FINDINGS II

Epiphany VIII - A - February 27, 2011

Matthew 6: 24-34   

Matthew  6: 24-24   

Jesus said, "No one can be the slave of two owners at once, for either he will dislike the one and prefer the other, or be loyal to one and hate the other. [Likewise] you cannot be a slave to both God and wealth. For that reason, I tell you not to be obsessed over your eating or drinking, neither about what you wear. Really, now: Is not your life more than eating and drinking, and your body more than what you wear? Think of the birds in the sky; they do not plant; they do not harvest, and they do not store up grain, yet your benevolent father feeds them. And are you not of much more value than they? Which one of you by worrying is able to add much of anything to his span of living? And why be so concerned about clothing? Regard the flowers in the field and the way they grow, yet they do not labor or spin [cloth], yet I tell you that Solomon in all his splendor was not arrayed like one of those flowers. If God cares in that way for such random growths as those, which -- alive today -- are burnt as fuel on the morrow, will he not care as much or more for you, ones of  little trust? Refrain, then, from asking, 'What shall we do for food?' Or 'What shall we do for something to drink?' Or 'What shall we do about clothing?' Your benevolent father is fully aware of what you need. Therefore, be looking first for that benevolent father's rule [in your lives], and all those things you need will be yours. Do not obsess over tomorrow, for tomorrow has its own worries. Today's problems are quite enough for today." (Translated and paraphrased by Harry T. Cook.)

RUBRIC

This passage sets forth ethical and practical counsel not for individuals but for a community, probably a community of Jesus Jews living in a time of uncertainty and change -- no doubt unsure about its future as representative of a new and innovative branch of the Diaspora. It sounds as if the community's life might have been a tad sketchy where ordinary needs were concerned, i.e. food and clothing. It may be that the Jesus of 60 years previous to the compilation of Matthew had proffered such counsel to his itinerant following, as much out of necessity as doctrinaire asceticism. It may have remained for those who compiled and rewrote original Jesus sayings to add the encouraging idea that a heavenly father would provide when the larder was empty. They would have had Genesis 22:14 as authoritative backup: "Yahweh will provide."

WORKSHOP

It is worth noting that Matthew 6:24 above has a very close parallel in Luke 16:13, and Matthew 6:25-34 is almost verbatim in Luke 12: 22-31 with Matthew 6:28 and the last clause at Luke 12:23 being echoed in Thomas 36 -- meaning, probably, that the concept of being unconcerned about room and board was common to the early Jesus communities. Broad consensus among those who research and analyze these texts is that the Q document was drawn on by both the Matthew and Luke compilers, or by those of Matthew with Luke's copying Matthew. The Thomas connection is not insignificant in determining how central the asceticism of necessity rather, perhaps, than of virtue was to those early communities.

The quotable wisdom of the passage is part of that collection known as "the Sermon on the Mount" (in Luke "on the Plain"). The life-attitude for which it calls appeals to the way of life of members of cloistered communities who individually do not need to care about the details of their existence because the communities are organized around shared resources. Members share the burdens of keeping the collective body and soul together. Such an ethic can only work in intentional and committed groups or families. If practiced by an individual qua individual, he or she will be on the streets alone at the mercy of others -- resembling in some ways the model disciples whom Jesus will send out with (or without) staff, no extra pair of sandals and no money belts -- deliberately willed poverty so that he or she who wills it will become as vulnerable as the destitute to whom they are sent as healers (in the sense of helping the broken to be whole, the outcast to be re-integrated, etc.)

That is why the choice of picking a master is critical. The master can be the rule of the benevolent father or of the amoral bottom line of wealth. The human being is incapable of pursuing loyalty to both at the same time. (See HOMILETIC COMMENTARY below.)

The passage reads like an expanded rule of a monastic community: Don't worry about what's for dinner. It's taken care of by others tonight. Tomorrow night you will be on KP. If everyone does his part, no worries. The idea is to "seek first" -- or perhaps a more astute translation: "focus laser beam-like on how to attain the basileia or set of conditions proper to the presence of the benevolent father."

The passage ends with what appears to be a footnote: "Therefore, be looking first for that benevolent God's rule [in your lives], and all those things you need will be yours. Do not obsess over tomorrow, for tomorrow has its own worries. Today's problems are quite enough for today." It is unique to Matthew, a kind of an exclamation point added to the wisdom he has passed along via Q and Thomas. It is a pragmatic extension of the counsel not to worry about tomorrow but today. Another way of putting it is: "Give us the bread we need today" (6:11).

HOMILETIC COMMENTARY

It is unclear to me how the preaching clergy can survive an honest exegesis and homiletic exposition of this text unless it is given to members of a monastic community. If the preacher exhorts a secular congregation, particularly in the United States or any capitalist nation as the terms of this passage demand, he or she will be marked down as a kook or hopeless socialist and probably replaced in short order by a more "sensible" and compliant minister. We simply do not live in the way the passage provides for those sold on the salvific worth of Jesus.

What this text says plainly is that today, the here-and-now is what matters, not any then-and-there. The rule of the beneficent father is more clearly realized in a community of shared need where concern is for what can be said and done for good today. A caring community will find a way to feed and clothe its members, probably not in gourmet style or in vogue fashion -- but adequately. Daily bread is all one may reasonably expect to afford another and to receive for oneself. One eats to live, not the other way around.

This text is homiletic TNT. Preaching it is not for the faint of heart.