Don’t Worry?

You can listen to Matt read this post in audio format here:

9 minute read

From Epiphany (Jan 6) through Ash Wednesday (Mar 2 this year), we’re going to follow the schedule of the Matthew Bible Study. When we gather together around the common table, we’ll discover more about Jesus. In our study of Matthew last week we were looking at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-6), so this coming Sunday we’ll explore the passage where Jesus talks about anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34).

Defining our terms:

The Greek word in our story for “anxious” does not mean the same thing as the medical condition we know as “anxiety.”

Modern people like us can read the word “anxious” and think of a debilitation physical and psychological state of apprehension of a real or imagined threat. That’s not what Jesus is talking about here, so rest in knowing that Jesus still welcomes you and loves you, even if you struggle with anxiety. The Greek word for “anxious” has more to do with our human habit of relying on something other than God for what we need, and our preference to fret, stew, plan, and ponder for ourselves, because it’s hard to hope in Jesus when we know he might not give us what we want.

In this story where Jesus tells us not to be anxious, he tells us to

“take a good look at the birds in the sky” (verse 26).

In order to discover how to not be anxious, I’ll choose to take a good look at quail in particular.

Quail are fun little birds. They’re smaller than my hand, and they like to run along the ground. Well, to say they ‘run’ is a bit of a stretch, it’s more like they dart and jitter around. They’ll fly in brief jaunts as though their little bodies have some magnetic pull to the ground that their tiny wings can’t fully overcome.

My uncle, who runs our family ranch back in Texas, taught us that the quail population is the leading indicator for how the environment is doing. An abundance of quail means there’s an abundance of flora and fauna up and down the food chain. When there’s stress on the environment, the first thing he’d notice is a decrease in the quail population.

These fun little birds have two essential features that make them the leading environmental indicator: Quail are defenseless and delicious. Every predator, from snakes to foxes to hawks, eat quail. They’re at the bottom of the food chain.

So when there’s an abundance of quail, there’s an abundance of all the food and shelter they need, which then allows all the predators to flourish too.

Jesus tells us not to be anxious and tells us to take a good look at birds.

Maybe I chose the wrong bird because I certainly don’t want quail as MY example for not being anxious. I’m ready to pick a different bird. I don’t actually know a lot about birds (I studied dead languages, not living creatures), so I have no idea if there were quail in Jesus’ neighborhood when he was preaching this Sermon on the Mount. Yet I would imagine that the birds in Jesus’ time lived similar lives to the birds of our time, and I certainly don’t want to be anything like a lower-food-chain bird.

I want Jesus to give me an example of a bird that has not only an abundance of all the necessary things in life (food, water, shelter, companionship) but also has a rather cozy life as well. An apex predator bird that doesn’t have to work too hard to live well. What does it mean for a bird to retire, surrounded by a caring family and great friends? That’s the bird I want to be. I want Jesus to tell me to not be anxious, and give me an example of a bird who can be optimistic that the present circumstances are all going to work out for the best.

I want to be a bird who can hope for a bright future.

But if I do what Jesus actually asks me to do, and take a good look at the birds around me, it’s kinda bleak. If I look at an apex predator bird like an eagle, I see an animal that can easily die of starvation, habitat loss, disease, and extreme weather. If I look at a quail, I see an animal that has no hope of ever being anywhere other than the bottom of the food chain. This is the animal Jesus told us to take a good look at when he told us not to be anxious.

Jesus can’t possibly be serious. Yet as I’ve prayed through this story over the last few weeks, a rather striking contrast has come to the surface: many voices tell us not to be anxious by taking our current situation less seriously (I heard someone reference “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin this week. A great tune, for sure, but I already struggle with disassociation). The voice of Jesus is telling us not to be anxious by taking our current situation more seriously.

I’ll admit, I’ve been anxious this week, with all the shifts and changes with the coronavirus.

Hearing about so many people getting sick makes me sad and nervous. Having to reevaluate boundaries and protocols is exhausting. I am weary of wearing a mask, and I am especially weary of asking people around me to wear a mask. And our fragility is always on display: I hear more about overdoses, divorces, people losing their temper, and people withdrawing from community. David Brooks, in an op-ed for the New York Times last week, put a bigger context to all the individual conversations I’ve been having with people in my neighborhood.

But if I take Jesus at his word, and if he’s asking me to not be anxious by looking at birds, then I’m reminded how the hope Jesus is offering me isn’t a hope that is separated from the bleak article Mr. Brooks just wrote.

The hope Jesus is offering is actually quite aware of the mess of this world, just as Jesus is aware of the challenges facing a bird every day.

As we read the story, let’s remember that Jesus isn’t offering optimism that our current circumstances are going to get better for us:

Matthew 6:25-34 (translation mine)
This is why I’m telling you all, don’t be anxious about your life, about what you all will eat, neither worry about your body, about what you all will wear. Isn’t your life about more than food and your body about more than clothes? Take a good look at the birds in the sky, who don’t plant, harvest, or store any food, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Doesn’t your life matter more than birds? And who among you, by being anxious, can add anything valuable to your life? And about your clothing, why be anxious? Take a good look at the lilies in the field, neither working nor shopping, yet I tell you plainly that Solomon in all his glory wasn’t dressed as beautifully. But if God dresses the grass in the field this well, and it’s only alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown in the oven, won’t God do much more for all of you, O ye of little faith? So don’t be anxious, saying, “What will I eat? or What will I drink? or What will I wear?” For everyone strives for these things, but your heavenly father knows you need them. But you all: first, seek the Kingdom of God and his justice, and you’ll have everything you need. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will have it’s own worries. Each day is hard enough already.

This story is striking in its impossibility.

We cannot do this, apart from Jesus. Only Jesus can make this possible, and only Jesus can bring this about in our own lives.

Jesus doesn’t invite us to a slightly better life than we would have without him. Jesus is inviting us into a completely different life. It’s not the sort of disengaged, “Don’t Worry Be Happy” of Bobby McFerrin’s earlier career, and much more like his more recent “Rest/Yes Indeed.” I love how this tune beautifully captures the theology of this story.

The Bible is full of stories, from Job to Jeremiah, from Isaac to Isaiah, of people who are invited into a life that is only made possible because God is at the center of it. The psalms are full of prayers of people celebrating the joys and lamenting the struggles of living this kind of life. And I hope you can join us on Sunday when we’ll get to hear from each other’s stories about what it’s like to follow Jesus into these impossible places.

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