1 Kings 17:8-16/Galatians 5:25-6:10/St Mathew 6:24-34
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If you have anxiety you are not alone. But this is not the Gospel. With His Words today, our Lord acknowledges your anxieties. He does not promise that the life of His disciples will be free of trouble. Earlier He said, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account (Mt 5:11). That sounds pretty troublesome. Here Jesus says, Sufficient for the day is it own trouble.
Most days do have trouble. This is nothing new. It has been this way almost from the beginning. What shall we eat? and What shall we wear? are questions stemming from the Fall. In the beginning, What shall we eat? was a question answered by God: All these trees I give to you for food.
What shall we wear? was a question left unanswered. For the man and his wife were named and without shame. They needed no clothes, for they had nothing to hide. Not from each other or God. No impure thought or desire entered their minds. Clothes protect us from cold and frost, sun and wind, the teeth and venom of insects and animals. But our first parents had no need for such protection. They played as children, without care, without adversary.
The Fall into sin changed everything. What shall we eat? and What shall we drink? and What shall we wear? became all consuming questions. Amidst the thorns and thistles eating was now uncertain. Recognizing their own nakedness, they sought to cover their shame. And the life of man has never been the same. The prophet Job observed, Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? (Job 7:1)
What shall we eat? Where will we find it? How will we pay for it? How many carbs does it have? Is it gluten free? Red 40? Will is kill me now or will I just feel it in the morning? Do not worry? All this life gives me is worry upon worry! Who is Jesus to say, Do not worry?
Few things are more irritating than a preacher who promises success and health, which is just another way of saying a life free from worry. Is that what Jesus is promising? The Swedish Lutheran Bishop Bo Giertz had this to say about Jesus’ words: “No man can avoid anxieties. It is a matter of knowing how to manage them.” Huh. Those two sentences could come from any psychologist or counselor. “Yes, I would like to learn how to manage my anxieties! What must I do?”
But that question, “What must I do?” is a Law question; a question about my actions. Its the kind of question that was often put to Jesus. Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Ask a Law question and get a Law answer. Love God and love your neighbor with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Be perfect. And you can find some relief in what you do: meditation or medication, exercise, proper rest, healthy eating. But the Law always accuses. Lex temper accusat. And the fundamental human anxieties revealed by those questions, What shall eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? still remain. They deal with death - keeping yourself alive through food and money. And they deal with shame - covering yourself in the hour of accusation, on the day of judgment.
And underlaying death and shame is the sin that drives it all. Not just this or that sin, but the world sin, the cosmic sin of a world curved in on itself and rejecting her Creator, even pretending He does not exist and that the amazing feat of engineering that is the human body and plant and solar system - that such an amazing complex of bodies and cells came about through random accident.
Such a worldview leaves man in an ungoverned cosmos, without meaning and without morals. That’s the deeper anxiety that the philosophy masquerading as science has unleashed upon the post-modern world. What shall we eat? What shall we wear? culminates in Pilate’s question to Jesus, What is truth? And the chilling answer of the postmodern world is, “There is no truth.”
But this morning our Lord Jesus call us back to the deep truth that mankind has not yet completely forgotten. Man is like the prodigal son, wandering far from his home, rejecting his father and family, rejecting his history. But still in the back of his mind he remembers who he is. And the father looks out eat day, yearning for his child’s return. The son only return when he is overwhelmed by the anxiety resulting from his own collapse.
So, back to that quote from earlier, seemingly out of place for a Lutheran pastor: “No man can avoid anxieties. It is a matter of knowing how to manage them.” Managing them is not like managing people or stuff, times of tasks. You cannot serve God and mammon. What place does God have in your anxieties? Giertz goes on: “If we try to have God alongside of all else, then we become captive to our anxieties. We cannot have God simply as some extra aid that sometimes will break in and put things in order as for instance when our health fails or our affairs are tangled up.” You cannot serve God and money.
But you try to. And this is why you worry. This is why I worry. Because in those moments that we try to do both, serve two masters, God and mammon, we actually forget that we have a God, just as Jesus says. We’ve thrown Him to the side as something extra. Meanwhile, other things - money or health or the government or another person - have become what we look to for help; what we trust. That’s a god. What you trust in most. And it will always fail. Then we despair. And our help is gone.
So the antidote for anxiety, for worry is in those words of our Lord, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is not an enormous task for you to complete, a great quest to go on, a spiritual feat for you to master. Remember, this is how Jesus follows up the words, Do not worry. Both are instructions, they are verbs, actions.
But they are not works for us to perform. They are the words of a mother comforting her son, a father comforting his daughter, a surgeon saying to the waiting family, “Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine.”
In this Gospel, our Lord Jesus is saying, “All those things that cause you anxiety, all those things that come from your sin? Do not be anxious, I have taken away your sin. All those things that make you worry, the things of death? Do not worry, I have died your death. Those dark deeds that you fear will be exposed? Do not be afraid, I clothe you with My righteousness. Have you not heard My apostle say, ‘Everyone who has been baptized into Christ has been clothed with Christ’? I took care of Elijah and the widow. I will care for you.”
“Therefore do not worry about what you will eat,” says your Lord, “for I feed you with the finest of wheat.”
Do not worry about what you will drink,” says your Lord, “for I give you wine and milk without money and without price. I feed you My Supper. I feed you Myself. And in it My blood cleanses you from all sins. Do not worry about what you will wear, for I have worn your flesh and taken it into death, and you will wear My flesh in the resurrection, and you shall not die but live, and rejoice in what I have made.”
So do not worry. Christ’s righteousness is yours. Christ’s kingdom is yours. Not because you deserve it or have earned it, but because He gives it. Therefore do not worry. He gives you your daily bread until He raises you from the dead.
In the Name of the Father + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If you have anxiety you are not alone. But this is not the Gospel. With His Words today, our Lord acknowledges your anxieties. He does not promise that the life of His disciples will be free of trouble. Earlier He said, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account (Mt 5:11). That sounds pretty troublesome. Here Jesus says, Sufficient for the day is it own trouble.
Most days do have trouble. This is nothing new. It has been this way almost from the beginning. What shall we eat? and What shall we wear? are questions stemming from the Fall. In the beginning, What shall we eat? was a question answered by God: All these trees I give to you for food.
What shall we wear? was a question left unanswered. For the man and his wife were named and without shame. They needed no clothes, for they had nothing to hide. Not from each other or God. No impure thought or desire entered their minds. Clothes protect us from cold and frost, sun and wind, the teeth and venom of insects and animals. But our first parents had no need for such protection. They played as children, without care, without adversary.
The Fall into sin changed everything. What shall we eat? and What shall we drink? and What shall we wear? became all consuming questions. Amidst the thorns and thistles eating was now uncertain. Recognizing their own nakedness, they sought to cover their shame. And the life of man has never been the same. The prophet Job observed, Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? (Job 7:1)
What shall we eat? Where will we find it? How will we pay for it? How many carbs does it have? Is it gluten free? Red 40? Will is kill me now or will I just feel it in the morning? Do not worry? All this life gives me is worry upon worry! Who is Jesus to say, Do not worry?
Few things are more irritating than a preacher who promises success and health, which is just another way of saying a life free from worry. Is that what Jesus is promising? The Swedish Lutheran Bishop Bo Giertz had this to say about Jesus’ words: “No man can avoid anxieties. It is a matter of knowing how to manage them.” Huh. Those two sentences could come from any psychologist or counselor. “Yes, I would like to learn how to manage my anxieties! What must I do?”
But that question, “What must I do?” is a Law question; a question about my actions. Its the kind of question that was often put to Jesus. Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Ask a Law question and get a Law answer. Love God and love your neighbor with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Be perfect. And you can find some relief in what you do: meditation or medication, exercise, proper rest, healthy eating. But the Law always accuses. Lex temper accusat. And the fundamental human anxieties revealed by those questions, What shall eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? still remain. They deal with death - keeping yourself alive through food and money. And they deal with shame - covering yourself in the hour of accusation, on the day of judgment.
And underlaying death and shame is the sin that drives it all. Not just this or that sin, but the world sin, the cosmic sin of a world curved in on itself and rejecting her Creator, even pretending He does not exist and that the amazing feat of engineering that is the human body and plant and solar system - that such an amazing complex of bodies and cells came about through random accident.
Such a worldview leaves man in an ungoverned cosmos, without meaning and without morals. That’s the deeper anxiety that the philosophy masquerading as science has unleashed upon the post-modern world. What shall we eat? What shall we wear? culminates in Pilate’s question to Jesus, What is truth? And the chilling answer of the postmodern world is, “There is no truth.”
But this morning our Lord Jesus call us back to the deep truth that mankind has not yet completely forgotten. Man is like the prodigal son, wandering far from his home, rejecting his father and family, rejecting his history. But still in the back of his mind he remembers who he is. And the father looks out eat day, yearning for his child’s return. The son only return when he is overwhelmed by the anxiety resulting from his own collapse.
So, back to that quote from earlier, seemingly out of place for a Lutheran pastor: “No man can avoid anxieties. It is a matter of knowing how to manage them.” Managing them is not like managing people or stuff, times of tasks. You cannot serve God and mammon. What place does God have in your anxieties? Giertz goes on: “If we try to have God alongside of all else, then we become captive to our anxieties. We cannot have God simply as some extra aid that sometimes will break in and put things in order as for instance when our health fails or our affairs are tangled up.” You cannot serve God and money.
But you try to. And this is why you worry. This is why I worry. Because in those moments that we try to do both, serve two masters, God and mammon, we actually forget that we have a God, just as Jesus says. We’ve thrown Him to the side as something extra. Meanwhile, other things - money or health or the government or another person - have become what we look to for help; what we trust. That’s a god. What you trust in most. And it will always fail. Then we despair. And our help is gone.
So the antidote for anxiety, for worry is in those words of our Lord, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is not an enormous task for you to complete, a great quest to go on, a spiritual feat for you to master. Remember, this is how Jesus follows up the words, Do not worry. Both are instructions, they are verbs, actions.
But they are not works for us to perform. They are the words of a mother comforting her son, a father comforting his daughter, a surgeon saying to the waiting family, “Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine.”
In this Gospel, our Lord Jesus is saying, “All those things that cause you anxiety, all those things that come from your sin? Do not be anxious, I have taken away your sin. All those things that make you worry, the things of death? Do not worry, I have died your death. Those dark deeds that you fear will be exposed? Do not be afraid, I clothe you with My righteousness. Have you not heard My apostle say, ‘Everyone who has been baptized into Christ has been clothed with Christ’? I took care of Elijah and the widow. I will care for you.”
“Therefore do not worry about what you will eat,” says your Lord, “for I feed you with the finest of wheat.”
Do not worry about what you will drink,” says your Lord, “for I give you wine and milk without money and without price. I feed you My Supper. I feed you Myself. And in it My blood cleanses you from all sins. Do not worry about what you will wear, for I have worn your flesh and taken it into death, and you will wear My flesh in the resurrection, and you shall not die but live, and rejoice in what I have made.”
So do not worry. Christ’s righteousness is yours. Christ’s kingdom is yours. Not because you deserve it or have earned it, but because He gives it. Therefore do not worry. He gives you your daily bread until He raises you from the dead.
In the Name of the Father + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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