In our reading from Joel, the prophet proclaims, “Do not fear, be glad and rejoice” (2:21) and we are quickly told what it is that should be the source of our joy. The pastures of the wilderness are green; the trees bear fruit, as does the vine. There is abundant rain, early and late. We can expect the threshing floors to be full of grain and the vats overflowing with wine and oil.
We shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and we will know that our God has dealt wondrously with us. (Joel 2:26)
So we have been told, and so we are to see around us, and to believe.
But then, some 400 years later, Jesus is saying to us much the same thing that the prophet Joel tried to tell us. “Why do you worry, about what you shall eat or what you shall wear?” Then he gives us that wonderful admonition, “Consider the lilies…” (Matthew 6:25ff)
Consider the lilies… when we do, what do we see? Flowers of great beauty, as beautiful in their way as the fields of green and the vines and trees loaded with fruit from Joel. And it’s true, they neither toil nor spin, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one simple, beautiful lily of the field.
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Why do we worry? Perhaps it is because we have reasons to worry. Not so many weeks ago, a devastating storm took many lives, and took away the comforts of many more, deprivations that remain for some. The insidious storm seemed out of all proportion to storms of the past.
But there is much else to fear. We fear for our safety from those so angry with us as to seek to kill and maim us through acts of terror. We fear for our economic security, as our financial system seems to be tossed about on unregulated swells of global uncertainty. And we see in our national life, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and it becomes harder and harder to move from poverty to stability to success.
When we consider the lilies, we see that they are not the only flowers of the field. There are others among us, weeds, invasive species, that seek to take over the field and forest and the fruits of the vine for themselves. Rather than give thanks for the bounty that God has provided in acts of charity and thanksgiving, they seek to monopolize all that can be brought under their control. They seek to exploit the bounty of creation, rather than enjoying it, and allowing others to do the same.
Some of these weeds will dominate entire regions of the world to secure all the energy inherent in creation for themselves, in the process the people that call those regions home come to see us all as Godless exploiters of every advantage. Others exploit that same energy in such a wanton fashion that the earth itself gets warmer and warmer and the storms on the face of the earth get more ferocious, and more deadly. Though there is plenty enough in the world to feed all the world, some would use the basic necessities of life as a means to get gather more wealth to themselves, while others starve.
Dom Helder Camara, an archbishop and a campaigner for the rights of the poor in Brazil, once wrote, “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint, when I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
Jesus put it yet another way, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6: 33)
So let us this be grateful for all that God has given us, and give thanks for it; and let us respect God’s creation, and share it equally and justly with all God’s children. Let us seek after God’s righteousness which we know is righteousness not for ourselves alone but for all the world, especially the oppressed and downtrodden. Then we can let go of fear, and shout for joy, because our Father in heaven sees what we need, and has provided it for us.
© The Rev. Mark R.
Collins
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