Dana Reardon - God asks us to care

God asks us to care - and share!

I noticed something interesting when I was writing my column for last week. And I decided the idea deserved its own space. Actually my husband helped me to see it. He was proofing my column on putting aside money in our budgets for helping our neighbors in need.

David said that it reminded him of the text about not worrying about what we will eat or what we will wear. At first I didn't get it, because I was writing about worrying about others. So I went and reread it along with what I had been thinking about which was Matthew 25. Here are the two texts side-by-side:

Matthew 6:
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

Matthew 25:
34 "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."

What I realized is that God wants us to worry about each other rather than just taking care of ourselves. If we worry so much about taking care of our own needs we will never have enough to take care of our neighbor. We should never be so worried about out own welfare that we don't have enough to take care of our neighbors.

I heard a preacher quote Matthew 6 to explain why his church didn't do social ministry saying that those people he was reaching out to should not be concerned with this life. But that is not the point at all. If God did not care about is in the flesh He would not have come in the flesh.

God cares about us and our welfare. God has given us all that we need but only if we share. I think sometimes it is purposeful so that we will have to share. So if we worry less about ourselves and more about others we will be living into the kingdom that Jesus came to establish.

Lord,
Teach us to be more like your Son who cared for us to the total disregard of His life. Teach us to care for your people and to trust that you will care for us.
Amen

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.