Christian Disciplines: Simplicity
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Dr Fiona J. Tweedie
19 October 2003

When I spoke in September, I introduced the idea of Christian disciplines, things that would help us get closer to God, to help us get beyond the “Hi, how are you, I'm fine, thank you” stage of the relationship. We looked at meditation – to listening to God, as we'd expect to listen to a friend as we get to know them. With friends, we often look at how they live, at what they value, or consider important. We often follow their example to get closer to them, to get to know them better, to get into a deeper relationship. This week, I'd like us to look together at something that God considers important, his way of life. So that by copying, we can get into a deeper relationship with Him. We're looking at “simplicity”.

Now, “simple” isn't a word that is very popular nowadays. Things are always, “extra”, “improved”, “plus”, or the new term “added value”. “simple”, unless it's describing purity in organic food or face cream, isn't considered attractive in modern society. Modern society itself is rarely “simple”. Trying to work our way through forms for bank accounts, tax or the new pension credit isn't “simple”. Trying to juggle work and family life certainly isn't “simple”. No, modern life, modern society certainly isn't simple.

And yet, many of the complexities we have in life are imposed by ourselves, our standards and those of the world. The teacher in Ecclesiastes said “God made man simple; man's complex problems are of his own devising” [Ecc 7:29; JB; Foster p99]

In western society many things are “simple” - we turn on the tap and clean water comes out – we go to the shops and we can buy food and clothes – we can communicate easily with our friends. But for modern society, that's not enough – Edinburgh's water may be amongst the nicest in the UK, but that's not good enough - we're encouraged to buy “spring water”. We're apparently not complete unless we've tried the latest food trend, the fashionable drink, this season's football strip, this summer's shoes. Communication is easy, but we often give excuses or offer half-truths. Yes, modern society is not “simple”.

Worry

In the passage that Dorothy read to us, Jesus tells his disciples not to “worry” - “do not worry about your life” [v25], “who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” [v27], “why do you worry about clothes?” [v28] “So do not worry” [v31] “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” [v34]. The word “worry” can have two sorts of meanings, the “excessive concern” for material things - “can I go to the game in last season's strip?”, will I be laughed at if I wear this? What kind of Christmas cards should I buy, what will my children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, expect as Christmas presents? The other type of worry is the gut-wrenching wait for news, whether medical results or [...] shortage of money, decisions to be made about the future.

The accumulation of “stuff” is seen as success in modern society – more cars, a bigger house, more CDs clothes, shoes, more stuff. Shops like Ikea then make money in selling us things to store our “stuff”. TV programmes show people finally dealing with mountains of “stuff” that they've accumulated. Having lots of “stuff” shows society that we are “successful”. The pressure of having to have “stuff” drives people into debt – recent statistics show that debt collecting agencies are chasing 5 BILLION pounds of debt in the UK. Society puts its faith in “stuff” - we all too often put our faith in “stuff” - no wonder we worry!!

“Stuff” will not save us – when we are called to give account of our lives, a long list of our possessions will not impress God. What is important is our relationship with God, and whether our “stuff” comes between us and what God wants us to be. For some, “stuff” is more important than God – A “rich young man” came to Jesus and asked how he could get eternal life. He had obeyed all the commandments, yet felt that he lacked something. Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. The man went away sad, he had chosen his “stuff” over God.

But Jesus didn't tell everyone he met to immediately sell everything they had. Zacchaeus paid back those he had cheated fourfold, and then gave half of what he had to the poor. In guidance for tithing, we're not all told to give all of our income, but some proportion of it.

And our “stuff” can serve God too; for some, having two cars would be an incredibly luxury, an unecessary expense, but what do you do with the cars? Do they allow you to spend more time visiting or helping others? Do you have a spare room in your house to impress other people with the size of the house, or to store your “stuff” - our neighbours recently built a new double garage not for their cars, but for the “stuff” that their two children brought back from university. Rather, might a spare room or two allow you to offer stressed and exhausted people a respite, a short break away from the pressures of their house?

So what? How do we know what we are to do? Do we give something, or everything? The answer is again in the passage we read “Seek first His kingdom” [v33]. Are we to sell all our possessions and give the money to charity? No, we seek first His kingdom. Should we leave our job for something more “religious”? No, we seek first His kingdom. If we seek first God's kingdom, then God will make it clear to us what we are called to do. We might be called to sell or give away our stuff, or we might be called to use it. You can't use things if you've just got rid of them! Get our relationship with God sorted out, and our relationship with our stuff will find its proper place.

And what about the other “worry”. The heart-wrenching, trembling-with-fear-at-the-future, worry. The worry that rules your life, that gnaws at you in the small hours of the night. The worry of finding enough money for the rent and enough food for the week. The worry of watching someone you love suffering or dying. How can Jesus tell us not to worry about tomorrow? How can we not worry about a future that seems too terrible, or too short?

The subjects of suffering and poverty could take up whole series of sermons, I'm going to confine myself to a few, no doubt insufficient remarks.

Firstly, suffering came into the world with sin. God has given us free will, free will to turn to him in love, but also free will to turn against others, to cause them suffering. If there were no free will, we would be mindless puppets, not willing worshippers. God doesn't want mindless puppets, so we have to deal with the consequence of sin. Our world is a fallen world and while we are in it we have to deal with its fallen nature and its suffering.

Secondly, God doesn't abandon us to deal with the suffering by ourselves. He stands with us, the Footprints story tells of how God carries us through the hard times, helping us to go forward in our lives. In today's pluralistic society, with mix-and-match beliefs, Christianity stands out as having a God who has suffered, and not only suffered for himself, but taken on all the suffering on the cross. God has been there, he knows what it's like, he's felt the pain, the worry. From a Nazi concentration camp Corrie ten Boom wrote “No matter how deep our darkness, he is deeper still.” No other religion has a God who knows what are going through.

Thirdly, God can use our suffering for good. We may be better able to relate to other people, we may be motivated to do good things for other people, whether sitting with them or raising money for a charity. God may be preparing us for a future event – we only see the present part of our life – God knows what we are going through, and what we will go through in the future. God might use suffering to get people's attention – if everything is going well in life we don't feel that we need God, we can manage by ourselves, thank you. But we can't, and God has things he wants us to do.

Finally, God will make it up to us – he will compensate us – in our future lives with him, God has all of eternity to make it up to us. Paul wrote “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” [2 Cor 4:17] and “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” [Rom 8:18]. This world is temporary, our suffering will not last for ever. As Christians we have the hope of heaven, a restored creation. There will be no more suffering, no more decay. We will get a glorious body like that of the resurrected Christ and we will spend the rest of time in the presence of God.

God is there – he stands beside the poor, the suffering and the oppressed, he takes them in his arms and carries them. He shows us how we can help others out of our suffering and if we believe in Him, he will take us to spend a glorious eternity with him.

I'd like to close by considering a cartoon, two turtles are talking. One says “Sometimes, I'd like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice when he could do something about it.” The other turtle says “I'm afraid God might ask me the same question.” If we let God use our “stuff” - our time, our money, our lives, if we have a simpler lifestyle we can help those in need. Then they won't need to worry about what they will eat or drink, or what they will wear, because God will have provided it through us.

That's what a simpler lifestyle can bring – less chasing around after “stuff” leaves us more “stuff” to help others with. Less worrying about the future leaves us more time to pray for others, to phone others to let them know they're not alone, or even to spend with others, to stand alongside them in their suffering. Giving up a night's comfortable sleep might raise hundreds of pounds for the Rock Trust and get people out of homelessness. Giving up an afternoon to walk the Forth Road Bridge might provide for hundreds of people in the Third world. Then we are being the hands and feet of God on earth – he is providing for these people through us – we are co-workers with our God.

I'd encourage you today to think about how your life could be simpler – less stuff, less gossip, less fruitless worry. Can you free up time, thought, money to become a hand or foot of God this week, and further his work in the world?

A prayer,

Lord, help us to be simpler.
Show us what in our lives is keeping us from you,
Help us to put you first, and our stuff and our worries last.
Show us how we can be your hands and feet in this world.
In the name of your son, Jesus Christ
Amen.

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