Series A Epiphany 8 Matthew 6:24-34

Dear friends, dear Christians, dear members of ST Paul Chuckery.
We are a people obsessed with our bodies.
We live our lives chasing after the support and care of our own individual bodies.
Don’t believe me? Just pay attention to advertising. On any given television channel you will find advertisements for pills you can take to heal your body, pills and medicines to restore some functions of your body, or minimize other functions that perhaps you have decided are less desirable. There are deodorants and soaps to clean the body and make it smell nice, makeup and hair coloring to improve the looks of the body, sporting goods and exercise programs to improve the condition and form of the body, foods and restaurants to feed the body, automobiles and utility vehicles to transport the body with function but also with style and comfort. There are even infomercial that air about surgical procedures that you can have done so that your body can see or hear or talk better. Countless products and services and even events to provide enjoyment and entertainment for the body. Everything. Every product and event, every cream and paste and spray and everything else, all for the care and upkeep of the body.
And to us Jesus says, “Do not worry about your body – what you will eat, what you will wear. The car you will drive. The vacation you will take. Your retirement. Your education. Unbelievers chase after these things.” And how easy it is for us to get sucked in as well. Instead seek me. Says Jesus. Seek my kingdom. My righteousness. And I will add all these things to you as well.
He knows us, doesn’t he? He knows us well.
So what do we say? What are we to do? I believe the place to begin is with verse 25. Here Jesus says to us that we should not worry.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 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?”
Jesus expects us to answer that question with a resounding “Yes!”
Yes we are more important. Our self, our person is more important than the stuff we acquire to put on or in or around our bodies – our food, our clothes, our stuff. What’s important is people. They are to God. They should be to us as well.
Jesus, as a means for teaching goes on to use an example of from creation, things that we see everyday, but that take for granted. Birds and grass.
Sparrows and swallows and cardinals and blue jays, we see them all over, even in the cold and the snow, when everything is covered by ice and the temperature is less than favorable for anything to survive outside, but God our Heavenly Father cares about them. They don’t have provisions stored up for the winter. They didn’t plant in the spring. They didn’t harvest in the fall. They didn’t build little birdie barns where they could go to retrieve their provisions. When they are hungry they go out to find food and God makes sure that they are fed. Why? Because God cares for even the birds.
Or what about the weeds. Those of you who farm are only all too familiar with those. Every year you spray Round Up and other herbicides on and around your fields because of the all the weeds that sprout exactly in those places that you don’t want them. For you they get in the way, they are a nuisance. And so you spray them, and a few days later they have shriveled up and gone away. But while to you and me they are an unwanted nuisance, to God they are something that he cares for, they are an opportunity for him to exhibit his artistry and dare we say even his fashion sense.
Think tonight, the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, the Oscars. The stars and starlets will be out gracing the red carpet in all their glory. Wearing today’s top designers and looking beautiful. But neither Solomon in all his glory, nor Natalie nor Brand and Angelina for that matter have ever been dressed as beautifully as our Heavenly Father has chosen to dress these field grasses and weeds.
So this is how God takes care of his creation. He feeds to birds, he dresses up the grass like a Hollywood movie star. If this is how he cares for the rest of his creation, won’t he do the same for you? Won’t he do the same for you? Oh you of little faith.
Jesus tells us not to worry. He tells us not to fret. God cares for us. God provides for us. He will give to us what we need.
But this text is hard. It is still hard for us. And the reason why it is hard for us is because we are so quick to get confused. We are so quick to miss the point and focus on the wrong thing. We are tempted to believe that this text is simply about the care of the body. Remember, we started off this morning talking about how obsessed we are with our bodies and taking care of our bodies – we want to focus on that. We want that to be what this text is about. We want Jesus to be telling us that we will never go hungry, that our bellies our closets will be full. But it’s not. Jesus has bigger fish to fry.
I think part of our trouble in understanding this text, is just finding a way to relate to it. Just finding a way to understand what Jesus is trying to say.
You see, you and I hear these words in the context of our own experience. And we forget that we live in the wealthiest country in the world during the wealthiest age or era the world has ever seen. For you and me this text is about going to the mall for another new pair of shoes whenever we get the itch. For you and me this text is about whether or not we will be able to afford a nice vacation, a leisurely retirement, dinner out at a restaurant after church on Sunday. We are just too rich to really be able to relate.
We don’t think of it that way, but we are. I found out this past week that the average household income around Chuckery is exactly $63,517. $63,000 give or take is the average household income, not individual income, household income for the people who live in the homes that you will pass as you drive to your home from church today.
Now of course some of you will hear that and the first thing that will come to your mind is $63,000! I wish! Then again, some of you will think to yourselves, $63,000! Been there done that! And again, there might even be a few of you who might hear that number and ask yourselves if you could survive on only $63,000. That’s an average. Some make more, some make less. Some are right on the money. (pardon the pun). Regardless, this average places you and I squarely in the middleclass of the richest nation in the entire history of the world. We don’t know what it means to be hungry. We don’t know what it means to be naked. We don’t know what it means to be cold. For us worry means something entirely different than what it might mean for Jesus’ original audience, for what it might mean for someone who lives, lets say in Haiti, or Indonesia, or Guatemala. For them the question of the care of the body isn’t “What will I eat?”, the question is “Will there be enough for me to eat?” The question is not “Which outfit shall I choose?” It is more, “What will I wear when this shirt, this pair of pants wears too thin.” And shoes, for most that is too far out of reach to even consider.
For those, when Jesus says “Don’t worry about your life about what you will eat or what you will wear”, those words mean so much more. You and I need to reorient our perspective and give thanks to God that he has given us life in a corner of the world that is so comfortable and well off. For you and me, we have our basic necessities of life more than accounted for.
Again, you and I are so consumed with the care for our bodies, what we will eat, what we will wear. We are so consumed with how much we have or how much we don’t have. The truth of the matter is that we have a lot. We are rich. We are blessed. We are abundant recipients of God’s gifts that care for the body.
Given that truth, I wonder if we shouldn’t reorient our perspective in terms of our care for others in the world? I wonder if we shouldn’t view ourselves as a source for the care of those who have less than we do? After all, we have the means to care for those who are legitimately hungry. We have the means to care for those who are legitimately naked. Couldn’t we share out of the great wealth that God has given to us with those who are needy?
Or what about right here at St Paul? We have been talking these past months about the physical care of our own congregation. If it is true that your average St Paul Chuckery household enjoys an annual income of $63,517, shouldn’t there be more available for offerings returned in thanks to God than the $320,000 dollars we gave as a church last year? Do we, as individuals have room to reevaluate how much we give to the mission and ministry of our congregation? Maybe so. I will leave that question to you to be answered in your private prayers and devotions where the Holy Spirit prompts you and teaches you in your heart.
So in our exploration of the text, the things there are for us to consider begins with verse 25, where Jesus tells us not to worry. God cares for us and God provides. But that is hardly the most important thing Jesus has to say, that is hardly the reason Jesus came to earth was to preach to humanity about God’s provision of food and clothing. He isn’t a bread preacher. He isn’t a fashion preacher. Jesus is a Kingdom preacher. The first and primary message Jesus has come to share is about the Kingdom he is establishing and has established in heaven but also on earth. A kingdom where he reigns as King supreme over all other earthly and spiritual powers, a kingdom where He alone is God and King and authority. A kingdom where he serves us with his love and forgiveness and where he offers to you and me the hope and the promise of life, and not just this life in this world, but true life and real life, real living for eternity with him in heaven. That is what he came to teach us and to preach to us, and so, in the midst of his sermon about money and possessions, Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.
That kind of a king and that kind of a kingdom is something that we are not at all used to. We are used to kings and kingdoms, to mayors and governors and presidents and municipalities and federal and state and local authorities. They help us when we need help, but their help is never for free. There is always a cost. We are reminded of that cost every April 15. Our government will help us, they will provide for us, but we have got to do our part, do our share and pay our portion. If we don’t, when we don’t, we can expect to be prosecuted. There are, after all, two things that are unavoidable in this life, death and taxes, right? Taxes are the penalty for winning, death is the penalty for sinning.
But that’s the thing about this new King and this new Kingdom, there are no penalties. There are no taxes. There is no fee for the protection and the care that our King provides. He gives us life, he expects nothing in return. He saves us from sickness and ill health and he does it with no string attached; no health care bill that demands we have his brand of insurance. He makes our crops to grow our accounts to bear interest and he doesn’t charge a fee. He gives it all to us without obligation.
And then there’s the penalty for sin, there’s death. In the kingdoms we are used to, when you drive too fast or if you double park you get a ticket, when you steal you go to jail, when you murder you get the death penalty. In Heaven’s kingdom there is no penalty, there is no sentence, there is no hell to pay for all of our sin. There is freedom and there is forgiveness, even for sinners like me, for sinners like you.
Now let’s be clear, not’s not have any blinders on, no rose colored glasses. Jesus is a realist. We should be too. Jesus isn’t painting a picture of a “this-world” utopia. Where all you have to do is be a Christian and all your bills will be paid and you will have a full pantry and a crowded clothes closet. Because that just isn’t the way it happens. There are people who are hungry. There are people who are naked. There are people who are sick or in prison. Jesus says as much in Matthew 26. I was hungry and you fed me. Naked and you clothed me, sick or in prison and you came to visit me. And Christians respond, Lord when did we do these things. Our Lord says back to them, “In as much as you did it to the least of these my brothers you have done it onto me.”
So that is what we do. That is what the faithful Christian does. He feeds the hungry. She clothes the naked, and visits the sick and distressed. And that means it’s up to you. It’s your job, Oh Christian, it is your job to care for them.
Why?
Because whenever you have done as much to one of these, the least of Jesus’ brothers, you have done it unto Jesus.
In the end, all of this is hardly the point. The biggest point and the most important value in any of this is verse 33. We know it well. We could probably even sing it together. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Seek first the kingdom of God, the reign of God, the righteousness of God. Seek first what God is doing where he is busy being the kind of King that only he could be in the only kind of kingdom that could only come from heaven. Devote yourself to this kingdom. This is the best kingdom, the only worthwhile kingdom, the only kingdom worth living for, the only kingdom worth dying for, the only kingdom worth sacrificing for and surrendering to. This is God’s kingdom where he is your king and he wants to be king for you. So seek this king. Seek this kingdom and the righteous that it gives and the righteousness that it brings. And the other things, the extra things, the things of this world and this life, food for the body, clothes to cover our nakedness, he give you those things as well.
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.

February 20, 2011

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Epiphany 6 February 13, 2011

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Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Dear people of St Paul,
Moses was delivering his last sermon. He had served the people of Israel as their pastor and teacher, as their spiritual guide and mentor, for years. He led them through times of victory and times of defeat. He led them across the bed of the ocean floor and through the wilderness. He heard their gripes and complaints. He delivered to them God’s forgiveness. He even prayed for them to God so that God would not destroy them when they went back to worshipping their former gods from Egypt. And now, Moses, nearing the moment of his death had one more message, one more sermon to deliver.
You are God’s people. He rescued you from slavery. He set you free. He promised you a land flowing with milk and honey for you to call home, and he gave you his covenant. His promise to be with you and protect you.
Now it’s time to make a choice. You have a choice to make. The covenant and law of God, (and with that comes life); or sin and the foolish ways of the world, (and, by the way, with that comes death). Choose the good. Choose life. Don’t make the wrong choice.
May we today take that same message to heart.
Just as much as God rescued the Israelites from slavery, so has he rescued us. You and I were born slaves to our own sin, slaves to our own guilt, slaves to the devil. But God called us out of that slavery. Just as he sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, the Lord sent His Spirit to call us from our slavery to sin through faith in Jesus. Just as the Lord put to death the task masters of the Israelites by drowning them in the Red Sea, he has put to death our taskmasters of the flesh and the devil, drowning them in the water of Baptism. Just as he brought them to a promised land of great blessing, he has brought us to an eternal inheritance of blessing as we live in his kingdom and on into eternity. God had blessed the Israelites, we have all those blessings and more!
And so Moses’ sermon this day preaches to us. Choose. Choose whom you will serve. Will it be the old ways of sin? Will it be the old ways that lead you to death? Or will it be the new way of life and salvation.
We know the choice we should make.
How often do we make the wrong one?
You can read the Old Testament, it is very plain to see the choices that they made and those things that led them away. They became enamored with the ways of the world. They made friends with their unbelieving neighbors and just simply started to do the things that they did. The Israelites had God’s law and his commands but they set those aside because they were interested in cavorting with the Canaanites. They had been given the gift of the temple and worship of the true God. (The creator of the heavens and the earth made his home right there in their land. They were next door neighbors to God himself). But instead they decided to worship with the world around them. They made friends. They went to their homes, their parties, and then to their churches. And soon enough they made their neighbors customs their own. They threw the same parties, they brought their kind of church home to replace the true church and soon enough you couldn’t tell the difference.
Can you tell the difference? Are you, like the Israelites, caught up in worshiping their gods? It should be the other way around. You should be bringing your neighbors here, telling them about your church, your God, all the amazing things that He is doing right here. Are you instead finding yourself engaged in the worship of false gods? Are you worshipping the Baals in the Buckeye state?
Now let’s be real, I doubt your neighbor has an eight foot statue in his shed that’s got a man’s body and with a bulls head. He probably doesn’t worship Baal. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have gods, that she doesn’t have gods. Around here sports is king. Whether it be pee wee sports for the little ones, club sports or the varsity team at school, or watching the Buckeyes on tv. Make no mistake, your neighbors worship the sports god, do you do the same?
But there are other gods.
In small communities people like to talk, they like the know each other’s business. And that means gossip. Sharing information about other people even when you know it’s private. Even when you know it will hurt their reputation and diminish what other people think of them. You know that it’s wrong, you know that God has commanded you to defend the reputation of your neighbor. But hey, everybody else is doing it, therefor it mustn’t be that bad. Do you pray at the altar of the gossip god?
There are hundreds of such gods that we could list off, gods that our neighbors worship, that our neighbors trust in for help or safety or entertainment or fun. Our neighbors worship false gods who offer nothing but a false hope with only a false salvation. Are you going to do the same? Are you going to fall in line with the ways of the world behind you? Or are you going to choose life?
Hear again the words of Moses:
[15] “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. [16] If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. [17] But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, [18] I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. [19] I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, [20] loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Choose! Choose life! Choose blessing! Choose good. With the heavens and the earth as my witness, don’t choose the bad! Choose the good.
So what does that mean and how do we do that?
Our text tells us.
Love the Lord your God, obey his voice and hold fast to him. Fairly simple. Again, the text says, “Love the Lord your God, obey his voice and hold fast to him.”
It begins with your heart. With love. It’s the same command Jesus gave. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) Love God. Love him first and most. The way he loves you, with no compromises or excuses. Without holding back. Willing to set it all aside and throw it away because of the profound, self sacrificing, pure and unadulterated love. This is how God loves you. Likewise you should love him. Love. Love God
That love moves you to the next thing. To obey. Obey his voice. When you love God, when He is your first love and your best love then you will obey his voice. And God does use that voice. He does speak to you. A believer, a Christian, one who is baptized can hear his voice calling her in the Word. In prayer and devotions. We can hear God calling us to faith, to obedience, to lay aside the things of th world, to love and care for our neighbors, to set aside foolish and selfish gain, to be humble and generous and kind, the way God is with us. To offer a hand of friendship and forgiveness even and especially to your enemies. God calls us to obedience. He speaks to us in His Word and He calls on you to obey that word.
So we are here to Choose life. We begin that choice with love, our love moves us to obey, and then, the third and final thing that Moses directs us to do is hold fast to him. Cling to him. Hold on to him above all things, in spite of all things, no matter what, whatever happens, whatever anyone else says, whatever everyone else does, hold fast to him.
And so that’s the choice. Love God. Obey his voice. Hold fast to him. And in doing those things you choose good. You choose life. You lay aside and leave behind the false ways and the false gods of your neighbors, of the world around you, and you have life.
But then you don’t. You don’t because you haven’t. You haven’t loved God first and foremost. You haven’t heard and if you’ve heard you haven’t obeyed his voice. You have not clung to him, not how you should. You… You and me too, we have chosen death. We have chosen the bad. We have chosen the ways of the world, the gods of the world. We have laid aside and forfeited God’s blessing.
But he has not forfeited us. He has not laid us aside. You see, while we were busy loving the world, loving our false gods, loving the things of the world and the ways of the world, God was busy loving you. Loving you so much that he sent even his own son to die for you. To pay for your faithless love, to make up for that love that you spread around town with the false gods of your friends. God has loved you.
And he has heard your voice. While you were busy ignoring his voice, refusing to pray, deciding that you would sleep in on that Sunday morning instead of getting up to go to church, he has heard you. He has not turned a deaf ear to your cries for mercy and repentance, for help and strength, he has heard your voice and he has responded, acting with love and forgiveness.
And then, when you were busy holding on to the world he was busy holding on to you. First taking your sin and carrying it with him to the cross, but then finding you, scooping you up in his arms and holding you fast, refusing to be separated from you. Not allowing even death, even your sin and idolatry to keep you away from his loving arms. The Lord has loved you. He has heard your voice and responded. He has clung to you.
Dear friends, the Lord loves you. He has done for you what you have not done for him and this day he calls you. Choose. Choose life. Choose good, because he is your love and he is your life. In His name.