Jesus and those early believers seemed to know what our scientists are learning:
most of the illnesses we see are started from stress.
Clearly, these are hard times for most people.
So, I have been engaged in this series of sermons trying to address how the message of Jesus applies to helping us get through hard times such as these.
As I have mentioned before, our faith, the Gospel of Jesus, was born in hard times – in fact, it was incubated and nourished and flourished during hard times.
Believe you me, those first believers knew hard times.
What seemed to be most encouraging to those early believers was the implicit message made explicit in I John 5:4: It is our faith that empowers us to endure and overcome hard times.
Jesus and those early believers seemed to know what our scientists are learning:
most of the illnesses that strike at our frail human bodies are started from stress.
Prolonged or excessive stress — the kind that overwhelms your ability to cope — can take a severe psychological and physical toll.
They tell us that high stress levels have been linked to depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems, an impaired immune system and cancer.
These are particularly stressful times for most of us.
The current economic situation in our country and in the world,
the loss of jobs,
insufficient healthcare,
the rise of illnesses and diseases and biological agents of destruction over which we have no control,
the frightening change of climate right before our eyes,
bad things that keep happening to good people,
all work together to add stress to our lives day in and day out.
One researcher commented: When you feel the demands on you are greater than the resources you have to cope with them, you feel stressed.
For sure, doctors know that stress is your body's natural reaction to any kind of demand that disrupts life as usual.
Occasional stress can temporarily speed up your heart rate and might raise your blood pressure.
And as long as you get your stress under control, there's no damage.
But, in times like these, doctors worry about long-term or chronic stress and accumulative stress.
In the last few years, researchers have come up with a way to measure the effects of stress on health, and have come up some pretty reliable predictors.
It is called the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
Occasionally something about this scale makes the news and you may have read something about it.
Over the years they have identified some 47 stressors – life events that are major causes of stress in our lives.
The number one stressor in our lives is the death of a spouse.
Other major stress events are:
Divorce or Marital separation
Death of a close family member
Personal injury or illness
Marriage
Dismissal from work
Retirement
Change in health of family member
The list goes on.
Each stress event is assigned a numerical value.
Most people are able handle one of these stressors with little difficulty, but when faced with three or four or more, you are at high risk for major illness.
Our bodies simply cannot handle many major stress factors at one time.
Would it surprise you to know that stress and anxiety was the number one topic of all of Jesus’ sayings?
Jesus spend more time talking about stress and anxiety than any other topic.
More time than getting to heaven.
More time than drinking.
More time than money.
More time than peace.
More time than repenting.
More time than praying.
More time than anything.
Jesus spend more time talking about stress and anxiety than anything else.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Stop worrying, Jesus said.
But, that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
We live in an age of anxiety, don’t we?
The image is the image of fear – not the image of faith.
It’s an image that is promulgated every time we sit down in front of the evening news,
or get on an airplane,
or – or – or.
We respond to the old Scotch litany:
"From ghoulies and ghosties
and long-leggety beasties.
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
It seems that we expect the worst, and we get it.
A popular preacher once shared a helpful insight into the structure of fear.
He observed that when an automobile breaks down it is more often the fault of the driver than the fault of the machine.
The machine is tough and made to stand a great deal.
But the driver of the car gets confused and makes a foolish judgment and the car breaks down – or is wrecked.
Occasionally the machine does break down, but not so often.
Well, the preacher declares it is the same with the human body.
It is made to stand a great deal of stress.
But frequently the "soul-mind,"
the driver of the body,
gets off beam and the body gets sick and breaks down.
Doctors and psychiatrists tell us this over and over again, stress, fear, worry, and anxiety are among the forces that attack the soul-mind and bring about the breakdown of the body.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
We are told that under the shock of a piano falling on her child it is often possible for a mother to do the impossible and lift the piano off her child.
Immediately afterwards she loses that extra strength and cannot budge the piano.
What has happened?
Under the shock of possible injury to her child, adrenalin has poured into the mother’s blood stream, and under the stimulus of this powerful drug she does "the impossible" in order to save the child. This automatic reaction of the glands of our body to extreme and sudden fear can save our lives.
But, under the influence of continued anxiety – long-drawn-out fear and dread – the adrenalin continues to seep slowly into the blood stream and poisons us.
Eventually it can bring about physical breakdown.
That is why a psychiatrist who was concerned about his patients was heard to say, "I wish that my patients could understand that the love,
the forgiveness, the care of God is available to them at all times and in all circumstances."
This kind of faith counterbalances fear and can bring healing to the physical body.
Doctors agree that emotional stress can bring actual changes in the organs, glands, and tissues of the body.
Bio-feed-back is telling us much more in this field.
It’s not so much "what I’m eating" as "what’s eating me" that’s getting me down.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
Some years ago now, long long ago in some other time, there was a song that became very popular. It was Bobby Ferron’s simple, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note.
Don't Worry – Be Happy
In Every life we have some trouble,
When you worry you make it double.
Don't worry – Be Happy.
Ain't got no place to lay your head,
Somebody came and took your bed.
Don't worry – Be Happy
The landlord says "Your rent is late,"
He may have to litigate.
Don't worry – Be Happy!
Ain't got no cash,
Ain't got no style
Ain't got no [one] to make you smile.
Don't worry – Be Happy
Cause when you worry
Your face will frown
And that will bring Everybody down,
Don't Worry – Be Happy.
Look at me. I'm Happy!
I know, that sounds pretty superficial, doesn’t it?
But, it is very close to what Jesus said:
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
You can't miss what Jesus is saying, can you? Don't worry – Be happy!
When we think about anxiety today, we think primarily in terms of relationship, or position, or security in life.
We're anxious because we're afraid we're going to be rejected by someone else.
We're anxious because we feel we're going to lose our status, our prestige, our position, our reputation in society.
We're anxious because we feel we're not secure enough financially to face the future.
But that's not the way the Bible talks about anxiety, is it?
It's a much deeper problem than that, you know?
Jesus talks about it as the basic human condition.
He says that we are anxious because we are separated from God.
That's the nature of anxiety.
It may take different forms in our life –
depression, despair, resignation,
run away ambition, idolatry,
making a god out of something that isn't God.
What is the root of all this – the cause of our worry and anxiety – Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.
It is a faith question.
What is the root of all this -- the cause of our worry and anxiety?
Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.
What good does your anxiety do?
"Can you add one minute to your lifespan by being anxious?"
No, in fact it's just the opposite.
You ask any doctor and they will tell you: stress and anxiety will decrease your life, not add to it.
So it's dumb to be anxious,
and unnecessary,
because God has already provided all that you will ever need in this life.
Everything you need God has provided.
Your anxiety is the result of not trusting God.
So if you are addicted to covetousness it's not that you love things so much, it's because you have lost God,
or at least lost sight of what it means to believe in God".
So, you see, for Jesus, and in reality, stress and anxiety is a spiritual problem.
Its root is in our relationship to God.
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
You really don't have to worry Jesus says if the first priority of your life is the kingdom of God.
You see, it is a faith issue.
Seek first the Kingdom of God, then all else necessary for life and meaning and happiness will be added.
We don't have to worry if the first priority of our life is the Kingdom of God.
When we really hear what Jesus said, that song really is not as superficial as it first sounds:
"In every life we have some trouble,
when you worry you make it double.
Don't worry – Be happy!"
I don't suggest that during this week you surprise all your family and friends and companions at work by constantly singing "Don't worry – Be happy."
I do suggest that you surprise them with the amazing calm and poise that can be yours if you keep claiming the promise of Jesus: "How much more will God take care of you...oh you of little faith."
The tragedy of most of our lives is that we worry so much about tomorrow that we never claim the resources that God has provided to live today.
In light of the worries and anxieties which life in these days set before us,
let our response to them be based upon the affirmations and promises that Jesus shares with us
Don’t be anxious, Jesus said.
Don’t worry, Jesus said.
More than anything else, put God’s work first.
Don’t get worked up a about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Believe it!
Amen.
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