Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these

 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

"So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

- Matthew 6:25-34

We are reading through the Sermon on the Mount, which began with Matthew chapter 5, and the Beatitudes.  In Saturday's reading, Jesus taught:  "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?"  Here my study bible emphasizes that Jesus is warning against anxiety, not thoughtful planning.  Because our physical well-being is directly dependent upon God, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing, we live in all ways within that relationship.  Anxiety over earthly things, my study bible says, demonstrates a lack of faith in God's care.

"So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"  Jesus gives us a sense of the natural beauty of life and the care built into even the smallest details of each form of life in creation.  All of creation, He's saying, is filled with God's love and care.  If even the grass of the field, with its extremely transient life, is so clothed by God with beauty, how much will God care for our adornment and clothing?

"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."  My study bible says that because the Gentiles served pagan idols, they remained consumed by dependence upon earthly things.  Those who follow God can be freed of this dependence.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  The kingdom of God, my study bible tells us, is the central theme of all of Jesus' teaching, and His righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount.   If we place first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness by which we live in that kingdom even in this world, our focus is in proper order and right-relationship even with worldly things.  We rely on God for our lives, and God adds blessings to our lives.  "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" is good advice in an age of anxiety and depression.

Above all things, Jesus gives us righteousness, or right-relatedness.  In all things, we put our relationship to God first.  We cultivate our faith first, because this puts everything in the proper order in life.  Our worldly blessings, Jesus says, will be added unto us.  It is a recipe against anxiety, for a way of seeing our lives in context of the true relationship we have in faith and with the Creator of all things.  Above all, everything depends on what we put first.  It is the righteousness in the life of the Kingdom that Jesus emphasizes throughout the whole Sermon on the Mount, and it is this that He says is our greatest treasure that leads to all other good things and our understanding and proper appreciation of them.  Let us note carefully that Jesus does not despise the needs we have in life for clothing and food.  On the contrary, He points out the beauty of the natural things of the world, even the simplest flowers that grow in the fields.  It is such that God creates and adorns in raiment that bests even Solomon in all his glory.  Jesus wants us to understand that it is the love of God that comes first before all things, and within that context we live in each moment, each care, each need.  When He tells us that "after all these things the Gentiles seek," He is referring to a form of idolatry, where these cares and concerns come first -- outside of the context of faith and love of God.  Therefore, so much depends on this teaching about what we put first, what we seek first.  For Christ, the deepest teaching He does is right here:  "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."  First comes the trust we place in God, the seeking of the Kingdom Jesus says is at hand.   Modern forms of illnesses take on the shape of this broken trust:  addictions of all kinds, anxieties and their connection to depression.  Medications for these illnesses top the sales of all pharmaceuticals around the world.  Christ knows our weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and He knows our needs.  He understands what we need and what are our concerns.  He doesn't expect us not to have them, nor to ignore our desires for food, drink, and clothing.  But He also knows what hurts us and debilitates us, what keeps us from experiencing God's love and the trust of this deepest relationship, to Creator, the One who loves us and who wishes most fervently that we are one (John 17:20-21).  It is this depth of relatedness and communion to which Jesus points, a life filled with blessings too deep and varied to count, in which we can see God's love for ourselves in the care of the birds and the beauty of the natural world around us.  Let us remember that all of the Sermon on the Mount is meant to point to the righteousness of this life of communion, the kingdom of heaven and our growth within it, our way and journey in faith.  He opens the door -- He is the door.  Let us work on our reliance on God, and an active faith that seeks to discard the unnecessary anxieties that may plague our lives in the demands of a modern world so that we may find His care and direction instead.