Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

It’s “do not worry” Sunday again. It almost seems a shame, doesn’t it?, that “do not worry” Sunday only comes around once a year. You probably need it more often than that. But, of course, every Sunday, every sermon, essentially comes with the message of “do not worry,” because every Sunday, every sermon, every preaching of God’s Word points you away from the things that cause you worry toward the Lord God, urging you to trust in the Lord Jesus, to hope in Him, to have faith in Him. And faith, fully formed, drives out all worry and fear, because the One in whom we trust reigns over all the things that cause us worry.

But that doesn’t mean that believers don’t stray into worry and anxiety at times. We do! Which is why Jesus had to speak the words of today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, and which is also why the Holy Spirit, in His wisdom, saw to it that these words would be recorded for us in Holy Scripture and preached repeatedly in the Church for two thousand years, because He’s well aware of our weaknesses, and of our tendency to worry about things.

Jesus begins in our Gospel with the thing that’s behind many of our worries: Mammon. Money. Earthly wealth and possessions. No one can serve two lords. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. When you order your life around making money and acquiring possessions, you effectively push God to the side. You push Him out of your life. Oh, you may not mean to do that. You may think you can keep God around in the background for emergencies while you continue to make your life decisions based on pursuing wealth. You may think you can keep God tucked away in your pocket to pull Him out once in a while for an occasional prayer or request, while you spend most of your time relying mainly on yourself and on your ability to run things, or to fix things. But it doesn’t work that way, according to Jesus. If you allow concerns about money to order your life, then you are serving it as your lord. If you insist on managing everything by yourself, running everything, trying to fix everything by your own careful planning and prudent actions, then you’re serving yourself as your lord. On the other hand, if you order your life around serving God, hearing His Word and putting it into practice, living each day with the intention of worshiping the true God with your whole self, placing your life into His good and capable hands, then you won’t end up serving Mammon, or trusting in Mammon, or in yourself. You’ll be serving God and trusting in God. Your heart can belong to Him or to something else, but not to both.

Then Jesus goes on to persuade us with gentle and friendly words to serve God instead of Mammon. And here it’s important to remember who He’s talking to. He’s talking to church members who know God, not to atheists who deny Him or unbelievers who don’t acknowledge Him. The Sermon on the Mount was preached to people who knew the true God, the God of Old Testament Israel, but who wanted, who needed to know Him better and who had come to Jesus for that very reason. That’s why He can speak to them about God as their Father in heaven. They knew this God as He had revealed Himself in the Old Testament, as He had created and ordered the world, as He had guided and guarded the patriarchs and the people of Israel. You know this God, too. Most of all, you know God the Father, who sent God the Son to redeem you from sin, death, and the devil, and who still sends God the Holy Spirit to teach you and to guide you. In fact, you know Him even better than the people who originally heard these words from Jesus, because you know the Father through the suffering and death of His Son. So you know just how much He cares about you.

Since you know that, act on what you know. And that applies, first and foremost, to the attitudes of your heart. Therefore I say to you, stop worrying about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? The unbelievers of the world wouldn’t agree with Jesus. They would say that our body and life has to be the first and primary concern. If your body doesn’t have the necessary nourishment, if you have no clothes to wear, what can you accomplish in life? Therefore, it should be your first and primary concern to ensure you have food and clothing, and not just enough for today, but for tomorrow and for the future. That’s where the world would have you focus your attention. This also applies to elections, by the way. If you want a good earthly life, then you have to be focused on getting the right people elected! Pour yourself into the fight!

But Jesus says, no, life is more than that. That can’t be the primary focus of your life. Because, if you serve God, if He is your Lord, it doesn’t need to be.

Look at the birds of the air! They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. And yet I tell you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

God has left a witness in nature, a witness of His care and concern for His creation, in how He cares for and provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. But Jesus takes that general truth written into nature and applies it in a special way to those whom the heavenly Father has called His children. If God cares for the birds that were never made in His image, if God provides beauty for the grass of the field that grows for a few days and then is gone forever, shouldn’t you conclude that He cares more and will provide far better things for those whom He has created to be with Him forever, for those upon whom He has placed His name—the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Yes, you should conclude that!

And you should also admit something else. Which of you by worrying can add one foot to his stature? Or “one hour to his life”? All right. Let’s hear it. Which of you? Worrying, fretting, being anxious about providing for some need that you have—does it get you any closer to actually providing what you need? You know it doesn’t. And so Jesus, in a loving but direct way, tells you, “Stop it. Don’t do it.”

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Why should you quiet your anxious thoughts? Why should you stop going over and over in your head how you’re going to provide for yourself? Not only because it doesn’t do any good, but because it’s what the Gentiles do. Now, the Gentiles are literally just the non-Jewish nations, and in that sense, we’re all Gentiles here. But Jesus is referring to the Gentiles as those who don’t know God, who have no faith in Him. So it makes perfect sense that they spend their time thinking anxiously about how to provide for themselves for this life.

But you have a heavenly Father who knows that you have earthly needs, bodily needs. You have a heavenly Father who gave His own Son into death for your sins. Why should you be like the Gentiles who think they have to be in control of everything, and figure out everything for themselves, who think that the present and the future depend on them and their worrying and planning and executing?

No, instead, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek first. Before anything else, turn your thoughts to seeking God, and His kingdom, and His righteousness. You have already sought the righteousness of God by believing in Christ Jesus to blot out your sins and to make you righteous before God. Now seek the righteousness of God by being concerned with His kingdom. Seek the kingdom of God by hearing and pondering His Word. Seek the kingdom of God by going about the daily tasks He’s given you in your vocations. Seek to be the light of the world that God has called you to be. Seek to lead holy lives that bring glory to the name of your heavenly Father. And do this “first,” before giving a single thought to where your food or clothing or other necessities are going to come from. When you do that, you’ll find that all those things are added to you by God, according to your needs, according to His wisdom and merciful care. You couldn’t add a single hour to your life by your worrying. But when you concern yourself first with the kingdom of God and His righteousness, He Himself will do the adding of the things that you need.

So, Jesus concludes, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble. Tomorrow isn’t in your hands. It’s in God’s hands. So turn your attention to what He has given you to do today, not to worry about today, but to do today. Seek His kingdom. Seek His righteousness. Trust in Him. And, as Peter writes in his first epistle, cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

Picture a fork in the road, where the road divides in two directions. You can either take the road on the left or the road on the right. You have to take one. You can’t take them both. Which one do you choose? Well, it helps to know what you’ll encounter in each direction, what each road looks like, where each road leads. Jesus describes two roads, two paths for us in today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount. The road on the left is the service of Mammon. The road on the right is the service of God. The roads are very different, and they end in very different places. And you can only take one of them. Obviously, it’s the service of God that Jesus urges His disciples to follow, and He gives us many good reasons for it in our text.

First, let’s look at the context. This is from the Sermon on Mount, early in Jesus’ ministry, where He’s teaching His early disciples, with multitudes of people listening in. He’s talking to Jews who already believed in the true God and who wanted to be instructed by Jesus. That’s important to remember. He’s not talking to pagans or atheists, but to “church members.” He’s not trying to convert unbelievers to the true faith by asking them to choose to believe or not. He’s teaching believers what it means to believe and encouraging them to live a life that’s consistent with what they believe.

No one can serve two lords, He tells them. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Mammon is the Aramaic word for wealth, the abundance of material possessions. Jesus personifies it here, as if material things were a god that people served. And in a very real sense, it is! It is like a lord or a master demanding to be worshiped, honored, and served.

What does such service look like? Let’s try for a moment to put ourselves in the shoes of Jesus’ disciples, if we can. Jesus’ hearers were average Jewish citizens at that time. They weren’t rich, In fact, we would consider them poor, by our modern American standards, although “poor” back then meant something far different. These people weren’t homeless, or jobless, or beggars. But neither did they have mansions or pensions or health insurance. There was no welfare, no social safety net. Their jobs were largely dependent on how well the farms produced in a given season, or how many fish they could catch. And many of them were simply day workers, who lived off of what they earned each day, without much potential for climbing the economic ladder.

For such people, to serve Mammon was to live their lives with the goal of getting wealth, acquiring an abundance of things, even basic things like food and drink and clothing. Every day, Mammon cried out, “You need me! I will provide for you! I will give you safety and security and peace of mind! So seek me! Work to get me! Trust in me!”

What about for the average modern American?  When was the last time you worried about having enough to eat today? Or having anything to wear today? The average American has already acquired more Mammon, more abundance of possessions, than anyone before in world history. And yet, Mammon still cries out, “Not enough! Not enough! You need more to feel secure. You need more to be happy. And if your level of abundance, if your standard of living should ever drop below what it is right now, it would be the end of the world! So, you still need me! I will provide for you! I will give you safety and security and peace of mind! So seek me! Work to get me! Trust in me!” So, to serve Mammon is to live one’s life with the goal of getting more wealth, acquiring more abundance, and, just as importantly, holding onto the abundance you currently have!

Except that, if that’s your goal, then you cannot be a servant of God. No one can serve two lords. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Because each one demands your devotion. Each one demands your trust, even as each one promises to provide for you and claims to be worthy of your trust. But it’s one or the other, Jesus says. You can be devoted to and trust in God, or you can be devoted to and trust in Mammon. But you can’t serve both. As the First Commandment says, You shall have no other gods.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to illustrate the foolishness of serving Mammon and the wisdom of serving God! Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? If Mammon is your god, if you’re living your life to gain material things, even basic things like food, drink, and clothing, then your road looks like constant worry, constantly being anxious over getting those things (or keeping those things). Wealth says, “I’ll give you peace of mind if you get enough of me!” But it’s an empty promise, because there’s never enough. You get enough for today, then you worry about tomorrow. You get enough for tomorrow, then you worry about the next day, and week, and month, and year, and into old age. And what if something happens to your finances? What if something goes wrong? You need more to feel safe. You need more to feel secure.

Isn’t life more than that?, Jesus asks. More than running around after your next meal, after your next set of clothes? And, no, by “more than that,” He doesn’t mean running around after bigger things, either, like the next house, the next car, the next luxury item, the next material thing. Life is more than that, too. The word translated here as “life” is actually the same as the word for “soul.” Human beings were created to live with God forever, to contemplate and to engage in what is good and right and beautiful, and to do good with our body and soul. We’ve sinned against God and ruined much of His original design, but even in a fallen, sinful world, life is more than food and clothing and acquiring material possessions. It’s, above all, learning to know and to believe in God, who offers a far better path than service to Mammon.

Look at the birds of the air! They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? On the road of service to Mammon, you’re on your own. Everything depends on you, how hard you work, how cunning and clever you are, and how lucky you are. Even then, so many things are out your control that you can never have peace of mind. Contentment is forever out of reach. But on the road of service to God, there is a heavenly Father, the one who created all things and cares for His creation, the one who has adopted you through Holy Baptism and through faith in Jesus, who has taken it upon Himself to see to it that you have the things you need for this life, so that you can spend your time concentrating on more important things, like His kingdom and His righteousness—things that last beyond this life.

As proof of this, Jesus offers the example of the way our heavenly Father provides for the birds of the air, without any worry or care on their part. Not that they just sit in their nests and wait for food to drop down out of heaven. They go and get it from the ground or from the air. But God our heavenly Father sees to it that the food is there for them to get, and that they know how to get it. They’re His creatures, just as we are, except that, according to Jesus, we’re much more valuable than they. Human beings were created in God’s image, created to be like Him in true righteousness and holiness, created to live forever with Him in His kingdom. But more than that, Jesus shed His blood for us and redeemed us from sin, death, and the devil. And we should conclude from that exactly what St. Paul tells us to conclude: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Jesus also points out another reason why it’s foolish to walk the path of worry in service to Mammon: Which of you by worrying can add one foot to his stature? Or one hour to his life? Worrying won’t get you anywhere. But on the path of service to God, you have a heavenly Father who is capable of providing help for every need.

Then, as another proof that the road of serving God is better than the road of serving Mammon, Jesus offers the example of the flowers. And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. And yet I tell you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? God cares enough about the soul-less vegetation of the earth to make it look beautiful. Learn from that, Jesus says. Learn to understand that He cares much more about you who are His children and will see to it that you have what you need to clothe your body.

You of little faith, He says. He says it, not as an angry outburst, but as a gentle rebuke of those who should know better, and yet still sometimes stray over into the path of worry in service to Mammon. Knowing that, He gives us this instruction: So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles (that is, the unbelievers of the world who don’t know God) chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble.

And isn’t that the truth? The path of Mammon has you gazing off into the future, wondering how you will ever get what you need down the road. The path of God has you focused on today, on your daily bread, because tomorrow doesn’t depend on your worry to figure it out. You have a heavenly Father who holds yesterday, today, and tomorrow in His hand, who is watching out for your tomorrow, just as He’s taking care of your today.

As Christians, you’ve already put your faith in the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You’ve already committed to serving Him alone. So repent for the times you’ve strayed over into the path of service to Mammon, worrying about tomorrow, as if God your heavenly Father didn’t exist, or as if He didn’t care. And recommit to God’s service. Trust in Him. Cast all your worry on Him, because He cares for you. And then, instead of worrying about your next meal, spend your thoughts and your efforts seeking His kingdom, pursuing His righteousness. Because down that road, there is true safety, and security, and peace of mind. There is the loving care of a heavenly Father. And at the end of that road is eternal life in your Father’s heavenly home. Amen.

Source: Sermons