This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

END OF ECONOMIC SYSTEM AS WE KNOW IT

capital

1 Corinthians 7:25-31
25 Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26I think that, in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are. 27Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Yet those who marry will experience distress in this life, and I would spare you that. 29I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, 30and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, 31and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

the present form of this world is passing away

It’s never clear exactly what sort of crisis Paul believed was imminent, although it’s clear he expects the “appearance of the Lord”. I guess that Paul’s belief was both more definite and less airy-fairy that we would be comfortable with: that he expected the establishment of God’s rule in Jesus over the whole cosmos, in the near future. This gives some of his teaching an “interim” feeling. Time proved this belief, widely shared in the early church, to be mistaken.
The interesting thing is that he never neglects or devalues ordinary living in the light of this belief: perhaps people should refrain from marriage to spare themselves the inevitable sorrows of the crisis, but on the other hand, there is no lauding of virgins as superior to married people. His faith does however give him an insight into history: “the present form of this world is passing away” which is as true now as when he wrote it.

Matthew 6:25-34
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? 26Look 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? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

faster than light-universal theory wrong?

34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Jesus’ tone encourages his hearers to accept what is being said as no more than the obvious truth, and yes, all sources of wisdom say that life is more than food and clothes. But the wisdom of the flowers and the birds is wonderfully balanced. They are frail creatures of a day yet the one is fed and the other is clothed with beauty. “Your Father feeds them” “God so clothes” these phrases describe what otherwise could be called natural processes. The provision for humanity is similarly established in God’s creation. It’s simply there, we should cease to worry. What about the times when there was a “famine in the land,” as presently in East Africa? Then others help us or we die. Jesus’ words promise that we’ll be treated as well as or maybe better than birds and flowers, but we are not really less frail than they are. That’s why we must work for God’s rule and God’s justice, so that the earth will correspond more closely to God’s will. But just as the readers might think Jesus has gone beyond all worldly wisdom he reminds them not to worry in advance of problems: “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”