Be Ye Not Anxious (or Hysterical)

Be Ye Not Anxious…or Hysterical

I read Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 over and again. He advises me to keep an eye on birds and lilies of the field and not to be anxious.

Here on the farm the Eastern Kingbirds, Goldfinches and Bobolinks are among the birds I have been watching. The Kingbirds are here in strong numbers, back from their wintering grounds in Central and South America. They dart out from their perches on the fences to snap up their food of insects. The Goldfinches happily feed on the burdock that we consider a great pest-plant. The Bobolinks are our long-distance champs who travel from the Argentine pampas to get here. Cutting hay before they fledge their young is a terrible thing, but I can only hope and pray that we leave enough tall grass year-round for a good population . I can only suppose Jesus wants me to trust God’s providence for the Barn Swallows as well, though they did not return in as many numbers as they left here last fall. Something in the southern hemisphere must have been harsh for them as neither I nor my sister’s farm in Kentucky have the numbers we have enjoyed in the past.

Despite flights of 5,000 miles the birds come. Despite our cutting and spraying and paving, they bless us by staying. It seems God has invested quite a bit in birds.
 
So Jesus advises me to watch birds and flowers. What he doesn’t say is instructive as well. He doesn’t say keep an eye on the President. He doesn’t warn me to keep track of the Dow. And he apparently thinks I can do without watching my neighbors to see if they are accumulating more stuff than I am, or trying to swindle me.

I recently received a pitch from a college that boasts it doesn’t take taxpayer money. It seems this college is a great, great institution that is sitting pretty on solid ground; but things are not so for the United States of America. Nonetheless, this great college needs my help to save our tottering nation that is about to be thrust under the runaway train of despotism by ravaging wolf-like people who hate the American Constitution.

That pitch and the fear it advocates sounds familiar. Evidently there is something called the Tea Party movement in America that believes things are just that dire. They believe the party people are America’s last best hope. They say President Obama is about to make me a gay, gunless, gutless, communistic, fascist. (I’d almost like to see what that would look like.). They say they want their country back; and if they don’t get it back, things will get very, very ugly. 
 
I am told to keep my eye on my money, on the Constitution, on the government, and on the Tea Party people. Somehow, if I do, I will be able to see all this despotism coming my way.

No, sorry.

I think I would rather watch the birds and the lilies. I think I would rather consider the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. I know vigilance is the price of liberty and I do very much believe that if you give any sons-of-a-gun too much power they will corrupt things—even the nation they are busy saving. But I also believe even more deeply that those who do the corrupting just love fear. They use fear. They ride it into power. They drive down their opponents with it. They silence sane people with it.

This fear starts out silly, but it has passed that now. Too much silly fear soon constitutes a hateful hysteria, and if an entire college wants to build its endowment by using hysteria, and an entire political movement can be fueled by hysteria…well, look out. Head for the hills.

And sit there a while contemplating the birds and the lilies.