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Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He cloth you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
- Luke 12:22-31
The lectionary skips over parts of Luke in today's and yesterday's readings. Tomorrow is Ascension Day, and on Friday we'll return to Luke's chapter 9. Yesterday we read that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing." All my study bible has to say about today's reading is that "this is an exhortation against worry and anxiety, not against God-ordained planning and earnest work." If we begin with just these sentences we start with Jesus' primary orientation for us: life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. This is the first thing we have to consider: what more is there to life, and what more is there to the body? It invites us to ask what it is that constitutes the fullness of our lives, what does it mean to fully live, and what is it to be fully a human being? In these two sentences, Jesus also connects these considerations to anxiety. Our deepest anxieties come from a place wherein we are considering life purely as material, without more to ourselves and to what life itself is.
"Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Jesus gives us examples from nature. Take a look at the birds (the ravens) and how they live: do they plan, do they have savings and account books -- storehouse or barn? And yet somehow their lives are cared for. A raven is a large strong bird, full of intelligence, able even to mimic other birds and sounds. In 1 Kings 17, we're told that that Elijah was fed by ravens. Jesus tells us we are of much more value than the birds, as we are children by adoption, capable of becoming "like God." He uses the example of worry and height: can worry make us grow taller? There are some things that anxiety can do nothing for; it doesn't help us to solve problems or fix things we can't do anything about. And this is the "least" -- so why carry so much anxiety about the rest? Finally, He mentions the lilies and their beauty. This saying is the inspiration for the photo at the top of my blog, of crocosmia lilies which grow in abundance wherever they're found. Their beauty always inspires me, and Jesus' words tell us the truth.
"If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He cloth you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you." Again, Jesus speaks against anxiety. But most of all He tells us about what is most important, what is the priority. What is it to life that is more than meat and drink, what is it to the body that is more than clothing? He tells us here what that is that we must seek, that makes up the "more" to what we are and to our lives, and that is the kingdom of God -- our relationship to God.
Often in my day, I'll find myself anxious about one thing or another. And then I have to center myself in prayer, think about the things I'm anxious about, and give them to God. I find oftentimes that a strange process of priority and sorting takes place by doing this. The phrase "one thing at a time" won't be foreign to anybody! Most especially, taking Jesus' words to heart, we find that some things there's just no point in worrying about until the day gets here: the doctor's appointment we don't really want to deal with, the workmen coming over, all the number of things we take anxiety about that we can't really do anything about -- for which anxiety isn't going to help. In the wisdom of Jesus, we find most properly a great antidote for the powerful problems of our time. Anxiety and depression constitute the most prevalent states of human beings in our modern world with which people seek to cope, especially through modern medicines. Let us remember there is more to life than the things which make us anxious, that there are so many things for which anxiety is not an answer and will not change anything. Jesus tells us instead to seek first the kingdom. He assures us that God knows we have need of all these things for which we take anxiety. But life is much more than all these things. That life is in the depth of relationship that God brings to our lives, to our hearts, to the ways in which an encounter with Christ can bring us face to face with the things that are of utmost importance: the things we can do something about, like how we live our lives, how we see things, and the help and inspiration and creativity that can come from prayer -- and the rest we take in prayer. These are the things that are more. Let us remember the grace that comes to us to quicken and fulfill and energize our lives, so that all these things may be added. God shapes our persona in encounter, and life in abundance is much more than the things for which we are so anxious.
