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.
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