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The Second Sunday after Pentecost It probably won’t surprise any of you when I say that books are one of the greatest delights in my life and one of the things I most loved sharing with my children. So when I first learned that I would become a grandmother I began to frequent the kids’ sections of Borders and Barnes and Noble, picking out books for my granddaughter. It was with great delight that I found one that had been a favorite bedtime story when my own children were young. It’s not great literature—it’s a simple story, really, all about a mother watching her child grow up and at each stage—toddler hood, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and even on into middle age, she sings a refrain to her sleeping child: I’ll like you for always In a similar vein, today’s readings call to mind God’s love for God’s children. Being reminded of God’s love is nothing new, of course--we hear about God’s love almost every week—God’s love is powerful and mighty and strong and everlasting, a force to be reckoned with. But this week in the reading from Isaiah we hear something different—we hear God’s love compared to that of a mother. I’ll like you for always I think this reminder of God’s tender and everlasting love for us sets up a useful context for hearing today’s gospel. This gospel comes from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ longest teaching discourse in Matthew, a teaching course that is all about discipleship. Jesus has given instructions about a variety of topics—anger, retaliation, oaths, loving one’s enemy, almsgiving, prayer, fasting, treasure, and wealth, in every case calling his hearers to a new way of being. Then Jesus tells his disciples not to worry. “…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear… can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?... Therefore do not worry…but strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Do not worry. That must have been hard advice for the disciples to hear. These disciples had left their jobs and families to be with Jesus, they were about to be sent out as missionaries with the instructions to take no provisions with them, their lives were being changed forever, and Jesus was telling them not to worry. We live in a very different world, but I think it is just as difficult, maybe even more difficult, for us to pay heed to this instruction. Do not worry—not about what you are going to eat or drink or wear or how you’re going to fill up your car or meet the mortgage or save enough for retirement. Do not worry—because if you strive first for the Kingdom of God, all these things will be given to you. Critics of this passage—and there are many—argue that it makes no practical sense, that we obviously can’t just sit back and wait for God to provide. Others go to the opposite extreme, taking this notion at face value, preaching the so-called “prosperity gospel”—become a faithful follower of Jesus, this line of reasoning goes, and prosperity literally will follow. Both of these approaches, however, seem to miss the point. Jesus does not suggest that that material wealth is a reward for right behavior, and poverty and misfortune signs of an inadequate faith, the clear implication of prosperity preaching. Nor does he suggest that we should not work to provide for tomorrow, but rather that we shouldn’t worry about tomorrow. Jesus tells his listeners not to worry, but that is not promise that things will be easy. Instead he is issuing a call to get one’s priorities straight, and he’s doing so in the context of God’s great and tender love for all of creation. Does not God provide for the birds and the flowers and the grasses—so much more will God care for us, humankind, beloved ones created in God’s own image. This doesn’t mean sit back and take it easy—anyone who watches birds knows that they work all day long getting the provisions they need. Rather it means that we need to let go of the worry about material things, the concentration on work and money and accumulation of wealth that threatens to consume us and we need to focus our attention instead on seeking God’s kingdom—the very kingdom Jesus has been teaching about, the kingdom in which God’s faithful people turn to a new way, a way based on justice and peace, on loving God and loving one’s neighbor. When we shift our attention to the Kingdom, everything changes. Everything changes because life is no long “all about me”—it’s about God and God’s kingdom. It’s about loving God and loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. It’s about living in relationship with God and humankind. It’s about trusting that in God’s kingdom there are abundant resources for everyone. If we truly seek God’s kingdom, if we really take discipleship seriously, we won’t have as much to worry about—not because God will be raining dollar bills on us and making life cushy but because we will be focused more on being Christ’s body in the world that on storing up treasures for ourselves. Here is where we must remember and take to heart again the rest of what Jesus is saying. It’s not “don’t worry, be happy”; rather it’s “don’t worry—instead seek the kingdom of God”—a kingdom where our concern for other is at least as great as our concern for ourselves. Because if we REALLY seek that kingdom, if we really become Christ’s body in the world, if we do the work of discipleship, then no one need live in extreme crushing poverty. No one need worry. How do we do this, you ask? Here I risk sounding like a broken record (if that figure of speech still has meaning). We do the work of discipleship by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, assisting the homeless. We do it by supporting the Millennium Development Goals, or Habitat, or the Noah Shelter, or the days and nights of hospitality, or the Miracle Kitchen or any of the other myriad ministries that reach out to the poor and disenfranchised. We do it by seeking the Christ in each and every person we encounter; by seeking first the kingdom of God. God loves us, loves as a father and as a mother. That love cocoons us and fills us with grace; it empowers us to do the work we’re called to do if only we open ourselves to the possibilities. Wrapped in God’s love let us go forth into the world to do that work, seeking God’s kingdom in all that we do. AMEN *Love You Forever, Robert Munsch (1986), Firefly Book, Ltd.
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