St Matthew 6:24-34
LSB 725 Children of the Heavenly Father
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If there’s any creature in God’s great wide creation that should worry, its the birds. They live on the edge of life and death. They’re small. Cats and foxes want to eat them. Bigger birds like hawks want to eat them. A billion birds a year die from flying into windows. Thousands more die flying near wind turbines. No doubt you’ve found one lying dead in your backyard. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from. They have to build a new place to live every year. If there’s any creature that should worry, it’s the bird. But they don’t.
That’s why our Lord instructs us to look at the birds of the air. Actually, He says it stronger than that. He actually says, study the birds. He holds them up as our catechists! They are to teach us! And what do we learn when study them? Creatures that live by faith. Creatures that don’t worry. Don’t get anxious. Creatures that don’t forget they have a Father in heaven. Creatures that do what we don’t - get up everyday expecting nothing but good from their Creator. Look at the birds, our Lord says.
But what do the birds think when they look at us? They must think we are very strange creatures.
We sit in our homes with cupboards bursting with food, a stuffed refrigerator, and enough food to scrape some into the garbage. And yet, we still worry whether God will take care of us in the future. What strange creatures we must be to them! We have closets bursting with clothes and shoes, more than we can ever use, and yet we fret about whether we can expect good from God in the future. What strange creatures we are.
God has gifted us with life and health. Yet we’ve infected ourselves with a form of death called anxiety. It takes years off our lives. It swipes hours of needed sleep. The preacher to the Hebrews says that Jesus partook of flesh and blood like us so that through death He might destroy the devil and deliver all who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb 2:15). The power of death is the fear of death. That fear of death, that anxiety, that apprehension, is a demonic bondage.
Our Lord says to us, don’t be anxious. Don’t worry about tomorrow. But telling the likes of us not to worry is like telling us not to think of green elephants. When Jesus says, Don’t worry, He’s not so much instructing us, as He is exposing us. What do the birds look down and see when they study our daily lives? Creatures with little faith and little trust in their heavenly Father.
So, out with the truth. Confess that those little birds put our faith to shame. Confess that our worry is worship of the devil and sin against our Father who art in heaven.
But do not fear. For what matters is not what birds think then they look down at us. What matters is what the Father thinks when He looks down to you. What does the Father see when He studies you and sees how little faith you have in Him? He sees someone who in no wise deserves His goodness, but out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, still provides for all your needs of body and soul. Of daily bread and all. Including, among other things, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
The truth is He looks down and sees people who do not seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Yet He seeks you by sending His Son and giving you a kingdom. Because He looks down in mercy. He looks down in compassion and love. He looks down in kindness. He tends and nourishes His own. Spares them from all evil things.
What did the birds see when they looked down at Jesus, God’s Son in the flesh? They saw the very Person of Faith you needed. Your Substitute. They saw One who never worried, never fretted, was never rushed, never stressed, never got even a little nervous though His mission was to die on a Cross for all your faithless fears. He was the One who prayed to His Father, trusted His Farther, was devoted to His Father and loved His Father in all circumstances. They saw One whose faith put even the pious birds’ to shame.
His faith and His faithfulness, dear Christians, is exactly what you need. And that is precisely the faith that God in mercy has created in you. And that faith He reckons as righteousness in His sight.
Birds are valuable to God. He made them. He provides for them. But you are more valuable. What does the preacher to the Hebrews say? He shared in our flesh and blood. He did not take on the nature of birds to redeem birds. But He took on your nature, your fallen flesh, to redeem you. You are so valuable, in fact, that He not feeds you from your kitchen pantry. He fed His Body into the jaws of death so that you might be fed heavenly Food from this altar.
You are so valuable to Him that He not only gives you to drink from your faucet. He opened up His veins at the Cross that His Blood which flowed out might answer for your mistrust of the Father and then flow into the chalice you now drink, quenching your thirst for righteousness.
You are so much more valuable to Him than birds that He not only fills your closets with clothes. He goes to the Cross to be stripped of His clothes, stripped of His dignity, stripped of any earthly help, that He might die for your lack of trust. That He might rise again and come forth from the tomb, to give out the robes of righteousness from His heavenly closet. Just as He did in your Baptism.
God looks down on you in love again this evening and not only pours out His Son’s blood for the forgiveness of your sins, but also pours out His Spirit upon you. In His Spirit do you walk, as St Paul writes to the Galatians, saying, Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). That word “walk” has a military ring to it. More like “march.”
So there you go. You have the Holy Spirit. You have the very Lord and Giver of Life dwelling within you. You have the power of the resurrected Life within you by the Spirit. So don’t process through life like a bunch of slump-shouldered worriers that makes birds sigh. We live by the Spirit. We march through life, the snares of death surrounding us, with the confidence that our Father in heaven has and will continue to provide for all our needs of body and soul. “Though He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne’er forsaketh; His the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy” (LSB 725:4).
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
LSB 725 Children of the Heavenly Father
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If there’s any creature in God’s great wide creation that should worry, its the birds. They live on the edge of life and death. They’re small. Cats and foxes want to eat them. Bigger birds like hawks want to eat them. A billion birds a year die from flying into windows. Thousands more die flying near wind turbines. No doubt you’ve found one lying dead in your backyard. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from. They have to build a new place to live every year. If there’s any creature that should worry, it’s the bird. But they don’t.
That’s why our Lord instructs us to look at the birds of the air. Actually, He says it stronger than that. He actually says, study the birds. He holds them up as our catechists! They are to teach us! And what do we learn when study them? Creatures that live by faith. Creatures that don’t worry. Don’t get anxious. Creatures that don’t forget they have a Father in heaven. Creatures that do what we don’t - get up everyday expecting nothing but good from their Creator. Look at the birds, our Lord says.
But what do the birds think when they look at us? They must think we are very strange creatures.
We sit in our homes with cupboards bursting with food, a stuffed refrigerator, and enough food to scrape some into the garbage. And yet, we still worry whether God will take care of us in the future. What strange creatures we must be to them! We have closets bursting with clothes and shoes, more than we can ever use, and yet we fret about whether we can expect good from God in the future. What strange creatures we are.
God has gifted us with life and health. Yet we’ve infected ourselves with a form of death called anxiety. It takes years off our lives. It swipes hours of needed sleep. The preacher to the Hebrews says that Jesus partook of flesh and blood like us so that through death He might destroy the devil and deliver all who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb 2:15). The power of death is the fear of death. That fear of death, that anxiety, that apprehension, is a demonic bondage.
Our Lord says to us, don’t be anxious. Don’t worry about tomorrow. But telling the likes of us not to worry is like telling us not to think of green elephants. When Jesus says, Don’t worry, He’s not so much instructing us, as He is exposing us. What do the birds look down and see when they study our daily lives? Creatures with little faith and little trust in their heavenly Father.
So, out with the truth. Confess that those little birds put our faith to shame. Confess that our worry is worship of the devil and sin against our Father who art in heaven.
But do not fear. For what matters is not what birds think then they look down at us. What matters is what the Father thinks when He looks down to you. What does the Father see when He studies you and sees how little faith you have in Him? He sees someone who in no wise deserves His goodness, but out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, still provides for all your needs of body and soul. Of daily bread and all. Including, among other things, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
The truth is He looks down and sees people who do not seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Yet He seeks you by sending His Son and giving you a kingdom. Because He looks down in mercy. He looks down in compassion and love. He looks down in kindness. He tends and nourishes His own. Spares them from all evil things.
What did the birds see when they looked down at Jesus, God’s Son in the flesh? They saw the very Person of Faith you needed. Your Substitute. They saw One who never worried, never fretted, was never rushed, never stressed, never got even a little nervous though His mission was to die on a Cross for all your faithless fears. He was the One who prayed to His Father, trusted His Farther, was devoted to His Father and loved His Father in all circumstances. They saw One whose faith put even the pious birds’ to shame.
His faith and His faithfulness, dear Christians, is exactly what you need. And that is precisely the faith that God in mercy has created in you. And that faith He reckons as righteousness in His sight.
Birds are valuable to God. He made them. He provides for them. But you are more valuable. What does the preacher to the Hebrews say? He shared in our flesh and blood. He did not take on the nature of birds to redeem birds. But He took on your nature, your fallen flesh, to redeem you. You are so valuable, in fact, that He not feeds you from your kitchen pantry. He fed His Body into the jaws of death so that you might be fed heavenly Food from this altar.
You are so valuable to Him that He not only gives you to drink from your faucet. He opened up His veins at the Cross that His Blood which flowed out might answer for your mistrust of the Father and then flow into the chalice you now drink, quenching your thirst for righteousness.
You are so much more valuable to Him than birds that He not only fills your closets with clothes. He goes to the Cross to be stripped of His clothes, stripped of His dignity, stripped of any earthly help, that He might die for your lack of trust. That He might rise again and come forth from the tomb, to give out the robes of righteousness from His heavenly closet. Just as He did in your Baptism.
God looks down on you in love again this evening and not only pours out His Son’s blood for the forgiveness of your sins, but also pours out His Spirit upon you. In His Spirit do you walk, as St Paul writes to the Galatians, saying, Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). That word “walk” has a military ring to it. More like “march.”
So there you go. You have the Holy Spirit. You have the very Lord and Giver of Life dwelling within you. You have the power of the resurrected Life within you by the Spirit. So don’t process through life like a bunch of slump-shouldered worriers that makes birds sigh. We live by the Spirit. We march through life, the snares of death surrounding us, with the confidence that our Father in heaven has and will continue to provide for all our needs of body and soul. “Though He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne’er forsaketh; His the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy” (LSB 725:4).
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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