Jarrett McLaughlin
Worry, Transformed
May 18, 2025
Matthew 6:25-34
Cold Open:
Today is a truly monumental day in the liturgical calendar of the Church.
Definitely a Top Five.
I’m not going to rush to answer that one and let you wonder about it for a bit – try to guess what it could be.
I do so enjoy watching those thought bubbles appear above your heads.
I’m pretty sure it sounds something like this:
“Well, it’s not Christmas and it’s not Easter…and I’m pretty sure it’s too soon to be Pentecost, but he definitely said top five so…maybe it is Pentecost…but wait, Pentecost has a distinctive red color and everything is still – white.”
“What else would be in the top five?
Christ the King Sunday, Transfiguration of the Lord…no it’s way too late for Transfiggy.
I hope it’s not Trinity Sunday – nobody likes to try and explain that one to the children. I just don’t know what it could be? Oh Lord, now I’ve failed the test and I’ll never be Top Christ-Following Presbyterian – PASTOR! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT IT IS!!!”
Well, let me hold you in suspense no longer.
Today is Presbyterian Heritage Sunday.
Definitely in everybody’s Top Five, right? RIGHT?
I agonized greatly over what to wear today but quickly realized the only possible choice was this Scottish Tartan in necktie form.
All of this was just an elaborate entry point into the idea that sometimes we do agonize over what to wear.
Not that this agony is limited to Presbyterian Heritage Sunday, mind you.
It is Prom season so… you’ve got to decide Maxi, Midi, tea length?
Do you rock a Natural, Empire or Dropped waistline.
What about the neckline? Boat, V-Neck, Scoop or Sweetheart?
(I’m pretty sure that exhausts all my Dress vocabulary….wait – tulle, taffeta and….eyelet. That’s it – I’m all out)
Lest I leave out those who wear a tuxedo – it all boils down to this:
To Cummerbund or NOT to Cummerbund. That is the question.
(If it’s just me – I say no cummerbund).
Then there are May brides and lots of folk wandering around campus dressed to the nines and carrying a baby blue graduation gown.
We know how to agonize over what to wear.
Jesus had some advice for this and a number of other daily stressors.
Our reading is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 25-34 and can be found on page 6 of the New Testament portion in the Pew Bible. Before we read, will you pray with me.
Prayer of Illumination
We come as we are, Lord.
Accept us we pray, and speak something to us that is true.
We are listening. Amen.
Scripture:
Jesus said:
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look 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—you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Sermon:
My friend and pastoral colleague Elizabeth talked about a time when she had some words with Jesus late one Spring Saturday night – the night before Easter Sunday. This is how she tells it:
We had company in town, and after we got everyone fed and the kitchen sort of cleaned up, we still had eggs to hide and baskets to arrange, and I still had a sermon to edit.
And I was tired.
I wanted to curl up with a book and go to bed, but then I remembered that Gibson, our 3 year old, did not have any clean socks to wear to Easter service and to lunch afterwards.
I had noted the sock shortage that morning and made a mental note to tend to it, but I had forgotten.
So at 11 pm, I did what I felt like I had to do. I started a load of wash. With Clorox, too, because if I was going to be washing clothes at that hour, they’d better sparkle in the morning
I knew it was ridiculous. I mean, who cares about socks? But Gibson would care. He didn’t have shoes that fit him comfortably without socks – and Jesus himself could not get Gibson into something he does not want to wear.
And, I admit, all the children at lunch afterwards were going to be nicely dressed, I just knew it. I don’t mind not having kids on the best dressed list, but I do mind having kids who look like nobody has time to take care of them and I was sure that somebody would notice and comment on it.
So I dumped my frustration at the feet of Jesus. I told him that maybe the lilies of the field don’t spin or toil or fret over such things, but they also don’t have to go to church tomorrow.
I knew it was ridiculous to wash socks at midnight, but that is precisely what grates me about this text.
The things that Jesus tells me not to worry about are the very things I deal with every single day – for myself and for the rest of my family.
What will we eat? Is there still chicken in the freezer?
What will we drink? Should I be buying only organic milk?
What will we wear? Is this the day the 2nd graders are supposed to wear the matching t-shirts for the field trip?
Show me a mom – or (less likely) a dad – who does not spend a whole lot of time dealing with what everyone is going to eat, drink, and wear.
Furthermore, dealing with these questions – as cumbersome as they can be – is a very real way of showing the love and concern that we parents have for our kids. They are not trivial anxieties. Rather, they are an aspect of the life to which we have been called.
I marveled at Elizabeth’s ability to extract so much thoughtful and challenging commentary on this text from a hamper full of dirty socks. I also laughed when she ended her treatise by saying that if Jesus ever had to shepherd a young family to Church he might have reconsidered these words.
I don’t get the sense that anxiety is going anywhere.
Just one quick scan of the headlines gives us plenty of reasons to worry.
Heck, one of our recent Sunday school classes was centered around the book The Anxious Generation – so I don’t think we as a people are getting any better at worrying less.
So what do we make of Jesus telling us to stop worrying?
Does anybody remember the Law of Conservation of Matter?
“Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
It can only be transformed from one form into another.”
I would like to suggest the Law of Conservation of Worry.
WORRY can neither be created nor destroyed…but what if it can be transformed?
What if the inevitable anxiety we feel can be channeled into something that hurts us less and helps others more?
If there is a hinge in this text, it is verse 33.
Jesus spends the first several verses inviting us not to worry – but did you notice what he invites us not to worry about?
Jesus says:
Do not worry about YOUR life.
Do not worry about what YOU will eat or what YOU will drink.
Do not worry about what YOU will wear.
The things he tells ME to stop worrying about are the things about Me.
And then in verse 33 he says “but strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Strive first for the kingdom of God.
A kingdom, by definition, is plural.
A kingdom is a community.
Maybe the cure for my personal anxiety is not to worry less – as if I could.
Maybe the cure is to worry about something else – something other than me.
Try being less concerned with my own self and more concerned with my community.
When I’m staring at my full refrigerator and fretting about what meal I can conjure from its ample contents – how about I stop myself and have a care for the families who have bare cupboards and empty refrigerators.
When I consider the shape of our schools and get annoyed at this or that change and how it will wreck my child’s education, how about I pause for a moment and ask myself what might be best for children who live a very different life in a very different family.
When I – a homeowner from a family that has enjoyed the privilege of owning land for generations – when I get worried about how this or that development will affect my property value – how about I remember how people of color have been red lined and denied the opportunity to build equity of any kind.
And when I try on seven of the forty-two shirts I have and can’t find one that “feels” right – how about I consider the man who can – and must – carry all his belongings in a trash bag.
WORRY can neither be created nor destroyed…but it can be transformed.
Transformed into a tool that seeks the commonwealth of God’s kingdom;
Transformed into an orientation away from self and towards our neighbor;
Transformed into a mindset of mercy – a capacity to direct our inevitable worry to the welfare of others.
Today is Presbyterian Heritage Sunday, but this heritage is about more than wearing a kilt and fly plaid, a sporran and a pair of ghillie brogues (that definitely exhausts my Scottish fashion vocabulary).
While this denomination certainly doesn’t corner the market on caring for others, at our best that is what Presbyterians have been about for generations.
Planting churches to form communities of holy friendship.
Starting schools in far flung places and equipping educators so that all might have access to a quality education.
Establishing hospitals around the world and training the locals to staff it – because healthcare isn’t a privilege for the few but a right for the many.
Food pantries and feeding centers and free health clinics.
Home building projects and affordable housing advocacy.
Mentoring programs and microloan cooperatives.
This is our missional heritage – this is how we have lived into Christ’s command to worry less about ourselves and serve others more.
This is how we strive first for the kingdom of God.
The question that is ever before us – yes on Presbyterian Heritage Sunday but always – is “will we honor this heritage? Will we be faithful to that call?”
Honestly, UPC, when I think about you – when I consider your heart for service – I actually do not WORRY about that at all….not even a little bit.