October 9, 2011

“Don ‘t Worry, Be . . .   Be What?”            Phillippians 4:1-9      Dana Douglass

Human beings seem programmed to worry.  Some of us worry a lot.  Some of us worry only a little.  But all of us worry at some time or other.  I’m guessing that a certain amount of worrying is a good thing.  It keeps us vigilent; opens our eyes to threats and dangers; makes us aware of things that need our attention.

Perhaps our brains are programmed for worry.  Ever since our ancestors came out of the trees and started to walk about on the savannah (if that’s how it happened), we’ve had amble things to worry about.   Hour by hour we had to worry about where our next meal would come from.  Hour by hour we had to worry about not becoming the next meal for some other creature.  Without anxiety, we’d lose our edge, our concentration would slip, and bad things could happen.  I’m guessing that a certain amount of worrying is a good thing.

Although I tell Anne that our lives have gone smoothly because I have worried so much, too much worrying is a bad thing.  When we are anxious, worried, or fearful our brains trigger the release of certain chemicals which are meant to get our hearts pumping and our concentration sharpened so we can deal with the problem before us.  But, constant worrying keeps those chemicals flowing and are ultimately bad for our health.  I wonder if our ancestors didn’t somehow figure that out.  I wonder if faith and religion are one of the brain’s way of easing worry and anxiety?

Imagine this: Imagine that way back in ancient times one of our primal ancestors was walking through a high alpine meadow when he spotted a furry bump up ahead.  A rock?  A shrub?  Or a hungry beast?  When it reared its toothy head, he knew what it was; and the adrenaline flowed, and the heart raced, and the hair stood up on the back of neck.  Just then, our ancient ancestor looked up, and there was a cloud in the sky overhead, and the cloud looked something like a human face.  Perhaps he spoke to the cloud, and the very idea that there was a being in the heavens with whom he could converse gave him comfort and courage.  Religion was born.  Because it worked to calm his fear, he, and his people, and his descendants turned to the heavens over and over again.

I am not saying that humans invented God for our own convenience.  I don’t know if that is true, or not.  I am saying that perhaps fear and anxiety led us to look for help from a transcendent force, and when we did, we discovered a source of strength and comfort that calmed us — that stopped the release of the chemicals released by stress.  Over time, the human relationship with the divine was tested, and stories spread, and faith grew, and here we sit worshipping our creator and sustainer.  There is something in the human heart, or the human brain, that leads us to look beyond ourselves, to something bigger than ourselves, in which we can ground our existence.  Could it be that faith was given to us as an antidote for despair?

The apostle, Paul, wrote about this worry-alleviating-faith in his letter to the church in Phillipi.  Remember now, Paul was in prison in Rome facing almost certain death when he wrote this letter to a little church that was facing internal strife.  He said, “Don’t worry about anything!  Be joyful!”  Sitting in a prison in Rome, with the Coliseum just down the road filled with lions and tigers and bears, O my!  Don’t worry?!  Be joyful?!  How?  How did he achieve that state?  How can we?  We’ll get to Paul’s strategy in a minute; but first a little aside — because it gives a clue to Paul’s strategy.

What comes to mind for you when you hear Paul’s message, “Be joyful.  Don’t worry about anything.”?  It was twenty-three years ago that the little ditty, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, became the number one song in the land.  Remember who sang it?  The song was the essence of simplicity — no musical accompaniment, basically just an a cappella repetition of the title phrase, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”  It may have been simple, but there was something remarkable about the song — by the end of its three minutes, whatever worry you might have been carrying around with you had actually eased a bit.

When the song first came out I was fairly recently married, had a new job, in a new town, with a new home, and a brand new baby boy.  I had a lot of worries.  Then, Bobby McFarrin would come on the radio whistling the introduction to his little song, and immediately I’d be drifting off to a palm-lined beach on a Caribbean island, the worries would float away, and they wouldn’t return with the same intensity — for a while at least.

I called up the original music video for the song on UTube this week. In the video, Bobby McFarrin acts the part of a business executive reading about a stock market plunge.  He climbs out onto a window ledge preparing to jump, until Robin Williams comes by doing a silly little dance while the song plays in the background.  He climbs down from the ledge.  The music, and the message worked.  Strangely, it worked it’s magic all over again for me — I was in my living room, smiling and singing along, with barely a care in the world.  Which is pretty amazing given the state of the world!

Why does the song have that effect?  Just as worry and anxiety release chemicals in the brain, joy and positive thinking turn off the valves.  The simple tune may actually do something to our brain.  A similar thing happens when we follow Paul’s advice.  Paul says, “Pray.  Tell God what worries you.  At the same time be thankful.”  Paul goes even further; he says, “ Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worth of praise — think about these things.  You will be given a peace that is beyond human understanding.”  Wouldn’t that be a great way to live?  To have access all the time to a peace greater than any disturbance the world can throw at you.

There is no end to the things you and I can worry about.  We could go around this sanctuary and make a list, and we could each add our own worries to a growing list.  You and I might be able to knock down our worries one at a time, but we can never knock them all down.  There’s always going to be something causing us anxiety.  Since we are wired to worry, it’s a good thing we’re wired for faith as well.

The old testament lesson assigned for this day was the story of the Israelites and the golden calf.  The Israelites had been wandering in the desert for a long time on their way to the promised land.  They had endured and been rescued from countless difficulties. But, their leader, Moses, had gone up Mt. Sinai to pray, to restore his own faith.  With Moses gone longer than the people expected, they paniced,  “Moses is gone!  Maybe he’s not coming back!  What are we going to do?  We’re lost without him!  Oh, Aaron, make us a god we can see.”

The people had put their faith in Moses instead of in God.  When Moses left them for longer than they expected, their worries consumed them.  Moses, on the other hand, was constantly conversing with God, seeking time alone to pray.  Whenever a crisis arose Moses had a deep reserve of faith to fall back on.

The gospel lesson for today is the parable of the wedding feast.  Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a king who prepared a great banquet, sent out invitations, but nobody came.  They were busy on their farms and in their businesses.  They were consumed with worry.  God offers us peace; we opt for turmoil.

We are living through anxious days.  It would be easy to be overwhelmed with worry.  This might be a very good time to develop a spiritual discipline — to be grateful, and to fill our minds with things that are good, true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.  Maybe we should put into practice what our ancestors learned and look to the heavens for help. Don’t worry; be peaceful.

Advertisement