DESERT PALMS PRESBYTERINA CHURCH

Sun City West, Arizona

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Donovan G. Houdeshell

May 25, 2008

Isaiah 49:8-16a

Thus says the LORD: In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages; 9 saying to the prisoners, “Come out,” to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.” They shall feed along the ways, on all the bare heights shall be their pasture; 10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. 11 And I will turn all my mountains into a road, and my highways shall be raised up. 12 Lo, these shall come from far away, and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene. 13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones. 14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

I Corinthians 4:1-5

Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself.

4 I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

Matthew 6:24-34

24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 25“Therefore I tell you, do not 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 the body more than clothing? 26 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 of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.

Therefore, don’t worry about your life saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” (Matthew 6:25) A number of years ago a popular song expressed a similar theme. The song won the Grammy award for song of the year in 1989. Let’s see if you remember or recognize the song. Bear with me [playing tape of the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.] Recognize it? 

Here’s a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note,

Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

Every night we have some trouble,

When you worry you make it double,

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Chorus

Got no place to lay your head …

Enough of that. You recognize the song now, don’t you? “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. That’s the title of a song written by Bobby McFerrin in 1988. It was in the soundtrack of the movie “Cocktail”, and it became a best seller the next year. It not only won song of the year, but Bobby McFerrin got the award for best male vocalist of the year with it, and also best album of the year in 1989. Don’t Worry, Be Happy. Bobby wrote the words, sang the song and created the sounds that were in that particular record. No musical instruments were used. He created all the sounds. Kind of a unique song, wouldn’t you say?

Bobby McFerrin learned that phrase, “don’t worry, be happy”, from a Sufism mystic and spiritual master in India, Meher Baba, who put those words on his posters. He had a picture of himself, then the words below his face, “Don’t worry, be happy.” One day when Bobby McFerrin was in a friend’s house, who happened to be a jazz musician, he saw that poster on the wall. The poster inspired Bobby to write the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. Later on, in 1988 he was interviewed by USA Weekend Magazine and here is what he said to the man who was interviewing him: “Whenever you see a poster of Meher Baba it usually says, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’, which is a pretty neat philosophy in four words, I think.” Therefore, don’t worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?”

Sufism mystic Meher Baba was not the first to introduce the topic of worry for discussion. He was not the first to talk about anxiety. In Matthew in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus raised the topic of worry, which has been a scourge for all of humankind for thousands of years, even before Jesus’ time, for sure. Jesus said in Matthew 6:25, “Don’t worry about your life saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear? The Greek word for worry is mepimna. It means care or worry or anxiety. Here’s how that Greek word is applied throughout the scriptures: in II Corinthians 11, it is anxiety about the church. In Luke, Chapter 8, it is about the worries of life. In Matthew 13 it is the worry of the world. 

Worry about the church might be expressed this way: how will our church survive if we don’t get more members and more pledges? We’d better do something about it; we’d better do something fast, never mind that the church has existed for 2,000 years. Yet we are caught up in anxiety and worry about the church. 

The worries of life for a person who is in a retirement community such as we live in might be something like: well, how can I put food on the table, put clothes on my back, pay for gasoline in my car, when food is skyrocketing in terms of cost and gasoline is going up on a daily basis, and my income is fixed?

The worry of the world might be something like this: how can my small charitable donation make any difference at all when thousands are dying in earthquakes in China and in cyclones in Myanmar? I think I’ll just do nothing about those things. How can I make a difference? “Don’t worry,” said Jesus, “saying. “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” Don’t worry. 

To those of us who are anxious and do worry on a daily basis, to those of us who do worry about our lives, who do worry about the church, who do worry about the world, being told “don’t worry” is like being told, “don’t be sad” when you’re sad. Or, “wipe that frown off your face” when you’re feeling down. It’s like people telling you not to feel your feelings—to medicate them, to sublimate them, to push them down—and I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying. I think what Jesus is acknowledging is that we do worry, but that worry is unproductive. He asks in his Sermon on the Mount: “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?”  (Matthew 6:27)  In fact, medically, the opposite has been proven, hasn’t it? If we are caught up in a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, a lot of worry, that takes from our lives rather than adding to our lives. 

Those of you who have lived through disordering, disrupting worry or anxiety, the day comes when you and I have to face what is really gnawing at our guts. What is really keeping us awake at night? We have to ask ourselves about our worries and our anxieties. Are those worries and anxieties really as threatening as we think they are? Or is there something deeper going on? Maybe so. The problem of worry and anxiety shows up in our prayers. How many times have you unloaded a burden on God in your evening prayers only to take it up the next morning? You say something to yourself like, “I thought you could handle it, God, but let me take it back today and work on it just a little bit more.” “Don’t worry,” saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?”

Jesus, I believe, is misunderstood when he says don’t worry. What he’s not saying is, don’t eat or don’t drink or don’t put on clothes. What he’s not saying is, don’t provide for yourselves in terms of food or drink or clothing or shelter. What he is saying is, don’t worry about these things. Don’t worry so much about these things. He is urging his disciples and followers to replace their fear and their worry with faith. With faith. Believers don’t have to worry as much as other people because they don’t have to control the outcome. God is in control. God is sovereign. God is in charge, therefore, the believer can let go of worries and anxieties and let God take care of the details.

See, at bottom what we are talking about is a spiritual problem—the problem of living in fear or of living in faith. The problem of being in control or of letting God be in control, of letting God be God. That’s why Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air.” When you think about it, birds don’t produce food, but they always have enough to eat, don’t they? “Consider the lilies of the field,” says Jesus. Lilies are nourished by water and food and grow on their own. They do not anxiously strive for these things. Then Jesus adds the kicker: “Are you not more valuable than the birds of the air or the lilies of the field?”  (Matthew 6:26b)  In other words, if God takes care of the animals and the plants, would he not also take care of the human beings created in his image? If God takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, would not God also take care of the church? Would not God also take care of the world that he created? 

As an antidote to our anxiety and our worry, I think we need to go to the birds. (That was a joke.) We desperately need to go to the birds. We need to look at the birds, as the scripture says, and consider the lilies, for what Jesus is doing is pointing out how unselfconsciously the birds of the air are living in the world and how unselfconsciously the lilies of the field are blossoming. They participate in life—they don’t stand back from life and worry about it—rather, they are caught up in the moment and they allow God to provide for them. 

I believe nothing is more spiritually restoring and relaxing than to take Jesus’ direction and gaze upon nature. That’s what he’s telling us to do. When he warns us about undue anxiety and worry he says, “Look at the birds; consider the lilies of the field.” Nothing centers my being and restores my faith more than a day with God in the mountains, watching the birds flitting around from tree to tree, seeing the beautiful plants. I have a philosophical question for you about the plants in the wilderness and the forest. If we cannot see that beautiful plant that is deep within the forest, is it really a plant? Think about that. Gaze upon nature, Jesus says. If you are worried, just take a walk on your path. Just look at a bird; just listen to a babbling brook. Remember that God does provide. God is sovereign. God is in control.

I have a story to share with you that was shared with the church staff on Wednesday morning when we gathered for our weekly staff meeting. Parish Nurse Ellen Van Arsdale shared this story with the rest of us. She told the story about one of the women in our church whose name shall remain anonymous to protect her identity. She lay dying in one of our care centers. She was unresponsive to touch or to sound. She would not react when people called out her name. Family and friends had gathered in her room and around her bed, waiting, waiting for the end. The time was near. 

This particular woman, it is said, always loved horses. It just so happened that on that particular day in that care center, residents were being treated to animal therapy. You know, they sometimes bring dogs and cats into nursing homes and the residents light up when they can stroke the back of a dog or a cat. This particular day—think about this; I don’t think this was a coincidence—not a fluffy dog, but of all things, a miniature horse was led into that facility. Its tiny hooves could be heard clopping across the tile floor. 

The miniature horse was brought to the dying woman’s bedside. Someone took her hand and gently placed it on the wet nose of that tiny horse. For the first time in many hours and many days she opened her eyes. She saw the miniature horse and she smiled. She closed her eyes and that was the last time she communicated with anybody on this side of heaven. 

“Don’t worry,” saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” Worry is a part of life, isn’t it? Let’s face it—some of us are worriers. Some of us worry more than others; however, much of what we worry about, we have absolutely no control over. And so, we do something about the things we can do something about, and we let go of the rest.

People of faith, you and I really believe that God is sovereign. The truth is that in most things God probably doesn’t need our help. God can handle it. Therefore, let go of it, oh you of little faith. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Let us pray.

God, you are in your heaven and we are upon the earth. You have created us and the world we live in. Help us to learn to trust you more in caring for us and your world. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.