Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 16 February 2020, is the Second Sunday before Lent.
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, offer two choices:
The Readings: Option A, Creation: Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3; Psalm 136 or Psalm 136: 1-9 (23-36); Romans 8: 18-25; Matthew 6: 25-34.
There is a link to each reading through the highlighted citation.
The Readings: Option B, Proper 3: Isaiah 49: 8-16a; Psalm 131; I Corinthians 4: 1-5; Matthew 6: 24-34.
There is a link to the readings HERE.
A cautionary note:
There is considerable confusion about the lectionary readings for next Sunday. At the time of preparing these notes for publication, the relevant page on the Church of Ireland website provides the wrong readings, the wrong propers and the wrong suggested hymns. In addition, some editions of the Revised Common Lectionary are difficult to follow, and it is difficult to disentangle them and find the preferred options in the Church of Ireland.
The best advise, normally, is to follow the Table of Readings in the Book of Common Prayer (2004) (see pp 27-70; for next Sunday, see 33), checking against the Church of Ireland Directory and the newly-published book of collects.
This posting, hopefully, clarifies any remaining questions about the appropriate readings to use next Sunday.
for convenience and ease of access, the notes and reflections on the Gospel reading are repeated in the notes on each option.
Introducing the Readings (Option A, Creation):
The three Sundays before Lent once had special Latin names in the Book of Common Prayer, names that were shared in most traditions in the Western Church. Although these Sundays are now counted as ‘Ordinary Time’ in many traditions, many Anglican parishes still use the original Latin names, and they are reminders that Lent and its disciplines are imminent.
These Sundays were known as:
Septuagesima Sunday: the Third Sunday before Lent, which fell this year on Sunday 9 February 2020. In the early Church, no Gloria or Alleluia was sung on this Sunday because this was the first Sunday of the call to Lenten discipline. Although the word Septuagesima means ‘seventieth’, this Sunday occurs only 63 days before Easter.
Early Christians began observing Lent the day after Septuagesima Sunday. This is because Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays were not days of fasting in the early Church. So, if the faithful wished to fast for 40 days before Easter, they would start the Monday after Septuagesima Sunday. Today, only Sunday is a non-fast day, and so Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.
Sexagesima Sunday: the Second Sunday before Lent, which is next Sunday (16 February 2020). In the Early Church, Lent would have started on the previous Monday. In some parts of the Eastern Orthodox church, this Sunday is known as ‘No Meat Sunday,’ and the dietary observances for Lent begin on this day.
Quinquagesima Sunday: the final Sunday before Lent, or the Sunday before Ash Wednesday (23 February 2020). It is 50 days before Easter, hence quinquagesima or ‘fiftieth.’
In some part of the Anglican Communion, the Sundays after Epiphany and before Lent continue to be counted as Sundays after Epiphany. However, the calendar in the Church of Ireland is much clearer in liturgical terms, counting the days between Christmas and the Presentation (Candlemas) as one, 40-day season, and the days after Candlemas not as Sundays after Epiphany but as Sundays before Lent.
Next Sunday has two options in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland. In the first option, it can be marked as ‘Creation Sunday,’ although many churches now mark the Sundays in September as the Creation Sunday. In the second option, it can be marked as the Second Sunday before Lent, continuing the themes in the Lectionary readings, which in Year A are drawn mainly from Saint Matthew’s Gospel.
With a growing awareness about climate change and the threats to God’s creation – emphasised by recent weather fluctuations, including the storms of the past weekend, the firestorms in Australia, and the debates about carbon emission and climate change in the recent election campaign – the Creation option next Sunday offers an interesting opportunity to preach about these concerns and to make them relevant in our parishes.
Care for the creation is neither a marginal theological consideration, nor a matter of keeping up with current social and political trends. The fifth of the Five Marks of Mission accepted throughout the Anglican Communion is:
● To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3:
The first reading in our readings celebrating creation, is a poetic description of God’s creation, reaching its climax or fulfilment in describing God’s creation of humanity and God’s relationship with us.
Ancient cultures and religions in Mesopotamia and the Middle East shared a common creation story, similar to the creation story in Genesis, with a similar sequence of events. There is a second Creation narrative in Genesis 2: 4b-25, and the Bible closes with the account of a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, in the Book of Revelation (see Revelation 21 and 22).
Like all good stories, this story begins at the beginning: ‘In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1: 1). In other words, God pre-exists all creation, God exists before all time, and the whole visible creation comes into being as a result of God’s activity.
At first, there was chaos, ‘an empty, formless void’ (verse 2). However, the life-giving power of God, the ‘wind’ or Spirit ‘from God’ sweeps over this chaos. The creation story is then told in the form of a poem or hymn, with a refrain, ‘And God saw that it was good’ (verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 20, 25).
Day 1 (verses 3-5): God creates light, overcoming the darkness. By naming them light and darkness, God is said to be in control of both.
Day 2 (verses 6-10): God creates the sky, which acts like a bowl above the earth, with water (rain and snow), and the waters that surround the dry land (seas, lakes and rivers). Again, God names them.
Day 3 (verses 11-13): God creates the trees, plants, fruit and vegetables.
Day 4 (verse 14-19): God creates the Sun and the Moon. In Biblical times, they were seen as beings moving in a circle around the dome of the earth, according to God’s command.
Day 5 (verses 20-23): God creates the creatures in the sea and the air, fish, birds, and even ‘the great sea monsters.’
Day 6 (verses 24-31): God creates the creatures on the land, wild and domestic animals, including snakes and insects.
Then God says, ‘Let us’ (26), invoking a royal we. The creation of humanity is the climax of the creation story. We are made in God’s image – the Hebrew word used here implies an exact copy or reproduction. Because of God’s blessing, we have procreative power, we are to be fruitful and multiply, and to have dominion over the earth, acting as God’s regents, with means taking responsibility for a just rule in and care for the creation.
And we are told that not only that ‘God saw that it was good’ – as on the other days of creation – but, ‘indeed, it was very good’ (verse 31).
Day 7 (Genesis 2: 1-3): The seventh day is the day of rest, a reminder of the Sabbath. God blesses the seventh day, and God sets it apart or makes it holy.
Notice how there is no evening at the end of this day – this relationship between God and humanity is to continue for ever, to the end of the story (see Revelation 21 and 22).
Psalm 136:
Psalm 136 could be complemented at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer with the canticles ‘Great and Wonderful’ (Canticle 17, Book of Common Prayer, p 129), based on Revelation 15: 3, 4 and 5: 13b, and ‘Glory and Honour’ (Canticle 21, Book of Common Prayer, p 131), based on Revelation 4: 11 and 5: 9, 10 and 13b.
In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Psalms 135 and 136 are known together as the Polyeleos (Πολυέλεος) or ‘Many Mercies,’ because of the refrain ‘for his mercy endures forever’ (ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ).
The Polyeleos is sung at Orthros or Matins on a Feast Day and at Vigils, and in the monasteries on Mount Athos it is read every Sunday at Orthros.
Indeed, on Mount Athos it is considered one of the most joyful periods of Matins-Liturgy, and the highest point of Matins. In Athonite practice, all the candles are lit, and the chandeliers are made to swing as these paired psalms are sung, accompanied by a joyful peal of the bells and censing of the church, sometimes with a hand censer which has many bells on it. In its fullest musical setting, it can last up to over an hour.
At vigils, it accompanies the opening of the Royal Doors and a great censing of the nave by the priests or deacons.
Because of its liturgical importance, beautiful settings for the Polyeleos have been composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff and other composers.
The name Polyeleos has given the name ‘polyelaios’ (πολυελαιος) to the chandelier in many churches in the form of a very large circle with many candles and often adorned with icons of saints. The polyelaios is suspended by a chain from the ceiling. During the chanting of the Polyeleos psalms, all the candles are lit, and it is pushed with a rod so that it turns back and forth during the singing to symbolise the presence of the angels and adding to the joy of the service. This custom is still a practice in the monasteries on Mount Athos and in many Orthodox monasteries.
Romans 8: 18-25:
The Apostle Paul compares the sufferings and imperfections we experience today with the fulfilment of God’s plans, for ‘the creation waits with eager longing for the glory about to be revealed to us’ (verse 19).
In the past, all creation has suffered the consequences of sinfulness and rebellion against God (verses 20). But now we know the promises of being set free from this ‘bondage to decay,’ and we are promised freedom as the children of God (verse 21).
The ‘whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now’ (verse 22), and we have been part of that suffering and yearning until the coming of Christ (verse 23).
We have waited in hope and we are guided by the Holy Spirit, expecting what we cannot see, waiting patiently.
Matthew 6: 25-34:
The Gospel reading continues our readings in Saint Matthew’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount. In verse 24, Christ speaks of the impossibility of serving two masters: we cannot love both. ‘You cannot serve God and wealth.’
A key word throughout this reading is ‘worry’ (see verses 25, 27, 31). The Greek verb μεριμνάω (merimnáo) means to be anxious, to be troubled with cares, in a way that gives priorities to my own interests, that is preoccupied with or absorbed by my own self-interest.
To be preoccupied with food and appearance is to have a very narrow view of life. On the other hand, birds, to take an example of a different attitude to food, work hard to find it, but they do not store it against future possible shortages.
Our worries and preoccupations are futile. We desire long lives, but our self-preoccupation and self-absorption cannot lengthen our lives (verse 27). On the other hand, lilies, though they grow abundantly on Palestinian hillsides, are dull brown for much of the year and are only brightly coloured for a few weeks. Yet, even Solomon, ‘in all his glory,’ could not compare to their beauty.
The grass of the field ends up being thrown into the oven as fuel for cooking (verse 30). But if God cares for such plants, how much more will God provide for those who are faithful to him?
So being preoccupied with our own needs is wrong because seeking security in possessions shows a lack of faith. Instead of worrying about tomorrow, we should ‘strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’ (verse 34).
Today’s worries are enough for today. ‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today’ (verse 34).
Reflecting on the Gospel reading
Do not worry about tomorrow?
Try to imagine two different ways of reading this Gospel passage.
The first is if to image you have a respectable and well-paying job, a good house in suburbia, a decent car, adult children who have good prospects too, you have regular holidays, and can change your car every two or three years.
The second way to read it is to imagine yourself living in a deprived urban area, a single parent with a mortgaged house in negative equity, unemployed, and facing severe cuts in your welfare payments, an adult child with special needs, and an ageing parent who needs residential care that you cannot afford.
How then do you then receive the message, do not worry about what you will eat or drink or wear (verse 25), because God will take care of you? Today’s trouble is certainly more than enough for many today.
For the first group, this is irrelevant, meaningless. You may be worried about higher taxes, winding down and preparing for retirement, that children marry the right sort of people. If you have worries, they are hidden from the neighbours, perhaps even hidden from yourself. Would you want them exposed and discussed in the pulpit?
For the second group, it verges on the absurd. If you have spent the last few years worrying about the roof your head, unable to afford and prepare adequate meals, worried about the friends and dangers your children meet, the future they face, then this is no easy message to hear. What does Christ mean, ‘do not worry’? Life is full of worries, every single waking day.
But is Christ really saying that the basic necessities of life do not matter?
Is he really saying that the basic necessities of life will appear miraculously if only we believe in him correctly?
Let us first put this reading in context – Christ is talking to people who have enough, it seems. Otherwise, his encouragement not to worry would simply be cruel.
But, what about those who truly do not have enough?
How are they going to hear good news in this Gospel reading?
Though the message is going to be heard differently by those who have enough and those who do not, the message is really the same: do not fret.
If you have enough, be thankful, but beware of making an idol of having what you want, rather than merely what you need.
If you do not have enough, it is not because God does not love you. Christ is working to break the connection that was commonly made in his day: those who please God are rewarded with plenty, while those suffer have earned God’s displeasure.
We still make that connection. How often we have an inner feeling of glee when we think people get what they deserve. How often we think people have brought about their own downfall. How often we think people could improve their lot if only they were not indolent, if only they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
We sometimes describe ourselves as a nation of begrudgers, too often, and too often we want grace for ourselves but law for others.
Christ encourages us to look beyond the narrow perspectives that attach virtue to success and vice to failure.
That challenge is expressed by Frederick Faber in the words of his hymn, ‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy’ (Irish Church Hymnal # 9):
For the love of God is broader
than the measure of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make his love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify his strictness
with a zeal he will not own.
If our love were but more simple,
we should take him at his word,
and our lives would be gladness
in the presence of the Lord.
God’s desire for us is that we all have enough, rather than calculating the degree to which each of us should be blessed or cursed.
That does not change the circumstances today for the single mother in Moyross or the unemployed father in Tallaght. But neither do present circumstances justify making political, economic and social decisions based on self-interest and selfishness.
It may be timely to turn to the Collect for Peace, which is the Second Collect at Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. This collect originated in the Sacramentary of Gelasius and was incorporated in the Sarum Breviary, from which Thomas Cranmer translated it in 1549:
O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Kingdom of God has different values from life in the empire, or life in a profit-based society. The kingdom of God includes the poor, the merciful, those who mourn. The kingdom of God calls us to bring light to the darkest parts of the world, to be salt in the world, to be signs and sacraments of mercy and justice.
God is not promising to meet all our needs, like some shopping list brought to the Kingdom-value-supermarket, if we pay up with the right kind of prayers. Tomorrow is going to bring its worries: ‘for tomorrow will bring worries of its own’ (verse 34). But God does not bargain with us. God expects us to serve him through living out the kingdom values, and in that we find perfect freedom.
As we seek first the Kingdom of God, we come to accept with joy the things God adds to us. Our trials and troubles remain real, but that reality can be transformed and made glorious as we serve God and seek to do God’s will.
Matthew 6: 25-34 (NRSVA):
25 [Jesus said:] ‘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? 26 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? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’
Introducing the Readings (Option B, Proper 3):
The Gospel reading in Option B for Sunday next is virtually the same as the Gospel reading in the Creation Sunday option, but with one, extra, introductory verse.
These readings challenge us to think about that faith means, and how we find our security in God’s promises, not in the promises and temptations of this world, and how we express this faith in the ways in which we follow God and live our lives.
Isaiah 49: 8-16a:
The Prophet Isaiah has been called by God, even before he was born, to speak to people everywhere. He has tried, without success, to convince the people to trust in God, and now he feels his ministry has been waste of time. Yet he still trusts in God. In the verses immediately before this, God commissions him to a greater mission: he is to be ‘a light to the nations’ so that God’s ‘salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’
In this reading, Isaiah continues to speak on God’s behalf. Through Isaiah, God reminds the people that he has kept his covenant with them, and they will indeed return from exile and slavery to the land they once owned as their heritage.
They will take with them the prisoners, those who live in darkness, the hungry and the thirsty. God will lead them as a people as a shepherd leads his sheep, feeding them, guiding them, protecting them from harm and from the weather, and making the journey easy for them.
As well as coming from Babylon in the east, the exiles will return from all directions, from the north and south, even from as far away as Syene in southern Egypt.
All creation, all the heavens and the earth are called to join in rejoicing at God’s deliverance and renewal.
Jerusalem and its inhabitants, the people who lived around Mount Zion and the Temple, may feel that they have been ignored by God. But now God assures them of his love, which is like mother’s love for the child she has conceived. The people are as close to God as the marks on my hand.
Psalm 131:
Psalm 131 is sometimes known in English by its first verse in the King James Version, ‘Lord, my heart is not haughty,’ and in Latin it is known as Domine non est exaltatum cor meum. This is one of the 15 ‘Songs of Ascents; (Shir Hama’a lot) and one of the psalms of confidence.
Psalm 131 is one of the shortest psalms, being one of three psalms with only three verses (the others are Psalm 133 and Psalm 134) – the shortest psalm is Psalm 117, with two verses.
The superscription, ‘A Song of Ascents,’ suggests that this psalm was sung in procession to the Temple. In verse 1, the psalmist says he is neither vain nor arrogant to the point of denying God's greatness and standing.
In verse 2, he recalls that he has successfully become at peace spiritually; he is at peace, as a child in a mother’s arms.
Verse 3 may be a liturgical response sung by pilgrims in Jerusalem.
This psalm in Hebrew is the text of the final movement of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, an extended work for choir and orchestra, with verse 1 of Psalm 133 added.
When asked what it means to trust in God, the Jewish sage known as the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (1720-1797) of Vilnius, quoted verse 2 of this psalm:
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
He explained that just as a nursing baby who is satiated does not worry whether there will be more milk when he or she is hungry again, one who trusts in God does not worry about the future.
I Corinthians 4: 1-5:
Earlier in this letter, the Apostle Paul responds to reports about factionalism and divisions in the Church in Corinth, where some say they belong to Paul, some to Apollos, others to Cephas, and still others to Christ (see I Corinthians 1: 1-9, Epiphany II, 19 January 2020).
He condemns these divisions and quarrels” (see 1: 10-18, Epiphany III, 26 January 2020).
But then, Saint Paul appears to have second thoughts, wondering whether it is not human to be attached to those who brought the Gospel and brought people to faith. He sees himself as having planted the garden that Apollos watered, and to which God gave growth. Saint Paul and Apollos have a common purpose and should not be set against each other, for they are both God's servants, working together.
Now, in this reading, Saint Paul asks his readers to accept Paul and Apollos – and perhaps Cephas – as ‘servants of Christ’ and ‘stewards of God’s mysteries (I Corinthians 4: 1).
A steward in a Greek and Roman household was responsible for protecting its assets. The word Greek word Saint Paul uses here for a steward, οἰκονόμος (oikonómos), is the same word Saint Luke uses in the Parable of the Unjust Steward (see Luke 16: 1-13), that Saint Paul uses when he says a bishop, as God’s steward, ‘must be blameless’ (Titus 1: 7), and that is also used in the Petrine letters (see I Peter 4: 10) about those in ministry.
What are God’s mysteries?
We often think of the word ‘mystery’ in terms of a genre of fiction or as a problem to be solved.
The word mystery in Greek is μυστήριον (mysterion) in the singular but usually appears in the New Testament as the plural μυστήρια (mysteria), the mysteries.
The word comes from the Greek word μυο (muo), to shut the mouth, or even to cover the eyes. In the Old Testament, God is the ‘revealer of mysteries’ (Daniel 2: 47). The Wisdom literature talks about ‘the secret purposes of God’ (see Wisdom 2: 22). In the Gospels, the word μυστήριον (mysterion) is used to refer to the secret meaning of parables (see Matthew 13: 11; Mark 4: 11; Luke 9: 1-10).
The noun was used in reference to the secrets of ancient mystery cults, but it is generally used in the plural in the New Testament to refer to a number of doctrines not known in the Old Testament. Saint Paul uses it in a technical, theological sense, in which Christ is the mystery, the secret plan of God that has always been implicit in creation but is now made explicit in Christ. Christ is the predestined mystery of God revealed within the fullness of time. In receiving him, people receive salvation.
To this day, the Eastern Church still uses the term ‘Mystery’ or ‘Sacred Mystery’ where we might use the term ‘Sacrament.’
We still use the word mystery in this way too to refer to the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It occurs at least three times in The Book of Common Prayer (1662) in reference to the Eucharist in ways that we continue to use it: ‘we … have duly received these holy mysteries’ (The Book of Common Prayer 2004, p 190); ‘so shall ye be meet partakers of these holy mysteries’ (p 200); ‘he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, pledges of his love’ (p 200).
In sharing ‘God’s mysteries’ or receiving the sacrament, we should not judge one another, for God alone knows people’s inner thoughts, and in time each of us will receive the praise we deserve from God.
Matthew 6: 24-34:
The Gospel reading continues our readings in Saint Matthew’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount. In verse 24, Christ speaks of the impossibility of serving two masters: we cannot love both. ‘You cannot serve God and wealth.’
A key word throughout this reading is ‘worry’ (see verses 25, 27, 31). The Greek verb μεριμνάω (merimnáo) means to be anxious, to be troubled with cares, in a way that gives priorities to my own interests, that is preoccupied with or absorbed by my own self-interest.
To be preoccupied with food and appearance is to have a very narrow view of life. On the other hand, birds, to take an example of a different attitude to food, work hard to find it, but they do not store it against future possible shortages.
Our worries and preoccupations are futile. We desire long lives, but our self-preoccupation and self-absorption cannot lengthen our lives (verse 27). On the other hand, lilies, though they grow abundantly on Palestinian hillsides, are dull brown for much of the year and are only brightly coloured for a few weeks. Yet, even Solomon, ‘in all his glory,’ could not compare to their beauty.
The grass of the field ends up being thrown into the oven as fuel for cooking (verse 30). But if God cares for such plants, how much more will God provide for those who are faithful to him?
So being preoccupied with our own needs is wrong because seeking security in possessions shows a lack of faith. Instead of worrying about tomorrow, we should ‘strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’ (verse 34).
Today’s worries are enough for today. ‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today’ (verse 34).
Reflecting on the Gospel reading
At the end of this Gospel reading, Jesus tells the disciples, ‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’
Do not worry about tomorrow?
Imagine two different ways of reading this Gospel passage.
The first is if to image you have a respectable and well-paying job, a good house in suburbia, a decent car, adult children who have good prospects too, you have regular holidays, and can change your car every two or three years.
The second way to read it is to imagine yourself living in a deprived urban area, a single parent with a mortgaged house in negative equity, unemployed, and facing severe cuts in your welfare payments, an adult child with special needs, and an ageing parent who needs residential care that you cannot afford.
How then do you then receive the message, do not worry about what you will eat or drink or wear (verse 25), because God will take care of you? Today’s trouble is certainly more than enough for many today.
For the first group, this is irrelevant, meaningless. You may be worried about higher taxes, winding down and preparing for retirement, that children marry the right sort of people. If you have worries, they are hidden from the neighbours, perhaps even hidden from yourself. Would you want them exposed and discussed in the pulpit?
For the second group, it verges on the absurd. If you have spent the last few years worrying about the roof your head, unable to afford and prepare adequate meals, worried about the friends and dangers your children meet, the future they face, then this is no easy message to hear. What does Christ mean, ‘do not worry’? Life is full of worries, every single waking day.
But is Christ really saying that the basic necessities of life do not matter?
Is he really saying that the basic necessities of life will appear miraculously if only we believe in him correctly?
Let us first put this reading in context – Christ is talking to people who have enough, it seems. Otherwise, his encouragement not to worry would simply be cruel.
But, what about those who truly do not have enough?
How are they going to hear good news in this Gospel reading?
Though the message is going to be heard differently by those who have enough and those who do not, the message is really the same: do not fret.
If you have enough, be thankful, but beware of making an idol of having what you want, rather than merely what you need.
If you do not have enough, it is not because God does not love you. Christ is working to break the connection that was commonly made in his day: those who please God are rewarded with plenty, while those suffer have earned God’s displeasure.
We still make that connection. How often we have an inner feeling of glee when we think people get what they deserve. How often we think people have brought about their own downfall. How often we think people could improve their lot if only they were not indolent, if only they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
We sometimes describe ourselves as a nation of begrudgers, too often, and too often we want grace for ourselves but law for others.
Christ encourages us to look beyond the narrow perspectives that attach virtue to success and vice to failure.
That challenge is expressed by Frederick Faber in the words of his hymn, ‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy’ (Irish Church Hymnal # 9):
For the love of God is broader
than the measure of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make his love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify his strictness
with a zeal he will not own.
If our love were but more simple,
we should take him at his word,
and our lives would be gladness
in the presence of the Lord.
God’s desire for us is that we all have enough, rather than calculating the degree to which each of us should be blessed or cursed.
That does not change the circumstances today for the single mother in Moyross or the unemployed father in Tallaght. But neither do present circumstances justify making political, economic and social decisions based on self-interest and selfishness.
It may be timely to turn to the Collect for Peace, which is the Second Collect at Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. This collect originated in the Sacramentary of Gelasius and was incorporated in the Sarum Breviary, from which Thomas Cranmer translated it in 1549:
O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Kingdom of God has different values from life in the empire, or life in a profit-based society. The kingdom of God includes the poor, the merciful, those who mourn. The kingdom of God calls us to bring light to the darkest parts of the world, to be salt in the world, to be signs and sacraments of mercy and justice.
God is not promising to meet all our needs, like some shopping list brought to the Kingdom-value-supermarket, if we pay up with the right kind of prayers. Tomorrow is going to bring its worries: ‘for tomorrow will bring worries of its own’ (verse 34). But God does not bargain with us. God expects us to serve him through living out the kingdom values, and in that we find perfect freedom.
As we seek first the Kingdom of God, we come to accept with joy the things God adds to us. Our trials and troubles remain real, but that reality can be transformed and made glorious as we serve God and seek to do God’s will.
Matthew 6: (24) 25-34 (NRSVA):
24 [Jesus said:] ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25 ‘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? 26 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? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’
Liturgical Resources (Option A, Creation):
Liturgical Colour: Green (Year A, Ordinary Time)
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit
reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever.
The Collect of the Word:
God of the living,
with all your creatures great and small
we sing your bounty and your goodness,
for in the harvest of land and ocean,
in the cycles of the seasons,
and the wonders of each creature,
you reveal your generosity.
Teach us the gratitude that dispels envy,
that we may honour each gift
as you cherish your creation,
and praise you in all times and places.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift the tree of life was set at the heart
of the earthly paradise,
and the Bread of life at the heart of your Church.
May we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s Cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
Genesis 1: 1 to Genesis 2: 3:
23, Álainn farraige spéirghlas (Beautiful the blue-green sea)
25, All things bright and beautiful
66, Before the ending of the day
121, Creator of the starry height
74, First of the week and finest day
48, God in his love for us lent us this planet
3, God is love: let heaven adore him
26, God sends us refreshing rain
4, God, who made the earth
67, God, who made the earth and heaven
27, God, who stretched the spangled heavens
324, God, whose almighty word
94, In the name of Jesus
29, Lord of beauty, thine the splendour
31, Lord of the boundless curves of space
58, Morning has broken
537, O God, our help in ages past
32, O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
33, O Lord of every shing constellation
34, O worship the King all-glorious above
369, Songs of praise the angels sang
341, Spirit divine, attend our prayers
35, The spacious firmament on high
77, This day, at God’s creating word
36, We thank you, God our Father
Psalm 136 (or Psalm 136: 1-9, 22-36):
682, All created things, bless the Lord
711, All you heavens, bless the Lord (Surrexit Christus)
353, Give to our God immortal praise
30, Let us, with a gladsome mind
45, Praise, o praise our God and King
Romans 8: 18-25:
501, Christ is the world’s true Light
654, Light of the lonely pilgrim’s heart
49, Lord, bring the day to pass
Matthew 6: 25-34:
28, I sing the almighty power of God
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
657, O God of Bethel, by whose hand
365, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation
596, Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Liturgical Resources (Option B, Proper 3):
Liturgical Colour: Green (Year A, Ordinary Time)
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit
reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever.
The Collect of the Word:
Eternal God,
you counsel us not to be anxious about earthly things.
Keep alive in us a proper yearning
for those heavenly treasures awaiting all who trust in your mercy
, that we may daily rejoice in your salvation
and serve you with constant devotion;
trough Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift the tree of life was set at the heart
of the earthly paradise,
and the Bread of life at the heart of your Church.
May we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s Cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
Isaiah 49: 8-16a:
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
644, Faithful Shepherd, feed me
569, Hark, my soul, it is the Lord
466, Here from all nations, all tongues, and all peoples
128, Hills of the north, rejoice
467, How bright those glorious spirits shine!
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
20, The King of love my shepherd is
Psalm 131:
10, All my hope on God is founded
569, Hark my soul, it is the Lord
661, Through the night of doubt and sorrow
I Corinthians 4: 1-5:
119, Come, thou long-expected Jesus
127, Hark what a sound, and too divine for hearing
132, Lo! he come with clouds descending
457, Pour out thy Spirit from on high
527, Son of God, eternal Saviour
140, The Lord will come and not be slow
Matthew 6: 25-34:
28, I sing the almighty power of God
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
57, Lord, for tomorrow and its needs
657, O God of Bethel, by whose hand
365, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation
596, Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).
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