Luke 12:22-31
22He 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. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24Consider 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! 25And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider 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. 28But 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! 29And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”
As a Cleveland Browns fan, I am super excited about the direction the team is going. Both the General Manager and the outstanding additions through free agency and the Coaching Staff and the superior development of those players, leave me excited and anticipating the football season. But with everything going so well, the cynic in me starts to become worried. What about injury, what about a lack of chemistry, what about personality clashes, what about …? I cannot help but have anxiety and/or fear that with everything going well, something bad or unpleasant will happen.
So too with us in the Church. We do not worry about our sports teams, but we do have a multitude of things to worry about. Things like the economy and inflation, things like the shortage of gas and chicken wings, things like escalating tensions with China and Russia. We can find an enormous number of things to have anxiety and/or fear of, that something bad or unpleasant will happen and happen soon.
Hear this Word of the Lord, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear…. While 1st Century churches did not have to worry about the stock market, or nuclear war, or the price of gasoline, they did have daily struggles that could consume them and their attentions. Will we have enough food, will we have basic clothing, and will I be devoured by the local wildlife? These struggles which thankfully we have phased out of our society still leads to anxiety and that we have plenty of. While the stresses and triggers are quite different, something resides in our nature that wants to worry and fret about something bad happening today or tomorrow.
But we are told not to worry because life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. These basic amenities of life were quite able to demand the attention of the ensouled bodies of the first Christians, but they needed reminded that life is more than the basic amenities of life. While dreadfully important, these things are outranked by the more important elements, in which humans alone are capable. Jesus uses the analogy to make his point, 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! While important, the basic amenities of life are outranked by things of higher value like virtue, righteousness, and justice. God knows we need the basics but also has given us the urge for higher desires, the desires of virtue.
We are also told not to worry because, 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? As creatures we cannot give ourselves a single hour, only our Creator can do that. Time is allotted by the free and generous hand of God alone. If we cannot give ourselves time, then why should we worry about all the other things that God alone can give? As creatures we must learn to be content in and under the Providence of God to care and minister to God’s creatures, instead of replacing God with ourselves and try to give ourselves more time and more life.
Perhaps this speaks deeply of our fallen human nature to trust only in ourselves and not have to put anything on God. But that is what Jesus describes as you of little faith! We do not and perhaps even cannot put ourselves under the care of God instead we put ourselves only on own shoulders. To steal more time, to prevent the catastrophe from occurring, to solicit enough resources for our families, to purchase the food, clothing, and medicine in self-reliance. But self-reliance is of little faith in God because you put your faith in yourself. And when you put your faith in yourself, the end is only worry, anxiety and apprehension, because you must play God, with the Real and Living God has been excluded from our worlds.
But what real faith in God and not in us looks like is to strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Seek the higher things of God’s Kingdom and the worldly conveniences of daily life will be added unto you. To search, to desire, to obtain the Kingdom of God first and then our daily resources will be added unto us. This just begs the question, what do we seek first and then the other things second? The Kingdom of God and then worldly goods, or worldly goods first and then the Kingdom of God afterward. This is still the path of worry and anxiety because God is not first and then our goods second, but we worry about our kingdoms and never have time or concern for God. God is excluded and you are still playing God.
My brothers and sisters, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ we can learn to seek the Kingdom of God first and our daily bread will be added unto us. To seek the higher concerns instead of the basic pieces of life. God knows we need them, but God wants us to worry about virtue before food, righteousness before clothing, and justice before our bodies. This is who God has made us through the work of the Word and the Spirit. Will we become this people, who seek God’s Kingdom first and then our basic conveniences second?
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