15th Sunday after Trinity + Matthew 6:24-34 + September 9, 2018

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

God our Father does not want us to be as the Gentiles who do not know God. Not knowing God or His promise to provide daily bread, unbelievers worry and fret about what they will eat, what they will drink, and what they will wear tomorrow. But not just tomorrow. Most everyone has food, drink, and clothing for tomorrow. Refrigerators and deep freezes are full of food and when they run low, the grocery store has plenty. Closets and wardrobes are full, often overly full, with all sorts of options for what they can wear tomorrow. Today people aren’t so much worried about tomorrow as they are next week, next month, next year, or every year for the rest of their lives. God promises to provide daily bread, not weekly, monthly, or yearly. But the Gentiles don’t believe this so they have to strive after mammon and worry over it.

There are two ways they strive for mammon and worry over it. The first is work. Many work hard. They work long hours. They dedicate their lives to their professions because that’s how you get more mammon. Many trust their work and believe that by it they can provide for themselves and their families. There’s no need for a heavenly Father. They can provide for themselves quite well through work and worry. The second way people strive for mammon is to look to the government to give it to them. Some preach about the evil of income inequality because they don't believe that God has given to each man his possessions and income. Throughout scripture we see that God does not give equally to all men. Some He makes rich. Others He makes poor. And there is nothing wrong with being either in God's sight. He wants the rich to not trust in wealth, just as he wants the poor to not trust that more wealth would fix their problems. Talk of income inequality as a problem the government can fix comes from unbelief, because it rejects Christ's teaching that he gives to each man what He does. Now there are men who sinfully gain more and more and do not use it to help their neighbor and the church, but it that is not our concern. The Lord knows well how to deal with them. Consider the parable of man who built bigger barns. Both the one who trusts his own work and the one who wants the government to take from one and give to another worship mammon because they think that mammon gives every good thing in this life.

But these are not to be found among you. You are Christians. You have God’s promises in Holy Scripture. You have the very words of Christ, the Son of God, in today’s Gospel lesson. “Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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?” Christ puts the things of this life into proper perspective. God has given you life. Since He’s given you life, will He not also give you the things you need to support this body and life? He has given you the greatest gift. Will He skimp on the lesser gifts of food, drink, and clothing tomorrow, next week, next year, or any day for the rest of your life? “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Of course you are more valuable than birds! And look how God takes care of them. They neither sow nor reap. Each day they simply receive what God gives them. But they don’t just sit in their next or on their branch so that god puts it directly into their beak. They go out and find it. But it is the Lord who provides the food. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.” Yet God clothes them in a splendor even the heath recognize. “Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Of course He will because you are far more valuable to Him that wildflowers in the median of the road. If He so cares for these things that are lesser than you, He will care for you as well.

The unbelieving Gentile doesn’t believe God’s promise so he must worry and fret and trust his work to bring him every good thing. The heathen refuses to believe that God is a gracious Father who provides all that he has, so he trusts the government to steal from others so that he can be secure for the future.  Both options are sinful because both are covetousness. Both believe that what God has given them is not enough, or that He won’t give it tomorrow. Both trust something other than God the Father for their daily bread. So they covet what God has given to others. And covetousness is idolatry, for that is how we worship mammon, wanting what God has given to another and striving to get it one way or another. But you, dearly beloved God, have the promise of Christ. “Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'” tomorrow, next month, or ten years from now. Why not? “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” He promises to care for you and give you all that you need when you need it, even as He gives the birds of the air and the lilies of the field what they need when they need it.

He gives us our work and He give us our daily bread through our work. St. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 2:24, “Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.” God gives us the work but not the worry. He gives us work but we are not to trust in our labor to provide for us. Nor are we to be discontent with what God gives us as far as daily bread, as the Israelites grew tired of their daily manna from heaven. The author of Hebrews tells us, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). And Christ Himself says in Matthew 7:11, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” This is why you are not to serve mammon with worry and fretting. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”

Instead of worrying about mammon and the things of this life, Christ directs you to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” The kingdom of God is His gracious reign in the hearts of men. His righteousness is the perfect righteousness and merits of Christ He offers to all men in the Word and Sacraments. These are the things He wants you to seek and prioritize: Hearing the Word, learning it, studying it, for the Word of God is about Christ and His salvation; receiving the Sacrament, for by it you have the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life. Make these things the goal for which you strive and “all these things shall be added to you.” Do not be like Gentiles, spending your time worrying and fretting about what you don’t have. Pursue the things God offers in the Gospel as your chief treasure in this life and He will provide. He will give you what you need when you need it. Amen.May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.