“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your
body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor
gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they?
And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your
span of life?
And why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they
neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not
clothed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive
today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will God not much more clothe
you—you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What
will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for
all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these
things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well. “So do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for
today.
SERMON
There is not much better to make me come up against this
scripture, to make me worry about my body and my clothes, than what happened on
Tuesday, which just keep in the back of your mind, was Valentines.
I was in a store and saw an older woman I knew from the
community. After saying hi and reminding her who I was, she looked at my
stomach, and said, “How’s the baby coming along.” Yes, even writing this I knew
I should pause here, because there is always a shock when this happens, a shock
that people say this at all. To exit sermon mode for a second and move into
Public Service Announcement mode, until someone has made a birth announcement,
do not surmise and make a pronouncement. When I asked a friend, “Why do people
do that?” he said, “Little old ladies who think they're being sweet...but it
isn't. It just ends up being a constant reminder of the stuff we already and
hate thinking about.” and it was.
That morning, it still being cold, I put on the only pair of
jeans that fit at the moment. I literally call them my Mom Jeans - I got them
years ago when I began youth work and I needed something comfortable enough to
run around the church, and high enough in he waist to bend over and loose in
thighs enough to squat, all without problem. Six months ago they were still my
Mom Jeans, or my Fat Jeans, but these days, they are the Only Jeans. Likewise,
I have found myself having to pull at now tight shirts to release them from my
stomach rolls when I sit down, a motion I have watched bigger girls do and always
cringed, as the self-conscious act looks worse and more noticeable than the
rolls themselves. So, I threw on a flannel and Mexican serape poncho, and
though they were loose, were not the makings of maternity wear.
So that happened, Happy Single’s Awareness Day to everyone,
but then I came back to the office, to do as I do and wrote out this scripture
by hand. It seemed like each line I wrote was a reminder. Jesus saying,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
…or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?
It was like Jesus was reminding me the opposite of Mrs.
SoandSo in the store. She had inadvertently named what I had been feeling and
experiencing: weight gain, (and possible barrenness) and with them a great lack
of confidence, and feeling pretty undesireable. But this scripture was
reminding me that my worry was not a Godly worry.
“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor
gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they?
And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your
span of life?
And why do you worry about clothing?
I had watched the doves out my window earlier this week. I
wondered how before the ground began to melt, did they find food? Not all of
them traveled South for Winter. God somehow, through God’s awesome creation,
had designed that the birds of the air would be able to survive and adapt to
these elements. Likewise, God had not abandoned me. It is simply a winter of my
life and I need not worry about the smaller things about my body or clothes. I
instead my focus should be of God. Then I read the next line.
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they
neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not
clothed like one of these.”
In fact there were lilies on my desk. And despite their
getting a little older and beginning to wilt, there was beauty in the way their
petals had turned opaque and yet their scent was still strong and rich. I
thought about how God made them, not just as buds about to burst and then in
their youthful glory but that God made them to wilt just so, that even in their
fading is beauty and strength and pungent glory. I thought about how God made
me. God forming me in my mother’s womb. God knowing every thinning hair on my
very head and I thought that if God saw me like the lillies, perhaps I could
too. That this was the vision I needed for myself, not the vision of elderly
Mrs. SoandSo, or the selfdepracating voice in my head. I needed to see myself
and my worries with God’s eyes.
It seems small and insignificant, but I like that there is a
scripture passage for these little worries of ours. For me at the moment it is
my health and my appearance, for others these worries are money, or what will
get put on the dinner table, or how will someone provide for their family, but
even these are not God’s worry. The more we worry the more we are giving power
and credence to something other than God. This passage is reminder that perhaps
what we need is instead what is said in those last lines,
“Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these
things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well.”
When I took time with God I was able to let go of my worries
and see myself and my situation anew. Being “given these things” as the
scripture says may not be me instantly dropping twenty pounds and become well.
It may look like a fading lilly, but what I have learned is to see the beauty
there too. So perhaps when I or we worry the thing to do is not to get all
worked up but to settle into God and see how God might transform that worry
into beauty. Amen.
