“Consider the lilies”
Matthew 6:25-33 (October 13, 2024)
Thanksgiving is one of my favourite times of year! I love this season of autumn, with its cooler temperatures and bright-coloured leaves. I love being thankful for the gifts of God.
I have fond memories around this celebration. On Thanksgiving weekend, three things happened in our family. First, my Dad put the storm windows on the house, preparing it for winter. Second, we went to the Erin Fall Fair, where my Dad met up with friends and neighbours, and my brother and I spent hard-earned savings on rides in the midway. It was very exciting!
The third thing we did was attend the Anniversary Service at Hillsburgh Baptist Church. That’s the village church where some of my ancestors worshipped. The anniversary service was always at Thanksgiving, which seems appropriate to me. I grew up in the city but there, in rural Ontario, in a sanctuary decorated with corn stalks and sheaves of wheat, there was a different feeling: a greater sense of connection with the land and nature.
The windows of the church were clear panes of glass. As the service went on, I could see the branches on trees outside blowing in the wind, the sky and clouds beyond them. It felt like God had set us smack-dab in the garden of Eden.
✠
“Consider the lilies,” says Jesus to his disciples. He asks us to look around and notice things that God has made. Read them like a book. See if you can discern their message.
Christian theologians sometimes speak of two sources of revelation. There is a general revealing of God that comes to us in creation all around. And there is a more specific revealing of God that comes to us in the history of God’s people. Both are important.
Sometimes Jesus quotes from the sacred scriptures he has inherited from his ancestors: the Torah, the Prophets and the wisdom Writings. But in today’s passage we hear him refer to that larger book of revelation, the scripture which is creation itself. “Look at the birds of the air. … Consider the lilies of the field.” Can you discern their gospel message?
✠
On a day when we celebrate sowing, reaping and gathering into barns, it may come as a surprise for us to hear that the birds of the air do none of this! “They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,” says Jesus, “and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
They are not as consumed with their activity as we may be. They still have to gather material for nests, and search for food, and look after their young. But most of the time it all just seems to work out!
“Don’t be so worried,” says Jesus. We have a heavenly Father who cares for us.
Same with the lilies. These wild flowers are not planted by human hands. They need no earthly gardener. They seed themselves and miraculously grow.
They neither toil, nor spin threads to be woven into fancy garments. “Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” Yes, the richest, most powerful monarch of Israel’s storied past was no better attired than a common butter-cup or daisy.
Wildflowers are indeed beautiful. They often grow in inhospitable places. Meanwhile, in our carefully manicured gardens, we struggle to supply the right amount of nutrients and water. We work hard to prevent the infestation of predators and disease. The dreaded “lily-beetle” is the bane of Lindsay’s gardening existence. She was so frustrated by the end of this summer that she pulled most of her lilies out, vowing to never grow them again!
“If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?”
✠
“Don’t worry what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear.”
There’s a kind of idyllic poetry to these words and images. I find them beautiful! They calm my anxiety. They sooth my restless spirit.
But part of wonders, can this be true? Can I really just relax and allow my life to rest in the loving hands of God?
Worry is part of our human condition. If we didn’t plan or think ahead and try to arrange our lives just so, well, where would we be?
One of our much-appreciated handy-persons was working around the church on Friday. Holes were patched, windows closed, outside water taps turned off before the temperature drops and freezes them. That kind of “toiling” is important. Some kind of worry – and the scurrying about that goes with it – seems prudent to me.
But can we worry too much? Can we get our “knickers in a knot” about the silliest of things? Can our fears, sometimes, be overblown? Can the stomach-churning worry we feel inside us make us sick?
✠
These are anxious times we live in. We worry about all kinds of things, large and small. We imagine huge disasters: the possibility of nuclear war, environmental catastrophes. We fear the kind of world we may be leaving for our grandchildren. We worry about even the most ordinary things: the clothes we wear, the things we say, the food we serve.
“Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? … Can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your span of life?” asks Jesus.
The answer is “no, we can’t.” Not one single minute! In fact, worry can have the opposite effect. It can shorten our lives and take away our joy. Anxiety causes us to retreat from life instead of embracing it.
✠
Don’t worry. Look at the birds. Consider the lilies. When we look outside ourselves and see the big book of God’s creation, the holy scripture of this world that God has made, we find ourselves in awe and reverence.
An exchange was overheard on day, when our then-teenage son invited two of his friends to come over and hang out. They were sitting on the deck in our back yard. And you’ll never guess the conversation they were having!
They were discussing among themselves which was their favourite flower. Pointing to this one or that and praising its particular beauty.
This is not the usual conversation of teenage boys! But there they were, set in the midst of a garden, transported for a few moments to another realm.
✠
Viktor Frankl was a holocaust survivor, who later wrote a book about his experience. He tells about one afternoon when the men had tramped back several miles from their work site and were lying exhausted and sick and hungry in their barracks. It was winter, and they had marched through a cold, dispiriting rain.
Suddenly one of them burst in and shouted for the others to come outside. Sensing the urgency in his voice, they stirred themselves and staggered into the courtyard.
The rain had stopped, and a bit of sunlight was breaking through under the leaden clouds. It was reflecting on the little pools of water standing about on the concrete pavement.
“We stood there,” said Frankl, “marveling at the goodness of the creation. We were tired and cold and sick, we were starving to death, we had lost our loved ones and never expected to see them again, yet there we stood, feeling a sense of reverence as old and formidable as the world itself!”[1]
Even when things are really dark, there can be light.
✠
The word in our text which we translate as “worry” means to be “preoccupied with” or “to be absorbed by” something.[2]
When Jesus says “don’t be worried” he’s telling us not to be consumed with the many cares of our earthly existence. Don’t worry so much! Don’t let all these things take over your life.
There is one thing that needs to come first, one matter that deserves our full and undivided attention: “Strive first for the kingdom of God.” Seek to know the realm of God’s providence and loving care. Immerse yourself in that.
“Do not worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’” Folks who don’t know God are preoccupied with such things. But not you!
God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field. Will not this loving, heavenly Father also care for you?
And the answer is, of course! God already knows your every need. Don’t be so obsessed with worry. Turn your attention to the one thing that can save your life and make it whole.
✠
Strive to live within the reign of God. Love God. Love your neighbour. Be kind and generous. Share what you’ve been given. Look after each other – especially those who are most vulnerable. Aim for peace and justice. Live in right relationship with God and others.
This is the kingdom way. When we do that, everyone benefits. We are all the better for it! Seek first the kingdom of God … and these other things will be yours as well!
This Thanksgiving Sunday, I’m asking you to consider the lilies. Or the birds. Or the … leaves. Or … the northern lights – which have been spectacular these last few nights.
This is a picture of the sky over our neighbourhood park when Lindsay and I were out on our evening walk. We weren’t expecting to see them. But there they were, available to all. They surprised us! One more gift from our gracious heavenly Father.
I wonder what will God reveal to you today from the world of God’s creation?
Don’t worry. Instead, consider all the beauty and blessing that God has put into your life. And whatever else you do today, take a moment to be thankful. Amen.
✠
[1] Viktor E. Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” quoted by John Killinger, “Of Rainbows, Geese and Wildflowers,” http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/killinger_3816.htm.
[2] Chris Haslam, http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/btksgm.shtml, Accessed October 12, 2024.