Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010 Do not worry

Do not worry. The command is easier said than done.

There is a lot in the world that inspires worry, fear, anxiety. Jesus names some of them. Strangely, Jesus has a very different attitude about all of these things that bring so much anxiety into our lives.

Jesus asserts that the things that can lead to worry have no essential power to cause the worry. Poverty, starvation, scarcity all are serious challenges to human life. But none of these things can of themselves impose fear, anxiety and worry on us. Even death lacks that power.

So, where does the worry come from? Jesus reveals to us that it comes from within our souls. It comes from the place of separation. It manifests in the fear that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong. It distorts our attitude towards life, other people and even God with the phrase: what’s in it for me?

Separation from God produces a story we tell ourselves and each other. The story is grounded in the concept of scarcity. The story is: there isn’t enough. The story is that life is a struggle and then you die. The story is that we are all victims and someone else or something else is always to blame. The story produces worry and the justification for a life lived in defense against all manner of potential threats to our well being.

Jesus came into the world to address the problem of separation. In his own body he united divinity with humanity. In the way he lived his life he demonstrated that it is possible to live with a different story. The story Jesus tells is a story of the abundance of God’s love. The abundance is grace: the gift of God to all people everywhere.

The abundance comes from the reunification of our souls with the infinite and eternal love of God. The new story is the Good News of God with us. God is our loving heavenly Father who is consistently concerned about us. Our Heavenly Father knows our every need and is more than willing to help us meet those needs.
The new story invites us to live from the place of thankfulness for the many blessings God gives us constantly and unfailingly.

Jesus asks: do you believe this? Where do you place your faith? Do you place your faith in laws, rituals, knowledge, yourself? Or, do you place your faith in the incarnate co-eternal Son of God?

Jesus lived his life by the constant prayer: heavenly Father, not my will but your will be done. Jesus took the human tendency to ask of life: “what’s in it for me?” and transformed it into a different question: “how may I help?”

Jesus invites into a new life: a life of abundance in the peace, love and joy of the Holy Spirit. Jesus offers to help us to participate in a new way of living: an undefended way of living that trusts God to protect us and to provide for us.
Salvation in Jesus Christ is about the way we experience our lives here and now. We are personally responsible for our lives. We can choose. We can choose a story of scarcity, fear, self will and worry. Or, we can choose a story of abundance, faith, divine will and peace.

Jesus encourages us to examine the stories we tell ourselves. Do we say life is a struggle and a problem? Do we tell ourselves we are victims? Or, do we embrace the Good News of the story Jesus tells us: God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is for us and with us in the Real Presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ?
Jesus asks: do we make a real choice to live our lives by grace through faith in the goodness of God? Will we live from the place of Thanksgiving for all of the many blessings God pours into our lives, our hearts, our minds, our souls?

Jesus asks us to re examine our priorities. He teaches the best and most fulfilling priority is the personal relationship with God that he himself gives to us as a gift. If we start from that place, the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ, all other things will find their proper place.

Jesus tells us how we can live life without worry when he gives us a new story with a new priority: seek first the Kingdom of God. Seek first a personal relationship with God. As you do that, as you live into that choice, you will experience the abundance of Divine love. The worry will yield to the faith as you live from the place of grace, the gift of God in Jesus Christ.