Message 11-13-05
Series: Going Deep
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34
Title: How to Get Out of a Warm Bath
Intro:
What’s great about baths and staying in them
The importance of getting out and back into the world
How to get into living
Study:
Before we talk about how to get out of a warm bath, let’s just think over what keeps wanting to stay in there? What keeps us from wanting to get out and face the world?
Isn’t it having to answer the questions. Do you know what I mean? Isn’t the thing that drives us into the warm bath, back to the womb, back into a quiet, little room where people aren’t bothering us, the fact that we have to come up with answers to the questions?
Everyday, anyone with any responsibility has to answer the questions. They come from children, spouses, friends, the person who is on the other side of the counter, the boss, clients, drivers in the other cars or in the school line behind us, teachers, professors… people. Do you remember Linus from Peanuts? Do you remember him saying, “I love mankind… it’s people I can’t stand.”
Everyday we walk out into a host of questions that need to be answered.
These are the basis of our anxieties. They are the things that keep us up at night. They are the things that make us lose our tempers or even lose our jobs if we can’t find them quick enough. Answering the questions is one of the biggest problems we face as humans and answering the questions is what ties us directly to the materialistic world.
Having to answer the questions ties us to the materialistic world in at least two ways. First, we simply have to get on the stick and answer them all and they all deal with life. Having answers every day and knowing that we’ll have to have more or bigger answers the next day or in a couple of days or next week or by the end of the month, having that pressure ties us into the rat race of the materialistic world. Second, we can be lead into daydreams of what would it be like if we had enough money that we didn’t need to think about the answer? Which of course can drive us to get enough money so that we can get to that place. We can become slaves to the materialistic world. The trouble is that it doesn’t really make any difference how much money we have.
When we read Jesus’ words here we can think that he’s talking about the person who is buying $300 sport shirts and paying that kind of money for a haircut. But look at what Jesus is talking about in this passage. Jesus isn’t saying don’t get luxuries. He’s saying don’t worry about the necessities. The crowd that was following Jesus wasn’t the rich and famous. The crowd around Jesus were mostly working people. He didn’t tell them that if they got wealthy they’d realize they were slaves to money. He told them that they had to be watchful right the way they were… or they could be slaves to money.
Having to answer all the questions, carrying that responsibility day after day – who’s going to open the store, who’s going to make sure the floor is washed, who’s going to count the cash in the register, who’s going to go over the books before the auditors come in next week, who’s going to clean the backroom up, who’s going to handle the publicity… and all the rest. All of this can make us want to shut ourselves up in a warm bath… and stay there. And the warm bath can be getting married. It can be getting a nanny. It can be getting yard help. It can be traveling for business. It can be anything that stops us being the ones that have to answer the questions. Calgon… take me away.
Getting a lot of money can tie us deeply into the materialistic world that Jesus warns us about. But it doesn’t have to be a lot of money. Getting money can get us focused on keeping money which can get us short-sighted on the people, the human beings, around us – our own children, our spouse, our friends, or the guy on the other side of the counter who’s trying to get our order and be polite while we talk on our cell phone.
Now there are people who will tell you not to sweat the small stuff, but that’s not what Jesus says. Jesus says, Get the BIG stuff.
Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth… but store up treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
Get the BIG stuff.
We don’t get the BIG stuff, do we? There’s so much that pulls us away from the BIG stuff. Each morning you wake up and you have to answer the question… what will I wear? If you’re anything like me you do this. Every Sunday I struggle through trying to remember what did I wear the week before. Because God forbid you saw me in the same thing I wore last Sunday. It’s so easy to get consumed by all this, how do we get away without just curling up into the warm bath water that hides us? Let’s look at our hymn.
Dallan Forgaill is the man attributed with writing the words of our hymn “Be Thou My Vision” and it seems like he got the BIG stuff that Jesus was talking about. Dallan was a man who lived in the 500’s and who was the Chief Bard of Ireland, second only in prominence to the King – a singer, songwriter, a man of poetry and education. He founded a church and schools. And as we begin looking at this song it is important to note that as a young man, he went blind.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Now it may be that Dallan was simply asking God to shine within his own blindness, but when I read these words after hearing Jesus’ words what I hear is guidance for our souls.
Don’t worry about how you look
Worry about how you see
Jesus tells us to make sure we can see. He calls us throughout this passage to see the real world, to see what’s in front of us. Don’t worry about your clothes, don’t worry about your hair, don’t worry about how you look. Worry about how you see. And Dallan forms this into a prayer for God to actually be our sight, both in our eyes and in our minds.
Jesus tells us that if our eyes are light – that is if we look on the world with generosity, not having to hold on to what we have – then our whole soul will be filled with light. Think of the way he describes God – he sends his rain on the just and the unjust alike. He gave his only Son – not that the world will be condemned by him but so that the world can be saved.
Don’t worry about how you look. Worry about how you see.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Don’t worry about what you live in
Worry about who lives in you
Dallan goes on to call us to join him in praying for God to source of our guidance into each day – our wisdom, and to be the source of our conversation with others – being true. Jesus told us that unless he lives in us we can do nothing. That unless we are in him we’ll just wither and die.
Don’t worry about what you live in… It’s not the house, it’s not the apartment, it’s not the trailer. Don’t worry about what you live in. Worry about who lives in you.
Jesus says if we have a dark eye then even the light we have will be dark. If we are stingy with our money, with our compliments or with our hearts then darkness will just gather within.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Don’t worry about what you’re up against
Worry about who stands with you against it
Every day we’re going to have answer questions from what we’re going to wear to whether we have finished the report or can we be in Chicago on Wednesday. Did you get it done? Every day we’re going to have to go up against the teachers, the other kids, getting the car to work, getting to work, the bully, the whiners, the whoevers… if our eyes are fixed on them then we will be fighting alone. It’s not what we’re up against. It’s who stands with us.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
Don’t worry about what you own
Worry about who owns you
We can get lost in these things. Dallan knew what he was talking about. He was of royal blood, descended from 121st King of Ireland. He knew what it meant to gain an inheritance. But he claimed God first. Teaching our children to give up right now the small thing in front of them so that they can get the bigger and better thing later is a tough lesson for all of us. We get focused on this world, on the right now, on having it here. Jesus tells us that if we become slaves to it we can’t claim God as our king. We can’t say he owns us – heart and soul. If what we’re after is what we can get our hands on today so our kids will stop whining, so we can just answer them and get them off our backs, so we can just make ourselves feel good by buying… we can’t claim God as king.
Don’t worry about what you own
Worry about who owns you
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Don’t worry about what tomorrow may bring
Worry about what to do with the day you been given
Do not worry about tomorrow and getting all the answers. Now, I’m not talking about doing a good job or making plans or setting goals. I am talking about getting consumed by all your tomorrows that have to be in place so you can feel secure.
31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things,
[the people who don’t claim God as King and don’t know him as Father, these people run after these things. We’re not supposed to be like them.] and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
