Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent: Need and Consumption
Read: Matthew 6:31-32
Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Watch
Reflect
In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us that God knows what we need. It is more difficult for us to know what we need. On the one hand, our language around “need” is quite elastic. Much in our culture is designed to blur the lines between needs, wants, and mere caprices. The more these lines are blurred, the easier it is to get us to consume as if all wants and whims are needs.
On the other hand, if we are extremely rigorous, we can probably reduce our basic needs to those that differ little from the needs of a houseplant: food, water, some sort of shelter. We are not houseplants, however. If you dress people in a burlap sack and sandals and plunk them down in the middle of any American city, you have not met their needs; you have simply turned them into a sort of joke. People dressed in such minimalist garb could not function in our world. They could not enter most workplaces; they could not order a meal; no one would rent them housing.
Because we live in communities and play particular roles in the world, our needs cannot be reduced to those of a houseplant. Perhaps our true needs are better articulated in questions about what we need in order to occupy our place in a community with dignity. This approach makes answers to questions about our needs both more significant and more difficult to attain. Answering questions about what we need in order to live with dignity in our context becomes tied up with questions about the nature of our communities, our roles in those communities, and how a community establishes notions of dignity and worth. It is only in the light of addressing these questions, which will require a comprehensive and forthright examination of our lives in community, can we faithfully address the question of what we truly need.
Pray
Lord, you know our needs even before we ask. Give us grace and a Spirit of truthfulness so that we each might come to understand anew ourselves, and our place in the world, and in so doing, live beyond our own needs and seek wholeheartedly to serve the needs of others. Amen.
Author
Joe Burnett served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska and as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Maryland.
February 23, 2016 @ 9:58 am
Very profound concept, focusing on…….”what we need in order to occupy our place in community with dignity.” Then the church should take as much of a role determining……… “how a community establishes notions of dignity and worth.” I’m not sure that I see churches doing that part well. It’s advocacy, may challenge the concept of success and likely political.
February 23, 2016 @ 4:23 pm
From the prayer above (emphasis added), I really like “…that we each might come to understand ANEW ourselves, and our place in the world…”. “Anew”, meaning we are new people in Christ–not whoever you always thought you would be or assumed you are. Then we can understand where we fit into this world.
February 24, 2016 @ 6:58 am
It has always been a matter of “advocating” for the inclusion of the least, the last and the poor. The RC Church did us all a large service some years ago when they reminded us that God has a special concern for the poor. And I recall standing in the Nave of a parish church – being chastised for making that an important element in the morning’s homily. How, I was asked, can God care about those people !!?? My reply was to the effect that I don’t know but certainly Jesus showed us that God does !
It seems clear that the early Christian communities were largely from the “under-
class” and we should not be surprised that it still has that kind of appeal. I think in India
a large number ( if not a majority) of converts come from the Dalit caste. I have no data
for that, it’s a kind impression. So, the notion that “all sorts and conditions” are to be
welcomed is nothing new. R H Lewis