As I thought this week about this week’s sermon, my mind kept coming back to something that happened to me when I was just about Ben’s age.  Then as it’s true now, I love music.  Although my love has waned a bit as I’ve gotten older, I still enjoy whiling away the hours while listening to songs performed by my favorite bands.  Just ask Natalie, many nights you’ll find me watching old concerts from the Grateful Dead or the Dave Matthews band on YouTube, just bopping along to the tunes.  But that was the days before Spotify or Apple Music existed.  A terrible time when, if you wanted to listen to a particular song or a particular musician or band, you had to go out and fork over hard-earned cash for one of their albums.  Yeah, terrible time, right?  But, yes, back when I was a kid, to listen to music, you generally had to purchase the entire record.  And that was a problem, especially to a fourteen-year-old kid that was by age barred from getting a job.  When I wanted an album, I’d have to work around the house, doing extra chores or hope that my birthday or a cash-giving holiday was on the horizon.  But then, one day, leafing through an issue of Sports Illustrated, I came across a most curious advertisement.  The Columbia House company had a splashy ad with lots of great albums pictured.  The writing was even more enticing – Get 8 Whole Albums for just one penny?  Eight albums for a penny, I thought?  That’s a real steal.  So, as quickly as I could, I filled out the paperwork, selecting my 8 albums for a penny.  It was only when I went to my mom, asking for a stamp, that my hopes cooled, but only for a moment.  My mom, giving me the stamp, warned me that it would cost more than a penny, that I should be prepared.  I laughed at her.  See the ad?  It says 8 albums for a penny.  And, I knew with all the certainty of a budding 12-year-old legal mind, that to charge me more than a penny would be false advertising and that would clearly be against the law.  So, grudgingly, my mom let me mail off the card and I began my anxious wait.  For the next several weeks, my first question upon arriving home from school would be, “did it arrive?”  Finally, one day about 8 weeks later, my mom informed me that a package had arrived in the mail.  And there it was, 8 perfectly shrink-wrapped albums of my choosing.  There was Dark Side of the Moon, Hotel California, Sgt. Peppers and a host of other classic rock albums.  I so vividly remember my joy at taking those albums out of the shrink-wrapping and seeing the cover art.  But, there, nestled among the albums was a relatively innocuous white sheet.  It turns out it was an invoice telling me that I owed the Columbia House Record Club about $23 for what was called “Shipping and Handling.”  Well, I was a little disappointed but 8 albums for 23 bucks was still a huge steal because at the time, albums were about 8-9 dollars at the time.

But that wasn’t the only string attached.  Imagine my surprise when, several weeks later, a Go-Go’s album that I definitely did not want showed up at my door.  Making matters worse, this time the invoice was for nearly $18 dollars, which covered the cost of the album plus the dreaded shipping and handling.  Turns out, each month, you had to reply in the negative with a little card that they sent you in the mail.  If you didn’t return it, it was assumed you wanted the highlighted album and boom, they sent it to you.  And, guess what?  Each one cost about two and a half times what an actual album cost from a local record store.  I lived up to the terms of that Columbia House deal but only after I must’ve bought at least like six albums I didn’t want because of my lax oversight of those little cards.

I remember that history because I think it perfectly illustrates the ways of this world.  As we all know from the accumulation of words of wisdom and lessons learned, there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Or, put another way, there are always strings attached to any good thing.

Which is why we get such good and life affirming news when Jesus Christ speaks to us in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John saying, “Not as the world gives do I give to you.”  That’s good news, folks.  For we know, all too well, the ways of this broken world.  But it gets even better.  Jesus Christ continues, saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Now, there is surely as discordant words as you’ll find compared to today’s world.  For if anything, we are the United States of Anxiety.  Believe it or not, this undercurrent was actually picked up by Charles Schultz all the way back in the late fifties.  In a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy talks with Charlie Brown and her brother, Linus.  Lucy inquires, “What are you two looking so worried about?” to which the two reply, “The future.’  Lucy then goes on to ask if there is anything in particular that they fear.  Their response is amusing.  They declare that they’re worried about everything, that their fear is, according to the comic strip, very broadminded.

How true is that today?  Especially after the pandemic, right?  Do you remember?  I’m sure you do.  There, on our television and phone screes, were these horrific numbers, estimating the number of deaths we were likely to experience from COVID.  To make matters worse, we were quarantined in our homes with little to do with our fears but dwell upon them constantly, night and day.  I remember one time, right during the darkest days of the fear and the panic, that I needed to go the CVS.  Well, I didn’t really want to be anyplace, much less a place where sick people necessarily congregate to get medicines for whatever ails them.  I deliberately waited until like 2am in the morning to go in order to minimize my exposure.  Even so, being in the store felt transgressive and frightening at the same time.  Like I was doing something I shouldn’t at the consequences would be severe.