means to instruct. His text is Matthew 6:24-34. He wants to “make clear what is required of the Christian” and asks if a Christian country can descend back into paganism. "The upbuilding discourse is fighting in many ways for the eternal to be victorious in a person, but in the appropriate place and with the aid of the lily and the bird." Part One: The Cares of the Pagans Kierkegaard uses Matthew 6:24-34 as "The Gospel for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity," mentioning all the troubled concerns of earthly life beginning with material needs. He thinks one should begin with paganism rather than orthodoxy when instructing in Christianity and discusses "universally human and unavoidable" suffering as he compares the worries of the lily and the bird with those of the pagan and the Christian. Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount not to worry about what you will eat or drink. The first two discourses, cares of poverty and abundance, deal with this theme. The bird, like that simple wise man of antiquity, seems to be ignorant of these cares but both the pagan and the Christian must deal with them and each in their own way. Lowliness and loftiness are dealt with next. The lowly Christian exists before God and has Christ, the prototype, as an example but the lowly pagan is "without God in this world" so her concern is to become something in the world. The bird knows nothing of loftiness. The Christian, like Socrates, is ignorant of loftiness in equality before God, and the lofty pagan "flies high over the abyss" with the others below him. Self-importance is what makes an individual presumptuous and concerned about the next day. The fifth and sixth discourses deal with this theme. The lily or the bird know nothing about eminence? The eminent Christian is "satisfied with God's grace" since all Christians are equal in this eminence. The eminent pagan wants to "kill God" and take over the vineyard in an attempt to "add one foot to his growth." The Christian knows one can't kill God but only the thought of God so the Christian fights to keep the thought of God alive. Anxiety about "the next day" is the theme of Kierkegaard's sixth discourse. The bird knows nothing about the next day. The Christian knows that each day has its own troubles so "the next day does not