Consider the Lilies of the Field

Sermon YC- P22 Luke 12: 22-32 “Consider the Lilies of the Field”
Ascension Episcopal Church  - Blessing of the Animals – October 2, 2022
The Rev. Brenda R. Hoffman

     If we try, we can see the kingdom of God everywhere, and in the spirit of today’s special guests,  I want to welcome those who purr their way into our hearts, wag their tails to welcome us home.   Our pets teach us in all kinds of ways the core of the gospel lesson:  Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  My grand-dogs don’t care if they get to the groomer every week, and my cat never has a bad hair day.  To quote Dostoevsky: Love the animals:  God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled… don’t harass them, don’t deprive them of their happiness, don’t work against God’s intent.  God bless the animals, especially our pets who give meaning and joy to our days, and never give up teaching us how to behave.  
     Over the course of time, we often see patterns emerge.  Chaos Theory (according to an article in Scientific American), suggests that a tiny insignificant event can have an out-sized influence in shaping the way a large, complex system evolves into the future.    Many of you may be familiar with the “butterfly effect” – an idea that can be traced back to science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury in his 1952 story, A Sound of Thunder.  In the story, a man travels back way past the stone age, hunting a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and inadvertently steps on a butterfly, crushing it.  Upon returning to the present, he discovers that his seemingly trivial act altered the course of history, and not in a good way.  
    These patterns that we see emerge can seem so self-explanatory looking at them from a backward view, that it seems impossible that the lessons they were meant to teach didn’t seem obvious sooner.  And when it seems to happen EXACTLY as it did before, it might feel like a deja vu experience, so much so that you can almost predict what is coming next.  Perhaps you have seen the film, Ground Hog Day, starring Bill Murray as the protagonist.  He plays a well-known and cynical television weather reporter, once used to the drama and excitement of delivering cutting edge weather news, living on adrenaline and coffee; now, just coffee.  Then he gets assigned to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to broadcast, live, on February 2nd whether or not a rodent sees its shadow. Electrifying!   In a humorous and poignant way, we see how a gruff, aging reporter deals with predictability, and learns an important life lesson about finding, in the humdrum, mundane daily grind, exquisite beauty and grace in the ordinary simple things.  Things that may seem predictable at first glance, but actually not so much.   Things that, if you blink, you might miss.  Juxtaposing the main character who works in a news media, hired to report the weather news, and predict the largely unpredictable, with the camera that NEVER blinks, is a brilliant demonstration of just how blind we all can be to the things right in front of us.  Things that matter, and, things that DON’T matter, and seeing the holy and sacred in both. These give us reasons to not worry. And in the absence of worry, being happy. (Kudos to those writers, Jerry Rubin and Harold Ramis)  
    As Jesus says in the gospel lesson from Luke today, life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  Following up from last week’s gospel lesson warning about greed, today Jesus walks the disciples, and us, away from worry, and closer to the essence of faith.   Earlier in chapter eleven, Jesus gave heed to the plight of the rich man who stored all his treasures in this world and gave no thought to the next. But the disciples would be more concerned about food and clothing, so He uses examples they will more readily grasp and accept.    Consider the raven, He says, known then and now to be common birds. They seem to flourish, even though they sow not, they reap not, because God feeds them.  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they toil not, they spin not, and yet their raiment is more splendid than Solomon in all his glory.  If birds are fed and fields are adorned with flowers through no efforts of their own, how much more will God take care of us and our needs?  Will worrying about needful things add one single hour to the span of our lives?  We can see that birds and fields are cared for, surely we can take this to mean that God knows our needs too, and watches over us.    
    Imagine what the disciples, who had been farmers and fishermen, must have thought hearing these things from Jesus.  What did he mean,  not worry about food and clothing?? The disciples were more concerned with the necessities, and less about stored up riches. Jesus chose these examples to help rich and poor to understand what matters.  They knew the rules laid out in Leviticus, and the raven was on the Thou Shalt not Eat list, along with owls and eagles. And Lilies -  would be burned with the grass in the oven, again not something greatly valued.  the disciples their over-arching worth and value to God.  In crafting these lessons, Jesus gives us reasons to be happy:  Think of the birds, don’t worry, think of the lilies of the field, don’t worry, God knows what your needs are, He wants to give you the kingdom, and don’t worry. Have faith in Him, because he has hope and faith in us.  He put his life on the line, his body on the cross because we matter to Him.  When we keep our eyes on the cross, we do better because we do better.  When we seek first the kingdom of God, all other things will be given to us as well.  
    Have you ever observed something that seemed impossible at the time, then wondered why the outcome didn’t seem obvious sooner?  I have!   When I was a child, we played parlor games indoors on rainy days.  One of them was called, “the magic camera, which we played with a spoon.  Players sat in a semi-circle, while one player left the room.  Another player who was “it” would point a spoon at one of the others in the room, then hold it up like a camera, invite the waiting child to come back in, and hand over the spoon.  The one now holding the spoon would walk around the semi circle then stop in front of the person  whose “picture “had been taken with the spoon.  If they guessed correctly, then they would become “it.”   The game was over when the last player caught on to the technique.  The trick was that once the spoon had been pointed, it was held in the exact position, for the player coming back into the room to notice the one chosen. It was mystifying how someone blindfolded in the next room could come back in and guess whose picture had been taken with a spoon!  Until you began watching exactly what was being done – right there for all to see.  It seemed impossible that the technique didn’t seem obvious sooner.    We learned how to be watchful and more observant, and I now “see” this parlor game as a metaphor for the way we can look at things, both eyes open, and not see, not comprehend.  I think I’m remembering another little pearl of wisdom that might have been gleaned from this game:  Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you “see.”    
    Let’s remember that when we blink, we clear our eyes, and these are our built-in cameras, our ways of seeing the world.  What are we looking at?  More importantly, what are we seeing?  To go a step further, is there something we should be doing?     
    Have you ever been in a situation where you were really uncertain about something, what to do, you didn’t know whether to bark or lie down.. and maybe even a little worried, and you suddenly remembered to get the Holy in on the conversation, and lo and behold, things turned out alright?  I have!  I’m guessing if you think about it, you have too.  
      Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  

AMEN