Community Church Sermons
Year C
July 4, 2010
Pentecost
6
Worrying About America
Psalm 107:1-9
Luke 12:13-31
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
(Note to lectionary followers: Oops! This sermon for July 4, 2010 – Pentecost 6 – incorrectly uses the Luke 12:13-21 text which is scheduled for August 1, 2010 – Pentecost 10. Sorry!)
If Bob Greene was still living, he’d be part of the 4th of July parade in his hometown today. On every patriotic holiday – Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veteran’s Day – Bob would put on his old Army uniform. It still fit after all these years! And as Bob proudly marched along South Washington St. with the other veterans, he became an almost iconic representation of the World War II generation and those who sacrificed and suffered so much in that war to defend America.
But every year, every holiday, every parade, there were fewer and fewer Bob Greene’s marching along. And there were fewer and fewer spectators along the parade route. Sometimes Bob would grumble about his feelings that the younger generations seemed to have little or no appreciation for the sacrifices others had made to make their lives possible. “They’ve had it good,” Bob Greene once told me, “but I worry about America.”
Bob marched in his last parade two years ago - at 83-years of age. And then he went home to be with the Lord. And the question I find myself wondering about is this: now that Bob Greene has gone, and his heroic generation is fading away, who will worry about America?
Will you? Will I? Will we?
One of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible is today’s Gospel reading from Luke 12. It begins with a man asking Jesus to resolve a dispute between himself and his brother. The dispute is about who gets what share of the family inheritance. Evidently this man thinks the money should be divided equally between them. Evidently the brother doesn’t think so. It’s a messy family argument and Jesus does what any smart person would do. He stays out of it!
But Jesus does offer a little parable about the dangers of centering your life on yourself and your own material needs. He tells that famous story about the rich guy whose farm produces a fabulous harvest! He apparently is one of those people who believe that the job of the rich is to get richer because – instead of using that bumper crop to help others and make the world a better place – he figures he can store it all up and then retire to Tellico Village where he can relax, eat, drink, be merry and play bad golf. So he builds bigger barns and bigger silos and bigger warehouses to store that bumper crop.
And that night, he dies!
Now, whether you realize it or not, this is a joke. Jesus is telling a funny story designed to make a point. The people Jesus hung around with were mostly poor people and they loved hearing stories where the rich people slip on the banana peels of life and fall flat on their face. And Jesus told a lot of these stories! “Have you heard the one about how it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into heaven?!” Ba-da-dum! Can’t you hear the people laughing hilariously?
Well, maybe not. Probably not. It’s hard for us to appreciate Jesus’ humor in stories like this because we would be the rich people in his funny – but very pointed - stories.
And so he turns his attention to the man who is completely absorbed with this inheritance fight – and to all of us who focus our lives on our personal material needs and wants. And Jesus speaks those famous words, “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food and clothing. Consider the birds…consider the lilies. They don’t worry about these things, yet God takes care of them. God feeds them, and clothes them, and if God takes such good care of birds and flowers, don’t you think God will take care of you?”
And then Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will take care of themselves.”
Now I mentioned that this is one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible. Millions of sermons have been preached on this text and most of them are about how you and I should purge worry from our lives. A quick internet search for sermons based on this passage produces titles like, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”, “Overcoming Anxiety With Faith”, and “Living the Worry-free Life!”
Well, I hate to be the contrarian, but Jesus did not preach against worry. Worry can be a good thing. If you have a child going off to college, you worry about their well-being in their new life away from home. You NEED to worry! If you have a family member fighting in Afghanistan, you worry about them! That’s the most natural thing in the world. When health problems come along and you’re not sure what lies ahead, you worry! God wired us in such a way that we worry about things that trouble us and the worry is what motivates us to respond in healthy ways.
And some – like my grandmother – find worrying about things to be one of the great recreational activities of life! My grandmother worried about EVERYTHING! And she ENJOYED every minute of it! If you took worry away from my grandmother, you would have taken away one of life’s great pleasures and I’m certain she would not have lived as long as she did! I’ll bet we have some recreational worriers here in the Sanctuary today!
Well, Jesus is not saying, “Don’t worry.” What Jesus IS saying is this, “If you’re going to worry about anything, worry about the kingdom of God – worry about the big stuff – worry about the things worth worrying about – and all these other things will take care of themselves.”
The problem is not that we worry, but that we worry too much about our own small stuff, and not enough about the big stuff that affects the world around us.
And today, on the 4th of July, I want to say along with Bob Greene, “Worry about America.”
Whether you get an IPhone or a Droid, drive a Chevy or Ford, get your housebuilder to finish on time and under budget, fix the hook in your golf swing, and a million other things we focus our lives on every day – all of these pale in comparison with the needs and concerns of America. What Bob Greene and his generation know is that sometimes you have to let go of your own personal interests to serve the well-being of others and the larger purposes of God. Sometimes you have to sacrifice your personal interests and take up the interests of the community.
You have to stop worrying so much about “me” and start worrying about “all of us” - America.
And so millions of women and men over the centuries have left behind or let go of their personal interests to take up the cause of America – sometimes defending her in wartime - sometimes creating within her laws to protect the weak – sometimes establishing institutions that nurture her children – sometimes serving as elected leaders – sometimes marching to support equal rights - sometimes standing up to eradicate an injustice – sometimes rallying together to rebuild a devastated city, or clean up an environmental disaster.
Back in the early 1990’s, the high school drop-out rate here in Loudon County was 30%. Almost one out of every three kids dropped out of school. And the lack of education in the county translated into economic poverty for many people.
Well, about that time, Bud and Betty Burger moved to Tellico Village. Bud has a fascinating background. He was on coaching staffs at Duke University and the University of Kentucky. Bud was on Bear Bryant’s coaching staff when Bear was the football coach at Kentucky. And later, Bud went over to the basketball side at UK and coached with the legendary Adolph Rupp. He went on to a distinguished career of his own at North Central College in Illinois, and Bud spent a lifetime helping young kids become responsible adults.
When Bud Burger found out about the terrible drop-out problem in Loudon County, he decided to do something about it. He discovered that there were some professors at the University of Tennessee who had written on the subject, so he trotted on up to Knoxville to ask if they wanted to do something about it or if they just wrote books. They wanted to do something about it. So they collaborated with Bud and other interested people to develop a program aimed at helping kids at high risk for dropping out to finish their education. The Loudon County School Board approved the project, provided an unused school building and a couple of faculty, and Bud gathered up over 100 volunteer mentors from this church and community. The program became known as the Chestnut Ridge Learning Center, and in short order, the drop-out rate system-wide in Loudon County fell from 30% to 13%. And it improved from there. The graduation rate from Chestnut Ridge soared up into the 90th percentile.
Now Bud and Betty Burger – and those of you who worked with them – had lots of things of their own to worry about. Moving into a new community, building their dream house, sharpening golf skills, buying a boat – or better yet, making friends with someone who had a boat – what to eat, what to wear…
But the focus of their concern was not themselves, but the kids of Loudon County. And they helped hundreds of young people find the promise of America, and the hope of the kingdom of God.
What makes America great are the people who worry less about “me” and more about “we.”
The founders put it this way: “WE hold these truths to be self-evident: that ALL men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
If you’re going to worry about anything, worry about these things that make America great!
So Bob Greene – and many others who have worried about America over the centuries – have now passed into history.
But the American spirit which drove them still poses the question to us:
Who will worry about America?
Will you? Will I? Will we?
This week, prayerfully consider some practical way in which YOU can make America beautiful.