Bliss

    When I am worrying about something, and I tell someone about it, they will sometimes say, ‘Don’t worry” in response to my description of the situation. It’s usually not as blatant or insensitive as me saying “I’m worried” and them responding: “don’t”. It’s usually more like I’ll describe a situation, and they will advise, “don’t worry”.
But the thing is, I’m worried.

And if I’m worried I usually need either more than that…
    Or something else entirely…like: “Yea, I’m worried too”.
    And I appreciate the intention of the advice - - usually - - which is to be sympathetic. I understand that usually someone who responds that way is trying to lower my anxiety.
        But usually it’s not enough.
    “Don’t worry, things will work out…”, usually get’s me wondering: how?
    Which - - is the question I bring to the reading from Matthew’s gospel.
     Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious”.
        And I want to know HOW to get there.
            I find myself anxious - as I listen to Jesus advice about anxiety!
    But Jesus says it 5 times in this scripture reading: ‘don’t be anxious’.     5 times.
    So maybe I need to unpack his advice a bit.
    The reading starts out with some advice about money. Jesus creates a polarity: God and money. You can’t devote yourself to both, Jesus says. You have to decide which one is the priority. Jesus does NOT say that God and money don’t mix. BUT, says Jesus, if a person is going to get into that mix - - then that person better have their priorities very clear.
God and money can’t be equal priorities.
If you don’t decide which one comes first, HATE enters the picture.
That’s what Jesus says.
    The essayist Logan Pearsall Smith put it this way: “Those who set out to serve BOTH God and mammon soon discover that there is no God”.    
    So what does Jesus advice about money, have to do with his advice about anxiety?
        That’s the question!
    The two are linked by the word: “therefore” in the text. “Therefore, do not be anxious…”  The first time Jesus says, “do not be anxious”, the phrase begins with “therefore”: linking the two pieces of advice.
    So maybe the key to bliss is getting our priorities about money in order?
    That’s what Jesus seems to suggest.
    “Bliss” is a word that means “the joy of heaven”. But it has come to be associated with beauty products, and euphoria in our culture. You can “bliss out” by taking a drug, or listening to music, or getting a manicure. But it is more like a form of escape. If you type “bliss” into Google search you get mostly spas and beauty salons.
    But bliss in its original meaning is more like the kind of calm non-anxious state that comes when we know God comes first in our lives. The joy of heaven, comes from God.
Our hymn for Lent, which we will begin using in worship in two weeks, contains the line, “What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss, to bear the dreadful curse for my soul”. Some versions shy away from the word curse. In one case the line is changed to: “what wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to send such perfect peace to my soul”.
Where do we find that kind of bliss…?
I think that the answer to that question - - is part of what Jesus is pointing to in this scripture reading. And so for the purpose of this sermon I will connect bliss, with a state of non-anxiousness. The phrase “non-anxious presence” has been used in other contexts and has all sorts of other meanings. Thy may or may not be relevant here. In any case, for now, I prefer “bliss”.
How do we move from anxiety to bliss?
Part of the answer - - has to do with getting our priorities about God and money in order.
But the thing is - - that when I read the second part of the scripture reading for today it does NOT seem like - - the priorities about money ARE completely in order. At least it doesn’t seem that way to me at first.
Not completely.    Here’s what I mean:
When Jesus advises: Don’t be anxious about…food, clothing, and gathering up things, it seems like he is saying, your food and clothing and your things will just take care of themselves. Birds don’t gather things up. Birds don’t plan ahead. Birds don’t worry. And they get fed. So be like a bird. That’s what Jesus seems to say. And to me it seems irresponsible!
In the scripture reading Jesus seems to be commending the sort of behavior once attributed to the artist James Whistler, who painted the famous “Whistler’s Mother”. Apparently Whistler was never one to let his income level determine his level of spending. As a result, he spent a lot of time fending off creditors and bill collectors. But he was always courteous even if he didn’t intend to pay them.
One day a creditor showed up at Whistler’s house and demanded payment on an overdue bill. Whistler offered him a glass of champagne! And the offer made the creditor angry: “How can you afford champagne!”
Whistler told him to calm down. He said, basically, don’t be anxious about that.
“I assure you,” Whistler said, “I haven’t paid for the champagne either.”!
So the point is that this seems like irresponsible behavior.
It’s the kind of thing none of US would do.
I mean:
Someone has to harvest the food and cook the meal and clean up!
We can’t all just act like birds.
With bird brains!
But maybe that’s my problem: maybe I’m over-thinking it.
Maybe that’s NOT what Jesus is saying.
Maybe what Jesus is doing is painting a blissful picture:
    The birds are blissful.
    That’s a fact.
    The question is, can WE get there too?
        And the answer is: usually NOT.
But…..
Remember the word, “therefore”…
The key to bliss is NOT irresponsibility.
Instead, it is…getting our priorities in order.
If we serve God first, and not money first, we will then know what to do WITH our money, and our things, and our clothes and food, and the things we gather. Those things will not drive our lives and our anxieties. Rather, they will be in service of God’s intentions for our lives and for the world. In fact they will lead to amazingly responsible behavior: Care for others. Clothes and food for all.
Because we will not ONLY gather things…
    We will also give away things….
        And then…there will be enough.
When I think about all the things I have, this thought gives me pause.
As I consider my pledge to Westminster these thoughts make me pause.
I remember when my giving level was much lower, and I worried about money more. The amazing thing I have discovered is that as I increase my giving I continue to have enough. And I think maybe it has something to do with the priorities I set. I could have more things than I do…but that’s not my priority.
What’s your priority?
    Money or service to others?
        Money or God?
Things or people?
There is an amazing poem that captures the tension between things and relationships. It’s called “Things”, by Lisel Mueller
        What happened is, we grew lonely
        living among the things
        so we gave the clock a face,
        the chair a back,
        the table four stout legs,
        which will never suffer fatigue.

        We fitted our shoes with tongues
        as smooth as our own
        and hung tongues inside bells
        so we could listen
        to their emotional language,


        and because we loved graceful profiles
        the pitcher received a lip,
        the bottle a long, slender neck.

        Even what was beyond us
        was recast in our image;
        we gave the country a heart,
        the storm an eye,
        the cave a mouth
        so we could pass into safety.

      SO…  Have you grown lonely living among the things?
    Have you grown anxious gathering up your things?
    Do you want to find bliss?
        Really?
        Is it your priority?
There is a book called The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner which is basically a travel journal written by a man who traveled the world looking for the key to happiness. He spent time in 10 countries trying to figure out what makes people happy. His travels took him to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Buthan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and the United States. Do you notice anything about the list?
They were NOT the countries I expected!
I mean: Iceland, Qatar and Bhutan?
Maybe he needed a contrast I thought: places where people are UNhappy!
    But no…these are all places in which he found happy people!
        Bliss.
Here’s what he writes at the end of his book:
Only a fool or a philosopher would make sweeping generalizations about the nature of happiness. I am no philosopher, so here goes:
“Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude.”
“To venture any further, though,” he writes, “is to enter treacherous waters. A slippery seal, happiness is.” There is more than one path to happiness.
“But…of all the places I visited, of all the people I met, one keeps coming back to me again and again: the Bhutanese scholar and cancer survivor. “There is no such thing as personal happiness,” he told me. “Happiness is one hundred percent relational.””
Happiness is not a noun or a verb. It’s a conjunction.
Connective tissue.
Well, it seems to me - - as I read this in his book - - that person has their priorities clear.
Now it’s our turn.