fear by faith in His heavenly Father. Sometimes it was a great personal struggle to do that, as we read of His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. But His resurrection is the vindication of His faith. And He asks us to do the same as He did in our journey through life, to put our faith in our Heavenly Father.

Worry is a great destroyer of life. It sucks the life out of us, sucks all our spirit out of us. Indeed I read many years ago that the word 'worry' comes from an old English word 'Worrowen' which means 'to destroy'. So Jesus's request to us might sound simple, even naive in this world of today. But we shouldn't under estimate it because His words 'do not worry' are life saving, if we can replace our fear with faith.

Again, none of this is easy, but all of what we are reading here, all of chapters 5 to 7 in St. Matthew's gospel are of a piece, and after these reassuring words of Jesus we've read today, he launches into his next round of instructions on the Christian life, the life of faith, our life in the Kingdom. And we build up our faith only inasmuch as we put into practice all that Jesus teaches here either side of those words - 'do not worry'. And Jesus will tell us as much right at the end of chapter 7 when He says, 'He who hears these words of mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on a rock.'

We are meant to take all of these words and build what they tell us into our daily lives as Christians. Only then will we be able to eradicate the fear, the anxiety, the worry from our lives and begin to have real faith in God, the faith which, Jesus says, moves mountains.