So, I have to preach for class (again) next Thursday. The text I’ve chosen is Matthew 6:25-34. It is all about not worrying because God provides. It gives the examples of the lilies of the field – they do nothing and yet are beautifully clothed. So, the argument, will we not all the more be taken care of? It asks if we can add an hour to our life with out worrying. It gives strong commands – don’t worry about what you will wear or what you will eat. It says God knows our needs. It says to strive for the kingdom of God (what exactly do we think the kingdom of God is? And how do we strive for it?) and to strive for God’s righteousness (again, what does this look like?) and the rest will be taken care of. It ends by reminding us that tomorrow will have plenty of worries of its own (just what we wanted to remember). So, what do you make of it? What do you see in the passage? What is hard about it? What is easy about it? I’ll take any and all thoughts. 

I, since you asked, have been really stuck on the ridiculous promises lately, on the absurd nature of the Gospel, and the craziness of having faith in this twisted and broken world. There are so many passages in the Bible that urge unrealistic actions or attitudes – ones I cannot even begin to contemplate most days: don’t worry? Walk through a parted sea and have faith that it won’t come crashing in on you? Trust God in the desert when there is nothing and you are wandering? Your prayers could move mountains? You shall have a son? Knock and you shall receive? I’m just so stuck on these crazy injunctions. Every time I read a narrative with one, I immediately identify with those who just can’t fathom it. Who protest and cry out and laugh. 

We live in a world that flies in the face of these promises everyday. We experience a reality that tells if you don’t worry, you won’t have enough to eat tomorrow; if your clothes aren’t the right ones, you risk losing your friends and the respect of those around you, not to mention job opportunities should you come inappropriately dressed to an interview; if you knock, often all you hear is silence; if you can’t bear children chances are it won’t happen when you’re ninety; and as for faith and prayer moving mountains, well unless you’re praying for erosion, probably not happening. 

On the one hand, I like these crazy sayings. I like the ridiculous promises. This world can seem so twisted and so broken and so gray that I like this alternative view of reality. It’s part of why I want to call myself Christian. I want to have faith in the crazy things, in the miracles, and in the no-way-possibilities. I want to see beauty and hope where other people see only brokenness and stagnation. And I want to point out the beauty and hope to others when they get lost. 

On the other hand, I get really stuck. I have to get up everyday and face the fact that my life doesn’t look like I thought it would because promises were broken; and I can’t control the future and I have to go to classes where I haven’ finished the reading and I can’t figure what we’re learning or why it’s important. And I have to leave this picturesque campus and see homeless mothers dropping off children at Our House in order to go once again to a job that doesn’t pay enough for them to provide for their children, and I see people standing in the rain waiting for a bus when at 24 I have my own car, and people sleeping on stairs downtown and women living in shelters because life just doesn’t always cooperate with these promises. 

So which one is true? Do we believe in the promises or in what we see? If we believe in the promises then we risk being naïve. If we believe in what we see, we risk being cynical and utterly depressed. So which one is true? How do live out of the injunctions not to worry and to have faith when life doesn’t back these promises up?