Rev. Steven S. Billings
Pentecost 2
Sermon
5-25-2008
St. Matthew 6:24-34
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25 "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? 26 "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? 27 "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 "and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 "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? 31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
Dear friends in Christ, when you pray for daily bread, as you do in the Lord's Prayer, shouldn't that be enough? I mean, we know the Catechism teaches that daily bread means everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, and it's not like you won't get your daily bread if you forget to pray for it. In fact, you don't even have to be a Christian for God to meet your daily needs. He does that for everyone whether they believe in Him or not.
So you'd think it would be enough that Jesus taught us how to pray for daily bread. After all, we're really praying that the Holy Spirit would lead us to realize that it's God who gives it to us in the first place, right? And that we would receive our daily bread with thanksgiving? So you'd think that praying the Lord's Prayer would be enough for us.
But, apparently, it's not. It's not enough to be reminded that the One who taught us the prayer is the very Son of God, by whom all things were created and by whom all things continue to be sustained. Why? Well, there are two reasons, actually. One has to do with you, and the other has to do with Jesus.
First of all, let's talk about you. God knows your heart. Do you think He would plop you here in this world without taking care of your earthly needs? Now, I know you're initial reaction is to say: "Well, no, of course not!" But the reality is: we don't always trust Him to come through for us when we need Him, do we. No matter how many times He fulfills His promises, no matter how many times He meets our needs, no matter how many times He proves His faithfulness, when things get tough, when the money gets tight, when we face the many challenges in our day-to-day lives, we find ourselves getting anxious, fearful and maybe even a little angry at God because things aren't going the way we think they should. And so we look elsewhere for the solution to our problems.
And you know what Jesus says about that? "No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Listen, nobody likes absolutes; they're so unforgiving. It's far more popular to say that something can be right for one situation or one person, but not for another. But, if you throw out any kind of standard by which things ought to be judged, what are you left with? Everybody marches to the beat of his own drum (Judges 17:6). Have you ever heard a high school band try to play without its director? Man, what a mess!
Every band needs a director and every life needs a master. If God is not the master of yours, what is? If you're not ruled by God and His Word, what is it that governs you? There's really only one other choice and that's money and everything that money can buy.
And it's not like money makes you give up your religion. I seriously doubt you've ever seen someone actually take out a dollar bill, bow down to it, and start praying. But the thing is, there's a whole bunch of people these days who turn their Christian "faith" into an excuse to amass worldly wealth. They read where it says: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you," and take that to mean that Jesus is promising them all kinds of worldly "perks." They claim to be serving Jesus but they're really after money and possessions.
Their thinking goes like this: "God wants me to be happy. And I, for one, feel a lot happier when I have nice things, when I don't have to work so hard or worry so much. It seems to me the more I have and the happier I am the better Christian I'll be. So of course God wants me to have a Cadillac or a Sea Ray or a 50-inch plasma TV. God wants me to be thankful, right? Well, then, why shouldn't He give me more to be thankful for?"
You see? You don't have to say that you love money - you may not even think you love money - but when your happiness is tied to the things that money can buy, the security that money can buy, the love of money is there - just under the surface - and the Christian faith is called upon as justification for it. You may not have taken that last critical step, but that other master is so close, so ready to grab the reins of your life away from your heavenly Father.
The danger comes into view when the pathway of your life starts to get bumpy. You begin to think: "Maybe God doesn't want me to be happy. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe there's something I should've done that I didn't. Maybe I'm not working hard enough or believing strong enough. Maybe my faith is lacking. Maybe God is punishing me."
And you find that you've made your faith and your relationship with God dependant on you - your works, your faith, your strength, your abilities. In truth, you've made love for the things of this world your master - and that is a cruel master indeed! It makes demands that you cannot fulfill. It lays burdens on your shoulders that you cannot carry. It locks you in a prison from which you cannot escape.
That's why it's not enough for you to know the Lord's Prayer. You need the Author of that prayer to turn your head in the direction of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. You need Him to show you how He takes care of them so that you can be convinced that He'll take care of you. As Jesus says: "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?" In the end, serving that other master just eats away your trust in Christ.
The other reason that it's not enough to ask for daily bread in the Lord's Prayer is that Jesus wants to be the One who comforts you when your faith is weak.
Whether your faith is big or little, great or small, it comes completely as a gift of the Holy Spirit. It was planted in your heart when you were baptized. It came from outside of you and saved you by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Whatever else you have or own, salvation is your most precious possession.
Jesus isn't saying that you can't have nice things. But giving too high a priority to them weakens your faith and trust in the one and only thing you truly need. When He says: "Don't worry," remember: this is Almighty God speaking to you. And with these simple, Gospel words, He forgives your sin, changes your heart, and creates the very faith you so desperately need.
After all, what is this "kingdom" and "righteousness" He encourages you to seek? Nothing other than Jesus Himself!
Thank God for the faith that you already have, because without it you would never seek Him. Without it you'd spend your life chasing after "stuff" like the pagans and putting tomorrow's worries on today's agenda. My friends, eternal life is yours today, though you'll experience the full joy of it later. To be convinced that you have it now takes the faith that only the Holy Spirit can give. And though it cost Jesus His life, for you, it's completely free. Jesus fulfilled all the requirements needed for you to get it and once you have Him as your Master your life is never the same.
Because of this, a wonderful irony takes shape: God assures you of the "added" things that will be there for you in abundance when you are ready to give up everything else and seek Him. All your daily bread falls into place for you morning by morning like Manna in the desert once you've laid hold of Jesus, the Bread of Life. He's not against you having stuff, but He is clearly against your stuff having you!
Beloved, I encourage you: pray for your daily bread, and use the Lord's Prayer to do so, but not so that you'll get it; rather, pray that you'll receive your daily bread with thanksgiving. And if praying the Lord's Prayer isn't enough, listen to what your Savior says in this text: Consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field - how well He takes care of them! - and be assured that your heavenly Father will take even better care of you. In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
