“Notice the lilies” Colchester Federated Church, November 24, 2024, Thanksgiving Sunday (Matthew 6:25-33)

Today we hear some powerful words from Jesus, “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life . . . Look at the birds in the sky . . .  Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? . . . Notice how the lilies in the field grow.”[1] 

Now I sense that the worriers among us may be rolling your eyes.  It’s understandable because these words are challenging.  My Grandma Mary (God rest her soul) made an Olympic sport of worrying.  She worried about this and worried about that.  Sometimes she worried that she worried too much.  I can imagine that if I ever had the nerve (and I did not!), but had I the nerve to quote Jesus’ words about worrying she might have said something like, “Well it’s easy for Jesus to say, have him come talk to me when he has five children and a husband who went off to war twice to worry about.”

Though if we pause to consider Jesus’ background, he had plenty to worry about.  Jesus grew up in a small town that was never mentioned in the entirety of the Old Testament.  It’s estimated that Nazareth was a town of 400 – 2,000 residents and most folks were agricultural laborers, tenant farmers, and manual laborers of rather modest economic resources.  From archaeology we know that there’s no evidence of public buildings, paved streets, or imported luxury goods (like ceramics, mosaics, or glassware) in ancient Nazareth.  Skeletal remains point to dietary deficiencies.  Though it seems that folks were on the same economic level at least in Jesus’ hometown.  Jesus was probably part of the laboring class with his family.[2]  We also know that Jesus and the inhabitants of the region lived under the occupation of the Roman Empire.  Your average person did not live an easy life, dealing with the Romans on one side and their own political and religious leaders on the other side and the power struggles through it all.

All of this to say that when Jesus says, “Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’” this is coming from someone who probably had reason to worry about what he was going to eat and what he was going to drink and what he was going to wear.[3]  That’s part of what makes Jesus’ words so powerful.  Because it would have been understandable for Jesus to worry a lot.  And here’s Jesus asking, “Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?”[4]  It’s a good question.

If we kept reading and heard the end of the 6th chapter in the Gospel according to Matthew, we would hear Jesus end these teachings on worrying by saying, “Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”[5]  This is an invitation to be in the present moment, to be in the now.  Worrying about tomorrow is not all that helpful.  Because sometimes when we worry about the future especially, we may be giving ourselves anxiety about something that has not yet come to pass and will not come to pass. 

In our modern understanding, we might say that excessive worrying can be a symptom of anxiety.  Sometimes this can lead to a debilitating sense of dread because we are so worked up and worried.  It is good to seek help for our mental health when needed and it’s good to remember that our spiritual health also matters.  As we liked to say in my hospital chaplaincy days, there is a mind-body-spirit connection when it comes to wellness.

It really is intriguing that within this teaching about worrying Jesus keeps turning to the natural world.  There is an expansiveness going on, and wider connections are being shared.  Jesus speaks about the birds in the sky, sowing seed, harvesting grain, and gathering crops.  Jesus muses on the lilies of the field growing and the grass in the field beautifully dressed. Because there is wisdom in the natural world that Jesus uses to illustrate his larger point about worrying.  Turning to God’s creation shifts our perspective and is an invitation to leave the excessive worry loop behind, if only for a moment.

This passage reminded me of wisdom shared from Theologian Randy Woodley.  He once considered the famous story about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, a story that we usually contemplate at the beginning of Lent.  Woodley wonders if the temptation really took all 40 days.  Let’s say that Jesus was tempted for 10 days as an educated guess.  What was Jesus up to in the wilderness for that amount of time?  Randy Woodley is of Cherokee descent and considers the story using indigenous wisdom.  He writes that out there in the wilderness Jesus was watching creation.  Jesus “was observing what was going on around him.  He was listening.  The reason that we know that is because when he comes back, he talks about creation for the rest of his life.  He talks about flowers and birds and trees and seeds and crops and the earth, and the soil.  He could have talked about all kinds of things—Roman chariots and their power and aqueducts and the ingenuity involved—but that’s not what we have a record of.  What we have a record of is someone who seemed to be at peace with the quietness of creation.”[6]

Today we hear Jesus teaching about worrying in various ways.  He is telling his followers not to worry about their lives—what people will eat or what they will drink or what they will wear.  Jesus is saying this as someone of modest economic means.  And what does Jesus use to help people ease their worries?

“Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns.  Yet your heavenly Father [God] feeds them.  Aren’t you worth much more than they are?”

“Notice how the lilies in the field grow.  They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth.  But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these.”[7]

Look at the birds in the sky.  Notice how the lilies in the field grow.  Jesus talked about creation for the rest of his life.  He knew that being connected gives us perspective and helps us have gratitude for all the gifts that God has given us.  The birds in the sky.  The seed in the soil.  The harvest for our food.  The lilies and grass in the field.  You and me and this church family.  All of life is a gift.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Matthew 6:25-28, CEB.
[2] Notes from Systematic Theology, Dr. Benjamin Valentine, Andover Newton Theological School, Spring Semester 2008.
[3] Matthew 6:31.
[4] Matthew 6:27.
[5] Matthew 6:34.
[6] Randy Woodley as quoted in “Where the Spirit Speaks,” Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations from the Center for Action and Contemplation, Week Seventeen: Listening to Creation, April 25, 2024.
[7] Matthew 6:26 and 28-29.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.