“Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

Readings for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) Proper 23 – Track 2

This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday October 15, 2023.

Here’s a little sermon that I wrote

I’m going to try to preach it without note

Don’t worry be happy

In this life, you will have trouble

If you worry, there will be double

Don’t worry be happy

Don’t worry be happy[1]

I don’t mean to sound glib, but these are the words of famous Episcopalian Bobby McFerrin.[2] And that’s the message of my sermon today, inspired by the words of St. Paul, who put it this way: “Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6 – 7). These are among Paul’s final words in his letter to the Philippians, which, as you know, revolves around the Christ Hymn, the Kenosis Hymn, about Christ who did not consider equality with God something to be exploited but emptied himself to become a servant even to the point of death, even death on a cross. In his conclusion, Paul explains that part of emulating the kenotic, self-emptying humility and servanthood of Christ involves filling ourselves up with God’s nourishing love and providence and peace so that we can nourish others. We can’t practice self-emptying humility if we’re already running on empty. It’s difficult to pass the peace of Christ if we are plagued by anxiety. So, Paul says, do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will fill you and surround and protect you and revive your soul. I hope your time here fills you up with God’s peace and revives your soul and relieves your anxieties through prayers. I hope your time here helps you not to worry and to be happy. One of the purposes of a clergy Sabbatical is for the clergy person to be renewed and revived and refilled. I want to share a story from my Sabbatical which helped refill me with God’s peace and helped me not to worry.

Before I do, I want to provide some context as well as make an exciting announcement. Thank you to all who came to the Stewardship BBQ yesterday. The pulled pork, beans and barbecued burgers and hot dogs and delicious ice cream sandwiches were all delicious! I bring that up because yesterday I gave a preview of the exciting events for this upcoming program year. And even though I went overtime as I tend to do, I failed to mention the most important and exciting announcement of this program year. I mentioned Bishop Curry, who preached at my Commencement many years ago and talked about deepening our roots by practicing that ancient spiritual discipline of tithing that Abraham practiced. But Bishop Curry, our presiding bishop, who is one of the greatest preachers alive today, is coming here. He’s coming to our diocese. He’s been sparking revivals all throughout the Episcopal Church. He was in the Diocese of Honduras (our sister diocese), the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe (which is where I spent part of my sabbatical), the East Coast and all over. One of his final revivals, if not his final one, will be in our Diocese of Northern California on April 27, 2024. Mark your calendars. Pam and Paul Gossard are co-chairs of the Prayer Committee for the Revival, which is a big deal. Our Senior Warden Steve Preston is part of the Workshops and Pilgrimage Committee. I’ve been asked to be part of the Worship Planning Committee for the Revival. And I did some research during my Sabbatical thanks to the dean of Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento, the Very Rev. Matthew Woodward. The day I returned from New Zealand, he invited Ashley and me to go see Bobby McFerrin in Berkeley. We are trying to think outside the box when it comes to worship at the Revival, so we were open to learning something from Bobby McFerrin, who had recently been the artist-in-residence at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Although he is most well-known for the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” Bobby McFerrin did not sing that song. In fact, he did not sing any coherent song during the concert, until the end. Instead, he and four other singers were scat singing. He’s really into something called polyphonic overtone singing and vocal percussion. A lot of noises and incoherent words that sound beautiful and melodious. They had no setlist and seemed to just let the Spirit flow. Nobody made a request for “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” but one request was made. During a Q and A at the end, somebody asked Bobby McFerrin about his time at Grace Cathedral when he and his other singers sang for 24 hours straight in the cathedral. There was some tag-teaming among them so some could take breaks, but there was constant singing, polyphonic overtone singing, for 24 hours in Grace Cathedral. They said it was amazing and so I decided to piggyback off of that question and say, “Grace cathedral is a place where many of the Psalms are sung and I really love Bobby’s version of Psalm 23, especially with his female pronouns for the divine.” The song was dedicated to his mother, Sara McFerrin, who was a lifelong Episcopalian in southern California.[3] When I brought the song up, many in the audience nodded their heads in agreement, expressing how much they loved his version. So, then I asked, “Is that ever a song you all perform at these concerts?”

Bobby McFerrin then began to lead the others in singing his version of the 23^rd Psalm. I was so excited, so I grabbed my phone to record because I wanted to share that experience with you because the choir here has sung it. David Powell did a version all by himself during COVID. It’s such a powerful song and was one of Latanya’s favorites. As I’m recording their performance, they stop and Bobby McFerrin looked at me with a kind of disappointed look and said, “I guess we don’t know it.” And everybody laughed nervously as I began to worry that I had ruined the opportunity for us all to hear this song because I wasn’t supposed to be recording. I thought he saw me recording and thought, “I’m not going to sing it if you’re going to record it.” Can you imagine Bobby McFerrin looking disappointed at you? I said, “Oh I’m so sorry, is it because I’m recording?” I thought I was going to be thrown out, bound hand and foot and cast out to the outer darkness just like the poor guy in today’s parable (Matthew 22:13) because I had ruined the opportunity for all of us. But then I let it go and remembered his words, “Don’t worry, be happy.” And he then stood up and had his other singers stand up as well since they had all been sitting throughout the whole concert. He took a breath and then began leading and conducting his version of Psalm 23. As they began singing, I realized he wasn’t upset with me at all. It was just that they hadn’t practiced it and needed some time to adequately prepare for it. During the performance, I felt like we were all praying the Psalm together and felt so full of God’s peace that surpasses understanding and so free of worry. At the end, there was no initial applause because the moment was just so holy. There was almost ten seconds of just silence. Our cups were running over. I just wished that I could have shared that moment with you.

Eventually, the audience does applause and Bobby McFerrin, and the singers walk off stage. As I’m leaving, I approach the audio technician and ask him if they usually conclude their concerts with that song and the technician said, “No, they’ve been performing every Monday for at least a year, and they’ve never sung it. They sang it today because you requested it.” Let your requests be made known.

And then, even though my cup was already running over, this young woman comes up to me and asks, “Were you the one who requested Psalm 23?” And I said, “Yeah, that was me.” She said, “If you give me your email address, I will send you a recording because I was in the front row and I recorded the whole thing and I want to share it with you.” Out of the overflowing kindness of her heart, a random stranger gave me the recording, which I look forward to sharing with you when I share videos and images of my Sabbatical adventures.

After that experience which I shared with Dean Matthew, he and the worship planning team and I are now in the process of asking Bobby McFerrin to come to our revival, but we are worried because we might not be able to afford him. Worry keeps popping up, but do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding with guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The peace of God will refill you and refuel you and revive your soul so he can practice kenosis in serving the Body of Christ. The peace of God will follow you all the days of your life and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Glory be to the Mother, the Daughter, and the Holy of Holies. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

[1] A slightly modified version of Bobby McFerrin’s song “Don’t Worry Be Happy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU. The music video happens to feature another famous Episcopalian Robin Williams.

[2] https://www.sj-r.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2013/07/20/bobby-mcferrin-explores-faith-on/41724857007/

[3] https://obits.ocregister.com/us/obituaries/orangecounty/name/sara-mcferrin-obituary?id=8028091