Consider the Lilies

+ Thoughts on Trinity 17 (Harvest Festivals) +

Deuteronomy 28.; Psalm 65; 2 Corinthians 9.6-end; Luke 12.16-30

Dear All

No audio version today and apologies for the delay in posting.

George and I had coffee recently and, as is less common than you think among vicars, we had a theological conversation. I love it when that happens; it’s one of the perks of the job.

We were actually talking about Harvest and about this Gospel reading in particular: Luke 12.16-30.

    And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

    And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?  Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!  And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Among other things George noticed that the rich man used the word ‘I’ an awful lot. ‘I will’ seems to be his favourite thing to say.

On the surface this is a parable about greed isn’t it? But if you follow Jesus’ logic in the parable he doesn’t seem to be talking about greed as the main issue.  Sure that seems to be what’s on the surface here, but Jesus seems to be focusing on anxiety as the problem.

And if we look even deeper it’s about something even deeper. It’s about the longing of every human heart for security; even for salvation.

I would go so far as to say that the anxiety that besets us all to different degrees is ultimately exactly that: an inner witness to the fact that what we all long for is the security and salvation that only God can provide.

This may be a curious thing to say but I think there may even be a case for saying that we should be grateful for our anxiety, because it’s a living, inner reminder that our hearts are searching for the ultimate security.

The anxiety is actually saying something to us. It’s saying, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

The question is, what do we ask for? What do we seek? Which door do we knock at? What is it that’s going to provide the security, and the salvation, that our hearts long for?

Let’s get back to our story and to the rich man: everything in his life is geared to future-proofing himself isn’t it? He dreams of getting to a place in life where he can be free of anxiety and sit back and relax: And I will (there it is again) say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

Have you ever caught yourself doing that? I have, plenty of times.

It’s a fantasy of course because none of us really know what the future holds for us. I call it ‘when-then’ thinking: ‘When I get this job/girl/boy, then I’ll be happy and everything will be OK’. ‘When I earn this salary/win the lottery, then things will be all right’. ‘When I’ve got my dream house and garden and laid it out perfectly, then I’ll be happy’…

This kind of thinking is the very thing that the Bible is talking about when it condemns idolatry (the worship of false gods). Remember the first 2 Commandments: I am the Lord your God: you shall have no other gods but me. You shall not make for yourself any idol.

I once read a wonderful definition of an idol written in a letter from a Benedictine Abbot to the monks of his order: an idol is anything that seems to promise an ideal future. By projecting our ultimate hopes and desire for security onto worldly wealth, possessions, projects, ideologies, or relationships, we trap ourselves in an anxious obsession with securing tomorrow, rather than living in the present.

Well that’s what the rich man’s barns full of grain are, aren’t they? His overflowing barns have become the god that promises him his ideal future.

And this is something we all fall into at times: a new job; another person; a new house; an inheritance, we could go on.

If these things seem to offer us the future we dream of, and fantasise about, then they have become our 'god'. They have become an idol because they are a false god. They can’t actually provide the thing we are hoping they’ll deliver, and there’s a sense in which it’s unfair to demand that of them.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those things in themselves. In themselves money, jobs, houses, relationships, are a wonderful thing as long as they are not charged with providing ultimate security and salvation for us. They can’t carry that burden; only God can do that.

What’s the way out? Well we are told in no uncertain terms: ‘Consider the ravens and consider the lilies’…

The poet Emily Dickinson once said that ‘consider the lilies’ was the only Commandment she ever obeyed. I remember that when I first read that it put a big smile on my face, probably because I’ve broken enough of the Commandments myself, and I could relate to it.

But on deeper reflection to ‘consider the ravens and consider the lilies’ is a difficult Commandment to obey because it’s a Commandment to live in the present. It’s a Commandment to look away from the fantasies of an ideal future, generated by our anxieties, and embrace the moment we are living in, and the world we find ourselves in, right here and right now.

I think that, in some way, ‘consider the ravens and the lilies’ is also a promise, because there’s something soothing and grounding about being in nature, and opening your eyes to notice the astonishing life that permeates the natural world, and the beauty that adorns it.

I’ve never forgotten a moment recorded in the OT about the Patriarch Isaac (Abraham’s son and Jacob’s father). According to Genesis 24:63, Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.

I don’t know about you but for my money a field, or a wood, or a meadow, or even a garden, is a great place to meditate. A great place to shift our attention away from the fantasies we generate because we are anxious about the future. A great place to feast our eyes on the beauty of creation and the beauty of the creator who gave us the eyes to see it with.

It’s mindfulness, bible-style.

Let’s pray.