Friday, 5 December, 2003

This series of devotions are focused around Soren Kierkegaard’s “Christian Discourses etc.” The biblical text to consider during these devotions is: Matthew 6:24-34.



So then, by the aid of the lilies and the birds, we learn to know the anxieties of the heathen, what they are, such, namely, as the lilies and the birds do not have, notwithstanding they have the corresponding needs. One might, however, learn to know these anxieties in another way: by journeying to a heathen land and seeing how (people) live there, what they are anxious about. And finally in a third way: by journeying – but what am I saying? – why “journeying”? we are in fact living on the spot, in a Christian land where all are Christians, so that one might conclude that the anxieties which are found among us, notwithstanding that the corresponding needs and pressure are present, must be the anxieties of the heathen. …These anxieties are found amongst (people) in this land, ergo this Christian land is pagan.



We live in a day like many other days. People must have “sins” that they can point to in order to say to themselves and others, “Those are sins and we do not take part in such a life.” And yet, look how anxious we can be. Quite unlike the lilies and the birds we are. We have turned our notion of sin into something we can score on a card or put onto a scale (like 1 to 10) that will show us the worst and the least of our sins. But we forget that our sin is un-trust…unfaith. Unfaith can be seen not merely in what we would call the pagan or the unbeliever; it is also quite visible in the ones who are called followers of Jesus – Christians. Anxious hearts abound. Kierkegaard is crafty as he brings the Word of the Lord taught by the lilies and the birds right to our own front door. No longer are we ones who are to point out the shortcomings and unfaith in “those” people. We in our anxiety are indeed one of those and there is proof all around us. Therefore, as followers of Jesus we have to continue to bring the lessons of the lilies and the birds into our hearing and our conversations so that we may be of encouragement to one another when our unbelief begins to show through inn our times of anxiety and worry.



Connection: This is a time in the year when there seems to be so many demands on us we can become anxious as we are so absorbed in what “has to be done.” No. What has to be done has been done. We are given the gift of this day and in it, we can already be a gift to others. Go for it.



Lord, help us in our unbelief. Remind us of your power to bring new life when we are on top of the world or when we are deep in the pits of life. In our moments of doubt lead us to the rock that is our trust in you alone. Amen.