No worries! Who is Jesus kidding when he tells us not to worry in Matthew 6:25-34.  Worry is, after all, an essential part of life, it helps us to focus on what matters.  And that is the point Jesus is making, what are we worried about and what does it reveal about what is important to us?

When we focus on ourselves, our own survival, success and security, we focus what we lack, what we have not got, what we might lose.  Instead, Jesus asks us to shift focus and concentrate on the kingdom of God.  At first this might appear to increase the number of things to worry about: no longer do we worry just about our own health and well-being but that of the whole planet and all the people in it.  Indeed, the letter to the Romans, 8:18-25, compares the work of encouraging the kingdom of God to the pains of labour.  Yet, the pains of labour are bearable because we know that we are bringing new life to birth.

The door to happiness opens outwards and involves a certain level of self-forgetfulness; an ability to look beyond our own lives and see how they are intimately connected with lives of others and with the whole of creation.  To the extent that we can lay aside our own concerns and look to the concerns of the Kingdom, we learn to focus, not on what we don’t have but what we do and, more importantly, how we can use it.

On Sunday 8th February at 6.30pm in church, our monthly choral Evensong service.

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