{"id":4439,"date":"2024-05-26T20:49:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-26T20:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2024\/05\/26\/were-going-to-start-with-the-bad-news-you-cant\/"},"modified":"2024-05-26T20:49:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T20:49:59","slug":"were-going-to-start-with-the-bad-news-you-cant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2024\/05\/26\/were-going-to-start-with-the-bad-news-you-cant\/","title":{"rendered":"Untitled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cStarting With Care\u201d based on Genesis 2:1-3 and Matthew 6:26-34<\/h1>\n

We’re going to start with the bad news: you can’t control anything.<\/p>\n

Or, at least you can’t control anything important.<\/p>\n

You can’t control how long you’ll live, what the quality of that living will be, what illnesses or injuries you will endure, how long your loved ones will live, if or when traumatic events will occur, nor how they’ll be responded to.<\/p>\n

I was recently a part of a conversation about suffering led by a medical professional who \u2013 rather appropriately I thought \u2013 was worried about the fact that patients sometimes assume their suffering is God’s punishment. I agreed with him that this is just not TRUE, and it is awful to think that you are both in pain and that you deserve it. But, I am also aware that if pain and suffering aren’t a punishment from God, another option is that life is a crapshoot and there isn’t any meaning to be found in it \u2013 and for a whole lot of people that’s MORE uncomfortable than thinking God wills it. Because if God’s punishing them, or teaching them a lesson, then the suffering AT LEAST means something and maybe even has redemptive value. But if it was just a random thing, and it could have happened to anyone and just happened to happen to them \u2013 well, for a lot of people that’s WORSE.<\/p>\n

Because then it is entirely out of their control. If God is punishing them, then IF ONLY they’d acted differently, then they could have prevented this from happening.<\/p>\n

Right? It is an awful theology, but the human desire to pretend we have control is really quite powerful.<\/p>\n

And, let’s be honest, we can’t control things but we can \u2026. impact probabilities, right? Cancer is MORE likely if you smoke, if you don’t exercise, if you don’t eat well. Even better, you aren’t likely to get hurt falling off a rock wall if you don’t attempt to climb a rock wall. Right?<\/p>\n

That said, once I broke a toe because a container of chili fell out of my freezer and landed on it. No rockwalls involved. Another time I sprained an ankle horribly \u2013 at the ski mountain \u2013 on the INDOOR stairs when I was grabbing lunch. Probabilities aren’t guarantees.<\/p>\n

I find some comfort in the Matthew passage that tells us that worrying and trying to control the uncontrollable is in human nature. This one isn’t a modern day problem and we don’t have to blame the 24 hour news cycle, smartphones, or social media. This is a human problem. We are aware enough of the uncertainties of life to worry about what may happen.<\/p>\n

Jesus seems to recommend not worrying about the little things \u2013 about eating and drinking and finding clothes. Which, funnily enough, were exactly things that most of his audience was worried about most of the time because he was speaking to people who often didn’t enough enough food, or drink, or a change of clothes.<\/p>\n

In the face of their daily struggle for survival, Jesus says,<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you\u2014you of little faith?\u201d<\/small><\/p>\n

And I get his point. Life is vivacious, nature takes care of itself, hoarding is unnecessary, and truly no one is as beautiful as a flower. But also, I don’t get his point. Because it sounds a whole lot like saying, \u201cSure, there is a system of oppression out there that took away your family’s land and livelihood, and now you are hoping every day to get hired back to work the land so that you can afford to eat tonight, and sure you are likely to die soon of malnutrition, but don’t worry about it, God will take care of you.\u201d And, while I TRULY believe that God does want to take care of everyone… well, deaths from malnutrition HAPPEN so it seems like that \u201cpromise\u201d isn’t one that often works out.<\/p>\n

Compassionate people don’t say to starving people, \u201cdon’t worry about food.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what the heck is Jesus doing?<\/p>\n

I think I did a bad job in picking this passage, particularly that I didn’t look at the verses PRECEEDING these ones. Namely, \u201cNo one can serve two masters for a slave will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.\u201d These lines are a big deal in the Bible. For a world in which people thought being wealthy was a sign of God’s favor, it really turns the tables. This passage encourages the poor while challenging the wealthy. And it is placed before the bit about the lilies of the field.<\/p>\n

And I wonder if Jesus is at this point talking to wealthy people. The ones who DO have enough to eat, but are worried about it anyway. The ones who do have clothes, but fret that they’re not enough.<\/p>\n

And I wonder, too, if Jesus is doing one of those really deep teaching things where he is saying to the poor – if you work together you’ll have enough, but when you have enough don’t worry about getting more like the rich people do. Trust in each other and God, don’t horde.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I think maybe Jesus wants those who are oppressed to look up long enough to see they system that is oppressing them, and that it isn’t God’s will. God made a world of abundance, PEOPLE are keeping each other from accessing it. Part of the problem of trying to survive is that you can be so pre-occupied with it that you don’t notice you shouldn’t have to fight that hard.<\/p>\n

God made enough. It was true then, and it is true now, just as it is true that people died of not having enough then and people die of not having enough now. God made enough, people have distribution problems. And I think it’s OK to worry about the distribution problems.<\/p>\n

I really appreciated this week’s essay from We Cry Justice. I’d like to read a little more of it to you:<\/p>\n

God creates human partnerships. In short, God created a system whereby all material and emotional life is tended to. So if we are to be fruitful and multiply \u2013 if we are to add to creation \u2013 the systems we create must extend the provision of care.<\/small><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/small><\/p>\n

Within us lies the potential to create and re-create a system that revolves around and produces care, a system where needs are met. We will need each other to do so. We will need to be in partnership, working together to be fruitful and multiply.<\/small>1<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

We can’t CONTROL anything, although we can do a lot of damage trying. We can, however, be in partnership with each other and God and seek to \u201cextend the provision of care.\u201d We can choose to notice that care is inherent in creation, and that God’s care hasn’t changed. We can remind ourselves that there is ENOUGH, and that’s good. We can remember the lilies of the field \u2013 when they’re useful \u2013 that creation is beautiful and awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

(Image of mutual care: Ellis Nurses with supporters picketing for better care for their patients, and for each other. Photo by Sara Baron)<\/p>\n

We can remember that things aren’t now as they should be, but they CAN get better, that God is working with us to make them better, that we’re working together, that many people are in this together. That we want a world where no one has to worry about what they will eat or drink or wear, because the resources of the world are abundant there is enough for everyone \u2013 and in the kindom of God the resources are shared with the abundance of God.<\/p>\n

It is a dream worth holding onto, and remembering, and seeking. We can start with care. And every little bit helps. We can’t control it, but we can shape it. Thanks be to God. Amen<\/p>\n

1<\/a>Solita Alexander Riley \u201cIn the Beginning, There Was Care\u201d in We Cry Justice<\/i> (Minneapolis, 2021), p. 145.<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron\u00a0
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady\u00a0
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305\u00a0
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers\u00a0
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/\u00a0<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n

May 26, 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cStarting With Care\u201d based on Genesis 2:1-3 and Matthew 6:26-34 We’re going to start with the bad news: you can’t … Continue reading Untitled<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,38,28,39,33,536,1337,537,1265,405,56],"class_list":["post-4439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-abundance","tag-care","tag-enough","tag-first-umc-schenectady","tag-hope","tag-schenectady"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}