Out of Control

8^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

Is 49:14-15

Ps 62:2-3,6-7,8-9

1 Cor 4:1-5

Mt. 6:24-34

Every time I hear these readings I can’t help but think, “Yeah, right, easy for you to say. You knew the future, Jesus, so you didn’t have to worry about it. You knew how things were going to turn out tomorrow. I don’t. You’re God. You’ve never had to worry. I have to plan for the kid’s college and our retirement. I have to schedule production in the shop. I have to get ready for Lent and Easter. And tonight it’s my turn to make dinner. Haven’t even thought about that yet.”

But then I think; Jesus should have been the greatest worrier of all time, just because he knew what was going to happen tomorrow. He knew how things would end. He knew how people would treat him in the next town he visited. He knew he would go to bed hungry that night, sleeping underneath the stars. He knew they would kill him and he knew how they would do it. But Jesus didn’t seem to worry much, did he, except for that time in the Garden of Gethsemanie? Even then he gave up control of his own life and put it in the hands of his Father. The one person in history who was in complete control of the future and he gave it up, choosing instead to place his life and his fate in the hands of another.

Being a disciple is all about control. Who’s in control of your life, you or God? It’s a paradox that we are most in control when we give up control. Jesus didn’t mean that we are not to make plans for the future; just don’t live in the future. Don’t let it rule you. Just as it isn’t healthy to live in the past it isn’t good to live in the future, either. Because then you’re building your life on a dream. John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Funny how no matter how much we plan we are still helpless in the face of the future. And if we are constantly focusing on the future we can completely miss what’s happening to us in the here and now. You cannot control the future, just as you cannot change the past. The only thing you can control is how you will react to the present.

So much of life is out of our control. We can’t control the government, or our families, or even the weather. But we are also not supposed to just be carried along by events and live our lives reacting to things. We can only control our attitude towards events and other people’s actions. We can let them rule us or we can decide not to let them do so.

In the end the only one who’s really in control is God. And like Jesus, we need to trust. Jesus didn’t sweat the small stuff. We also need to have the attitude that some things really don’t matter very much, so we shouldn’t worry about them. We need to keep sight of what’s really important, and it’s not what to have for dinner. We’re not the sum total of our stuff, of what we own. We try sometimes to fill that hole in our souls with food and drink and material possessions. But those things are so transitory. They constantly need to be replenished, and so they can become almost addictive. And then we’re completely out of control, when our addictions rule us.

I know some people who let their addictions rule their lives. My mom refused to travel by plane because she wouldn’t be able to smoke for a couple of hours. And so she missed a lot of important events in the lives of her family and friends. A friend of mine has been unemployed for almost two years, yet he won’t entertain taking a job out of state because he worries he won’t be able to score some marijuana. And so he’s now in danger of losing his home. Some people give up control over their lives for stupid things, and if you let something control you like that of course you will worry that you won’t be able to get what you need. It can become an obsession and the center of your life.

And what do we really need, anyway? Will it matter what you had for breakfast the day that you die? Will it matter what you are wearing when you breathe your last? Will it matter that you’ve made plans to do something the next day and now you won’t be going? Strip everything away and determine what is truly important.

You cannot serve both God and mammon. We don’t see that word but once in the gospels. Mammon sometimes is translated to mean the world or materialism. The word actually shares a root with the Hebrew word that means “to entrust”. To what or to whom do you entrust yourself? To what will you be a servant? To what will you subjugate yourself? And you will subjugate yourself to something, whether you intend to or not. To what will you give up control? If I had a choice, I would rather give up control to someone or something I trust with my very life. Why would you do otherwise? Why would you give up control to something transitory?

Tomorrow/tonight we will be celebrating the Rite of Acceptance to two ladies who have chosen to learn more about the Catholic faith. They will stand before us with their sponsors and state that they accept God’s will for them for the future. And we will state our acceptance of them into our community. And we will bless them in a special way to help them along their journey. They have no idea what their new lives as Christians will bring. But they’re not worried, because they know they have us to help them along the way, and ultimately they have Jesus. As St. Paul says today, “Thus should one regard us; as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” We have found these women to be trustworthy because they have placed their trust in the one worthy of our ultimate trust.

In the end it really is easy to give up worry. All it takes is a decision. The decision to be out of control. Let you be you and let God be God. Everything else will take care of itself.