November 29, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life as to what you will eat or drink; or about your body as to what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6.25, 26)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Let us reflect today in “relative” terms. No, I am not speaking about your siblings, aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents, etc. I am proposing that we keep things in perspective with a relative awareness of “all things being equal.” Yes, I know that all things do not seem to be equal. The inequity of the day among all people is apparent. Maybe that is because what is being used as the measure of equality is broken. Remember my proposal yesterday was to consider a definition of righteousness as “living an unbroken life in the midst of the broken world.” I even had a media dialogue with a friend in the faith about the use of a word to express “awe and wonder” as being magical. On scriptural terms, I am as opposed to the word “magic” as I am to the word “luck” and other such terms. While the generic definition for magic speaks to change of environment and elements via a supernatural power, what is the most poignant unspoken consideration is “intentionality.” Using such power for one’s own benefit, purpose and welfare is contrary to righteousness. It is the participation in a broken system with broken purposes and fragile resources. Is that the work and will of God, the ultimate superpower? Have we relegated God and the Holy Trinity into some kind of “super hero” community like “Marvels”? Saving the earth from evil beings is worthy but not eternal. Every superhero story is evidence of that. No matter how much luck or magic they wield, there is always another evil being to deal with that is worse than the first. It is as if “we haven’t seen anything yet.”

So, “all things being equal” in relative terms, I draw attention to Jesus teaching on “not worrying about what we will eat and drink or wear.” He puts it terms we can wrap our minds around. First, He says “is life not more than food and the body more than clothes.” The intention of the phrasing is to help us recognize that food does not make a life. It most certainly sustains life but living is not food and food is not living. Equally, the body is not clothes any more than clothes make a body. When Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden, they had all the food they needed and no need for clothing. They also had no shame, guilt or lust. As to whether they were “innocent or naive” is a different story. Then Jesus asks, “And by the way, are you not worth more than birds?” Jesus reminds the listeners that the birds do not show concern for food, water and shelter as God knows their needs and provides for them. He uses “birds” in the illustration because the poor know that sparrows and doves are acceptable sacrifices for the poor in presenting themselves righteous before God. In other words, God not only provides for the birds but He provides the birds for the poor. If He provides such for the poor to manifest their spiritual equity then it is all relative that He provides for their other needs as well to the same end. What they do and what they receive may seem simple, common and ordinary. God considers them perfect, natural and extraordinary.

Imagine the eyes of John the Baptizer as he looks up to Heaven while he baptizes Jesus in a Jordan River pool. They grow wide with anticipation as a dove descends in that very moment and hovers until Jesus is lifted from the waters. It then lands on Him and the voice of God speaks the true blessing, “This is My beloved, in whom I AM well-pleased.” What is the pleasure? It was the commitment Jesus made with John to be baptized and “thus fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus was establishing His ministry consecrated and sanctified in baptism to “live an unbroken life in the midst of a broken world.” He did not attempt to fix life by succumbing to the pundits of the day hawking their wares of animal sacrifice which God declared He detested because their actions and their intentions were distant from each other and thus from Him. He did not pursue riches, power plays and armies with “wine, women and song” in fashionable dress like those of Rome or among the Temple elite. You see, it all becomes relative as “to whom do we truly relate.” In God’s eyes, trust is critical and obedience is significant. Both speak to the level at which the love of the Father for His people and His people for the Father are optimized. So, if we can see God’s care for “the least of these,” sparrows and doves and the like, then we know that He cares for the “least of these,” poor and physically-challenged and outcast. The measure is not always about the external and for God it is always about the internal.

As mighty ones of God, we should throw off our cloaks of worry and put on the robe of righteousness which comes in trust, obedience and love. By them we are served and with them we serve one another.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.