1Peter 4:12-14,5:6-11
June 5, 2011 at Trinity Church
The Rev. Shelby Ochs Owen
Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.
I am wondering how many of us are at perfect peace this moment? Who has not had a worry, not a care, not a concern, not any anxiety since you woke up this morning? Well, if you have experienced any state of anxiety, whether it be a minor flickering or a major physical wave of worry, you are in excellent company. In our epistle reading from 1 Peter we can infer that the community to whom Peter was writing is experiencing a great deal of distress and anxiety. Peter’s letter was sent from Rome to five Roman provinces of Asia Minor. It is probable that these faith communities were despised and rejected by their own families as this Christian faith was considered a “foreign” religion, which caused suspicions and threatened the Roman way of life.
The passage for today begins, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” So although we may not know specifically what the fiery ordeal has been for the Petrine communities, Peter is saying followers of Christ should not be at all surprised when life takes a difficult turn, when we are suffering or hurting. And he actually urges his people to rejoice knowing that they are sharing in Christ’s suffering, that the suffering won’t last and that eventually they will share in Christ’s glory.
Peter then encourages the community how to move forward in their suffering, in their difficulties: humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. This is such practical help. Again as is so often the case in Scripture, humility before God is the starting place. When all else fails, when life is going awry, when all seems lost and wrong, to be humble before God, essentially to remember just how big God is. And then, Peter reminds his audience to cast their cares, their anxieties on God. In his wisdom Peter presumes they will have anxieties, they will have worries and thoughts that cause fear, a sense of foreboding, situations that disquiet their minds and hearts. Here perhaps Peter echoes Jesus’ exhortation to the disciples that they not worry about their lives and another abundant scriptural echo of “do not fear.”
What are we worrying about? Where is our anxiety? I am reminded of the bumper sticker that reads, “If you’re not outraged, then you are not paying attention!” If we are not full of anxiety, not full of that sense of foreboding is it just that we are not paying attention? I don’t think that is what Peter is suggesting at all. Perhaps if we are not full of anxiety, we have chosen to give it all to God. I am sure you know some folks, maybe you are one yourself, who just keeps a certain peace or calmness about him or her. Perhaps that peace is the result not of the absence of stress or suffering but of casting worry on God, of drawing near to God’s peace through prayer. As life goes forward and as we follow Christ, we will face situations that cause us worry. Difficulties are part of the life of faith. We will still struggle when we find the lump that shouldn’t be there, we will struggle when we learn that our friend has betrayed us or when we ourselves have gone against our conscience; we will still struggle when we think our job is in jeopardy or when entire countries or communities like Haiti or Japan or Joplin, MO suffer due to catastrophic events. We get anxious when we think about the things that could go wrong with our families, with our work, with our travels, with our health, with our finances, with our schooling. All of the “What-if’s” in our lives can stir up all kinds of trouble with our mental health, our sleep, even our physical state. Sometimes we even hear people brag about being worriers. But Peter tells us worry is not something to hold onto, not something to dwell on, not something to engage with; we are to give our worry, our undue burden to God because he cares for us.
June 5, 2011 at Trinity Church
The Rev. Shelby Ochs Owen
Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.
I am wondering how many of us are at perfect peace this moment? Who has not had a worry, not a care, not a concern, not any anxiety since you woke up this morning? Well, if you have experienced any state of anxiety, whether it be a minor flickering or a major physical wave of worry, you are in excellent company. In our epistle reading from 1 Peter we can infer that the community to whom Peter was writing is experiencing a great deal of distress and anxiety. Peter’s letter was sent from Rome to five Roman provinces of Asia Minor. It is probable that these faith communities were despised and rejected by their own families as this Christian faith was considered a “foreign” religion, which caused suspicions and threatened the Roman way of life.
The passage for today begins, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” So although we may not know specifically what the fiery ordeal has been for the Petrine communities, Peter is saying followers of Christ should not be at all surprised when life takes a difficult turn, when we are suffering or hurting. And he actually urges his people to rejoice knowing that they are sharing in Christ’s suffering, that the suffering won’t last and that eventually they will share in Christ’s glory.
Peter then encourages the community how to move forward in their suffering, in their difficulties: humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. This is such practical help. Again as is so often the case in Scripture, humility before God is the starting place. When all else fails, when life is going awry, when all seems lost and wrong, to be humble before God, essentially to remember just how big God is. And then, Peter reminds his audience to cast their cares, their anxieties on God. In his wisdom Peter presumes they will have anxieties, they will have worries and thoughts that cause fear, a sense of foreboding, situations that disquiet their minds and hearts. Here perhaps Peter echoes Jesus’ exhortation to the disciples that they not worry about their lives and another abundant scriptural echo of “do not fear.”
What are we worrying about? Where is our anxiety? I am reminded of the bumper sticker that reads, “If you’re not outraged, then you are not paying attention!” If we are not full of anxiety, not full of that sense of foreboding is it just that we are not paying attention? I don’t think that is what Peter is suggesting at all. Perhaps if we are not full of anxiety, we have chosen to give it all to God. I am sure you know some folks, maybe you are one yourself, who just keeps a certain peace or calmness about him or her. Perhaps that peace is the result not of the absence of stress or suffering but of casting worry on God, of drawing near to God’s peace through prayer. As life goes forward and as we follow Christ, we will face situations that cause us worry. Difficulties are part of the life of faith. We will still struggle when we find the lump that shouldn’t be there, we will struggle when we learn that our friend has betrayed us or when we ourselves have gone against our conscience; we will still struggle when we think our job is in jeopardy or when entire countries or communities like Haiti or Japan or Joplin, MO suffer due to catastrophic events. We get anxious when we think about the things that could go wrong with our families, with our work, with our travels, with our health, with our finances, with our schooling. All of the “What-if’s” in our lives can stir up all kinds of trouble with our mental health, our sleep, even our physical state. Sometimes we even hear people brag about being worriers. But Peter tells us worry is not something to hold onto, not something to dwell on, not something to engage with; we are to give our worry, our undue burden to God because he cares for us.
When we can actually cast our care, our anxiety, our worry on God then we can be more fully present IN the present which is what he asks of us. To cast our care on God is not to live in denial but to wake up to the reality of what is at work in our lives, and to let God do his work in us and through us-to put things in their proper balance. And Peter tells us that we can give this all to God because he cares for us. God wants the best for us and wants to carry our burdens for us. Mark Twain said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” How many times over the course of a day do we worry about things that will never happen or that later we realize were not worth worrying about?
In nine days 23 adults and teenagers from Trinity will leave to go on a mission trip to Honduras. If we compiled a list of our combined worries, I wonder what it might contain? Maybe we will be worried that we will get sick, that the plane or the bus will be late or worse, worried that our money or passports will get lost or stolen, worried our roommate will snore or worse, they we will snore, worried that our not knowing the language will keep us at a distance from the Hondurans, worried that we will get separated from the group, worried that the heat will make us grumpy, worried that the adults will get on our nerves? I think you get the drift. There is GREAT potential for worry and anxiety on a major trip. But Peter would tell us, Don’t worry! Give it all to God. Yes, give it ALL to God. And what might we expect if we are actually able to give our worry to God? We can expect a deep peace that offers peace to those around us, we can expect flexibility, we can expect to be more available to God and to others – more fully present to others such as our fellow travelers and the folks that we will encounter along the way, we can expect joy, we can expect to see God’s face in the faces of those we meet. And we can expect to laugh. A lot.
You don’t have to go to Honduras to experience similar temptations for worry and to experience similar outcomes in giving that worry to God in your life. As we cast our cares on God in all aspects of our lives we can expect that God will make himself known in all kinds of ways. Worry is a waste of God’s precious resources – you and me. And we matter to God. So let us humble ourselves, let us turn it all over to the one who created us and who sustains and who redeems us so that then we may be available to God and to one another. God is big enough to handle all our cares, all our anxiety, all our worry.
Amen
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