Worry is the Opposite of Faith

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton
May 25, 2008

Read: Matthew 6:24-36, Psalm 131, Isaiah 49:8-16a

There is a game out there called the “Worst Case Scenario Game”. In this worst case scenario survival game players face interesting or dangerous situations. Can you fend off a shark? Clear a jammed copy machine? Survive a five-story fall into a dumpster? Land an airplane? It’s up to you to get out of your Worst-Case Scenario. Give your best answer and if you’re right you move on; if you’re not, your situation only gets worse. So, if you are one of the pessimists in life, you may just be a winner when you play this game. Pessimists are looking for the worst-case scenario in life and figuring out ways to save themselves from it.

I think Jesus is telling us in Matthew’s gospel that to worry, to have anxiety, to always be thinking about the worst case scenario is not the way to live our life. He’s not saying don’t plan, or don’t think carefully about your life, or your choices…He’s saying try not to focus on what might go wrong. Worrying doesn’t add “a single hour to your span of life.” Worrying creates a barrier between us and our relationship with God.

Worry is on the opposite end of the spectrum from faith. As Ruth Graham Bell says, “I (have) learned that worship and worry cannot live in the same heart: they are mutually exclusive.” And Charles Spurgeon made this observation:

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its trials—it simply empties today of its joy. Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow—it empties today of its strength.”

Let me repeat that:

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its trials—it simply empties today of its joy. Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow—it empties today of its strength.”

I love it. Spurgeon acknowledges that life can be difficult, filled with trials. Trusting in God does not mean that the trials and sorrows will be avoided, it means that we trust in God to be with us, to be present in our trials and in our sorrows. A source of strength and comfort, through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The image in our psalm today is of God as a mother and the pilgrim as a “weaned child”. A weaned child is old enough to wander off on it’s own and to ask questions that are beyond answer. It can be frightening to be out in the wilderness on our own. In the arms of its mother, however, who has been the child’s source of nurture, comfort and sustenance, the child is calmed and quieted. This image echoes Isaiah 49:15 where the prophet declares that God is like a mother who does not fail to show compassion toward her child.

And our scripture reading from Isaiah ends with God telling us “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

I find that very comforting. Inscribed on the palms of God’s hands. And if that is indeed true, then we can put God first in our life, we can lay down our anxieties, our worries about what might be. God has created us and loves us and will take care of us.

Louie Giglio is a pastor/evangelist who has spoken about the incredible nature of Laminin. His talk is popular on You Tube right now. Louie talks about how inconceivably big our God is..how he spoke the universe into being…how He breathes stars out of His mouth. Then he goes on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe-creating God also knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. Those in the medical field can attest to this.

Louie goes on to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart. How our loving Creator is also our Sustainer through the rough times.

And then he talks about laminin. “Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue.” In other words, laminins are what hold us together…literally. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart.

What is amazing is what laminin looks like. The structure of laminin is the same as the structure of a cross. So, the glue that holds us together, all of us…is in the shape of a cross. I have to admit that is pretty cool. Whether it is accident or coincidence, it is still powerful. Powerful, because it reminds us that God is indeed our Creator and source of life…it reminds us that we are inscribed on the palm of Gods hands. That we are held and comforted and nurtured and sustained by God, through Jesus Christ.

So, “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

You are valuable and loved by God. Trust in that. God has already taken care of our worst case scenario.

Amen.