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INJ
St Matthew 6:24-34
'Worry or Faith'
Divine Service
The 15th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | August 31st, 2008
Dear Saints,
Jesus is standing on the mountain preaching to His disciples, to the multitudes following Him, and to us. And His sermon to us this morning is about money and worry and faith in our heavenly Father.
The word of Jesus that rings out and echoes on our ears is this command, “Do not worry.” This is a tough command, and Jesus gets uncomfortably specific with it: Don't worry about your food, your drink, your clothes, your life. This is especially difficult because there is so much to worry about. A hurricane bears down on the gulf coast. An election cycle bears down on the whole country. Death and the grave bear down on each one of us. There is plenty to worry about.
But Jesus forbids it; Jesus forbids worry.
The devil, on the other hand, wants you to worry, to fret, to cast your mind into dark and hopeless imaginations. The devil loves it when we join him in worrying because the devil knows that worry is idolatry, and he is constantly tempting us with it. If we worry we have a false God.
Now this idolatry could take on different forms.
The first is plain-old atheism. If there is no God then I have to take care of myself. Now I'm not saying that any of you would say that you have no god, but we often live like we don't, that no one loves us or cares for us or takes care of us. With no god I've got to worry about taking care of me.
Another idolatrous option is the god that needs our help. There is this terrible saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” Horrible. This is often attributed to the Holy Spirit, but is nowhere in the Bible. The Bible speaks the opposite, God helps the helpless, the dead in sin. But often we have this mental idol of the weak god who needs our help. We get out there and get after it, and god might help us out. With this weak god we've got to worry that we're doing our part, pulling our own weight, etc.
The last idol option is the god who rewards us for our own deeds. If we do enough of believe enough or pray enough, then this god will reward us with food and stuff and nice homes and all this. With this false god we've got to worry about if we've done enough.
Whatever false god we have in our mind, the result is worry. Whatever false god we have in our mind, the answer to the question, “Who is taking care of me?” the answer to that question is, “Me.” I'm taking care of myself. (And this is where money gets in there...)
This means that when we see our own worry we don't act like it's okay, after all, everyone worries. No. We do not excuse our sin. We repent of our sin. We repent of our worry. We repent of our idols.
The antidote that the Lord gives to worry is faith in our heavenly Father. Every idol leaves you working for yourself, caring for yourself, loving yourself, worrying about yourself. But you, dear saints, have the true God, a loving heavenly Father who cares for you. He works for you, creates you, gives and sustains your life, feeds you and clothes you and serves you. He cares for you, protects you from harm and danger, defends you and keeps you. He loves you, even sending His only Son to the brutality of the cross for you. The blood and pain and scars of Jesus are His sin-forgiving love for you, His wrath poured out on another, on Jesus, in your place.
Who is taking care of you? The answer that the Scriptures press into our ears and heart is: our heavenly Father and His Son Jesus. He spares no cost, holds nothing back, let's nothing stand in the way of His compassion for you. Our Father in heaven has us as His dear Children and friends.
And look, when we talk about how God holds nothing back, make no mistake that we are talking about the cross. The death of Jesus is God's love for you and all of creation. The cross is the reason that the lilies grow in the field. The cross is the reason that the birds have their food. The cross is the reason that we have clothes on our back and food in the cupboard. The cross is the reason that the entire creation did not sink into the burning hot wrath of God the moment Adam bit into the forbidden fruit.
But rather than destroy creation in the fires of wrath and death, our Father in heaven destroys His Son so that He could have you and give you life, eternal life.
I think I've told you all before that I used to wonder about salvation and making it to heaven. I would look at the difficulties that the Christian has in this life, the huge obstacles of the devil and our own sinful flesh. And, in all of this, the idea got into my mind that God also stood against me. In mind mind it was like I was struggling toward heaven and the Lord was pushing back.
I don't know if that thought has gotten into your mind. It is certainly cause for worry. Worry that we're good enough, that we've served enough, prayed enough, whatever enough. It was a wondrous comfort to me, and I hope to you as well, that this is not the case, in fact, it is the exact opposite from reality.
We are the ones running away, failing and falling and dying and sinning, and the Lord comes after us, chases us down, picks us up, carries us home, binds up our wounds, feeds us and clothes us and loves us. And there is incredible worry-destroying comfort in this: that the Lord comes to us to save and rescue and deliver us from our sin and temptation and death.
And with God caring for us, what can go wrong? Dear saints, at this very moment the Lord Jesus has prepared a place for you in His eternal kingdom. What is there to worry about? Sickness? Pain? Death? There is nothing in all of creation, nothing present, nothing to come, nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May God grant us His Holy Spirit, who casts all idols out of our heart, and may we, by faith, continue to trust in our heavenly Father in this life and into the next. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO