Consider the lilies

He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
- Luke 12:22-31

These daily readings are arranged quite complementarily, I find. Although the passages from yesterday and today do not immediately follow one another in the gospel, in today's gospel reading we have a "balancing over" in the words of Christ to the teachings on prayer of yesterday's reading. While yesterday's teaching on prayer emphasized the kingdom and its nature, and what those who seek it must pray for, today's teaching is another way to view the cares of the daily world we normally have. Yesterday's teaching on prayer emphasized the spirituality of that for which we pray, and what we should emphasize. Today's readings are a teaching about unecessary worry and anxiety.

It's interesting to note all of this teaching on what we might call detachment - the futility of excessive worry and over-absorption with accumulation. It seems to me that Jesus is teaching his disciples what their priorities are - that they should first seek the kingdom, that this should be their goal. Over-worry and dwelling on purely material acquisition is not the right priority, it's got to be put into its place, falling behind what we seek first, the keys to the kingdom and the wisdom of Spirit.

In this (and overall in the gospels) I don't see Jesus discounting for a moment our needs and our abilities to work, to create and to build a good and healthy and beautiful life in the world. Instead I see this as a ranking in priority, a setting down of life's order. If we seek wisdom, if we seek the Spirit of wisdom and truth, and we lay our lives in service to the Good, then the material must follow. The famous passage about the beauty of the lilies (which inspired my choice for my blog's photo, above) is famous because we all understand the truth in the statement. Creation is beautiful, the world is full of beauty - that which we worship is not blind to our need for beauty and care. But we must dwell on the source of that goodness, that creation, and so the rest is a part of that life in which we share a perspective of the immanence of that goodness in the creation. Our minds can create and plan and develop endless resources and ideas for a good life in this world - but this must follow service to meanings and values and goals that set down order and beauty, and give us purpose.

It is my point of view that in prayer we must understand that what we seek is something to be added to the day to day, that unlimits us in terms of our cares and concerns. It is like adding an extra layer of experience and beauty to life to focus on the gifts of Spirit, and seeking wisdom as part of that gift, so that we may know how to plan our lives better and use resources wisely and for good purpose. A focus purely on the mundane gives us a kind of existence where greed and limitation purely to selfishness can flourish, and all the accompanying behaviors and social ills we know too well. If we set our priorities straight in prayer, we are able the better to appreciate the beauty of life, and the splendour that we can find in our world. We should remember that Beauty is one of the names of God, and so that which we seek does not discount the bounty nor the immanent beauty of life in our world. But we must get our priorities straight, and understand that it is for the revelation of this kingdom to us that we pray, and that we have the strength and proper priorities in order to build it and use our talents wisely, and with good purpose. If we seek the Good, and the wisdom and discernment of Love, might we not use our capacities in a better way?

For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.