Trinity 15 [Matthew 6:24-34] (8-Sep-2013)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am, lay reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram (2pm) and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 6:24-34)

Do not be anxious about your life.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Today’s Gospel reading is particularly about anxiety: being anxious. Our reading today has the word “anxious” in it 6 times, and is therefore the one passage in the bible that has the most to say about being anxious.

There are a lot of anxious people around today—and people are anxious for all sorts of reasons. But anxiety is kind of a bit like a cold: if you spend a lot of time with anxious people, you can easy catch this anxiety from them and become anxious too.

Anxiety is when we worry about things. We worry about the future, or we worry about what’s going to happen. We might worry about what’s going to happen to us, or our family, or our friends, or our country, or the church, or our world.  

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives us such wonderful, helpful advice. And it’s not helpful simply because it comes from a well-meaning friend, but because it comes from the mouth of the living God himself. This is advice that is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And because this advice comes from the Holy Spirit, the first thing that we need to hear is about our sin. 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.

Jesus says in John 16: When the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. The fact that Jesus speaks to us first of all about our sin is a kind of proof that it is the Holy Spirit’s work. We should also be suspicious about any advice about matters that have to do with our hearts that don’t speak about our sin. Human advice doesn’t convict of us our sin, because it comes from the human spirit. The Holy Spirit always teaches us something new, something that we had never realised before, and something that seems so unnatural to us. We are imperfect and God is perfect, so we should expect God’s advice to highlight the imperfections!

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.

Jesus speaks to us about idolatry. The first commandment commands us to have no other gods. And Martin Luther in the Small Catechism summarises the teaching of the bible in the words: We should fear, love and trust in God above all things. We should fear God, as Psalm 34 says: Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. We should love God, since Jesus says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. We should trust in God, since Proverbs says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

We should fear God because there is nothing so great [so high, wonderful, powerful] as the Lord our God.

We should love him because there is nothing so dear [so lovely, gracious, kind, loving] as the Lord our God.
We should trust him because there is nothing so faithful [so trustworthy, dependable, solid, reliable] as the Lord our God.

So if we fear, love and trust in something more than God, then we are putting a creature into God’s place. We are taking something that God himself created and making it into God. This creature then becomes an idol in our hearts.

Instead of God’s word being the thing which shapes and forms our hearts and binds and frees our consciences, it is someone else’s word, something else’s word.

Jesus says: No one can serve two masters. How many masters do you have in your heart? How many conflicting voices are trying to compete to win the election for your soul? How many parties are battling it to win your spirit and your mind and your heart? Maybe there’s two major parties, and whole lot of minor parties?

Jesus says: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Jesus shows us here that if we have two gods in our heart, we can’t love them both. You can’t look to God for all your needs, and then have a statue of Buddha for good luck. What Jesus wants to show us is that our idol worship takes away the love of God from our heart. Idol worship causes us to hate God and despise him. Instead it calls us to love the idol, and be devote ourselves to the idol, and then the idol causes us to make sacrifices to it: we sacrifice our family, our friends, our lives, our souls—all for the sake of something that God created. Jesus says: What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

But Jesus also shows us the most common idol. He says: You cannot serve God and money. The word in Greek is “mammon”, and can also refer not just to money, but also possessions. Now Jesus doesn’t forbid us to have money, but it must serve us; we cannot serve it. Money becomes a false god when we start to serve it instead of it serving us. We have to be the master of money: money cannot be our master. Jesus will not allow the worship of him and the worship of money to be equated as the same thing.

But then, we might ask, just like all the people that were listening to Jesus all those many years ago: but if you take away our money what are we going to do?

Jesus never said he would take away your money. He wants to take away your faith in it, and your false worship in it. He wants to take away your fear, love and trust in it.

So 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? 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? 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 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?

Now, we might say to Jesus: of course, I’m going to worry and be anxious about my life! If I can’t worry about money, then what I am going to do? How I am going to get food and clothing? Jesus, are you telling me that I can’t work, but that I should just sit back and relax like some sort of bludger?

Of course not—Jesus is not forbidding you to work. He is not forbidding you to earn money. Jesus doesn’t want you to worship and serve and love and fear and trust money—that’s all. And Jesus is not forbidding you to work—he just doesn’t want you to worship and serve and love and fear and trust work. Do your work and be done with it. But don’t worry. Don’t be anxious.

Psalm 127 says: Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build labour in vain…It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. God will build your house. God will feed you. God will give you rest. God will give you sleep. God will give you money. God will give you food and clothing. God will give you work. So what are you worried about? You pray every day that God would give you today your daily bread, don’t you? Don’t you believe that he will give it and provide it?

Many people think that God has just wound the world up like a clock, and has now abandoned it. Rubbish! Christians believe that God didn’t just create the world, but that he still take care of the world, he still looks after it, he still provides for it. In the catechism we read: God has given me my body, soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still take care of them. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. Jesus died and rose again from the dead for you. Do you think that he can’t also feed you? Jesus sits at the right hand of God and prays for you. Do you think that he’s stuck on some faraway planet and can’t help you? God’s right hand is everywhere. Don’t you believe that Jesus is walking with you and helping you and supporting you everywhere that you go? What do you have to worry about? There’s no need to worry when Jesus is with you always to the end of the age. There’s no need to panic if we’re constantly in the presence and company of Jesus, our friend and brother, who said to the sea and the wind, “Peace, be still!” The same Jesus who stills the wind and the waves and walks on the water is the same Jesus who stills your heart. He says: Be still, and know that I am God. Calm down. Let me replace all your fears with myself. Let me replace all the false gods and idols which cause you to worry with me.

Jesus says: Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

Do you see? Jesus says: The Gentiles seek after all these things. You’re not a Gentile, are you? You’re not an unbeliever, are you? Then why do you worry like an unbeliever? Listen to Jesus’ words: You heavenly Father knows that you need them all. And if our heavenly Father knows all this, don’t you think that he will also act? Don’t you think he will also do something to satisfy and fill your need?

Now sometimes, we might think: I know I shouldn’t be anxious, but what should I do instead? It’s all very well not to be anxious, but sometimes, I find myself anxious and I don’t know what to do about it, and I don’t know how to get out of it.

Jesus says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness: that’s what you should do instead of being anxious. Search and seek and see where Jesus through your suffering is directing you into deeper prayer, or where through your pain and worry and anxiety Jesus is knocking over another dead statue in your heart and drawing you closer to him. See how Jesus has used your anxiety to give you greater peace.

Dedicate yourself to the divine service, to the house of God. Dedicate yourself to the word of God, listen to it, hear it, receive it, study it. Remind yourself of all the great promises of your baptism. Dedicate yourself to the absolution, the forgiveness of sins—receive forgiveness as often as you can for all your idolatry and anxiety. Dedicate yourself to the Lord’s Supper, and come to receive it as often as you can. Dedicate yourself to prayer and using God’s name and calling upon it in every trouble. What a great gift it is to call upon God and to bring our anxieties to him in prayer.

St Peter says: Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

And at the end of Philippians it says: Do not be anxious about anything. [St Paul doesn’t stop there, but also says:] but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make 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.

Jesus doesn’t just point you in the right direction, but he also gives a promise. He says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. All these things, Jesus says: that means all the things that you are worried and anxious about.

So Jesus says: Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Give us today our daily bread, heavenly Father! God himself knows that we need it! Hear the words of Jesus: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. [Let me take your worries and replace them with my peace!] Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled [anxious, fretful, worrying], neither let them be afraid.

Come, Lord Jesus! Come, Holy Spirit! Kindle in us the fire of your love.

Amen.
  
Lord Jesus, send us the living peace of the Holy Spirit that surpasses all understanding through the power of your holy and forgiving blood. Pacify and still and quiet our anxious and idol-worshipping hearts. Teach us to pray, and to cast all our anxieties on you, and work and will in us to your good pleasure so that we may seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. Amen.