Saint Paul says in Philippians chapter four, The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. The first five words from Saint Paul’s pen color the entire passage: The Lord is at hand. The Introit from Psalm 86 says, You are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to You do I cry all the day.
Why, then, are you anxious about your life? That’s the crucial question in this section from the Sermon on the Mount. Again Saint Paul writes in Galatians chapter two: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. We live by faith in the Son of God. That does not mean we have no need to plan for the future. It’s wise to put away some money now and then for the future. Savings accounts are a wonderful thing. The problem is what happens when everything in your life is about what you will eat or what you will drink, about your body, what you will put on.
We are obsessed with the word “enough”. “Enough” is a law word. Consider a Lutheran congregation. Here are two axioms that are true in a congregation: “There will never be enough money.” And the second one is much like the first: “There will always be enough money.” A congregation saves what she can for local needs, as well as passing on to district and synod what she can to proclaim the Gospel outside her community. When a pressing need arises, we worry about where the money will come from to pay for it. Yet the money is always there. Somehow, someway, there is enough for today, and even tomorrow.
Elijah saw this firsthand with the widow and her son at Zarephath. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. The Lord made a promise that the three of them would not starve. He kept the promise, as He keeps every promise He makes to His children.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? What we have is an idolatry problem. You shall have no other gods. What is forgotten with the First Commandment is the words that come before it: I am the Lord your God. That’s Gospel. Yet when we hear those words we hate them. We despise the fact that the Lord is God and He promises to provide. We collect idols just in case God’s promises fail. We worry that He will not keep a promise to us to prove a point, or perhaps to see us sweat it out a bit.
How about sweating this one out: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Which one is your master? Which one do you sweat out more: God or mammon? It’s mammon, isn’t it? Yes, it is. If god so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Jesus today sends us to school, so to speak, and has us considerable the irrational ways of birds and lilies. They don’t worry. They are fed and clothed. They receive from a giving God what is given them to receive. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? One might add a single dollar to his bank account to this question. Again, living by faith does not mean that you abandon all planning for the future and have blind faith that God is going to take care of you. Yet living by faith does mean to trust that the Lord provides against all obstacles you throw up in His way.
Cast aside every care for a moment and consider what God has given you that is outside of food, clothing, and the like. At the top of the list is sonship with God in your baptism. Dripping wet in the robe of righteousness, you have forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Eternity is yours in Jesus Christ. Up there also is the gift of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord provides a foretaste of the eternal heavenly banquet here as you eat and drink the true Body and Blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Next in line is the various callings in life that He puts you in to love and serve your neighbor. These vocations are not burdens, though they may seem like it. Living by faith in Jesus Christ is also waiting to put His talents that He gives you to work for your neighbor. You don’t keep a list of them hoping to impress God with all your hard work. You help your neighbor, even in what seems the most menial tasks. The Lord provides ample opportunities even without your help.
Living by faith, living without anxiety for today or especially tomorrow, is what it means to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Remember His first promise for you: I am the Lord your God. He provides your salvation. He gives you all that other stuff you need for the world as well. You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious; turn to me and be gracious to me; give Your strength to Your servant, and save the son of Your maidservant.
Media Vita In Morte Sumus 