The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Matthew 6:25-33
If only it were that simple. “Do not worry,” Jesus says. Actually I prefer the translation, “Do not be anxious,” which is closer to the Greek text. Anxiety is more powerful than worry. Anxiety is what can knock us down flat, take over our lives, keep us up at night, or send us cowering in a corner. “Do not be anxious about your life,” Jesus says. As if!
I have to say my own experience tells me about the only thing that seems to make me less anxious is age. Some things just don’t worry me as much as they used to because I have lived through them. And believe me, I wouldn’t want to return to a more anxious age. But is that all there is? Is knowing that I will survive the only rope to grasp when worries about “what next” overwhelm me?
How does Jesus move us away from worry? He asks us to look around us. Look at the birds of the air. No, really look at them--see them--think about them. What can we learn? This is the power behind his words. Consider the lilies of the fields (and the word here is really wildflowers). Consider-- observe well-- learn something—stop—look—contemplate.
Now before we decide this gospel message is take time to stop and smell the roses, let’s consider it further. Jesus is calling our attention to some things that are accessible to us, things that are all around us, things that are simply there: birds and wildflowers. To quell our anxiety, Jesus calls our attention to, connects us to creation. He calls us to really see, observe, and contemplate the world around us and in doing so to notice God’s care for the world. In God’s economy, the birds are fed. In God’s amazing creation simple flowers not only display a complex biology that gathers sunlight converts it into food and energy and releases life-giving oxygen into the air, they are adorned with beauty as well.
Stop and notice God. “Be still then, and know that I am God” quotes the psalmist (psalm 46). Sometimes we need to be still in order to notice God… and to know God. We need to be still to notice and know that God cares for us. After all, knowing God is what it is all about for us. Otherwise, why would we be in church on Thanksgiving morning.
Anxiety distracts us from God. It distorts our relationships with others. It divorces us from who we really are. Anxiety gnaws at us, pulling us down into despair, mocking our desire to trust, teaching us rather to fear.
As long as we are noticing things, take note that Jesus did not say, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Combating anxiety is not that easy. This teaching of Jesus’ is a profound comment on the danger of sin and temptation: that we would be pulled away from God. The cure for worry is right relationship with God. Strive first for the kingdom of God. When we put God first, when we take time to consider God’s great loving work of creation and remember that we are part of it, then we also are recalled to who we are. We are God’s beloved and as such we can put love in place of anxiety.
There are troubles. We are not without troubles. Jesus doesn’t say, “Your troubles are over.” Rather he says there will be plenty of trouble, “Tomorrow will bring worries of its own, today’s trouble is enough for today.” Or and older translation, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” But no evil overcomes God’s love.
One of my favorite prayers for anxious times is by contemporary writer Joyce Rupp. It goes in part:
Like the ebbing tide of the ageless sea,
I yearn to be calm, be still,
no fretting and intense beating
against the shore of myself.
But the seagulls of anxiety screech
and the wild waves press upon my life.
…I do believe in your nearness,
yet I get too caught up
in my series, pressures, and needs.
Once again I open my being to you.
Come, Peaceful One, come!
Fill me with surrender and quiet.
Draw me into the stillness of your heart.
Together we will walk the seashore of my life.
(from Prayers to Sophia)
In anxious times, in pleasant times we do not walk alone. It is easy to give in to anxiety on Thanksgiving. There are so many expectations, so many temptations that draw us away from our center. The gift is, there will be many things for us to “consider” this Thanksgiving Day. The day itself calls us to consider our blessings, particularly the blessings of the earth. As we offer our thanks to God for the abundance of the earth, we are also called to consider our relationship to creation, to ordinary birds and wildflowers and to one another. And we are called to recall God’s presence in our lives, to recall God’s great care for all of creation-- for each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, each relationship that is loving or difficult.
God knows us. God knows what we need. Consider, take a closer look at, and contemplate God’s love for you.
Draw me into the stillness of your heart, [O God.]
Together we will walk the seashore of my life.
Amen
© Anne E. Kitch 2006
