His Eye is on the Sparrow

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Early in the spring of 1905 Civilla Martin and her husband were visiting friends in Elmira, New York. The friends, Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle, were, as Civilla described them, “true saints of God.”1 Although Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for many years, and her husband was partially paralyzed and used a wheelchair, the couple “lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration to all who knew them.” One day Dr. Martin asked them for the secret of their “bright hopefulness.” Mrs. Doolittle’s answer was simple: “’His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.’” Reflecting on the boundless faith of the Doolittles, Civilla sat down and penned the hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” The day after she wrote it, she sent it Charles Gabriel, who supplied the music.

The song became a great favorite of Ethel Waters, the renowned jazz singer. Her rendition of it in the 1950 film “The Member of the Wedding” is still moving, and she often sang it in appearances with evangelist Billy Graham. The child of a thirteen year-old mother, Waters herself grew up in grinding poverty in Philadelphia. After a Baltimore entrepreneur discovered her magnificent voice when she was seventeen and working as a chambermaid, Waters began to gain renown as a blues artist. During the course of her career, she made many hit recordings, and she also gained fame as an actress. Reflecting her deep love of the song and confidence in God’s care, Waters titled her own autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow.

All of our readings today remind us in different ways that “his eye is on the sparrow.” Just like the Doolittles and Ethel Waters, we too can trust that God cares for us in the midst of all of life’s challenges. We hear the good news of God’s care right in our opening collect. A prayer that is at least as old as the eighth century, the collect assures us that God “never fail[s] to help and govern us.”

Our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures also reinforces the message of God’s love and care, even for those who have been cast out. As our green paraments and vestments reflect, we are now in the growing season of Pentecost. From Advent through Pentecost we pondered the great events in Jesus’ life. Now in this season we begin unpacking just what it means to have received the Holy Spirit and committed ourselves as disciples of the risen Christ.

Today we begin semi-continuous readings from the books of Genesis and Exodus, the first two books of the Hebrew Bible, that will carry us through the rest of the church year, i.e., until mid-November. A little back story for today’s reading from Genesis. You may remember that God had made a covenant with Abraham to make a great nation of Abraham and Sarah, even though they were childless. Sarah was impatient, and so fifteen years before the events in today’s reading, she had Abraham father a child by her Egyptian slave Hagar. Now, Sarah herself has finally given birth to a child, Isaac. But she is worried that, as the elder, Hagar’s son Ishmael will take precedence over her son. So, as we heard, she forces Abraham to send Hagar away. However, the “chosen people” are not the only ones about whom God cares. God rescues Hagar and Ishmael and makes a promise to them also: “I will make a great nation of him.” And indeed, Hagar and Ishmael flourished, and in due course Hagar arranged Ishmael’s marriage with an Egyptian woman. Today, Ishmael is regarded as the ancestor of Muslims, who indeed would agree that God has made a “great nation of him.”

Our psalm could almost be Hagar’s response to God’s care for her and Ishmael. Lest we miss the message, the psalmist reminds us of God’s care for all who trust in God. Did you hear God’s love as you recited the psalm? “For you, O Lord,” we said, “are good and forgiving, and great is your love toward all who call upon you.” As the psalmist turns to God “in time of trouble,” the psalmist does so with the confidence that God will answer prayer, and that God will “save the child of your handmaid.”

For our Gospel readings during the season of Pentecost, we return to the Gospel of Matthew. Here too we will hear semi-continuous readings through the rest of the church year. Even though Matthew comes first in the Christian Scriptures, it was actually the second gospel to be written down. Matthew dates from some time after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It was written largely for a community of Jewish Christians. In it, the evangelist’s goal was to reaffirm for these Jews that Jesus was the fulfillment of both the Law and the Prophets. Consequently, in this gospel we often hear references to the Hebrew Scriptures. We also encounter Jesus in conflict with the established religious leadership.

The section of the gospel that we just heard is part of what is called the “missionary discourse,” in which Jesus sends out his followers to begin proclaiming the nearness of God’s reign. In the first part of the chapter, which precedes today’s reading, Jesus commissioned and authorized his disciples. Now he begins to outline the challenges of discipleship – and what the evangelist reports of his instructions are as applicable to us as to them. If you are serious in your commitment, Jesus tells his friends, you must acknowledge that you are not in charge. Ultimately, all efforts to bring God’s reign nearer are in God’s hands, and we do no more than work in partnership with God. While we are to be open and transparent in our dealings, at the same time we must expect that the establishment may demonize us. We might bring about conflict among those we attempt to evangelize, and we may even alienate those near and dear to us. Daunting as it may seem, we may be called to embark on a new way of life, or to turn away from comfortable thoughts and habits, sacred places, and ways of doing things. Indeed, Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome, reiterates Jesus’s teaching, suggesting that we are not to remain stuck inside old ways of life, but are to be open to continual growth. And it just may happen, Jesus warns his disciples and us, that we will be called upon, as he was, to give up our very lives in order to advance God’s reign, for “those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

And yet, here’s the good news: we are never alone in our struggles. God is always with us. Jesus forcefully reminded his hearers of God’s continual care in what we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount. Do you remember what Matthew relates of Jesus’ speech after the Beatitudes? Reminding his disciples not to worry about food or clothing, Jesus directed their gaze toward the birds of the air, who are fed by their heavenly Father, and the lilies of the field, so wondrously clothed by God. Now, on the point of sending out his disciples, having warned them of the challenges they will encounter, Jesus uses the same image of the precious birds to remind the disciples of God’s continual care for humans and for the rest of creation: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father …. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.”

“His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.” Down through the centuries, millions of Jesus’ followers have taken Jesus’ reassurances to heart, and have courageously worked to bring God’s reign nearer. Fifty years ago this month, a great upheaval, led by people of deep faith, occurred in the United States. All of a sudden, we became aware of the civil rights movement. Although the U.S. Supreme Court had declared in 1954 that so-called “separate but equal” schools were unconstitutional, it was only in 1964 that serious legislation outlawing segregation and discrimination came before the U.S. Senate. While the Senate was debating, college students in droves left their campuses, piled onto buses, and headed south to work with the Congress of Racial Equality to register voters. Most of them came in response to Jesus’ admonition to care for the “least of these.” They knew the risks they were taking, but they also trusted that God would protect them, that his eye was “on the sparrow.” Tragically, fifty years ago yesterday, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, who had joined CORE to help register voters, disappeared after investigating the burning of a church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The discovery of their bodies in an earthen dam six weeks later roused deep public outrage and likely hastened the passage of the civil rights act.

We too are followers of the crucified one. We too have committed ourselves to his cause. Can we do any less than he did? Can we do any less than the Freedom Summer workers did? Do we trust that “his eye is on the sparrow?” Can we trust in God’s care for us as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps, courageously partnering with God in the bringing in of God’s realm?

1. http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/i/hiseyeis.htm