Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

At my bird feeder we usually see Sparrows, Chickadees, and Finches. Bright red Cardinals are no strangers either. Blue Jays hang around but do not perch on the feeder itself. And sometimes we get to see a beautiful yellow Goldfinch. Jesus said to His disciples, “Look at the birds of the air...” (Matthew 6:26).

 

In my flower garden I tend to plant whatever I get for free. Several years ago a red and yellow Gailardia Blanket Flower popped up in the middle of the front yard. I planted it my garden and now I have several patches of Blanket Flowers. Other people have given me plants from their gardens when they have too many and that is how I now enjoy Hostas and Echinacea and Black-Eyed Susans in large number. In the last few years I have been given Hellabore and Rose of Sharon, and this year Evening Primrose is the newest addition. Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field...” (Matthew 6:28), and I have a few of those too.

 

As beautiful as birds and flowers are, Jesus did not tell us to look at them for their aesthetic beauty only, but to think about something while we look at them. Now, you can find all kinds of symbolism that has been assigned to birds and flowers from all manner of places. Perhaps, the most spiritually harmful is the common belief that when you catch sight of a red Cardinal, it means that a loved one in heaven has come to visit you. That is balderdash. Our dearly departed loved ones have been rescued from this fallen world, even the parts that still display some beauty for us. God does not force them into a lower life form and send them back.

 

Our desire to have our loved ones close is realized in the fullest sense when we remember that we are all in Christ. So you are closest to your mother who has departed in the faith, through your baptism and your communion with Christ at the Lord’s Supper. And it is by the salvation that we share in Christ that we will be together again when Christ returns and the promise of our resurrected life in the new creation will find its fulfillment.

 

Other birds have meaningful symbolism imposed upon them. What does an owl symbolize? Both the United States of America and Germany are represented by Eagles. In other cultures the Crane or the Swan have significant meaning. Your favourite sports team might have a species of bird as its logo and mascot.

 

Likewise, flowers are given symbolic meaning as well. The Blanket Flower that I have in my guardian is a Native American symbol of strength and creativity. I hardly need to tell you that the many different varieties of roses are meant to signify different aspects of love. Even in the church we use flowers to symbolize the gift of life and especially Trumpet Lilies to proclaim the good news of the resurrection, if they don’t silence the allergic pastor’s proclamation.

 

So, what are we supposed to think about when we “Look at the birds of the air...” and “Consider the lilies of the field”? Jesus said that they have something to teach us about dealing with anxiety. Anxiety has become a huge problem for many people. It has become the pandemic after the pandemic. Some of its effects are sleeplessness, weight gain, isolation, and life paralysis in addition to an inability to find peace and joy. Jesus revealed that anxiety is also an effect of idolatry, that is, having the wrong god, serving the wrong master.

 

Only the most grossly hedonistic individual would admit that money is his god of choice. But many people are enslaved by the Master of Earthly Things against their will, or at least without conscious thought. The outward symptom is being anxious about your life—not necessarily about the big life decisions either, but sometimes even the little decisions. “’What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” (Matthew 6:31). For some people these are the big life decisions of finding a job, how you will pay the bills, feed your family, or what kind of chance your children will have for success. But for others it comes out in making a big deal of the minor decisions to eat, drink, and wear what will be pleasing to other people.

 

Anxiety for the things of this world is idolatry. That is a tough teaching to take, because it involves the necessities of life, and in one way or another touches us all. We need to eat. We need to drink. We need to be clothed. How are we not to worry about these things? How can it be wrong to spend our mental and emotional energies to make sure that we have these things and our children have them too?

 

Jesus answers: “Look at the birds... Consider the lilies of the field.” The response is so simplistic that it feels hurtful and perhaps uncaring. But it is the very opposite. When we have fallen to a false god, like money or other things of this world, our heads are on backwards. We see things the wrong way round. It is precisely because food, drink, and clothing are necessities that we don’t need to be anxious about them. It is precisely because the pictures of birds and flowers are simplistic that the answer is right there in front of us and easy to grasp.

 

Jesus tells you that your person, who you are, is more than food and clothing. There is so much more to you than what you eat or what you wear. Perhaps this is all that the world has to focus on concerning you, but God sees so much more of you. He sees your spirit, a whole other side of you that the world does not even notice. And even your physical body He regards as eternal, something that does not end in death in this world, but will rise again to live forever in the world to come.

 

The beautiful birds of the air are fed by the God who created them. You are fed by the God who is your heavenly Father. He knows what you need and He knows it is His fatherly responsibility to make sure that you have all you need. He cares for you. He does not have the same care and concern for the birds of the air, and yet, not one sparrow falls to the ground without His knowing (Matthew 10:29). “You are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). That is the verse that I have used in ordaining many pastors, including Andrew Cottrill, and most recently Daniel Cunningham. Jesus spoke those words to the apostles whom He was sending out to proclaim His Word to a hostile world.

 

God adorns the grass with radiant flowers, like the Blanket Flower I found growing in the middle of the front yard. The grass grows up one day and is scorched by the sun the next, or even plucked up and used to fuel a cooking fire. We just cut it down and use it for compost. But God inserts flowers into the field of green that catch our eye. We cut flowers to display them in church and wonder how many Sundays they will last. We thank God for His creative Spirit and His sense of beauty.

 

So much more does God clothe you as Your heavenly Father. He dresses you because you are more beautiful to Him than the flowers that fill the grand gardens of the world. It is very real to Him that you are His child, baptized into Christ the eternal Son. So He provides for you the needed clothing for this life as well as the radiant robe of Christ’s righteousness. He clothes you for eternity. He covers not only your nakedness but the guilt and shame of sin. He provides for you a treasured garment that will not wear out and cannot be destroyed by moths (Matthew 6:20), an eternal crown that will never wither or fade.

 

In today’s short gospel reading, Jesus tells you five times not to be anxious. Why? Because your heavenly Father knows that you need these things. Because they are necessities you don’t need to worry about them. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. He will provide them. It is His duty, responsibility, privilege, and loving care for you. If you are worried about them, it is because you don’t have a firm grasp on the fact that your heavenly Father cares for you.

 

It can be hard to have a grasp on that because the world in which we live is a fallen world that has forgotten the love and care of God. But it is evident even in the simplest of His creatures. “Look at the birds... consider the lilies.” They give simple pictures that reveal a profound and precious truth. You have a loving heavenly Father from which nothing escapes His eye. He notices the smallest sparrow. He endows such glorious beauty into flowers that only last for a season.

 

This God is your Father who loves and cares for you above and beyond birds and grass. For which of His creatures did He send His Son to suffer and die in order to save them from death and have them for eternity? It was only for mankind. It was for you that He sent this word of salvation to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth. It was upon you that He had water attached to His Word poured out to give you His name and the life of His Son.

 

The beginning of the Gospel warned against the idolatry of serving the false god that brings you nothing but anxiety. The end of today’s Gospel implores you to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). To seek for something doesn’t mean that you have to make it yourself. It means that it already exists and all you have to do is look for it. And God makes it easy.

 

You can even look for it as you look at the birds and consider the lilies. You look and you see a God who does such wondrous things for His creatures. This is your heavenly Father who loves and cares for you so much more. He provides for your whole person, body and soul. He supplies all that is needed for eternal life through His Son. Your faithful adornment is more glorious than the birds and flowers. You don’t need to worry about tomorrow. God will provide for you tomorrow as He has done today. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is found in Jesus and it is there for all the children of the heavenly Father.