But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you

 

 "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 as 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 currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday'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 were 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 boy 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?"  My study Bible explains that Jesus is warning here against anxiety, not against thoughtful planning.  Our physical well-being is directly dependent upon God, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing.  It says that excess anxiety over earthly things 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 as 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 demonstrates here the natural beauty with which God has created the world, and clothed even the lilies and grass of the field.  Do we presume that God does not care about these things?  

 

 "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 comments that because the Gentiles served pagan idols, they remained consumed by dependence on earthly 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."   The kingdom of God is the central theme of Christ's teaching, and God's righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount. My study Bible states that, calling us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, Jesus directs us to look to heaven, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings.  

 

 So much of what we worry about seems to be directed by demands that do not come from within us, but come from what seems to be going on around us.  Do we need to have an updated home?  Do we need to wear clothes  that resemble what's admired or popular?  How much will people think of us when we don't impress them, or gain their approval through the things we have, wear, the car we drive, etc.?  That is a first consideration when we begin to approach the questions which are raised for us in today's reading.  It's important to consider the beauty that Jesus spells out in His teaching.  God does not neglect beauty, nor even admiration.  Jesus points out for us the charm and delight of the birds.  How are they cared for?  Do they store up the grain they find for the next season?  How do they flourish and survive?  And regarding clothing, Jesus speaks of the real splendor of the simplest things we can find in nature, even the lilies and grasses that grow wild.  It seems to me to be a quite literal statement that even Solomon wasn't arrayed in the glory of these flowers and plants that nature produces for us.  Our own ideas of beauty stem from the beauty of the natural world around us, the colors of the sunset, magnificence of mountains, the brilliance we see in flowers or the coloring of birds, the trees that give inspiration, the natural grace and life of the animals we observe.  The world is filled with the creative beauty of God, so why do we consider that God doesn't care about food or drink or clothing?  What Jesus is saying is that when we look around at the creation of God, its beauty should inspire us to consider our Creator, and what it says about God.  Do we think that God doesn't care about us?  Clearly God has provided for the birds and other animals.  Do we think even the beauty of our clothing doesn't matter?  But we see extraordinary natural beauty all around us, so what does that tell us about God?  Jesus is telling us, therefore, to look to our Creator first before all the rest of the cares and anxieties and urgent stressful demands that seem to plague us all the time.  And He also tells us exactly how we should look to our Creator first:  He says we must seek God's kingdom and His righteousness in the very first place in our lives, as our top priority.  In Christ's Incarnation, it is made manifest God's love for us and for God's creation (John 3:16).  The Incarnation is for us, so that we may become like Him and live with Him, even an abundant, eternal life; and this Incarnation is for the whole of the world, all of creation (both seen and unseen).  Christ's ministry presents us with the overwhelming conviction of the value of human beings, even those who will carry His kingdom in this world.  With that astonishing, invincible love, do we think God does not care what we will eat or drink or the clothing we'll wear?  So let us seek God first, trusting in God, and putting into perspective the nature of our relationship to creation and to our world.  For it is in righteouness that we find right relationship to all of it, including our material needs and lives.  Christ's final words in today's reading give us a right attitude to cultivate for our well-being:  "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."  This last word, trouble, is in the Greek κακία/kakia, meaning evil or bad, wickedness, even depravity.   Whatever troubles and difficulties we have, let us not compound them, for the things on our plate today are enough for us.  Let us put our trust and efforts first in God's kingdom and our pursuit of God's righteousness, and what we need will be added unto that. 

 

 

 

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you

 

 "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 currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught His disciples, "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?"  My study Bible explains that Jesus is warning against anxiety here, not against thoughtful planning.  Our physical well-being is directly dependent upon God, it says, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing.  It further remarks that to be anxious over earthly things 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?  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."  Because the Gentiles served pagan idols, they remained dependent upon earthly things, my study Bible says.  Those who follow God can be freed from 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 is the central theme of Christ's teaching, and God's righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount, my study Bible notes.  It says that Jesus calls us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, and directs us to look to heaven -- secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings.  

 

So, what is God's righteousness?   The entire Sermon on the Mount is a way to express this, what life is like in living for the Kingdom.  We started with the Beatitudes, which taught us how to live and to view a blessed life.  From there we learned that believers are like salt and light, and carry these needful qualities with them in spiritual terms that help their societies and communities.  Deepening our understanding of the Law and its aims, Jesus teaches us about the reality of our interior lives, what it means to be part of this communion, and to take action to avoid sin at deeper levels within our own hearts.  In other words, true righteousness, and justice, even spiritual perfection.  Giving examples of this life, He teaches us how we should pray, and what to pray.  Yesterday, He taught us about the impossibility of serving two masters; we'll either be a slave to materialism or freed in true righteousness, embracing the life of the Kingdom (see above).  Moreover, in today's reading, Jesus elaborates on that freedom, asking us to become freed enough from attachment to our material desires so as to avoid excess anxiety, to stop making that the central focus of life and put God there instead -- "for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."  In other words, we don't divide life into two realms, but we do put one first, the one governed by God, under whom are all things, for God creates and upholds all of reality.  When we lose the righteousness -- the kingdom of God and His righteousness -- then we lose the reason for being, the ways of relationship to the world and even to our material possessions, how to use them, what they are for, and how they are provided for us.  In our lives we may work hard, we may find very creative ways to live material lives, but ultimately our well-being depends upon placing our faith in something that colors everything and transcends it.  In recognizing dependence upon God, we not only find this righteousness and this Kingdom for ourselves, we also find a healthy gratitude, an understanding of life that places in our laps the means by which we find values and priorities for all that we do.  Gratitude is so often the alternative, and therapy, for the times one feels depression or meaninglessness, so let us shape our lives by this understanding of dependence upon God.  Even the sad parts of life, the things we experience as loss, pain, or suffering, gain meaning through God's righteousness, and relationship to Creator, including insights on how we go forward through difficulties.  So let us depend upon Christ and free ourselves from the anxieties that make us unbalanced and unreceptive to the righteousness and communion we can find.  Today's passage contains some of the most beautiful imagery found in all of Scripture.  It's not for nothing that Jesus reminds us of the stunning beauty of nature ("even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these"), of the things created by God, the dependency even of the birds of the air for God's care ("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?"), and most especially how futile our worry and anxiety are ("Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?").  In this context, faith becomes the way of life that is not simply preferable, but needful, and for all of us as human beings.  In the modern world, we feel that we are constantly bombarded with things to worry about; we are constantly fed information guaranteed to stoke anxiety.  Jesus acknowledges that we have needs, and we also have troubles, but He puts them into context for us.  Perhaps it was always like this, but nonetheless even in our present age it remains true, that "tomorrow will worry about its own things -- and sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  Let us take Jesus at His word, for unlike some who preach all kinds of systems or philosophies or even faiths, He doesn't scare us with fear, but quite the opposite.  He teaches us that a focus on worry and anxiety avail us nothing; only faith changes everything and is the place we should take our stand and root ourselves in life.  Let us remember the beauty and wisdom He teaches to us. We are called to a particular Kingdom, and a particular righteousness.  The whole world may urgently chase the material life ("For after all these things the Gentiles seek"), but we are called to a different way.  In a world increasingly obsessed with security, let us consider how we may seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness.

 

 

 

 

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you

 

 "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 currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  In yesterday'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; 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?  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?"  My study Bible tells us that here Jesus is warning against anxiety, but not against thoughtful planning.  It notes that our physical well-being is directly dependent upon God, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing.  Anxiety over earthly things, it says, can be a demonstration of a lack of faith in God's care.

"For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."  Because the Gentiles served pagan idols, they remained consumed by dependence upon earthly things, my study Bible says.  Those who follow God can be freed from 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."   My study Bible says that the kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus' teaching.  God's righteousness is the subject of the entire Sermon on the Mount.  These are what we are to seek!  Jesus calls us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, and directs us to look to heaven, taking our security in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings.  

As my grandparents were survivors of genocide, it often gives me pause to think about this passage and the notes from my study Bible.  I grew up in a community of genocide survivors, all of whom had horrific stories of watching many family members murdered, of marches without food and water, seeing their entire communities destroyed.  They were simply lucky to have their own skins and to have survived.  It was an act of mass Christian persecution, its 1.5 million victims are now officially martyrs and saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church.  It always gives me pause to think about the readings we're given today.  It's important to add that Christ's teachings here are resoundingly powerful in my own life.  Learning to trust to God for what I need -- and to let go, in those times I have to, of what I thought I needed, but God seems to ask me to live without, has been an integral component of my own spiritual journey in life.  Without those times of letting go, and learning to plant my faith more deeply in Christ, I would not have learned what my faith is, nor learned about myself, nor about the realities of life separate from fantasies and popular ideas.  In short, every word I read here in today's reading I have experienced as true, and I am continuing to go down that path in my life.  As for the extreme hardships such as those my grandparents endured, I cannot comment on what is not my experience.  But it was their faith that kept them together as a community, shaped their identities, blessed them with an understanding of who they were and therefore how to go forward and rebuild their communities in the face of the worst crisis any community can face.  My grandparents (despite the horrific things they experienced when they were young) were cheerful, robust, hard-working, forward-looking people, taking joy in what life offered and especially in the unquestionable love with which they blessed me.  And I believe that this, too, was facilitated by their faith in Christ and the ancient faith which was part and parcel of their cultural inheritance.  Christian faith, above all, is an affirmation of life, for Resurrection is at the heart of it.  As He said, He is "the way, the truth, and the life."  "Mammon" did not have the last word, nor define who they were.  What Christ offers us today is the way to live with that always-present affirmation of life.  That is, in all things, we trust in God, and it is a process of learning to let go not just of excess anxiety -- but also of our own modern sense that so much depends upon what we look like, what house we have, what clothes we wear, and on and on and on.  Our faith, we always need to be reminded, does not consist solely of the things we have, but of what we know about ourselves and our relationship to God in terms of the intangible treasures that don't have a price.  What price is compassion in the midst of a genocide, for example?  My grandmother, along with tens of thousands of others, was an orphan, saved by American missionary doctors who trained her to be a nurse.  My other grandmother and my great grandmother were saved by a Turkish widow of a military officer who hid them in her home; my great grandmother had worked for her. In yesterday's reading, Jesus directed us to store treasures in heaven, and acts of compassion surely create those treasures -- just as we also remember that He said, "And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward" (see Matthew 10:40-42).  In today's reading, Christ fully teaches us what it means to serve one master or another, and what it means to serve the purely material instead of trusting to faith in God first.  Jesus says, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  How often have those words been true, despite anxieties and worries?  In this, too, He teaches us what is essential and also what we need to let go. In the long run, and even through calamity, it is the intangible values of Christ that sustain a good life, the rock of faith which teaches us how to build our lives and gives us the strength to do so.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble

 

"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 either 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 have been currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  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?"   My study Bible comments that Jesus is warning against anxiety here, and not against thoughtful planning.  Our physical well-being is directly dependent on God, it says, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing.  Anxiety over earthly things can be a demonstration of 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 either 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?"  Again, Jesus is putting faith in God first over anxiety over worldly things.  That is, we come to depend first upon God.  His warnings, as my study Bible put it, is against anxiety, as opposed to thoughtful planning.  

"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."  As the Gentiles served pagan idols, my study Bible explains, they remained consumed by dependence upon earthly things.  Those who follow God can be freed from 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."  Here is the central theme of Christ's teaching and the gospel message:  the kingdom of God, and God's righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount.  My study Bible comments that Christ calls us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, and directs us to look to heaven, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings.  

So what does it mean to put God's kingdom first in our lives?  To seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness?  First of all, it is a way to set things in proper order in our lives, to put things in their right perspective.  This is not simply because God is Creator, but because God has the way for us to put in proper order and relationship that things in our lives -- which includes the right relationship to earthly things, material goods.  In Saturday's reading, Jesus taught  that we cannot serve God and mammon.  And it is clear that if we don't put things in proper order (that is, if we do not put the kingdom of God and God's righteousness first), we will wind up making an idol of material, earthly things.  When we are filled with excess anxiety over the things we might possess and use, then we dwell on them constantly.  We do not seek God's direction for how to live our lives, but wind up obsessing over things that really don't need to consume that much attention, and we take away from our faith.  We engage in practices that steal our own ability to live prayerful lives, to dwell in that Kingdom, so to speak.  This is not a teaching about escaping from material responsibility, or a two-tiered life divided into the spiritual and the material.  It is, instead, a teaching in which we're given the right recipe for wholeness, for right-relatedness to God and to the world, to put things in order, instead of living lives which are disordered and out of balance.  A modern vision that sees life as purely material, and focuses so heavily on what we wear, what we look like, what modern things we have, what our houses look like, isn't conducive to a focus first on the Kingdom and God's righteousness.  Neither is it a focus that leads to good judgment or mercy, as so much finally becomes measured by this material yardstick of "success."  This is a disordered way to look at life, upside down, one in which suffering even for one's faith, or for love, is simply seen as loss without meaning.  And that is truly a disordered worldview, because in the end it will rob everything of meaning.  Suffering is a part of life and of this world, it is the root of the very word for evil or "the evil one" in Greek (Matthew 6:13).  That word is πονηρός/poneros, the root of which means pain, and in its broader meaning includes suffering, trouble, and laborious toil.   But if it is for our faith we suffer, for the righteousness of God and the gospel of the Kingdom, then suddenly suffering takes on meaning, because we put real meaning first in our lives -- and this diffuses into everything, even the sacrifices we make for it.  It is the "good fight" (1 Timothy 1:18, 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7), the struggle for love and meaning, which is not blind to the darkness of the world but bears light into it.  A purely material yardstick leaves us with only winners and losers, anxiety and depression, a world filled with meaningless suffering.  Christ will transform and transfigure that world through the Cross, and we are given this righteousness as a way that leads us through life as more than just losers when we suffer, and as those with the opportunity to transfigure even worldly wealth into compassion when we win.  Now that is a great proposition, the good news indeed.

 

 

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble

 "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 now reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  For the earlier readings and commentary on this Sermon, see  The Beatitudes;  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven;  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven;  I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment;  Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect; Do not be like the hypocrites and Our Father in heaven.  On Saturday, we read that 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?"  My study bible tells us here:  "Severe anxiety, not thoughtful planning and care, is what is warned against here.  Physical growth and length of life is dependent upon the providence of God more than upon food, drink, and clothing.  Persistent anxiety over the things of this world demonstrates internal insecurity and a weak or superficial faith."  It seems to me that Christ is calling us once again to put our "house" or rather our faith in order, and to focus on what is uppermost, the central things of our lives.  He is calling us to remember God, to focus first on the kingdom, and away from a purely material-minded perspective that omits or forget to trust in God first.  Worrying alone can't fix things!

"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 the example of God's love and care, and teaches us about God's love, reminding us that this is what we are to be mindful of in our lives.  He seems to suggest that a purely material perspective causes anxieties that do nothing to help us or even to achieve the things we want.  The antidote is to remember the love of God.

"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."  My study bible tells us that "the pagan worship of the Gentiles did not deliver them from their earthly cares, because it was focused upon nonexistent gods, that is, idols."

"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."  My study bible teaches, "The kingdom of God is the central theme of the teaching of Jesus, and His righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount.  Calling us to be set free from anxiety about earthly things, Jesus directs us to look to heaven, to this greater 'country' which will be received at the Day of the Lord, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings."  Let us note the focus of Jesus' teaching here:  we focus on the Kingdom first, and on God's righteousness that Jesus teaches, and "all these things shall be added to you."  He is teaching us about faith, and right-relatedness to the things of this world.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  Again, we're cautioned against over-anxiety here.  We have to remember Jesus' teaching style; it is full of aphorisms and brilliant images for us to understand what He is driving at.  He's not necessarily saying we don't think at all about "tomorrow" -- but He's cautioning us about excessive anxiety and dwelling on things that turn them into a kind of idol.  We're better off focusing on the Kingdom, and putting everything else second to this, in the proper place.

It seems to me we live in a time that is deluged with anxieties and worries about tomorrow.  We're integrated into a modern age in which all kinds of media saturate us with images of what we are to be like, what we must look like, what we must have, what kind of house we need, what we must dwell in and how it must look, and what we must wear, eat, consume - in all sorts of senses of that word.  As we become more materially prosperous as a world, so anxiety sets in not only about the things we have but about what we think we must have because others have these things.  But Jesus calls us to something different, deeper, and a better perspective.  He's suggesting that such a focus only leads us to greater anxiety; indeed, I believe that in modern industrial societies the effects of modern life tend to be confirmed in the widespread pharmaceutical use of prescriptions for anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications.  What Jesus calls for from us is a radical shift in our perspective on life:  put the Kingdom first.  Remember God's love first.  Let that understanding temper our ways of thinking about what we have, what we wear, what we eat.  Let the remembrance of God's love put those things into perspective for us.  Excessive anxiety isn't healthful nor is it helpful in changing our lives and gaining us a better quality of life.  All through the Sermon on the Mount, He's asked us to go deeper into ourselves, to examine our motivations, to watch our thoughts, to be aware of who we are on the inside.  For His kind of righteousness, this is what we need.  Here, He's telling us about excessive worry and anxiety.  And He's teaching us what we should do to counter that:  focus on the Kingdom, on the things that moth and rust can't ruin, that thieves can't steal from us.  Focus especially on God's love for us.  Look around at the incredible beauty of the world, the care and love and mercy in that beauty that we see all around ourselves.  He's telling us to give ourselves a break.  To focus on love and beauty is to focus on the mercy which gives us joy, which sets our perspectives in order.  Let us consider what we do with our time, how we focus, what drives us, and most of all, what softens and truly adds to our lives.  Let us focus on the real treasure.  Where does God's love come into the picture for you?  What does it teach you about where your worth lies?  We don't need to add to our troubles by this perspective that omits all these things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.