Priorities

                    Matthew 6: 24-34

            Are you ever anxious about your life? Want to know that you have everything covered? What happens if your husband gets laid off? What happens if you get laid off? Do you have enough in savings? What if you get pregnant? What if you don’t get pregnant? How much life insurance do you need? How will you pay for braces, buy a house, save for college, take a vacation?

          The list goes on and on. No matter how many things you check off, there are always many more waiting to make the list. As you age, doctor bills and health problems take the place of housing and college for the kids. It never ends. What if I die? What if I am disabled?   How will my spouse get along? What if?

The disciples of Jesus had questions too. What if we run out of food? What if our clothing wears out? What about these old sandals? We no longer have jobs. How will we get along? They had priorities.

Jesus encountered a rich young ruler who had questions. How will I get to heaven? Jesus said, come, follow me, and the young man said, not now, I have to bury my father, meaning he had responsibilities and if he left, his inheritance would be cut short. He had priorities.

          A young girl has a soccer game and her mom has a job conflict. Mom has an important meeting. It could mean good things for her future. Her daughter needs her at the game, but her boss needs her at the meeting. She must decide. What are her priorities?

          There are so many things to worry about. There are so many decisions to be made. Every day there are those decisions. Do I tithe? If I do, how will I ever make ends meet? Do I go out with these new friends? Are they really my friends, or just people trying to take advantage of me? Why can’t I put down my cell phone and do the chores I have? Why can’t I lay off the video games and concentrate? I try to get my priorities right, but it’s so hard! It makes me anxious all the time.

          Jesus goes up on a mountain and talks to his disciples. He talks to them about lots of things. While he talks, don’t you think his disciples are probably asking him questions? We don’t have the questions, but I bet there were plenty. Some of them almost certainly had to do with the worries and anxieties of those disciples. They didn’t know what was coming and it worried them. Like so many of us, they worried about tomorrow. Jesus tells them to reach higher, to replace their goals with kingdom goals.

          Jesus uses tools of rabbinic argument common to the day. Using food to compare with life, he works from the major to the minor. If God gave you life, which is major, then surely he will give you food, which is minor, to sustain that life. Then Jesus switches, moving from the minor to the major. If God takes care of birds and flowers, the little things, how much more will he take care of people. What are you worried about?

          Does Jesus mean that we are not to work? Hardly. Does Jesus mean that we are not to plan? I don’t think so. Jesus means that we have to see our priorities. We have to know what is important and distinguish it from that which is secondary. The point is not that we stop working, but that we stop fretting. If we spend all our time and energy planning for tomorrow, we have forfeited today. What if today is all we are given? After all, tomorrow is not guaranteed. 

          Priorities. I remember once being courted by a big client. He liked my style and was considering me to do all his legal work and it was a big account. I was a single parent struggling to make ends meet and this guy was a rainmaker. He sent word to me that he wanted me to join him one Sunday afternoon in his private box at the raceway during a big race. I politely declined. It was explained to me that declining was not something to do with this fellow. I explained back that Sunday was not a workday for me and that it was a time I spent with my children. I lost the account. But I understood. That fellow wanted to be my priority. That day, I had the good sense to see that and say no. There was a cost to pay. I lost business I needed. Better to pay that cost than the cost of compromising my values and beliefs. That day, I had my priorities in order.

          Jesus reminded his disciples that the Gentiles sought all those earthly answers. He was saying that those who know no better seek such things, but those who know God know better than to seek such trifles. There are real concerns in this life, but to see them, we must have our priorities straight. God’s people should be able to do that. Jesus told the disciples: “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” But there are priorities, and these things are further down on the list.

          What comes first? When I was confronted many years ago with a choice between the possibility of a big account and letting down the children who trusted me, God allowed me to see the big picture and to make the right choice. Sometimes I have not been so fortunate. What comes first when the boss wants you to work on Sunday and you have already made promises to God, to family, to church? What comes first when the bills are there to be paid and there seems to be nothing left for the offering plate? The world crowds in on us and in spite of all our good intentions, we find ourselves compromising. When we do, the world overwhelms us with all the possibilities of failure with which we are confronted. The great poet William Wordsworth penned these famous thoughts in 1806:

                  The world is too much with us; late and soon,

        getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

                  little we see in Nature that is ours;

                   we have given our hearts away…

                   The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

                   the winds that will be howling at all hours…

                   for this, for everything, we are out of tune;

                   it moves us not…

            Jesus sat on the mountain with his disciples and gave them the answer. He told them how to have what they sought. He told them how to solve their anxiety. He ordered their priorities. His solution was captured in one simple sentence, but in that advice lay the key to their happiness and our peace. Jesus said: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” 

            Seek God’s kingdom first. How simple that sounds. It’s not. Sometimes it can be very hard. Ask a mother sitting by her newborn, but premature son in the NICU, unable to hold him except at feedings, hanging on every breath he takes. Ask a father holding down two jobs trying to make ends meet. Seek God’s kingdom first. It sounds almost like a dream…but it isn’t. Ask Joseph or Paul in their prison cells or Daniel in the lion’s den. Seek God’s kingdom first. Do that and everything else will work out. Jesus has promised us that.                      

            When you have the faith to put God first over all things, and I do mean all things…then, Jesus says to seek God’s righteousness. Put very simply, that just means, live in discipleship to God… be in submission to him. Don’t put God on your list. Give your list to God.

            So how’s that working for you? You might think of it this way. Give God today. Give it over completely to him. His grace is sufficient. Tomorrow is another day and God has a plan for it too. How much grace do you need? It has been said that today’s grace is only sufficient for today, so why waste it on tomorrow. 

            What’s your priority for today? Will you seek God first? If you do, you really have no need to fret about tomorrow.

Let us pray

3/2/14