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The Second Sunday after Pentecost

"Sufficient Unto The Day..."

The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams

“Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” I have never really warmed to the Revised Standard Version’s rendering of that last line of today’s Gospel passage. I have always preferred the King James Version’s “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” It just carries a bit more punch!

I do recall, however, that line getting me in trouble. My then Sr. Warden, Libby Lindsay, a dear friend who has since journeyed to the other shore, was asking me how I managed not to take work home with me at night, literally and metaphorically, when I went home to my family. I confessed to her that sometimes when I left my office at the end of the day and glanced back to see the stack of unfinished work, I comforted and encouraged myself to leave unencumbered by reciting that verse, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” She winced in horror! I had to quickly explain that I did not think of my programmatic or supervisory responsibilities or my pastoral relationships with parishioners or my community involvement as evil! I just needed – with some good humor – to establish clear boundaries both for the sake of the work itself and for the stewardship of my health and sanity.

Not long after that I posted a sign on the inside of my office door so that it was the last thing I saw in exiting, which read, “Do not feel totally, irrevocably responsible for everything. That’s my job. Love, God.” That seemed to communicate the same message in a less ambiguous way!

You may or may not, by virtue of your role in life or of your personality, feel totally, irrevocably responsible for everything. But virtually all of us feel responsible for what happens in our own lives and especially for what might or might not happen in the future. We worry for ourselves, for our friends, perhaps for our children or grandchildren. What if we are not up to this or that task? What if our health does not hold up? What if we run out of financial resources? What if our plans do not work out? What if we lose the support, the companionship, the regular presence of my spouse, my friend, the one on whose love I so rely?

Jesus addresses our worries in today’s Gospel. “Do not be anxious about your life, about what you shall eat or drink or wear, about tomorrow. Seek first God’s righteousness and God’s kingdom, and all these things will be yours as well.” It is not that we should deny or repress our anxieties. They are frequently real concerns, and they may be alerting us to take necessary action. The problem with allowing our anxieties to become our major focus, however, is that it makes ourselves the major object of our attention. That is not healthy, and it does not make us happy. When we constantly worry about what might happen or what we might lose or how we might fail, we are not looking outward. We are not loving others. We are not worshipping God. We are too inwardly focused.

Of course we must be concerned with taking good care of ourselves and doing the best with what God gives us and planning responsibly for the future. We are to attend in a healthy way to our life and our salvation. But when that healthy stewardship turns into obsessive anxiety, we need to look outward, to focus on caring for others, to give thanks and praise to God for being there with us through thick and thin and for the promise never to abandon us, but to gift us with eternal life.

One of the greatest graces of my sabbatical was to walk the beach every morning for several miles, soaking in through this dynamic and beautiful piece of creation the life and grace of God. I found it so helpful to memorize the three verses of our final hymn today, “Joyful, joyful we adore thee,” sung to Beethoven’s stirring melody. Even on an overcast, windy day, when the writing was bogged down or something was bothering me, I always found that singing those vibrant words of praise to God lifted me out of myself and raised my spirits. “Joyful, joyful we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love; hearts unfold like flowers before thee, praising thee, their sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away; giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.” How those poetic, heartfelt words and that exuberant melody could fill my inner soul and transform my spirit! “All thy works with joy surround thee, …stars and angels sing around thee; …chanting bird, …flashing sea”! Sometimes suddenly, sometimes gradually, my inward focus and needless anxiety would fade away and sheer gratitude for God’s creation and God’s endless grace would take over.

God truly is the wellspring of the joy of living, not one to avoid or fear, but one to call us beyond ourselves and lose ourselves in gratitude and praise and loving others.

If you find yourself driven by your anxieties, feeling totally, irrevocably responsible for everything, let God do that job. Do things to remind you of who really is in charge. Take a walk; enjoy nature; sing a hymn! Let God and all that God gives us and has in store for us come to the surface. Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, “and all these things shall be yours as well.”

© 2008: Chapel of the Cross