In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
I think people often misunderstand the idea of growing in the faith. There seems to be this idea that to grow in the faith, to better understand God and His love for you means that somehow you understand the bizarre and the hidden. Like growing in the faith comes with a secret decoder ring or maybe a few, extra books no one else knows about – oooOOOooo. No, not so, my dear friends. While there are great and wondrous mysteries in the Christian faith, they are not strange; they are not bizarre. Our Lord commends unto us a faith as of a little child – simply trusting what He has taught us. That, actually, tends to be the hard part – to simply trust what our Lord says – yet that is what we are called to do. And so today, as we look at our Gospel lesson, we are again going to review that which is simple, that which is basic – something we so often forget. God cares for you. Simple as that – and if we slowed down and remembered this, our understanding of God and His love for us would be so much greater.
Therefore I tell you, 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? Our Lord asks us a question – is not life more than food, the body more than clothing? Is not your life more than your stuff, your job, your busyness – your mammon? We know we're supposed to say our life is more than just this... but practically speaking we tend not to act that way. How many of you this week have been quite busy contemplating all the trappings of life – how to pay for the things you want, how to handle the schedule, what my friends think about me – so on and so forth. We get caught, we get fixated on the things of this life. We identify ourselves by our jobs, by where we live, by who we are friends with, by what we do. We treat our life, our existence as simply the sum of the things that we have, the things that we do. But that is not who you were created to be. Man was created in the image of God, created to be in relationship with God. That’s a wonder of the Christian faith. In the garden, Adam walks with God. In the garden, Adam simply tends the creation, not wresting crops from amidst the weeds by the sweat of his brow. But sin makes us forget who we were created to be. Sin looks at and desires the trappings of this life – power, money, wealth, worldly respect. None of that matters, none of that lasts. Everything in this sinful world grows old and decays – it does not last. No, as Christians, our focus is to be on things that endure, things that last – our life with Christ, our life in union with all of God's saints from all times and in all places. As Christians we are to be content to be simple stewards of the gifts God provides for us so that we can show love to all those whom God places in our lives.
This is hard. Seriously – horridly hard. Every day we struggle with sin, every day Satan tosses more and more temptations and lures in front of us – things to crave, things to desire, things we think are so important, are so vital to our life. This is why our Lord teaches us not to be anxious. Listen to the Words of Jesus. 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? Again, it's one of those things that sounds so simple that we assume that it is too good to be true. God will provide. When it boils down to it – it's true. God indeed provides for us. But what happens so often is we see our work, the things we do, the actions we take – and we think, we feel that our possessions are about what we do. “I've worked hard for everything I have.” That may be the case – well done, hard worker. But who provided you with that talent that you could use? Who provided you with the opportunities you have? We rely upon God and His goodness to us – and the sad thing is we can take His simple and routine blessings for granted and forget that everything we have comes from His goodness.
But, of course, the problem with it all being gift from God and His goodness, means that God's in control, and we're not. And man, if we don't just hate not being in control. And Jesus knows this; He knows that we are control junkies. And He knows that when we don't get all the control that we want, we start getting anxious – especially if the things we are worried about are well and throughly out of our control. And let's be frank – we are bombarded by the media with all sorts of troubles and problems and disasters that are completely beyond our control. And that tends to make us anxious. Nervous. Worried. And so often about things that we have no absolutely control over. And you know what all that is? Pointless and unproductive. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Yeah, stress and anxiety don't fix anything; they just make things worse. And yet, we run down those well trodden paths of fear and anxiety, don't we? I know I ran down them many-a-time myself this past week. Nervous, fretty, stomach flipping – what can I do, what should I have done, maybe I'll do this. I, I, I. Me, me, me – all that burden, all that pressure, for what? Stuff that isn't mine to control, not given to me.
And here's where you don't need a deep, dark, hidden mystery. You need simple, clear, to the point. Jesus Loves Me. Think that's a kids' hymn? Well, do you have that “they are weak but He is strong” truth mastered yet, cause I don't. We worry, we get ourselves worked up, trying to control every little thing that happens – and all we do is make ourselves frazzled, frustrated, and miserable. When we forget that God is in charge and rather make it all about me and my strength and what I can do – well, we set ourselves up for disappointment and failure.
And the thing is, we don't need to focus, we don't need to worry about the things of this life – that's not a burden we need. We don’t need to be the ones in control – for we know that God is in control, and we know that God provides for us. In fact, we should all be praying this several times a day. Right before our Gospel text in Matthew, Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer. Fantastic prayer, of course – and what is there smack dab in the middle but this phrase – give us this day our daily bread. Everyday we pray that God provide us what we need for the day – and that's it. As simple as that. Jesus doesn't instruct us to pray something long or complex – we don't have to tell God whether we want wheat bread or white – we simply put everything into God's hands. Give us our daily bread – give, freely, out of Your own goodness, give because You are God and You are good – give us our daily bread. Give us all that we need for this day, whatever that is. Do you see how simple that prayer is? All the complexities of life, all the drama, all the times we get all worked up and riled up with worries and cares – not needed. We know that God provides for us, just as He has in the past.
Indeed, we know that God provides us with all that we need not only for this life, but also for life eternal. This is what we see and trust by faith. The mystery, the wonder of the Christian faith isn't simply that God provides for our earthly needs, but that in addition God has had mercy upon us – that even as we so often fret and flitter and abuse His gifts to us – God restores us to Paradise. This same Jesus who tells you not to be anxious about your life will lay down His own life – He will stride boldly to the Cross in order to be able to provide for You not just your daily bread, but His life giving Holy Supper. He suffers and dies not just to see that you have shelter against the storms of this fallen world, but that you have a home with Him for all eternity. This is the wonder which we see each week here in His house – that God has mercy upon us and gives us life in His name. That's why Jesus can tell us not to be anxious, why not to worry about what we eat or wear. Is not life more than food, the body more than clothing? Indeed it is! For you have been claimed by Christ – in the waters of Holy Baptism God declared you to be His own child – your life is more than just that life of a mortal man, doomed to die. You have been given the gift of immortality, that even though you die, yet you shall live in and with Christ for all eternity!
All the junk, all the burdens we worry about, all the things we fret and worry about – that agitation's not needed. Not needed at all. God is the one in control, God provides for you, God holds you tenderly in His almighty hands, showing His love for you not just in the things of this brief sojourn we have in this sinful, fallen world, but God will be your God for all eternity, providing for you completely with all that you need for salvation and eternal life. And this you know. For the Bible tells you so. And Jesus will keep telling you this over and over, because it's true, and all the stress and fear and worry in the world can't change the fact that He has died and risen for you, O baptized child of God. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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