Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docs.
Welcome to another episode in our series,
The Questions Jesus Asked,
Where we're doing Lectio Divina on passages that contain questions that Jesus posed,
As we reflect on how we might respond.
If you don't know or haven't experienced Lectio Divina before,
You're very welcome and I do encourage you to pop over to my Insight Timer channel,
Where you'll find a free instructional audio on how to pray with Lectio Divina.
Worry.
It's one of the most familiar companions of modern life,
Isn't it?
It sits quietly in the background of our thoughts,
It whispers questions that have no easy answers.
Worry pulls our attention into the future,
Into possibilities,
Outcomes and uncertainties that haven't even arrived or happened yet.
And quite often,
Worry begins just as a simple concern or responsible awareness of what needs our care and attention,
But over time,
Concern can harden into anxiety and anxiety begins to shape how we live.
Now,
In the Gospel of Matthew,
Jesus speaks these words during what we now call the Sermon on the Mount.
This particular passage that we'll be reflecting on today comes from Matthew chapter 6,
And it's a moment where he addresses the everyday struggles of ordinary people,
People concerned about food,
About clothing,
About survival,
About tomorrow.
And these worries were not then and are not now trivial worries,
They're very real.
And ours are real.
We worry about health,
Responsibilities and relationships.
We worry about the future,
A future that we really can't fully control.
We worry about decisions that are made by world leaders that affect us right there in the moment and make our lives harder than they already are.
We worry because we care.
We worry because something matters deeply to us,
But Jesus asks a question that interrupts the cycle of anxious thinking.
He says,
Can any of you,
By worrying,
Add a single hour to your span of life?
And while it's a very gentle question,
I don't think Jesus would have asked it harshly.
It certainly is a confronting one.
Because worry often promises control.
It makes us feel as though rehearsing all the possible outcomes will somehow prepare us or protect us or prevent what we fear.
Yet Jesus invites us to notice something quite simple.
Worry doesn't create life.
And worry doesn't secure the future.
And worry certainly doesn't deepen trust.
And as he puts it in one particular translation,
It certainly doesn't add a cubit of height to your stature.
As a short guy,
I'm listening when someone like Jesus says that.
Rather,
What worry does is drains our attention from the present moment,
The place where life is actually lived,
The place in which we meet God,
The place where we encounter all that there is just in this moment right now.
It's all we have.
It's not to say that we ignore responsibility or pretend that problems don't happen or exist.
But it does mean recognizing where the limits of our control are.
And in the wider passage,
Jesus points to the birds of the air,
The lilies of the field,
The ordinary parts of creation that live without anxious striving.
They still live with some effort,
But they don't live with burden or constant fear.
And maybe this is what his question invites us to consider.
Where has worry taken hold in our lives?
Where do we find ourselves rehearsing fears that haven't even happened?
Where do we carry burdens that feel too heavy to hold alone?
And note that Jesus doesn't condemn worry,
But he invites us to be aware of it.
Because when we notice the worry,
It can,
Where possible,
Be gently released.
And it maybe won't happen all at once,
But as trust grows,
We learn to place what we can't control into hands that are larger than our own.
And so today,
His question lingers before us.
Why do you worry?
And it's not a question that's meant to shame,
But to draw our attention,
To help us to notice,
To lead us towards trust.
So as you listen today,
Allow the words to move slowly through your awareness.
Notice what word or phrase draws your attention,
And allow that to rest gently within you,
As we open our ears and our minds and our hearts to the word that God might be bringing to our attention today,
The phrase that God wants us to rest on and carry forward.
And so we begin.
From Matthew chapter 6,
Verses 25 to 27.
Jesus said,
Therefore I tell you,
Don't 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 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 more of value than they?
And can any of you,
By worrying,
Add a single hour to your span of life?
From Matthew chapter 6,
Verses 25 to 27.
Jesus said,
Therefore I tell you,
Don't 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 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 more of value than they?
And can any of you,
By worrying,
Add a single hour to your span of life?
From Matthew chapter 6,
Verses 25 to 27.
Jesus said,
Therefore I tell you,
Don't 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 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 more of value than they?
And can any of you,
By worrying,
Add a single hour to your span of life?
Let's pray.
Jesus,
You can see the worries we carry.
You know the thoughts that circle through our minds,
The fears that rise when the future feels uncertain.
You don't dismiss our concerns and you don't ask us to pretend either,
But we hear you today that you're inviting us to notice where worry has taken hold in our hearts and to remember that life is held in your care.
So give us courage to release what we can't control.
Where worry fills our thoughts,
Bring stillness and peace.
Where anxiety tightens our hearts,
Bring release and rest.
Where we feel overwhelmed by tomorrow,
Help us return to the grace of this present moment right here,
Right now.
Teach us to trust that even when the future is unclear,
We aren't alone.
And as your question lingers within us,
Lead us gently from worry into trust.
Amen.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you and remain with you today and always.
Amen.
Thank you so much for praying with us today,
My friends.
Until tomorrow or next time,
Peace be with you.
