I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them.
And further on in Matthew 10 Jesus asked: “Are not two sparrow sold for a farthing?” So what is a sparrow worth? Not much we would say, except that at the end of the verse our Lord says, “And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Heavenly Father.”
In the days of our Lord’s flesh, the only signposts that nomadic tribes traveling the desert could depend on were the stars. The stars guided pilgrims who used to journey in caravans. These old desert navigators would plot their journey from oasis to oasis using their knowledge of the heavens. There are no fixed landmarks in the desert. The ever-changing landscape, the heat of the day, the cold night, the fear of dangerous animals and dangerous people; the longing for an oasis that would bring relief and some security. Frequently, desert pilgrims would observe what appeared to be the flickering light of a campfire off in the distance. The temptation to leave the chosen route of seasoned travelers and follow that light, what they came to call “ignis fatuus,” or “false light,” had to be resisted. What was required was a sort of remediation of desire, so they could learn how to travel the desert safely. I want to suggest that most of us need remediation over and over again when it comes to knowing the kind of God Jesus revealed to us.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
How very difficult it is for people to believe what Jesus says in this passage. That God attends the death of a bird? Are you serious, Jesus? And know this, when he speaks of vesting the flowers in beauty, feeding birds and attending their dying, Jesus is not referring to God’s omniscience. No he is not. He is speaking of God’s love, his paternity and his providence. Jesus is describing a God who is lavish in what he gives away. I realized this sounds smaltzy and like a Hall Mark card, but this is exactly what Jesus said about his Father. Now this is the true light, not the false light that seems reasonable. And the Church, through the Liturgy, puts us through a perpetual program of remedial spiritual formation. We have a tendency to keep on falling back upon our on natural and what we would argue are “reasonable” visions of God. Of course these are our own visions and not God’s.
We had a neighbor several years back who had a license plate that read, “Ky2Life” – Key to Life. That’s pretty clever. But when I saw him the next morning, with the hood of his car up, working on some mystery of the internal combustion engine, the cleverness turned into a joke. And then at noon the hood was still up and then about the time the red evening sun set behind Afton Mountain he slammed the hood down in great frustration.
That’s when I said to myself, “Self, this is just like ‘the key 2 Life’ – my Key 2 Life?”
Look we do it all the time. We fashion a God we think is reasonable, but he is never the God Jesus revealed. He is often controlled by his emotions. He keeps count of all that is done amiss. Or he’s our version of the biggest most powerful Santa Clause we can imagine. Or he not a he at all but the Mystery of the Universe or a distant Unmoved Mover. When we substitute our own ego-visions for God’s vision we can’t get anywhere. It’s like my neighbor’s SUV. The exterior looks pretty good, but it is all locked up under the hood. You can climb behind the steering wheel, look out the window, but you’ll get no further than your own driveway.
Jesus declares that his Father delights in vesting the flowers in color & beauty, feeding birds and attending their dying. Jesus declares that his Father is a God of love, a God who is lavish. And you, my dear parishioner, happen to be the particular object of his lavish love. And the only way, or the most unmistakable way he chose to express that love is to offer you his own life. So this morning when you come to the altar and hold out your empty hands you will receive God’s own life. You will hold the life of the Lord of Creation, the life of the King of Love in the palm of your hand.
I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them.