Matthew 6:25-33
“Those Who Laugh Most Live Longest”
The owner of a racing dog was having a conversation with his prize winning greyhound.
“I heard you are retiring,” the owner said.
The greyhound replied, “I’m not retiring—I quit.”
“Why?” asked the owner.
“I found out the rabbit I’ve been chasing is fake.”
How many of us, how many of the people in this world have found out the rabbit they are chasing is fake…
…or how many people are chasing fake rabbits that they will never be able to catch?
Or if they were to catch it, the rabbit they had spent so much energy and time chasing would turn out to taste like plastic or metal or whatever those fake rabbits are made of.
What are you chasing?
What consumes your time, your energy?
What are you worrying about?
Jesus says, “don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear…
…instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Nothing else will satisfy the longing of our hearts.
Nothing but the source of joy can give us joy.
So Jesus invites us to stop chasing plastic rabbits and to start following Him, to hunger and thirst for God, and to feast on the goodness that comes from God alone!!!
Because, let’s face it.
Anything that is loved and trusted more than God is certain to fail.
And that’s why Jesus repeatedly warns us against the seductive power of possessions, knowing that the desire and race to get them will take us captive and separate us from God, and thus happiness, contentment, joy.
You can’t serve both God and stuff, Jesus tells us in the verse which comes immediately before our passage for this morning.
And Jesus doesn’t tell us this to be a kill-joy, He tells us this because it’s true.
And God wants us to be satisfied, having life to the full.
God wants this so much that God came to earth to show us and tell us how to do it, and then died so that we may die with Him, and in dying with Him—LIVE!!!
Just think of the way Jesus Christ lived life.
He was born in a stable.
Throughout His ministry He was poor, homeless, actually.
And even though He was the King of the World and all things were created through Him and for Him, He came to serve.
He spent His time loving.
He put others above Himself.
He didn’t pursue wealth.
He sought out people and healed them.
He looked for those who were lost in darkness and sin, and transformed their lives…
…saying, “come, follow me.”
He washed the feet of His disciples, and made it clear by both His words and actions that He came to SERVE and NOT to BE SERVED…
…and to GIVE HIS LIFE as a ransom.
And that is the key to everything!!!
Have we come to serve and not to be served?
Are we seeking to give our lives in order to help other human beings?
Has it ever struck you what a basically happy person Jesus was?
Jesus had a very strong sense of the goodness of His Father, and the extreme love for human beings like you and me.
And when Jesus told us not to worry, Jesus led by example.
Jesus was so consumed by compassion for the plight of others, so overflowing with unconditional agape love that He didn’t have time to worry about Himself.
He gave His full attention to living in the present, enjoying other people and God’s glorious creation.
And He wants us to do the same.
When asked what the greatest commandment is or what is most important in all of life and eternity Jesus answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is what it means to “seek first the Kingdom [of God] and his righteousness.”
When we love God with all we have, we forget about what we don’t have…
When we love our neighbor as ourself—we forget about trying to “one-up” our neighbor, we forget about trying to compete with our neighbor, we subconsciously let go of the material and grip instead the lovely, the eternal.
When we put other’s needs above our own we are truly free.
And to be truly free is when we are able to not “worry” about our own lives.
It doesn’t mean we don’t care.
What it does mean is that we care more than ever…
…we care so much that we forget self.
If our passion for nice things for ourselves is stronger than our compassion for this wounded world, we are in trouble.
We are losing.
When Jesus saw people who were wounded, His heart went out to them.
Those who were physically or spiritually ill were not a problem for Him, but, instead, He saw it as a privilege to serve them for He deeply loved them.
Do we deeply love others?
How deeply?
When Jesus was engaging the Samaritan woman at the well in intense and life-transforming conversation, Jesus’ disciples tried to get Jesus to stop what He was doing and go get something to eat instead.
Jesus replied, “I am fed by doing the will of the one who sent me…”
It’s been said that “The Christian life comes not by gritting our teeth but by falling in love.”
The Christian life is about falling in love with God and falling in love with our fellow human beings.
And when we are in love, we are happy—nothing else matters—we forget about self.
Jesus is in love, He is in love with you and with me and with the homeless soul on the corner holding out a sign asking for food…
…Jesus is in love with those who are like sheep without a shepherd…
…those who are drifting unhappily through this life.
Jesus is in love with the drug addict, the prostitute, the gang member.
In 1 John Chapter 4 we are told, “God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.
This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear…”
And isn’t fear at the root of our worries?
Christ was totally committed to the love of God and neighbor, and thus was free from fear.
And we can live this way to.
It is a medical fact that those who laugh the most live the longest.
Because worry wears out our minds and our bodies as well.
Worry also progressively makes us incapable of dealing with life.
There once were two dogs.
The first dog spent all of the time and energy it could muster chasing its tail.
The second dog watched and finally asked, “Why do you chase your tail all the time?”
The first dog replied, “I have studied these matters, and I have learned that happiness lies in my tail.
That is why I chase it.”
“I understand,” said the second dog, “for, I too, have studied and learned that happiness lies in my tail.
But I have also learned that if I chase my tail I never catch it; but if I go about my business, my tail always follows.”
If we go about life’s intended purpose, which is to love God and love our neighbor, happiness will naturally follow.
It’s been said that worry refuses to learn the lesson of life.
And so Jesus tells us not to worry.
Most of us know that worry is a horrible drain, and so in order to rid ourselves of it—we often go chasing after fake rabbits.
And therein lies the sorrow of life.
It is the sorrow of lonely New Years Eve revelers, the sorrow of an alcohol or drug abuser, the sorrow of a sexual affair, the expressionless face emerging from a pornographic movie, the headlines on a supermarket tabloid.
It’s the sorrow of living for pleasure, knowing that beyond that moment everything is lost.
In short, it’s life without hope.
And it’s life without meaning and love.
Within this community and through this congregation there is so much ministry to be done.
There are so many ways to become part of what God is doing in the world.
There are so many avenues by which we can love God, love neighbor and forget about self.
There are so many things, through which we can find meaning and thus happiness.
There was a young boy without food and shoes.
A woman walked up to him and said, “If God loved you wouldn’t he send you food and shoes?”
The boy replied, “God told someone to send me food and shoes; that person either didn’t listen or forgot.”
We are called to be the Hands and the Feet of Christ.
And there is no greater privilege and no greater calling.
And when we function as the Hands and Feet of Christ, we experience a joyous abandon as we fall in love with Jesus Christ and other people with ever increasing intensity.
Martin Luther once wrote, “My conscience has become free, and that is the most complete freedom…
…I am a new creature…Christ’s [new creature].
May we be able to say the same.
Praise God.
Amen.
