Pink Lilies

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

St Luke Chapter 12: v. 27

Do not worry about your life, Jesus tells us. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and our needs will be met. This is teaching us to have a proper attitude to material things, not to covet them, but to have a simpler trust in a caring Father who knows our needs better than us. This to me has a particular resonance in this materialistic twenty first century, where more material wealth really does not make people happier.

The rich get richer...

It is often dangerous to use quotations out of context. And never more so, I find, than when using biblical passages to illustrate a point.
A few years ago I wrote of our obsession with material things, our love affair with money, and how I thought spirituality was more important to us in the long term, and generosity with what we have now, and I used Matthew 6: vv.25 -34 ; ..."do not worry about your life...look at the birds of the air...they neither sow nor reap...consider the lilies of the field ......they neither toil nor spin... seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you... tomorrow will worry about its own things...."
Jesus is telling us that we do not need to worry about the future because our Father is ever mindful of our daily needs and will watch over and care for us if we seek first the Kingdom of God.
No one is saying that we should sit back, not work, and expect food to fall into our laps, or cash to make our next mortgage payment. No indeed. But my article met with howls of protest and some offensive and blasphemous comment. I will find it and post it again soon.

Meanwhile here's another one. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." This may well be true in our current economic model, but don't blame Jesus and God for that. Yesterday someone relied on Mark 4: v. 25 to again misquote Jesus and "prove" that life has ever been thus: "For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."

In this parable, Jesus as so often is using analogy, in this case the light which should not be hidden away but put on a lamp stand and used to illuminate the surroundings. Do not hide your light under a bushel, we say, meaning do not hide away our talents, but bring them into the open, use them wisely for the good of all. Otherwise they are wasted and we waste our opportunities to expand and enhance or own abilities.

That is what Jesus is saying - to listen and heed - so that we may increase our understanding of His Truth and find greater spiritual perception, rather than continue in materially obsessed ignorance whilst withering spiritually.