This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.
Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you.
Prayer:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to
you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Today in our
church, we are celebrating Harvest Thanksgiving. And thanksgiving, giving
thanks to God, is right at the heart of our faith. For example, there are so
many times in the bible where it says: Give thanks to the Lord for he is
good, for his love endures forever.
There’s a particularly
favourite passage of mine about this topic, about thanksgiving, that comes from
Romans 1. The book of Romans is a wonderful book, written by St Paul, where he
gives a very detailed explanation of so many of the central parts of the
Christian faith. It’s a book that is well-loved by many Christians. In Romans
chapter 1, St Paul describes the world of unbelief, and of unbelievers. He
says: Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks
to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened.
He says that
although people may have known that there was a good, even though people may be
able to look at the world and all the wonderful plants and animals and the way
so many things in the world and in nature are structured and ordered in a
wonderful way, what was the problem? It says: they did not honour him as God
or give thanks to him. Can you see how giving thanks is so important here,
and how St Paul makes such a big deal out of it?
But then
what’s the alternative to thanksgiving? It says: They did not honour him or
give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish
hearts were darkened. Instead of thanksgiving, they end up with futile
thinking, foolish hearts which are darknened. Futility, foolishness,
darkness. It’s almost like there’s this cancer that sets in, or a mold, or a
rust that enters into our hearts. But with thanksgiving, the cancer, the mold
and the rust is washed away. Giving thanks to God is like an antidote, like a
medicine that drives the darkness away. I remember meeting someone once who
said that when she couldn’t sleep, she would just go through her mind of all
the things she could give thanks to God for.
But there’s
one more thing that’s really wonderful about this first chapter of Romans. In
verse 21, we read the verse I just read: For although they knew God, they
did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in
their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. But if we back
track a few verses, right back to verse 8, which is just after Paul has written
his greetings and introduced himself at the beginning of the letter, this is
what we read: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,
because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Did you notice what he
says? First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. St Paul
is about to write this wonderful letter to the Romans, and he has so much to
teach them, and the Romans have so much to learn. But he doesn’t begin by
saying: You lousy Romans, you’re all so stupid, and none of you know anything
about anything. He says: First, I thank my God. So even though later in
the chapter, he makes that wonderful statement about thanksgiving as being a
kind of antidote to the diseases of foolishness, darkness, and futility, here
at the beginning of the chapter, he actually models thanksgiving to us. This is
so incredibly helpful for us, in our fast-paced lives—what do you have to give
to God for?
Actually,
Martin Luther, has some wonderful things to say about this in his Small
Catechism, about the Lord’s Prayer. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: Give us
today our daily bread. And Martin Luther explains it like this: God
certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil
people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and
to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What makes Christians
different from other people? Do Christian farmers get healthier and more
fruitful crops than other farmers? No. Do Christians have nicer homes than
other people, more money than other people, better clothes than other people?
No. Are Christians healthier and less sick and less injured than other people?
Once again, the answer is no. In Matthew chapter 5, it says: God makes his
sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust. Everyone, whether you are a Christian or not, enjoys the gifts of
sunshine and rain, and the many gifts that come from it. So if there’s going to
be a difference—if Christians are going to make a difference—what’s it going to
be? Let’s listen to Luther’s words again: God certainly gives daily bread to
everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this
petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread
with thanksgiving.
Our whole
lives as Christians is one big offering of thanks. There are so many things
that God has given to us—we are called to thank him, and to offer our lives
back to him in thanksgiving. We are given so many things for our bodies and for
our lives—food, drink, clothing, shoes, a house, a home, a family, peace, good
government, protection from war, from violence, from major disease. We are so
blessed in this country. Just a word about government—we have heard a lot of
talk in recent years about corruption, but there are some countries that have
had years of corruption that has completely crippled their country, and would
take years to turn around. Also, I remember when Kevin Rudd returned to be
prime-minister again after Julia Gillard, an African man said to me at the
church door, that if that had happened in Africa, there would be a civil war.
Don’t we have so much to be thankful for in this country? And not to mention,
all the spiritual things that God gives to us, for the benefit of our
souls—God’s word, the ability to read it, to ability to hear it, a wonderful
church building such as this one, our church musicians, the gift of baptism,
the Lord’s Supper, the opportunity and the privilege of prayer, Christian
friends, and people who speak to us God’s word. And we have I remember hearing
a story about an old pastor, who used to say a prayer like this: Heavenly
Father, you have give me so many things in life to enjoy. Give me one thing
more—a thankful heart.
And so now,
I’d like to come back to Jesus’ words from Matthew 6. And this is a well-known
passage, where Jesus teaches us about the relationship between our spiritual
life to the needs of our body. He says: 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?
Just before
this, Jesus says: 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.
After this,
then our reading begins where Jesus says: Therefore, do not be anxious about
your life. On one hand, the worship that we offer to God is thanksgiving.
On the other hand, the worship we offer to an idol, to a false good, is
anxiety. Jesus says: You cannot serve God and money. If we serve God, we
do with thankfulness. If we serve money, we do it with anxiety.
In the broad
scheme of history, and in comparison to the rest of the world, we are very
wealthy people. And yet, there’s many people who are constantly anxious about
all kinds of things—about their finances, about the future, and all kinds of
things like that. Many parents today are especially anxious about their
children. But our Christian life should not be directed in such a way to simply
alleviate their anxiety. Some people are anxious and they don’t even know why
they are anxious. And then they jump from one thing to the next, from one
novelty to the next, looking for a fix. But people don’t become closer to God
by offering little sacrifices to their false gods through anxiety. There’s no
use saying: My prayers to God don’t seem to be working, I think I’ll pray to
the devil instead. Of course not!
Let’s listen
to what Jesus has to say. 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single
hour to his span of life? Think about it, Jesus says: what has anxiety ever
really done for you, except make your life a misery?
Jesus says: And
why are you anxious about clothing? 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 so clothes the grass of the field,
which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much
clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
Let’s just
stop for a minute—do we really worry about what we’re going to eat or drink or
wear? In Australia, we really don’t have to worry at all about famine, or going
without clothes. But then, we like to have variety in our food and diet—I’m not
talking about the fact that a varied diet is a good thing, but we get bored
with the same old thing. So we worry: what are we going to eat? We can’t eat fish
and chips tonight! Why? Because we had it last night. All this is anxiety about
food and drink.
Or what about
clothing? Many of us are not overly anxious about not having anything to wear.
But then, there’s the whole question of variety again. Many people can’t bear
to be seen wearing the same clothes to two different occasions. People say: I
can’t wear that outfit, or that tie, or that jacket, or that dress, to that
wedding, because people will remember it from some other occasion. All of this
is anxiety over clothing. We might think that we have to live in this kind of
luxury in order to make a good appearance, but if that’s the case—fine, then
you have to know that we’ll be anxious. And this anxiety is simply the offering
we make to a false god.
Don’t you
know how valuable God thinks we are? Don’t you know that he values us so much
more highly than anyone in our life who we think might value us and appreciate
us the most? Jesus says: 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? Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little
faith?
Jesus says: For
the Gentiles seek after all these things, and you heavenly Father knows that
you need them all. You see—here Jesus points out the fact that our anxiety
about our life doesn’t make us different from anyone else. Gentiles can be
anxious too. Unbelievers will be anxious too—they don’t honour God or give
thanks to him, and so as St Paul says, they become futile in their thinking,
and their foolish hearts are darkened.
So what then?
Jesus says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own
evil.
Seek first
the kingdom of God. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
Build your life and your faith with a thankful heart. And seek his
righteousness. God’s righteousness comes from the forgiveness of sins,
which Jesus has won for us on the cross through his suffering and death and
through his resurrection. Seek this. Trust in it. Put your anxieties into the
hands of this man who shed his blood for you. St Peter says in his first
letter: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the
proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he
cares for you. St Paul also says in Philippians: Do not be anxious about
anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (notice
that: with thanksgiving!) let your requests be made known to God. And
the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus.
A pastor once
said to me, that God provides everything we need for any given day. If we find
that we are not coping with what needs to be done, if we think that God hasn’t
provided the strength and the capacity for us to cope, maybe we are doing
something and dedicating our hearts to something that we don’t need to. God is
constantly our teacher, and he knows in his wisdom how to alleviate our hearts
from all of our burdens.
So, to
conclude our sermon today, I’d like to read a couple of verses from the book of
Acts, by way of encouragement, about the first Christians after the day of
Pentecost. It says: And day by day, attending the temple together and
breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous
hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. May the Holy
Spirit give us the same gladness and generosity of heart, and above everything,
a thankful heart!
Amen.
Dear Jesus,
you have given us so many things to enjoy, both for our bodies and for our
souls. Give us one thing more, a thankful heart. Amen.
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