1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
4:13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.
4:14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.
5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.
5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
5:8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.
5:9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.
5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.
5:11 To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.
“Cast
all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
Say
that to the mother whose stands at the grave of her child.
Say
that to the husband who sits in the waiting room at the hospital waiting room
as he awaits the arrival of a doctor to announce the outcome of surgery.
Say
that to the person enduring painful chemo-therapy who is left wondering whether
it is best to just give up, or press on in a battle against cancer.
Say
that to the family who loses a house.
Say
that to the young person struggling with questions of life-styles or
orientation, searching for identity and assurance.
Say
that to the student who struggles for a passing grade.
“Cast
all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
Easier
said than done.
There is nothing new about anxiety or
about worrying.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites
worried endlessly as they wandered through the wilderness.
Right after God gave them freedom
from their slavery in Egypt,
and as soon as they passed through the Red Sea,
they began to worry. They ran out of
water, and the people turned to Moses and said, “Moses, what have you done to
us? We have no water.”
Moses led them to water, but the
water was bitter and the people worried even more. They complained to their leader, “Moses, what
have you done to us? We had lots of
water in Egypt. We should have stayed there instead of coming
here just to die of thirst.”
God led them to an area with 12
springs – one for each tribe.
But a few days later the Israelites
ran out of food. So they worried some more.
“Moses, what have you done to us?
We had plenty of food in Egypt.
We should have stayed there instead of coming here just to die of hunger.”
So God sent bread from heaven every
morning and sent quails every night. (Exodus
15 and 16).
Now you would think that after all of
that the people of Israel
would have learned to relax. All they
had to do was to trust in God. God was a
proven commodity. He had provided for
the people time after time after time.
And finally, the people are on border
of the Promised Land. They are about to
enter their new homeland and take claim of it.
But when the leaders of Israel sent spies into the Promised Land to
scope out the situation, the reports from these spies made the people of Israel nervous
and worried.
“O Moses, what have you done to
us? We had a great life in Egypt. But here we are about to be slaughtered by
giants. We should have stayed in Egypt.”
Anxiety is part of our lives. It is a part of our history. We seem to be wired to worry all of the time.
And we do it so very well. We should – because we get lots of practice.
But against this, Peter tells
us: “Cast all
your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
In fact, the
Bible tells us this over and over.
Jesus says
in Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 6), “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?”
And shortly afterward, Jesus says,
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring
worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
St. Paul said in his letter to the
Philippians (chapter 4), “Do not worry about anything.”
In the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes
tells us, “Banish anxiety from your mind.”
Are you kidding me?
What were they thinking?
We’ve got mortgages, jobs, teenagers,
parents, cancer, the IRS, terrorists, loss of privacy, Internet hackers, credit
card debt, crime and violence,
Let’s be honest, we have REAL things
to worry about.
“Banish anxiety from your
mind?”
Really?
The next time you see a homeless man
asking you for some food to eat, just see what happens when you say to him,
“Ah, cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares
for you.”
Try telling that to the waitress who
serves you lunch in a little while, and who works at three different
restaurants and still can’t get enough hours to work a 40 hour week, and whose
mortgage payment is behind.
“Cast all
your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
Try telling that to a couple who is
trying to qualify for their first mortgage, and who have been told they
probably won’t get their home.
Meet a man coming out of the doctor’s
office who has just months to live and try telling him, “Do not be anxious.”
Listen here - we have real things to be
anxious about.
We have anxiety
about the economy.
We have anxiety
about our family.
We have anxiety
about cancer.
We have anxiety
about not having enough rain, or having too much rain.
We have anxiety about these things
because we believe they are important and they are worth our anxiety.
Of course we
are anxious. Don’t tell us not to be.
When your
husband or wife is in the emergency room, the last thing you want to hear is
some pastor coming up to you saying, “Cast all your
anxiety on God.”
When you have a
suspicious mole or a lump on your breast or a pain in your chest, you’d better
be anxious enough to seek medical help.
The question is, what do we do with our anxieties? Peter says, “Cast
all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
But what does that mean?
Does that mean I can enter that
wonderful state of denial? You know what
denial is like. You’ve seen it in others
and probably have experienced it yourself.
The person whose spouse dies, but not a tear is shed, denying to
everyone the pain that is felt. Or the denial
of being deep and dangerously in debt, yet continuing to spend like there is no
tomorrow. You know, like the US
Government does.
That is denial – that is not what
Peter is advocating.
“Cast all
your anxiety on him, --- because he cares for you.”
That means
that when we are anxious, we turn to God in prayer. Many of us, when facing anxiety, may turn
away from God, but we are to turn toward God.
We look to God for love. God
never calls us to ignore our problems.
He calls us to trust in him MORE than we fear our problems.
That is not
easy to do – but it is the important first step.
This is made even more difficult by
the fact that we often do not understand what is happening to us, or why. Understanding is not the most important thing
– trusting that God is greater than your problem is the most important
thing.
Proverbs 3 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not
lean on your own understanding.”
In the face of unemployment, cancer,
death, that last exam question in our class – whatever anxiety we face, Peter
says, “Cast all your anxiety on God.”
Turn toward God as your face your anxiety.
Secondly, Peter says, “Stay alert.”
If your anxiety is cancer, stay alert
about whatever signals your body may be giving off.
If your anxiety is financial, stay
alert about how you are spending, or mis-spending your funds.
If your anxiety is a teenage child,
stay alert and be watchful over that child.
If your anxiety is your parents and
how they want let up for a minute, stay alert to their love and concern for
you.
Being free from anxiety does not mean
that we free ourselves from responsibility.
Anxiety is fear, discouragement, worry.
Being alert is watching, being cautious, being vigilant.
So we are to cast our anxieties onto God, and we are to stay alert. Peter also encourages us with the fact that
we are not alone.
For most of us, the last thing we
want to hear is someone say to us, “I know exactly what you are going through,”
because no one knows what we go through – not exactly. But it is good to go through experiences
knowing that others have been through similar experiences and situations.
Alcoholics find strength through
attending 12 Step Programs with other alcoholics.
Grieving widows find encouragement
through support groups where they meet others who are dealing with the loss of
a loved one.
Peter says in his letter, to remain “steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters
in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.”
Find someone to walk through your
suffering with you.
Don’t go through your difficulty
alone.
Last weekend, I was out of this
pulpit. I was with about 40 members of
our church at Cedarkirk Camp and Conference
Center for the first of
many annual retreats. A couple of weeks
ago, I was with another group of church members for dinner at the Olive Garden
– we do this every month. There is
another group called the Lunch Bunch, and there is the Study and Fun, and there
are many other similar groups.
It is not just about food and fun –
although that is a great part of it.
It’s about fellowship. It is
about building community so that when one of us goes through a crisis, we know
each other and care for each other and can be there for one another.
In the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes
says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one
who is alone and falls and does not have another to help.” (4:9)
Finally, know that whatever suffering you endure will end.
In his letter Peter says, “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of
all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself
restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”
The cause
of our anxiety, whatever it is, will not last forever.
Paul, in
his second letter to the Corinthians, said (4:16-17), “W are not
discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day
by day. Our suffering is light and temporary
and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can
imagine.”
Now Paul
was talking about death in his letter.
And sometimes, that is the way our suffering ends. Now, that is not the way I want my suffering
to end, but if it does – I know that death is not a defeat, but a victory
through Christ. Because through Christ
we have eternal life, which Revelation (21:4) described as being a place in
which there was no more crying, no more pain.
But death
is not the only way our suffering and anxiety ends. Things come into our lives, and then they go
away. We endure, we survive.
I had great
anxiety in high school when I was trying to get through Algebra classes. It ended – not with my death, and
surprisingly, not with the death of my Algebra teacher. Mrs. Jetter and I both lived many years after
Algebra. But it ended.
I had great
anxiety when I was working in a state prison.
It was a tough job. It did not
end by my death, but by going into the ministry.
I had great
anxiety over credit card debt many years ago.
It ended when those debts were paid.
All of our
sources of anxiety come to an end – in one way or the other. As Peter says, “After you have suffered for a
while, God will restore, support, strengthen and establish you.”
Everyone
has anxiety.
It’s
natural.
1.
Turn to God and cast those anxieties
on him in prayer.
2.
While you are in your time of crisis,
stay alert!
3.
And seek fellowship of others who
also have suffered – for they can help.
4.
And know that eventually, tough times
do pass.
Copyright 2014 The Rev. Dr. Maynard
Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
Sermons are available online
and can be found by visiting www.Pittendreigh.net
