If you want what visible reality

Today's gospel lesson comes from the earliest layer of the sayings gospel we call Q which was the source for the common material found in Matthew and Luke. A portion of this is also found in the gospel of Thomas. Some scholars consider this particular text (Q 12:22-31) to be "the longest connected discourse that can be directly attributed to Jesus, with the exception of some of the longer narrative parables." (Robert Funk, Roy Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, THE FIVE GOSPELS, p. 152)

This teaching about not worrying may seem a bit simple and naïve. Perhaps you've seen the bumper sticker that reads, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs - you clearly don't comprehend the situation." The exhortation not to worry about food or clothing goes against the grain of American society today in which we not only worry about food and clothing, sometimes obsessively, but we also worry about a whole host of other things from the rising cost of gas, to fluctuations in the stock market, to world events and global warming. For many of us it would seem like a vacation if we only had to worry about food and clothing!

One of the main characteristics of Jesus' life and teaching is a call to radical trust in God and in the community. As an itinerant sage and faith healer Jesus depended upon the hospitality of others for his daily bread, for his food and lodging. He believed that whatever the community shared with each other was God's way of providing for all.

Many of his earliest followers also became itinerants and had to rely on the hospitality of others to survive. They undoubtedly found strength and inspiration in remembering Jesus' teaching, "Ask - it'll be given to you; seek - you'll find; knock - it'll be opened for you. Rest assured: everyone who asks receives; everyone who seeks finds; and for the one who knocks it will be opened." (Q 11:9-10) This saying probably took on a more practical and concrete meaning for them than it does for us today.

Robert Funk writes,

The trust that Jesus and his followers discovered within themselves was a radical affirmation of life. Life as unpredictable, unrehearsed, gloriously beautiful and painfully unfair, but always greeted with an open heart and an attitude of trust.

One of the controversies that the church created back in the fourth century is an argument over the meaning and the nature of faith. With the formulation and adoption of the early creeds the institutional church began to teach that faith was adherence to belief in certain ideas about the nature of God, Jesus, humanity, etc. This was a departure from Jesus' teaching, and that of his early followers, that faith was an attitude of trust in God. There is a huge difference between an intellectual construct and an attitude of trust. The first ends the debate by establishing the Truth, the second opens up the discussion and makes growth possible.

When we were children we needed caring adults who trusted us enough so that we could discover who we were and how we were going to live in the world. We needed to be allowed to explore, to try new things, to fail and to succeed, to overcome challenges, to get hurt and to heal. This takes a tremendous amount of trust on the part of a parent or caregiver, yet without this trust and the risks and freedom it brings we do not grow into mature adulthood. (We needed other things as well, but without being trusted we could never learn to trust our self.)

I find it more than a little disconcerting that so many church leaders seek to foster a sense of dependence and strict obedience to one particular version of faith, and instill a sense of fear and condemnation for anything outside of what they consider to be orthodox. Many of us have experienced religious institutions or family systems like this and know that it is not a healthy, healing, empowering environment to be in. If our faith communities and their leaders do not trust in people's ability to grow and discover the sacred mystery and gift that is within them how will they ever become agents of love and justice, healing and transformation within society? I believe that it is by supporting, encouraging and trusting one another and ourselves that we grow into a deeper trust of God and of life and that this is the journey of faith.

As I have been reflecting on the gospel lesson for today I kept hearing in the background that line from the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." The need is for the present and worrying about or stock-piling for the future is not a part of the petition. This reminded me of the Exodus and how God gave them bread, manna, in the wilderness, but only what they needed for the day. Certainly the early followers of Jesus were on an exodus journey and they probably felt, at times, like they were on unfamiliar territory, a social wilderness of sorts, and had to trust that God, the community, and the resources they discovered within themselves would see them through. I think they discovered that the Kindom of God really was within them and amongst them when they treated each other with love and compassion.

I think that in the life and teachings of Jesus we hear the call to join in a new exodus, a new journey from our former captivity, through the wilderness toward a promised land that exists in the hearts and minds of those who have learned how to trust and love one another, themselves, even the whole of creation, and in so doing are trusting and loving the mystery we call God.

Pedro Arrupe, a Jesuit priest, was the Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. He wrote the following after suffering a debilitating stroke, an event that led to a profound shift in his relationship with God as he patiently endured the effects of this stroke for the last ten years of his life up until his death in 1991. He wrote:

Here is the Psalmist's affirmation, "For you, O God, are my hope, my trust, O Yahweh, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth." (Psalm 71:5-6a). It seems that there is more going on here than a pollyannaish naivete. Arrupe is recognizing that things are not okay, yet everything is okay. I pray that we can have a similar trust; that we can learn to rely upon this mystery and grow in love and wisdom on this journey of life. This is the trust which, as Jesus so often said, shall be our healing and wholeness.

That's why I tell you: Don't fret about your life - what you're going to eat and drink - or about your body - what you're going to wear. There is more to living than food and clothing, isn't there? Look at the birds of the sky: they don't plant or harvest, or gather into barns. Yet God feeds them. You're worth more than they, aren't you? Can any of you add one hour to life by fretting about it?

Notice how the wild lilies grow: they don't slave and they never spin. Yet let me tell you, even Solomon at the height of his glory was never decked out like one of them. If God dresses up the grass in the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into an oven, won't God care for you even more, you who don't take anything for granted?

So don't fret. Don't say, "What am I going to eat?" or "What am I going to drink?" or "What am I going to wear?" These are things all the people of the world seek. God is aware that you need them. Instead, you are to seek the Kindom of God, and all these things will come to you as a bonus.