Trinity
15
Mt
6:24-34
9/8/24
This
week’s Gospel lesson has made me much more aware about one of my jobs at
home. We have a bird feeder that hangs
in the back yard in front of the kitchen window. It is constantly laden with birds that are
eating there. I enjoy looking out in the
morning and seeing God’s little creatures.
Frequently it calls to mind the verse from today’s text: “Look at the
birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them.”
The
birds eat the seed rather quickly. It
takes a day and a half at most before the feeder is empty and needs to be
filled again. Now sometimes I have been
a little lazy about getting it refilled.
But after working with this week’s text I am going to try to be more
consistent about refilling it. After all, the heavenly Father is using me to
feed them.
Our
text is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
In this section, our Lord is applying some foundational truths and
showing what they mean in our daily life.
Just before our text Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in
and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus
contrasts the desire to accumulate wealth on earth, with a life that lives for
God. He reminds us that the wealth of
this world is temporary and can be lost.
On the other hand, the things of God – the blessings that he will give
to his children on the Last Day - are certain and sure. Then Jesus says, “For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.” Our Lord
says that what we value – what we consider to be our treasure – is where our
heart will be. It is the thing that will
be truly important to us.
Of
course, the contrast Jesus is setting up is between wealth and God. And so in our text the Lord 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.” God and money. Jesus says that both serve as masters in
life. However, it is not possible to
serve both of them. In the end, one or
the other will rule our life.
In
today’s text, Jesus confronts one of the false gods in our life. He forces us to consider the ways in which we
value wealth and the material blessings of this world. We must recognize the ways that we find our
ultimate sense of security and well being in our financial status. We must acknowledge how we focus on acquiring
things, and that this often holds a more important place in our life than
Christ and his gifts of forgiveness – the Means of Grace.
Jesus
confronts the sin in which money, wealth, and possessions are a false god in
our life. And he calls us to live in a
different way – a way that trusts in God to provide what we need and does not
worry.
Our Lord begins by saying, “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?”
He tells us not to worry about food and clothing because life is more
than these things. Life is God’s gift
and he has promised to support us.
So 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?” God provides for the birds. He supports their life. Yet they have not been created in God’s
image. They have not been redeemed by
the death and resurrection of the Son of God. Jesus’ point is that you are of
far more value to God. If he provides for
the birds, won’t God also provide for you?
Next our Lord 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 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?” Jesus points us to the flowers of
the field which bloom in beauty, but are really nothing more than weeds. If God
clothes them with this beauty – part of his creation that has no real value –
then certainly he will clothe us.
We need to recognize that our Lord
speaks about food and clothing. He
addresses the basic needs of life. God
promises to provide us with daily bread.
He promises to give us what we need to support this body and life. But he doesn’t promise more than that.
We are the ones who have created
expectations about what life “needs” to be like. It needs to have a home with lots of living
space, and décor and furniture that fit our style. It needs to have air
conditioning, a dishwasher, and washer and dryer. It needs to have plenty of
outdoor space and proper landscaping. A pool would certainly be
appropriate. It needs to have clothing
that fits our style. It needs all of the
electronic gadgets that everyone “has to have.”
It needs all of the things that we use in our hobbies and sports. It
needs vacation and travel to interesting places. The list can go on and on….
The uncomfortable truth is that God
has not promised any of those things to us. St. Paul wrote, “Now there is great gain
in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the
world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have
food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
God has only promised food and
clothing. Yet he has blessed us with so much more than that. Each of us must recognize that we live a life
that billions of people in the world can only dream about. The problem arises when we focus on these
blessings instead of God. The challenge
occurs when sustaining life with these many blessings that we consider to be
essential becomes a source of worry and anxiety.
Jesus repeatedly warns again worry
in our text. He says, “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.” He states, “And which of you by being anxious
can add a single hour to his span of life?” He asks, “And why are you anxious about
clothing?”
Jesus’ response is to say in our text: “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. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
There
is no reason to be anxious because our heavenly Father knows that we need the
things that support life. And so Jesus
directs us in the way our life needs to be oriented. He says, “seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness.” In these words,
our Lord is directing us toward himself.
He is the One in whom the kingdom of God – the reign of God had entered
into the world. As the incarnate Son of
God, he was the presence of God’s reign that was turning back the forces of
Satan and sin. Jesus told his opponents,
“But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the
kingdom of God has come upon you.”
Jesus was bringing God’s righteousness – his saving work to put all things right. Our Lord announced how he would do this as he approached Jerusalem and said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Jesus
did suffer and die on the cross. He submitted to this as the sacrifice for our
sins. The Lord said, “the Son of Man
came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many.” And then on the third day he rose from the dead as he defeated
death and began the resurrection of the Last Day.
To
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness is now to focus on
those ways by which Jesus Christ comes to us.
It is to direct our life towards the Means of Grace through which the
Holy Spirit gives us forgiveness and strengthens us in faith.
We
seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness as we hear, read, and study the
Scriptures – God’s Word. Here we receive
the Good News of what God has done for us in Christ. And through the Scriptures the Spirit leads
us to grow and mature in faith so that we can trust in God to provide all that
we need.
We
seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness as we turn to our baptism in
faith. We return to God’s promise that
our sins have been washed away. In
baptism we were born again of water and the Spirit. Baptism is the continuing source of the
Spirit’s work in our life by which we trust God and learn to live in his ways.
In
our text our Lord addresses those who worry about being clothed as “O you of
little faith?” The presence of worry about the necessities of life is not the
absence of faith. Instead, it is faith
that needs to grow. It is faith that
needs to mature. And so we listen to our
Lord, for faith grows and matures when we seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness. We fix our
attention on Jesus and the gifts by which he comes to us.
Jesus
begins our text by saying, “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.” We have been made a new creation in Christ
through the work of the Spirit. Now, as
we walk by faith, our money becomes the means by which we serve God.
As
we mentioned earlier, God has blessed us with so much more than just food and
clothing. In thanksgiving to God, we
return a portion of our blessing to him in our offering. Drawing upon the Old
Testament example, Christians have traditionally sought to return a tithe – 10%
- as that offering. Where this has not
been possible, it has served as a goal towards which Christians aim. When possible, it is something that
Christians also exceed.
So
consider how the Lord has blessed you during the past few years. Does your offering reflect changes that have
occurred? Where God has blessed you with
more, has your offering kept up with this blessing?
Our
money – the blessing that God gives us – becomes something that we use to serve
God in other ways as well. We have two
men who are beginning seminary this school year as they prepare to serve as
pastors in Christ’s church. Mark your
offering as “Seminarian” and it will be used to help pay for their
tuition. And likewise, the congregation
Emergency Fund continues to be a means by which we can help those in need in
our community in order to share the love of Christ.
In
our text today, Jesus assures us that there is no reason to worry. Our heavenly Father will provide us with what
we need to support this life. He calls
us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. By focusing on Christ and his Means of Grace
we receive the assurance of forgiveness. And the Spirit uses these gifts to
cause us to grow and mature in faith so that rather than worrying, we employ
God’s blessings to give thanks to him and to help others.
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