(There is no recording of today’s service, due to technical difficulties. Only audio of the sermon is available.)
Sermon for Trinity 15
Galatians 5:25-6:10 + Matthew 6:24-34
You all know the First Commandment. The LORD God, the God of the Bible, the God who eventually sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, said to the children of Israel on Mt. Sinai: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
What does it mean to have a God? Luther provides a nice little answer in his Large Catechism: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress. So, to have a God is nothing other than trusting and believing Him with the heart.
What does it mean to have other gods? It means to worship, or to trust in and take refuge in, an idol—things, or people, or angels, or demons—anyone or anything that is not the true God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, God goes on to spell it out for the children of Israel, what one form of idolatry looks like. He says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Making an idol, an image, a statue, a picture, and bowing down to it, or serving it as your god—that’s idolatry. That’s a sin against the First Commandment.
But, as Jesus teaches in today’s Gospel, there’s another, very common way to commit idolatry. And that form of idolatry is what leads to much of the worrying that people do from day to day. So we learn from Jesus to recognize that idolatry for what it is, to renounce it, and to make God your God. Because, if God is your God, you have nothing to worry about.
The form of idolatry that Jesus brings up is the idolatry of serving Mammon. Mammon is a word for money, wealth, and possessions. He says, No one can serve two lords. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.
What does it look like to serve Mammon? No one bows down to their wallet or prays to their possessions. But people do “serve” them. People do tend to “trust in them.” That means that, if you have wealth and possessions, you trust in them to keep you fed, to keep you clothed, to keep your retirement safe and comfortable. And, if you don’t have enough wealth and possessions, you serve them by going after them, coveting them, setting your heart on getting them, spending your days seeking them, working for them, so that, someday, you may have them and then trust in them to keep you fed, and clothed, and comfortable. And then, worse yet, if you can’t ever seem to get enough wealth and possessions to be satisfied—and few people can!—then your heart grows bitter, and fearful, and anxious, and full of worry, because you haven’t found the way yet to satisfy your “god” called Mammon.
Those who make Mammon their god, the thing in which they trust the most, the thing for which they work the most and covet the most, have much to worry about. Because their god doesn’t provide for them, doesn’t love them, doesn’t care about them at all. Their god doesn’t even acknowledge their existence. He has no control over the universe. Even if they acquire him for a time, he can easily slip away. And this god called Mammon can’t do a thing for a person after he or she dies. You can’t take Mammon with you into the grave, which is exactly where all who serve him will end up, in an earthly grave, and, worse, separated forever from the true God in eternal condemnation, for their incessant, persistent idolatry.
If you are among the servants of Mammon, repent. And if you are among the servants of the true God, which all believing Christians are, but have allowed yourself to be dragged away and enticed by Mammon and the service of it, and the resulting worry caused by it, repent. Repent. Acknowledge your attraction to and dependence on this false god, and the idolatry you’ve committed against the true God.
And, understand, it’s not I calling you to repentance for myself. It never is. It’s God, right now, calling you to repentance. I’m only His messenger. God wants to be a Father to you. So, first, He calls you away from your idolatry. He calls you to His Son, the Lord Jesus, whom He gave into death for your idolatry and for all your sins, in whom He promises that, when you come to Jesus for mercy, you’ll find a Father’s welcome, a Father’s forgiveness. A Father’s eternal inheritance in the world beyond this world. And, even more than that, you’ll find a Father’s lifelong care, a Father’s lifelong providence already here in this world, so that, if God is your God, you have nothing to worry about.
What Jesus says in these verses from the Sermon on the Mount, He does not say to all people, as they now are. He says it to those who have been made children of God. He says it, directly in the Sermon on the Mount, to those who were Jews under the Old Testament, and who, therefore, had the right to call God their Father. But now that Jesus, the true Son of God, has come, has died and risen again, He says it to those who believe in Him, to those who have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, because only they have been given the right to be called children of God, have been given the right to call God their dear Father.
Therefore I say to you, stop worrying about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? In our superabundance here in the United States, most of us don’t worry too much about the bare essentials of food and clothing. It’s the extra stuff we tend to worry about. But we may still be faced with real financial challenges: medical bills, car repairs, mortgage payments, and rising costs of just about everything. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing—more than all these things? Yes, Jesus tells you. It is more than that.
But before He spells out what life is really for, He wants you to think about how God the Father provides for His soul-less creation—for His creation that doesn’t have an eternal soul, for His creation that He values but hasn’t elevated to the status of “children of God.” He provides for His whole creation. He cares for it. But He hasn’t sent His Son to die for it.
Look at the birds of the air! They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? As for clothing, Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. And yet I tell you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Are you not much more valuable than they? The answer is, yes you are! Will he not much more clothe you? The answer is, yes He will! God provides for the daily needs of flowers and birds, and animals, and grass, all of which perishes from one day to the next, none of which lasts into eternity, none of which the Son of God came to serve, none of which bears the illustrious title, “child of God.” But you, baptized believers, have been given that title, not only for this life, but for all eternity. If God provides for the perishable things of this creation, much more will He provide for His dear children, who are not only part of His creation, but whom He has redeemed for eternal life with the precious blood of His beloved Son. As Paul writes to the Roman Christians, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
So. If God is your God, then stop worrying about your daily needs. Don’t act as if money and possessions were your god, or as if you yourself were your god. You have something far, far better than that. Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles (that is, the unbelievers, those who don’t have God for a Father) chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. You don’t have to inform Him of what you need. He knows it before you do. So let the unbelievers worry. Let those who serve Mammon for their god worry. As for you, if God is your God, you have nothing to worry about.
Instead of worrying about getting the things you need for this life, do as Jesus says. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. As believing children of the heavenly Father, you have already found the kingdom of God and His righteousness in Christ. Now “seek His kingdom” in making it the thing you live for. Remember? Life is more than food. Man does not live by bread alone but…by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. “Seek God’s kingdom” as you decide on and pursue a career. “Seek God’s kingdom” as you look for and then live with a godly spouse, and raise your family to seek God’s kingdom with you. “Seek God’s kingdom” by setting aside time to gather with your fellow Christians to praise our Father in heaven and to receive the ministry of His Word. “Seek God’s righteousness” by living in daily contrition and repentance, and by striving to walk with the Holy Spirit every day, as He guides you, through God’s Word, to know and to do what is right, and good, and true. And seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness first. First, before seeking anything else. First, before making anything else your priority, including where you’ll get food and clothing. Because Jesus makes a solemn promise here to all God’s children: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. All the things that you need for this body and life will be added, will be provided. If God is your God, you have nothing to worry about.
And so, Jesus concludes, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble. What do we say in the Lord’s Prayer? Give us this day our daily bread. There’s Jesus, teaching us again not to worry about tomorrow’s bread, but to ask your heavenly Father today for today’s bread, and to trust in Him to provide it. Focus on today. And ask for God’s help today to stifle that annoying voice of the sinful flesh that keeps nagging, “Yeah, but, what about tomorrow? What about the next day? What about the rest of your life?” Just stop it. Whatever struggles you’re facing, if God is your God, you have nothing to worry about. If poverty comes, if sickness comes, when death finally comes, if God is your God, you have nothing to worry about. As we’re going to sing in a few moments, All depends on our possessing God’s abundant grace and blessing, though all earthly wealth depart. He who trusts with faith unshaken in his God is not forsaken and e’er keeps a dauntless heart. Let your heart be dauntless. Let your faith be unshaken and immovable, because, when God commands you to have no other gods, to trust in Him above all things, it’s only because He, above all things, is trust-worthy. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. Amen.
