Do Birds Build Barns?

These are thoughts drawn from my teaching material for the week.

At one point in his teaching, Jesus urges his disciples to live with a deep degree of trust as to the practical dimension of their lives. This prompts me to ask the question:

Do I believe that God will provide for me if I first seek the Kingdom of God and then attend to my practical affairs in faith and love? Or does that seem a childish thought?

I’m curious what Jesus would say about the matter.

We get an idea in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6. Jesus presents a long teaching discourse, at the midpoint of which he says:

I tell you, do not worry about your life: what to eat, what to drink? Nor about your body: what shall I wear? Is not life more than food? Is not the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds in the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather up into barns. Yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not far more precious than they?

Which one among you, through worry, can add a single moment to his life? And why put such thought into clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin. But I tell you: not even Solomon, in all his glory, was clothed as one of these. If God so clothes the grass of the field that today is here and tomorrow is cast into the fire, how much more will he care for you, mini-believers?

So do not worry – what to eat, what to drink or what to wear? These are the sorts of things anxiously sought by those who do not know God. Your Father in heaven knows you need them. Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

Do not be anxious for tomorrow. Tomorrow, when it comes, will have cares enough. The burden of today is sufficient for the day.

Cf. Matthew 6:25-34

I’m struck by this word: “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” Mt 6:27

Jesus is speaking of the practical concerns his disciples carry. He is not diminishing these concerns; he is merely urging his disciples not to worry about them. He is bidding them place their primary focus on seeking the Kingdom and trusting that their needs will be met as they do so. As he has done in previous teachings, he tells them: look at how God provides in the natural world. Look at the birds: they cover the earth; they do not sow seeds; they do not reap; they do not save for the future.

Not that it’s wrong to do so – Jesus doesn’t say that; he merely observes that birds do not plan in this way and yet God still cares for them. God has created a natural order in which birds can – through presence of mind, through attention in the present – find that which they need to subsist. There is benevolence to this order; there is wisdom; there is abundance. And Jesus is saying: you are more than the birds. You are made in God’s image; you have been set upon the earth as Lords of creation. Will not God also provide for you? Is not the Kingdom vast enough, wisely proportioned enough, to provide for the needs of disciples who labor in faith and love? Why then should you worry?

Even so, it can be hard to trust. What, then, is the attitude Jesus wants us to adopt? Does he really want us to rely on the Father? Is that not childish?

I think of the moment in Matthew 17 when Peter was asked to pay the upkeep tax for the Temple. Jesus first makes the point that a child of God is not obligated to pay an upkeep tax for the Temple. However, so as not to scandalize the broader community, he counsels Peter to pay it in a rather amazing way. “Go to the sea,” he says, “drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you” (Mt 17:27). This miraculous provision echoes Jesus’ point about the birds. God provides for Peter’s practical need, while Peter attends to the primary task of discipleship.

Note well that the coin’s value is just enough to meet the day’s need, for both Peter and Jesus. It’s not a gold coin that Peter can cash in, pay the tax, and have plenty left over for ample food and drink for months to come. God’s provision is enough to meet the needs of the day; just as birds gather, each day, their daily portions; just as manna was given in the desert – only enough for the day.

The message is this: birds need only be birds and God will provide for them. And disciples need only be disciples and laborers in the tasks given them to labor; they need only be concerned about the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and they will be able to gather what they need each day. There is no ground for worry or anxiety about the practical order.

A final thought. I do not read here any argument against sowing, reaping or prudent storing of things in barns. Jesus often speaks of farming, harvesting, and business transactions; they are human and Kingdom values; he doesn’t say not to do these things. But what he seems to be saying is that we should do these things in light of the Kingdom; with a hierarchy of values and priorities directed to the Kingdom; that we should trust, without anxiety, that God’s provision and our prudent stewardship of practical affairs will suffice for our needs.

What Jesus seems not to want is the excessive hoarding of the rich man (cf. Lk. 12:19) who, in a season of abundance, built new barns for all his crops, storing goods for many years “so he could eat drink and be merry.” This mindset, fixed upon accumulating goods in the natural order to the point of abundance and excess and stopping there, seems to miss the mark. Rather, Jesus seems to want us to labor, to put the Kingdom first, to be dependent on God, to act in faith and love. And the rest will be given, in morsels, according to our daily need.

Do I believe that God will provide for me if I first seek the Kingdom of God and then attend to my practical affairs in faith and love? Or do I feel this is a child-ish thought? Would I rather worry about these things and take every possibility under my own practical power?

Food for thought as I watch the birds fly, flutter down and hop upon branches outside.

. . .

 “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” Mt 6:27

Father, in your Kingdom there is an abundance that you distribute to your children, in morsels, to meet their daily need. We remain poor. We remain dependent. Yet you meet each day’s needs. Amen. I place my trust in you. I will labor in faith and love.

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