15th Sunday after Trinity + Matthew 6:24-34

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Dear saints, why do you worry? Your Lord tells 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.” Twenty-first century worries seem so much more treacherous and frightening than worrying about clothing, food, and drink. We have mortgage payments and student loans, medical bills and prescription drug costs. There’s the stock market and retirement accounts. Don’t forget health, our spouse’s health, job security, houses, children and grandchildren. I’m sure you could add a few items worthy of our worry to the list. Clothing, food, and drink may seem light years away from what you worry about. But for as simple as they may seem to modern ears, clothing, food, and drink get to the heart of the matter because they are the chief things of this life. Jesus begins by saying, “Do not worry about your life.” All your worries about all your tomorrows are wrapped up in the things of this life. Jesus says, “For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” By Gentiles He means people who don’t know the true God and that’s the reason the Gentiles seek after all these things. They don’t know the true God who has promised to provide all we need for this body and life.

But you do. You know the true God. You’ve been baptized into His triune name: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. You hear the voice of your Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, and you hear what He tells you again today. Don’t worry about all the things of this life. “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” “Isn’t life more than mortgages and bills, the stock market and your house? The Lord who has given you life in the first place promises to provide everything you need to sustain the life He’s given to you. “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things,” He says. Then He gives you two illustrations of things you see every day of your life so that every day of your life you're reminded of the father’s goodness and provision. “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 more valuable than they?” The birds that you hear sing every morning don’t work for their food. Their creator graciously supplies it, though they do have to go look for it. He doesn’t dump it in their nests each day. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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?” The best part about these illustrations from nature is that even in the most urbanized areas there are still flowers and birds, serving as a constant remind that if God takes care of these small creatures, He will most certainly provide you with everything you need for this body and life.

So why do you worry? Jesus asks, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” and this is His way of getting you to think about what good your worries do. Worrying about the things of this life accomplishes nothing, or at least nothing good and productive. All worrying gets you is more anxiety and perhaps less sleep. You know it does you no good. So why do you worry? You worry because you try to serve two masters: God and Mammon. He says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will by loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Experience proves this to be true. When we worry we’re not serving God in true faith. We’re serving mammon, that is, wealth, money, and possessions; we’re trusting mammon and looking to it for all good things, so that if we can only attain more wealth, money, and possessions, we will be secure.

This is the Christian struggle. You have been baptized into the name of the Triune God. He has worked faith in your heart so that you trust Him for the forgiveness of all your sins and everlasting life. He dwells in your hearts by faith, working new movements in your heart so that you earnestly desire to serve the Lord and trust Him alone. But you also live in the sinful flesh, for although your sins are forgiven and not imputed to you because you believe the gospel, the Lord doesn’t take you out of the sinful flesh or change its nature. He leaves it be so that by it He may exercise your faith. Your sinful flesh doesn’t want to trust God for all things. It wants to provide for itself so that it can boast in its powers and ability. Your sinful flesh doesn’t want to serve the Triune God. It wants to serve itself so that it can fulfill its own warped desires and selfish ambitions. The sinful flesh doesn’t fear God’s wrath for sin because it loves sin. It doesn’t love God above things because it’s too busy being curved in on itself. Nor does it trust God above all things because in pride it trusts only itself. And when the sinful flesh looks sees all the problems, changes, and chances of life, when it looks at the bank statement, the lab work, or the balance due it can only do one thing: worry because in reality it’s powerless to provide any of the things you need for this body and life.

The only thing to do with worry is repent of it. For serving Mammon by imagining that it can make us secure, we must repent. For worrying about the things of tomorrow, we can only turn to the God who has baptized us and ask for mercy. We must all confess that we put more stock in the uncertainties of this life and our own abilities than we do in the promise of our heavenly Father. We must repent, for too often we act like the Gentiles who do not know God and His promises. Instead of worrying about the things of this life and trying to serve two masters, Christ tells us, “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 all who believe in Him. His righteousness is the perfect righteousness that Christ Jesus earns in His innocent life and His bitter sufferings and death, the righteousness that is freely given to all who trust Christ for mercy. His kingdom is here, in His holy Church, where He daily and richly forgives the sins of all believers. Here He applies Christ’s righteousness to you in His Word and Sacrament, so make His hearing His Word and receiving His sacrament your most priority above all else. The things of this life will all fail you in your last hour. But God’s Word and Sacrament are treasures which will strengthen your faith in your final hour and see you through to your heavenly goal. Seek these things first, “and all these things,” the things of this life, “will be added to you.”

This doesn’t mean you don’t have to work and labor. Quite the opposite. God has given you your work and labor and those are the means by which He provides your daily bread. Christ is simply saying, “Don’t set your mind on these things. Don’t treasure them above the Kingdom and Christ’s righteousness which is yours by faith. Attend to your callings. Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back. Do whatever it is God has given your hands to do and do it mightily to the glory of God. But in your heart seek first the eternal things which do not fade or rust or perish. And do not worry about the things of this life, no matter how simple or complex they may be. “For your heavenly Father knows you need all these things.” If He cares for the birds outside your window and the flowers in the median of the highway, He will most certainly give you, His baptized faithful, what you need when you need it. Therefore do not worry, but trust your Father in heaven.

May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.