"Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6: 33). In other words, those who put God at the centre, are those who will get life in a true, healthy, and God-given perspective.
In this evening's Gospel reading, we are reminded that Jesus was someone who certainly had a joyful appreciation of creation. And that He was also well aware of what happens when we fail to put God at the centre - how anxiety about material possessions can so easily become our master, and how what we worry about is so often related to the love of money.
"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. … Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these" (Matthew 6: 26, 28, 29). Those words come from someone who knew how to celebrate the basic goodness of His Father's creation. Doubtless Jesus had watched the birds wheeling around, soaring high in the currents of air in the Galilean hills, simply enjoying being alive. And He would have watched different flowers growing in the Galilean soil, and admired their fragile beauty. Beauty that was just itself: glorious and God-given. Jesus lived in the present. He joyfully celebrated the goodness of God, and gave Himself totally to the task in hand. And He urged His followers to do the same - to make God's Kingdom their wholehearted priority, and let other things look after themselves.
The Gospels record that Jesus kept returning to the subject of money and of material possessions. Time and again, Jesus warned about the danger of allowing money - and the things that money can buy - to become a rival affection to God: "You cannot serve both God and mammon." And His followers emphasised this point, as we heard from this evening's Epistle: "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains" (1 Timothy 6: 10).
When you and I stop to consider the state of our world, and what's wrong with it, the love of money will be found lurking behind many of the problems. Human greed for gain wreaks misery and havoc with our world - peoples and nations are enslaved in crippling burdens of debt; politics, banking, and business are corrupted; relationships between nations and within homes are broken; animals are cruelly mistreated; the natural environment is laid waste. All in the name of increased profit, all to meet the insatiable demands of the false god mammon, that ancient idol of money and material wealth.
One of the reasons why you and I may feel rather ambivalent about harvest celebrations is that harvest itself has been tainted by the effect of mammon. John Betjeman reminds us of this in some pithy words from his poem Harvest Hymn:
We spray the fields and scatter
The poison on the ground
So that no wicked wild flowers
Upon our farm be found.
We like whatever helps us
To line our purse with pence;
The twenty-four-hour broiler house
And neat electric fence.
The love of money is indeed a root of all kinds of evil. And, if we're honest, we know that the Church is certainly not immune from the power of money to distort priorities, and to turn hearts away from God. That's why Jesus states so clearly: God has to come first, and money a poor second. When that happens, other things fall into place, and much of our worry is dissipated. For, as Jesus points out, worry is closely related to money. And worry, especially about money - and material things like food and drink and clothes - is essentially a failure to trust God.
You and I live in a world that is worried and anxious and fearful about many things. How badly, then, we need to hear the call of Christ to refocus on God, to "strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness." For as we look to Jesus, and hear His word to us, you and I are offered a radically different way of viewing the world, and of responding to it. The Kingdom way which has to do with gift, gratitude, and generosity.
Gift, which views all of life as precious and God-given.
Gratitude, which celebrates the gift, and praises the Giver.
Generosity, which seeks to share what is given. In Jesus Christ, you and I are shown what it is to live in this Kingdom way of gift, gratitude, and generosity - and what is possible when that happens. Those who seek to follow Jesus Christ are also called to embody His graceful way - the way which leads to life, and not death; to hope, and not despair. This way issues from faith that the world has been created from the love of God, and that it is destined for the love of God. And in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we are assured that such faith, hope, and love continue to be working God's purposes out.
In a few minutes time, we shall take bread and wine, gifts of creation and work of human hands. As we thank God for them, we shall recall how, in the hands of Jesus, broken bread and poured out wine have been given a special meaning. How they speak of that graceful mystery, in which we are all invited to share. The way of life through death, God's harvest gift to us beyond words.
It is a gift which can shame our greed and unlock the gate of generosity.
It is a gift which can change our lives and transform our world.
It is a gift which is ours to receive, if we but come with open hands and hearts.
So may you and I receive this priceless gift with gratitude. And may the harvest of our lives reflect the generosity of the Giver, to His praise and glory. Amen.
John Barr
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