Second Sunday before Lent
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Overview
No worries! Who is Jesus kidding when he tells us not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34)? Worry is an essential part of life, it helps us to focus on what matters. And that’s Christ’s point, what does matter to us? When we focus solely on our own survival, success and security, worry has a tendency to grow exponentially, as we concentrate on what we lack and not what we have. Instead, Jesus asks us to shift focus and concentrate on the kingdom of God.
At first, this might appear to give us a whole pile of new worries: the health and well being of the whole planet and all people in it. The letter to the Romans 8.18-25, agrees: comparing this concern for the bringing in of the kingdom to the pains of labour.
Yet, the pains of labour are bearable because we know that we are bringing new life to birth. Happiness involves a certain level of self-forgetfulness, an ability to look beyond our own lives and see how they are intimately connected with lives of others and the whole of creation. In doing so we shift our focus from what we don’t have, to what we do have and how we can use it.
HYMNS
787 Take my life and let it be (Nottingham)
532 All creatures of our God and King (Lasst un erfreuen)
823 Who would true valour see (Monk’s Gate)
FIRST READING
Romans 8.18-25
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
GOSPEL
Matthew 6:25-34
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
