Trinity 15 – Matthew 6:24-34 –
September 8th, 2013
In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
Last week, with the healing of the ten lepers, we were reminded of how Satan can use even blessings to try to twist us away from God. The 9, overwhelmed with joy at what had been given to them, forget to return and praise God. But this week, we are shifting to the other side of the spectrum – not of the dangers of forgetting God in the midst of blessing, but rather of forgetting God when we think we are not blessed enough. Today our Lord will deal with two other tools in Satan’s arsenal – Greed and Anxiety. So, let us listen to our Lord.
Last week, with the healing of the ten lepers, we were reminded of how Satan can use even blessings to try to twist us away from God. The 9, overwhelmed with joy at what had been given to them, forget to return and praise God. But this week, we are shifting to the other side of the spectrum – not of the dangers of forgetting God in the midst of blessing, but rather of forgetting God when we think we are not blessed enough. Today our Lord will deal with two other tools in Satan’s arsenal – Greed and Anxiety. So, let us listen to our Lord.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Here Jesus is just simply stating fact. Serving God does not mesh well with
greed. It simply doesn’t, because our
service to God is not abstract, it’s not just a mental thing where we think
about God for an hour on Sunday and then go about our own business the rest of
the week ignoring Him. No, if you are to
serve God, if you are to demonstrate your love for God dear Christian, you do
this by loving your neighbor. And you
know what that means? It means you give
of yourself. Come stewardship Sundays we
will talk of giving the Church your time, talent, and treasure. Do you not realize that this is what you also
give your neighbor when you show them love?
Think on this past week, and how often were you required to give of your
time to another? Or to help and aid them
using some skill you have, the wisdom and knowledge you have acquired? Or even just had to fork over some cash for
something? As a Christian, we see these
all as serving God by serving the neighbor, we know that we are doing good, or
perhaps rather that God is doing good through us in these things.
But here is the danger.
Greed and selfishness often hound us, don’t they? We can want to horde our time, we can want to
use our talents to serve primarily ourselves, and as for money, I won’t say
that we can be moneygrubbers, but our fingers can clench those pennies pretty
tightly, can’t they? All these hinder
our ability to love, all these would prevent us from showing care, and we need
to be aware of them.
Of course, there is one problem. “Greedy” is a dirty word. Same with selfishness. We know these are bad, and we’ve trained
ourselves to simply assume that we aren’t.
Ah, but Pastor… surely, I’m not greedy.
Pastor, I’m not selfish, I’m a good little Christian! So Jesus shifts gears here – “Do
not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor
about your body, what you will put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Do you see how Jesus shifts gears here? He had been talking about loving money,
serving stuff, selfishness and greed.
Things we know are bad, things we pretend we don’t have… but then on to
anxiety. Why? Because anxiety and worry is how greed and
selfishness get their foot in the door.
Because it is when you are anxious, when you are worried about stuff,
about things, about what you will get, that suddenly the blessings you have
received from God no longer are about serving your neighbor, but rather they
become something you must horde and keep to yourself in order to fend off
anxiety and worry.
The simple fact is, you don’t need to worry. You don’t need to be anxious. “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?” With these words Jesus
teaches us of the first truth taught in the Bible – that God is the Creator,
and more than that, He is our Creator.
Indeed, He is the One who cares for us – caring for us in His job. He cares for all of His creation – indeed,
even though we now live in a sinful, fallen world, He still cares for it. Even the little birds get cared for – if that
is true, then of course we know that God will care for you. When you are anxious, do not look at your stuff,
but remember God and His goodness.
Because, well, your worry won’t help. “And which of you by being anxious can add a
single hour to his span of life?”
This touches to something that hits close to home. We aren’t in control of our lives, how long we
live. That is the purview of God – we
will live as long as He gives us breath, and we will rise again on the last day
when He calls us forth. That’s on Him,
not on us. But we like to think we are
in control, and so we will fret and be anxious and stress ourselves out, which
ironically probably doesn’t do anything good for us in terms of how long we
live. But again, our old sinful flesh
wants to think it is in control, wants to think everything hinges upon what it
does, rather than seeing and knowing that God is in control, and indeed, that
this is good for you.
“And consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil
nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these. But if God so clothes the
grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.” Again, there is another image here. God cares for the fields, which come and go –
how much more will He care for you, whom He created for eternal life? But we tend to forget this, we begin to fear
the world more than we fear God, and we are pushed away from trusting Him. Christ calls us away from this? And how?
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek
after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” When you run after the things of the world,
you are thinking like the rest of the world, like the unbelievers. No, you have no need to worry about these
things, for you are in the care of the heavenly Father. You belong to Him.
I’m going to back track a bit, because this puts
perspective on things. “You
cannot serve God and money. Therefore I
tell you…” Christ is speaking to
you, and He is telling you how things are going to be. Do you see what this means? This means that *He* is your master, not
money. Christ Jesus has purchased and
won you from all sins with His suffering and death upon the Cross, He claimed
you as His own in the waters of Holy Baptism, He tells you that God is your
Father now. You belong to God. And God is in charge. All the rantings and ravings of the Devil,
all the trials and hardships in the world, all the fears that your sinful flesh
whip up cannot change the fact that Christ Jesus has died for you and has risen
for you. No worry, no concern changes
the fact that you are baptized. No sin,
no failing ever changes the fact that God is your Heavenly Father who will give
you this day your daily bread. This is
the truth. The world stands over to the
side jumping up and down – look here, look at fear, look at worry, look at
greed, look at selfishness… but over and against this Christ Jesus calls out to
you Himself and says to you, “I am your Savior, and I am here for you.”
And this is why He says to you, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things will be added unto you.”
Now, don’t mishear or misunderstand that “and”. This is not a “scratch my back, I’ll scratch
your back” sort of deal. This is not
Jesus saying, “If you pay more attention to me, I’ll give you more stuff.” That would sort of contradict that whole “you
cannot serve God and mammon” and that whole “do not be anxious” speech that
He’s just given. The point this – the
things you need for life, they will be given to you. God will provide. Period.
Simple as that. But what you
need, where your focus should be – your focus shouldn’t be upon the stuff of
this life, but rather upon the Kingdom
of God and God’s
righteousness.
In
other words, don’t worry about stuff, but be where Christ is. Think about this – what is a Kingdom? It’s not a chunk of land, it’s not lines on a
map. A Kingdom is wherever the King
rules. So, what does Christ say to you –
be focused on seeing Me, Christ Jesus, your King, and seeing and knowing the
fact that truth that I rule for you. Be
those who pray “Thy Kingdom Come”, remembering that Christ’s King has the
victory over sin and death and the devil.
Be those who come to hear their King speak His Word of Life to them
here, in His Church. Remember that He
has given you your daily bread as you pray and ask Him to “Come, Lord
Jesus.” Remember who Christ is, and who
you are. He is God, He is King. You, you are a sinner, and your every thought
and word and deed are corrupted by sin – but Jesus hasn’t told you to “prove
your worth” Him. Instead, He has said, seek
the righteousness of God. That is seek
Christ Jesus Himself, search and look for Christ, who in His word of forgiveness
and life gives you all of His own righteousness and all that He is. Once again, Christ is calling us to His
House, where He Himself is present for us, giving us things that last well
beyond our time in this fallen world.
This is where He forgives us our sin and ensures that we will rise to
life everlasting because of Him. This is
the truth and reality that all the sin and suffering and misery you see cannot
overcome. This is His Kingdom for you, this is His righteousness for you, and
it is true no matter what you see all your days.
No, dear friends, no servant can serve two masters, and so, Christ Jesus came down from heaven and became man, and with His death and resurrection He won you from sin, death, and the devil, and claimed you as His own. Jesus is Lord. That is true. And now our Lord Jesus Christ reminds you that you are His, that the Father will care for you now, and that because of Christ you will rise to life everlasting. This is true, all thanks be to God who gives us all good things in Christ. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
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