Lenten Evening Prayer: No Worries

Scripture  Matthew 6:24-34

“No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, 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. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’  For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

 

Meditation     

It’s Ted Lasso day! Nearly two full years after season 2 was released—this fish-out-of water story about a Kansas-based football coach who moves to London to coach an entirely different kind of football—season 3 has arrived! And I am excited.

 

There are lots of things I love about this show. It is filled with memorable characters, from coaches to players to “kit men” (the guys who take care of the equipment) to the owner and other employees of AFC Richmond, the fictional British soccer team coached by Lasso.

 

Now I’m branching into spoiler territory about season 2. One of my favorite things about the show is how honestly it treats things like anxiety and mental illness. The title character suffers from panic attacks, and we see him seek treatment and help for that. We see him do the work he needs to do, and we witness him sharing honestly with friends and colleagues, and ultimately, the media, about what is going on.

 

Anxiety is no fun. It affects our thoughts, our moods, and our bodies. I had my first (and so far, only) panic attack last July. I thought I was having a heart attack, and got myself to the emergency room. Anxiety can be terrifying. Rates of anxiety and depression for children and youth are at an all-time high, and in 2021, mental health for children and teenagers was recognized as an emergency across the globe. Rates of anxiety and depression have soared by 25% among adults as well. Anxiety would seem to be the pond many, many of us are swimming in. A week ago, Sunday, during joys and concerns, someone asked for prayers for those struggling with anxiety.

 

Jesus has some thoughts on anxiety. Tonight, we turn to his words in chapter 6, about halfway through the Sermon on the Mount. The passage begins with a famous quote: No one can serve two masters: you cannot serve both God and mammon. “Mammon” is a word that has come to mean riches or wealth, and that’s how it’s translated here. But in its original form it meant trust, something that can be relied upon. Jesus is warning his listeners that reliance upon wealth that supersedes our reliance on God is not ok. A choice must be made.

 

After this pronouncement, Jesus moves onto universal concerns, worries people had in Jesus’ day and still have in 2023… worries about food, about clothing, about security. He says, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

 

For context, we witness Jesus feeding huge numbers of people six times across the four gospels, so we know that these words are not aimed at people in poverty, people whom we might call “food insecure.” Jesus is not dismissing those concerns among those who struggle to stay afloat, who, in our day, might be forced to choose between their insulin and their rent. Rather, Jesus seems to be talking to those who already have enough, but who can get caught up in the chase for more—people whose cares include what others think about their appearance, how well they entertain their guests, whether their clothing suggests an appropriate level of style or wealth. Jesus is talking to those who have a choice between allegiance to God or to Mammon. So, Jesus is trying to help us to “right-size” these concerns. To “right-size” something is to do exactly what it sounds like: to put something in perspective, in this case, to help us to notice when we are obsessing over things that threaten to take the place of our reliance on God.

 

Then Jesus takes unexpected turn. He turns to nature. Look, he says, at the birds of the air. They are not planting or reaping or stockpiling grain into barns or silos. But God feeds them. They have plenty. Don’t you think God will feed you as well? The choice for the people Jesus is talking to and about is the choice between “enough” and “more than I could possibly use.” It’s the “more than I could possibly use” approach that actually has bird populations declining. It’s the “more than I could possibly use” crowd who seem to be destroying our environment.

 

Consider, Jesus says, the lilies of the field. They don’t work. They don’t spin or knit or sew, yet they are clothed more gloriously than King Solomon himself. God clothes them—even though they bloom and fade in a day, even though we mow them down, paving paradise to put up a parking lot.

 

Jesus doesn’t say “calm down,” which is good, I think, because I don’t think saying “calm down” ever calmed an anxious person one bit. Instead, he invites us to consider the beauty and balance of nature, God’s most exquisite creation. He encourages us to trust that God will provide for us at least as generously as God provides for the birds and the lilies. And he reminds us that God—whom he calls our heavenly Father—knows that we need all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God, Jesus says, and righteousness, which is to say, justice. Let God take care of the rest.

 

Again, this Jesus’ teaching those who have enough, those who have a propensity to get caught up in the pleasures of acquisition, of stuff. This is not his teaching for those who are struggling. Jesus teaches us about them in those six instances of feeding God’s people. Whether we do it through our giving or our volunteering, or through community meals or our food pantry, through our prayers (which are always good) or our actions—our job is to feed the hungry. And maybe to support candidates for office who are not trying to destroy the social safety net.

 

As for our anxiety—we are encouraged to let it go, which, sometimes, we can do. But if we can’t, we can also remember that there is help out there for us, if we need it. God cares for us through our primary care provider, and our friends, and our yoga instructors, and our walking buddies, too. God cares for us in our prayers and in our meds and in our deep breathing. God cares for us in the beauty that is all around us in nature—the birds and the lilies whose beauty soothes our hearts and help us to right-size everything.

 

Thanks be to God. Amen.