The lectionary is still camped out in the Sermon on the Mount. Today’s passage was Matthew 6:24-34, best known for Jesus saying we cannot serve two masters and that the lilies of the field know how to trust better than we do. Ginger and I had good discussions about how we were to read the verses when we know there are Christians who die of hunger everyday and whose needs are not met. Then we began to talk about this passage as a follow up to Jesus’ outlandish words about living non-violently and began to see both as calls to community and generosity: when I can trust God to be generous without making sure I’m taken care of first, I can begin to feel a little more lily-like.
Ginger finished her sermon this morning asking us, “What would it take for us to humble ourselves before God?’ I’m still working on my answer.
sunday sonnet #19
The question is just what we’re after
while living our days on the planet:
we’ll choose between God as our master
or ourselves in control, just like Janet.
The lilies we’re called to consider
as trust in it’s best incarnation;
Jesus we don’t take for a kidder –
the image requires explanation.
“Don’t hit back,” he said just before –
the point being to pull us together,
the self-centered hunger for more
eats away at life’s basic tether.
The lilies compel our ability
to live out our faith with humility.
Peace,
Milton
