DO NOT WORRY — DO NOT FEAR

Joel 2:21-27; Matthew 6:25-33

Thanks-for-Giving Sunday, November 17 , 2024

Rev. Dr. Ritva  H. Williams

Our Thanksgiving gospel reading comes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. It may at first glance seem a strange choice.  Jesus’ exhorts the multitude gathered on the hillside above the Sea of Galilee, not to worry about life, in particular about food or clothing but to rely on God’s providing. Read superficially, in the words of one commentator, “this statement could only have been written by a single guy living a carefree life on the beach in sunny Galilee. 

But we don’t read scripture superficially. Did you notice that the first word in verse 25 is “therefore”? “Therefore” is an adverb that means “for that reason,” or “because of that.” It usually signals a conclusion, meaning that our reading starts in the middle of the sermon. 

To understand the reason we don’t need to worry we should backtrack to verses 19-21. There Jesus tells us not to store up treasures on earth, because where our treasure that is where our heart will be also. That treasure — whatever it may be — becomes the center of our life, the source of our security and happiness. 

In verses 22-23, Jesus points out that a healthy eye fills the body with light, while an unhealthy eye turns one’s inner light into darkness. In the ancient world, the eye represented perception and imagination. A person whose heart is given over to hoarding money and possessions, for example, has a skewed perception of the world, a scarcity mindset, imagining that all goods are always in short supply. So you have to grab as much as you can while you can.  A person whose heart is set on God sees the world differently, through the lenses of abundant grace. 

Jesus’ third point in verse 24 is that “no one can serve two masters … you cannot serve God and wealth.” You cannot serve God very well if you have a scarcity mindset and a heart focused on accumulating wealth and possessions.Your hoarding will impoverish and harm your neighbor — who is a human created in God’s image and for whom Christ died. We serve and love God precisely by loving and caring for the people around us. 

“Therefore,” for those reasons, Jesus says, do not worry, do not be anxious, do not fret about your own life.” In a world marked by a scarcity mindset where food and clothing were markers of wealth, status, and power, Jesus urges his followers to turn their gaze to creation. To observe the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, to perceive that God’s creation is marked by abundance. Everything we need to flourish is already here. Jesus invites us to “strive first” for God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, to align our perceptions and values with God’s abundant grace, love, and mercy. Everything else —  food, clothing, safety, security, life, liberty and happiness will follow. 

Our first reading conveys a similar message. Joel begins his little book by describing the aftermath of a plague of locusts and an invading army. Vineyards are ruined, fig trees are stripped of their bark, fields and crops are destroyed. The animals groan and wander around looking for grass. Fire has devoured the pastures, and dried up all the water sources (Joel 1:1-20). The prophet calls the people to return to God with all their hearts, with fasting, weeping and mourning. He challenges them to remember that the Lord their God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Joel 2:12-13). This invitation is for all people — the aged and the children, the nursing babies and their mothers, the bride and the bridegroom, and all the priests — to come together in a sacred assembly (Joel 2:15-17). 

A plague of locusts is a natural disaster. An invading army is a human disaster, a failure of good relations and diplomacy. They amplify each other catastrophically. The community it called to return to God, to ponder how they were led astray. To confess that wealth and power compete with God in our hearts and minds. To recognize how consumerism and capitalism combine to turn life into a competition to see who can grab and accumulate the most. Competition creates winners and losers, perpetuates social status and divisions. The myth of the totally self-made, self-sustaining rugged individual gets pushed further and further in the direction of selfish, egocentric narcissism. Twisted together with a mindset of scarcity, narcissism manifests itself socially in the wider community as tribalism and nationalism wherever you hear the rhetoric of us versus them, until we deny the very humanity of our neighbors of different tribes. 

Did you know that the reason Lucifer was kicked out of heaven was because he refused to acknowledge and honor the image of God in the first earthling?

Turning back to Joel. God speaks, addressing first the soil — do not fear! Then the animals — do not fear! God has already begun to restore the earth, the pastures are already turning green, the trees are bearing fruit. And finally, the prophet calls the people to be glad and rejoice in the Lord their God who gives the early and late rain in due season to nourish all living things. 

Joel offers a vision of abundant life in relationship with God that results in joy and gladness, where fear and anxiety are relieved by the steadfast and faithful turning of the seasons. Spring following winter, rainy seasons following dry and arid times. In the dormancy of winter land, trees, and animals rest and build up new vitality for growth.

Both our of readings encourage us in the midst of fear and anxiety to turn our eyes to creation — to the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the trees bearing their fruit, the green pastures in the wilderness, the rain and snow in due season watering and nourishing all living things. To find resilience and courage.  To hold on to the vision of abundant life. And to give thanks.

I offer in closing this prayer “On Thanks Giving” by Mark Sandlin from his book Progressive Prayers for Progressive People. 

Good and queering God, 

there is a tension that comes with giving thanks.

Even as we recognize and are grateful for the blessings in our lives,

we are confronted with enjoying our abundance 

as we recognize the reality that there are those who have far too little.

Even as we celebrate a holiday with roots which reach back to the beginnings of our nation,

we are confronted with the reality of the genocide and slavery upon which it was founded.

We do not forget these things. We do not celebrate them. We do not give thanks for them.

In our tale of Thanksgiving, they are the terrible storyline we must not forget.

Our pride, our arrogance, and our pursuit of possessions

have constantly stood alongside our blessings as a reminder.

They remind us why we give thanks.

They remind us that life is sacred and fragile and that we are its biggest threat.

They remind us that we do not want to be those people again,

people who lord it over others and are self-absorbed and self-important.

They remind us to appreciate what we do have. 

So, we give thanks. We give thanks for this moment.

We give thanks for the things that are right about the world right now, in this moment. 

We give thanks for family and friends.

We give thanks for love and laughter.

We give thanks for grace and good company.

We give thanks for the tension we find on a day like Thanksgiving

because it provide us the insight and the motivation to create better tomorrows.

Not just for ourselves, not just for our families, not just for our friends, but for the world.

So, today and everyday, we give thanks 

and we work to create a world that gives more reasons for which to be thankful. Amen.