1 October 2019
Text: Matt 6:16-34
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
“Do
not be anxious,” says Jesus. His words
are often distorted into a stern command.
Sadly, I have heard people who are worried about the health of a loved
one, or someone who is struggling with very real terrifying concerns, being
scolded, because worry is a sin.
Dear
brothers and sisters, is this what you take away from our Lord’s sermon on the
mount? Should we beat down people who
are hurting or struggling with threats from God’s law? What is our Lord teaching us about His
kingdom?
When
He says not to be anxious, He is catechizing us. He is guiding us to understand the kingdom of
God – which does not work like the secular world. To an unbeliever, a financial crisis needs
money, a sick person needs health care, and when it comes to death, well, there
is nothing to be done. But God’s kingdom
is different.
Listen
to the comfort that the Lord gives us: “Is not life more than food and the body
more than clothing? Look at the birds of
the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they?”
Similarly,
He points us to the plants in the field which God “clothes” with beauty. And He asks us rhetorically if we are worth
more to God than grass.
Jesus
doesn’t scold us for worrying, but rather gives us comfort and teaches us that
the Father loves us. He encourages us to
pray. And He teaches us how we can move
away from worry and trust Him more: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And He even gives us a little ironic humor:
“Tomorrow will be anxious for itself.”
Dear
brothers and sisters, our Lord invites us to leave behind the world’s fixation
on passing things and to focus on that which is eternal – the love and care of
our heavenly Father, the Son who not only instructs us, but dies for us, and
the Holy Spirit who calls us into the eternal safety of the kingdom.
Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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