Love or Anxiety
Proper 20
Luke 16:1-13
Collect
The parable we
heard in this morning’s Gospel is pretty universally considered to be Jesus’
hardest parable. Hardest to
interpret. There is no way to
understand it that seems palatable or fits with our image of Jesus.
There is a
general principle in Biblical interpretation that says, basically, that the
harder or less comfortable a passage is, the more likely it is to be original
or authentic. No one would have
made up something like this that makes Jesus seem so strange… “the master commended the dishonest
manager…” “make friends for
yourselves by means of dishonest wealth…”
So Jesus most
likely did really tell this parable.
So we should grapple with it.
We should work to try to understand what these words mean for us in our
lives. But the best place to do
that is in group Bible study. This
is a complicated, difficult parable.
Study of it needs to be active… interactive, so we can explore it piece
by piece and in discussion with others.
We have two Bible study groups here at St. John’s…
I have preached
on it in the past (For example, HERE). I’m not going
to today. I want to focus on the
collect.
It’s a
particularly good prayer and it has nostalgic interest for me. It was one of the favorite prayers of
an old friend of mine, sort of a surrogate grandmother. I would visit her and we would do
jigsaw puzzles together. She could
quote this prayer word for word and found it a good prayer to live by.
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about
earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed
among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure.
It is an ancient
prayer, although apparently new to us in this Prayer Book. It’s origin is in the 6th
century. As the Prayer Book
commentary says, it “reflects the
tumultuous times of the barbarian invasions…” It was written at a time when Christians faced serious and
violent threats from invading armies.
Like so much of
our Prayer Book, its origin is in the Bible. Colossians 3:2 reads:
“Set your minds
on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
What really
catches my attention in this collect is that it sets up anxiety and love as
opposites. Anxiety about worldly
things is at one end of a spectrum.
Love of things heavenly at the other end. Those are the alternatives. One or the other.
Anxiety or love.
One way that
makes sense to me is to think of love as cherishing what we have, being
grateful for what we have been given.
Anxiety fears to lose what we have. Anxiety is all about fear. Fear of loss.
What are you
anxious about? We all have
anxieties, large or small. What is
the source of your anxiety? What
are you afraid to lose?
Is it money or possessions? Mammon?
Are you anxious
about losing your health?
Do you fear the
loss of your security? Any kind of
security.
Are you afraid
of losing someone you love?
Whatever you are
afraid to lose… give it to
God. Place whatever you are
anxious about fully into the care and love of God.
I expect for
most of us if we are anxious about losing money it might be a good idea to take
this instruction literally. And
give more of our money to God. But
mostly I’m talking something spiritual.
Entrust our anxieties to God’s care. Place those things we are anxious about into the realm of
God’s love.
And there’s a
wonderful thing: When we give
something or someone to God, we don’t lose them. We don’t lose what we give to God. We only lose the anxiety.
There’s a
wonderful prayer we often say at funerals. It’s not the Prayer Book, but iti’s been around for a long
time. We pray: Almighty God, “What is thine is ours
always, if we are thine.”
What is God’s is
ours, if we are God’s.
If we are God’s. That’s the other piece of all of
this. We place our fears and
anxieties in God’s care. But we
also place ourselves in God’s care.
We are God’s beloved. We
are cherished and cared for by God.
The image that
comes to me is a familiar one. In
my imagination I’m standing behind a child and an adult walking along. The adult is a parent or someone dear
to the child. And they come upon
some small danger or uncertainty.
The curb at a street crossing, a large crowd, something loud or
frightening. And the child
instinctively reaches up to take the adult’s hand.
We are that
child and the adult is God. Reach
for God. Cling to God. Hold fast to God. Hang onto God’s heavenly love, which
will never pass away.
