Not long ago I was walking along the bike path near our home. As I entered the bridge underpass I heard a loud squawking sound magnified in the tunnel. I stopped to see a mother robin encouraging her baby to follow her. There was a worried, insistent chirping from the mother, followed by the baby’s weak cheeping in response. I stood still watching the dialogue. The mother was signaling the chick to follow her to the entrance, enticing it along the way with food. The baby apparently was not flying yet and the mother was clearly upset. After watching for a bit I left, hoping the baby would get to safety. However, upon my return, I saw only the baby huddled by the wall. I hoped the mother was coming back. But what if she was not?

"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap, and yet their heavenly Father feeds them." Birds have nests, parents, and protection as they are growing. But sometimes things go awry. The baby gets too close to the edge of the nest and falls out. The mother can’t carry it back. And the baby is vulnerable.

Isn’t that our worry too? We say we believe, but when things go wrong, we waver. We fall out of our nests of faith; we stray from our protection and squawk in our fear. We run for cover; seeking other people to bail us out. We scroll through our rolodex of solutions, quickly forgetting or eliminating the very One to whom we should turn first. We shift instead into our take charge mentality and when that fails, we find ourselves in a pool of anxiety.

In a world where life itself is considered disposable, it is hard for us to take Jesus’ words seriously. Did he mean forget about the surgery, the hurt child, the lost job or the car accident, as though nothing happened? Did he mean go head and spend down your retirement savings? Did he really mean don’t worry; quit your job and live on the beach?

I don’t think Jesus is describing here a Pollyanna God who will swoop in at just the right moment, and erase everything that has gone wrong, with some celestial magic trick. But Jesus does say we will not change anything by worrying.

Nevertheless, we do live in a world where there is plenty to worry about. In fact we subdivide our worries into categories, don’t we? We have relationship worries about our parents, our siblings; our spouses or lovers. What if something happens to them? What if we never reconcile? What if divorce becomes a reality? Or what if marriage never materializes?

We have health worries swirling in our heads. Will delivering the baby go without incident? What will aging bring? Will we recover from a debilitating diagnosis? Then we have weather worries: of tornadoes, flooding and fires. We have security worries of having our identity stolen or our home vandalized. Even travel can produce a feeling of angst within us. Leonard Sweet describes this in a humorous way:

But probably the top winner in the anxiety contest would be money. How will we earn it? Will there be enough to live on? How do we manage it? How do we learn how to spend wisely? Save regularly? And give proportionately? How do we avoid worshipping money as our culture teaches us to do? How much is enough? What about protecting it?

The trouble with worry is there is an element of validity in it that hooks us. There are many things that can harm us; there are preparations we need to make for the future; there is information we need to be safe. But when we have done all we can, it is then that Jesus invites us to set our worry aside.

Jesus is not suggesting that we forget about preparing for a rainy day or ignore the safety precautions for the hurricanes in our lives. Rather, I think Jesus is reminding us of our partnership with God in our lives: We each are to do our part; but the difficulty for worriers is knowing where our part ends and God’s role begins.

This month I celebrated my birthday and with each year I am more acutely aware of how limited my time on earth is. Some days there is a high level of anxiety around this. Have I spent my life as God intended? Have I made a difference? Will my health last? Will we have enough money to pay for the unknown ahead? It is the dilemma of not knowing the future yet needing to prepare for it in some way.

My birthday also prompted considerable thinking about my parents; how very fortunate I was to have them; how I was shaped by them, as all of us are. My Dad was a chronic worrier and growing up I found it more than irritating. He was forever saying, "Turn out the lights", "Don’t let the water run", "You’re wasting heat coming in and out". It was annoying until I learned his mother died when he was only 16. Her death coincided with my grandfather losing his 3 farms due to the Depression. It left him and my Dad in a rented room until my Dad finished high school. As a result my Dad’s primary adult worry was about money. He was not raised in a faith and knew little of Jesus’ teachings to balance the harmful ways of the world. Worry became a close and constant companion.

My mother on the other hand, who also came through Depression as a child, was marked in a different way. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, her worry was not as prominent. When Dad would fuss about the unknown, she would calmly reply, ‘Heavens, we’re not going to borrow trouble. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it." I know now, that was her translation of today’s passage; today’s troubles are enough for today.

Frugal to a fault, my Mom never splurged on anything. During her retirement years, I remember trying to convince her to spend money on things that would give her enjoyment; things that she never had. I tried to discourage her from saving it all for what might happen, or leaving it to us. She would invariably say something like, "No, no, I don’t need anymore things; after all I can’t take it with me." As I look back, she was one who always stored up for herself treasures in heaven rather than on earth. It is her legacy to me of what is really important, that is much more valuable to me now, than the small pile of belongings that remained at her death. It was her faith that my father envied that protected them along the way, not their belongings.

Without faith, worry is debilitating, ineffective even life threatening. It sucks away the joy intended for the day. Worse yet, it can harm us with ulcers, high blood pressure, heart attacks, nervous disorders and stomach illnesses. Worry wears out the body and mind, affects good judgment and paralyzes us.

Yet still we persist and others have benefited from our worry. In the last 10 years the relaxation industry has exploded with new ideas. Relaxation travel; spa centers offering multiple relaxation services; soothing music designed to help us sleep; sports authorities offering exercise to reduce stress; even mattresses with adjustable comfort levels. In addition, medical research is always developing more effective medications to help us cope with our anxiety.

But our relief from all this is only temporary. We forget that faith trumps society. Without faith we are more vulnerable to adopting the "go with the flow" mentality, following the ways of the world that do not protect us. We forget that our guidebook for living is the Bible, where the answers can be found. Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God. Live in the present, not the past or the future. Put your energies into a lasting relationship with God. Seek to do what is right and life will fall into place more naturally.

Maybe if we stop being so preoccupied with getting, we might be more able to respond to God’s giving. The Bibles says pay attention to what God is doing in our lives now, that prevents us from getting worked up about tomorrow. Believe God’s promise to help us with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

How do we know this? We know this because of how God has been present in our past. Look back over your life and see the unmistakable hand print of God on your life.

Most of us have come through some pretty devastating events and survived, even when we were convinced we would not. We have lost our jobs, lived through bankruptcy, survived surgery, and managed divorce. We have lost spouses, been estranged from our children, forfeited our homes and lost our health; yet still we are here. All the worry we put into those events did not stop them from happening nor help us navigate them any easier. How did we ever survive them? Non- believers will answer: "It was just luck or fate. but as believers, you and I know it was not luck or fate. It was God.

But our faith is fragile; subject to bruising and disappearing easily, especially when we are afraid. Anne Lamott describes her journey of faith this way:

"My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear."

We believe in God, but are afraid to take the step of trust, even though we

know that God is there when we suffer. We know that God answers prayers in ways we never prayed; we know that God loves us and protects us in ways we never imagined. We know it is not our worry, but God who has opened doors and paved the way for us, enabling us to bear the unbearable. If we have survived our past, it is safe to assume we will survive our future.

Why then do we turn to the world for our answers, the very place that worries us the most? Jesus spells it out: don’t put your faith in money alone; don’t think you have to have all the answers. And by the way don’t eliminate God from your equation. Remember the One who created you? God is the One who equips you with your own way of getting through life. God is the One who promised to be with you even through death itself. So turn a deaf ear to the world’s voices; for they only produce worry. Invest time in God before the stock market. Listen for God’s voice in other people. Make room for God during your day. Initiate conversations with God and watch for the answers.

How do we live Good News lives in a bad news culture? I think it is impossible if we only take our cues from the TV, newspapers, or other people, instead of Jesus himself. The Sermon on the Mount is chock full of tips for living worry free lives, such as managing conflict, telling the truth, avoiding adultery, giving of ourselves, loving the unlovable, forgiving the undeserving.

Excessive worry is a reflection of our faith. It is a warning sign that it needs some attention. In these words, Jesus offers us a way to relinquish our worry to the One who provides a safer alternative. We can minimize our anxiety by following these simple steps:

Remember what God has done in your past.

Know the line between legitimate worries and God’s responsibility.

Feed your faith regularly.

For our protection and path to happiness is in a God who will not die; who will not be destroyed; who will not change her or his mind; a God who will never stop protecting us…..not even in death itself.

So don’t worry; leave the fussing to God, and be happy.

Amen