Faces of Fear - Day 3: Luke 12:22-37

He said to [his] disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds! Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your life-span? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest? Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides. 

Growing up one of my favorite things growing up was to take my allowance money to the newsstand to buy a the newest edition of Mad magazine. Looking back, I am not sure how rural Montana raised white bread Christian boy might come to be so interested in what was most assuredly a very New York Jewish group of writers. 

The principal character and center piece of the magazine was a tousled haired, gap toothed Jewish boy named Alfred E. Neuman. Playing on the stereotypes of a adolescent Jews being chronically and perpetually worried, Alfred always had a brilliant smile that belied any concern he might have for people taking note of his unsightly front teeth. His classic remark about everything was, "What? Me worry?"

I wonder if there is an connection with the fascination of the 8 year old me with the 60+ year old me on the same subject, fear, anxiety and worry. I will put that aside for a moment and turn to a passage my wife thought should be given some reflection time. She is keenly aware of my fascination with crows and ravens and so she thought I was meant to encounter the passage.

Once again Jesus assures his followers that we are to not worry about food, health or clothing. He reminds us that life is more than material things. Remember the Samaritan woman at the well? His offer was not for life nourishing water but soul nourishing rebirth and salvation.

This passage is very similar to others in the gospel where Jesus points to creatures as being worthy of the favor of God. What is different in this particular passage gives us ravens as an example. I puzzled over the choice of bird. Just a few verses earlier he mentions sparrows which can be purchased for a small amount. The thing to point out is that sparrows had some kind of value to be sold captive in a cage, perhaps they were gifts to offer in the temple or they were kept as pets. Ravens, on the other hand, were, and are, considered harbingers of danger. 

I remember years ago sitting on the porch with an Italian family in our neighborhood in an Italian part of New Jersey. A raven or, more likely a crow, came and perched in a tree across the street. The elderly grandmother who recently come over from the old country immediately jumped from out of a catnap to gesturing at the bird screaming "Malochia! Malochia!" which means "evil eye" in Italian. Clearly she was not happy to see a black member of the corvid family.

Crows, magpies and jays all hang around my yard getting fat and feisty on diet of meat scraps, bones, dog food and peanuts. Sometimes they will line up the branches of the tree and stare right in the living room window at me swawking like they mean murder unless they are fed immediately. The jays will perch on the windowsill and peck on the glass to get my attention. God is not taking care of those ruffians, at least not directly. I am. One particularly raucus morning I made the comment that the birds seemed to know me when I approached the window. My wife responded that of course they know me. Their ancestors ate my ancestors on battlefields throughout history. Ravens and crows cooperate with wolves and they play the long game.

 Remember the raven in the story of Noah? He was sent out to search for land but, when he found dry earth, he did not return the ark. He was no doubt distracted by the abundance of eyeballs to pluck from the eyes of those who drowned. Of course they are not always given a bad rap. Ravens came to feed Elijah in 1st Kings after he escaped into the wilderness to seek safety. 

I have written much about fear and worry in an effort to understand how to vanquish it. We have looked at many different faces of fear and learned to pray the litany of humility. So far freedom from fear and worry remain elusive but I have finally begun to find some relief. How? Instead of reading, writing, or thinking about fear and anxiety, I am taking small steps. When anxiety rises up, I do something, anything to fight it. I pray. I find some way to do something for someway else. I get off my toukas and take a walk. I grab a pen and paper and start writing. I tell someone I trust who I know will challenge me rather than simply offer comfort or compassion. While I need those sympathy, I need to also be called out as a different brand of expression of caring rather than enabling my do-nothing paralysis.

You know what biggest challenge is now that I am doing something? Crazy as it sounds, I need to want to recover from fear and anxiety. You might ask, why would anyone not want to recover. It is simple. Living in a running fight with fear is the only way of life I know. I only have the slightest hint of what a life without burning anxiety might feel like and so I need to gin up courage to seek it all of the of the fullness a completed life in God can offer. How strange. It has taken 6 decades to understand just that small amount. There is so much more to learn.

So what more did we need to learn from the analogy of the raven? Even thought raven is among the most intelligent birds with a problem solving ability that can be stunningly effective, they are not sentient. They don't have to make conscious about whether or not to be worried or afraid. They are afraid or they aren't. They can be wary or edgy when there is a possibility of danger but they don't have the capacity to worry about tomorrow or fret about the dead gopher they passed up on last week. We have to make the choice to do not do fret or worry. Free choice is both our privilege and our curse.

We need also learn that God loves us more than we can comprehend in ways beyond our capacity to recognize.

God, let us live free from the fear and anxiety by trusting completely on you.