Devotional Reflection, Thursday, May 2, 2024
The week of the fifth Sunday of Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
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. . . .31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But 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.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 963)
AM Psalm [70], 71; PM Psalm 74
Lev. 19:26-37; 2 Thess. 1:1-12; Matt. 6:25-34
Today we celebrate the Feast of Athanasius. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
Helen Luke has written: "However unconscious of it one may be, everyone's need is to find the totality--the wholeness--that is God."* Today’s Gospel ends with Jesus’ teaching that our supreme desire must be to seek God’s reign and salvation. If we do, then all will be given us. Jesus says “all these things will be given you as well,” and all these things includes God’s reign and salvation. Reread that passive “will be given you” as, “God will give you as well.” Helen Luke was on point.
Earlier in the passage Jesus cautions us about striving in an anxious way for what we need. Obviously, we cannot survive without food, clothing, drink. Yet, Jesus seems to question our ability to identify our root hunger for the divine and alerts us to the danger of being distracted from that root hunger by survival anxieties. If we strive for and fret over these basic needs, we differ very little from people lacking faith and a direct connection with God.
This passage gives us a hint about how to identify our driving concerns, the intentions and goals that energize our efforts. About what are we anxious? To what do we give our primary energies? On what do we spend our discretionary income? For the sake of what do we neglect our primary relationships? If the answers lie elsewhere than nurturing our relationship with God and serving God’s purposes for our lives, then our lives may well be in the grip of a subtle idolatry, a quest for wholeness and peace in possessions, relationships, hobbies, recreation, or career.
If Helen Luke is right, our misdirected energies might well be aimed toward slacking our souls’ central hunger for God, for forgiveness, for spiritual experience, for transformation, or for basic connection to a loving reality. We have mistakenly assumed that more possessions, a certain career, a certain relationship, a certain level of status and recognition would bring the peace, security and transformation we crave.
According to Jesus, only when we focus our intent on knowing, loving, and serving God and on being responsive to our primary human relationships have we begun to quest in the right places. God desires to “add” all these things to our lives, if only we dare to trust Jesus’ affirmation that our most basic hunger is for God and dare to take the risk of living into that hunger. As one of our collects says, “to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom.”
Jesus gives us a hint of a strategy for limiting anxiety. A creative level of anxiety motivates us to to fulfill our responsibilities, but being consumed with anxiety can be paralyzing. Jesus tells us to limit our anxiety to what is immediately in front of us. As he puts it, “Today’s trouble is enough for today.” One trick I learned from someone now forgotten is to make a list of all that prompts anxiety and prioritize at the top the most pressing items. Focusing on those helps me to forget about those farther down the list. “Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
To put it another way, fret only about today. Tomorrow will get here soon enough.
*Kaleidoscope: The Way of Woman' and Other Essays. Ed. Rob Baker (New York: Parabola, 1992), p. 171.
Collect of the Day, Fifth Sunday of Easter
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 225)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, theologian, doctor of the church (died 2 Mar 373 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Athanasius
O Lord, who established your servant Athanasius, through wisdom, in your truth: Grant that we, perceiving the humanity and divinity of your Son Jesus Christ, may follow in his footsteps and ascend the way to eternal life, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
A GAELIC PRAYER
As the rain hides the stars,
As the Autumn mist hides the hills,
As the clouds veil the blue of the sky,
So the dark happenings of my lot
Hide the shining of thy face from me.
Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness,
It is enough.
Since I know, that though I may stumble in my going
Thou dost not fall.
(Theme prayer for the congregation of the Saxon Church of Escomb, England
Church constructed in 670-690 CE and still the site of worship for the parish. The visitor's handbook attributes some of the architectural features to Irish Celtic influence. Source: The Saxon Church: Escomb: A Guide for Pilgrims. The Saxon Church. Escomb, Durham County, England.)
A Prayer for Light
Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, Jesus Christ, Amen. (BCP, 111)
A Collect for Mission
O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 257)
Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 6:25-34
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? 26Look 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? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But 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? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But 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.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer