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St. Matthew 6:24-34 – Trinity 15 (2006)
St. Mark Lutheran Church – Sunday, September 24, 2006
In the name of Jesus. Amen. Four lanes of I-45 coming out of Houston were bumper-to bumper. There was only one gas station open in all of Conroe. That night, after I left the church, it was like a ghost town. We were all bracing ourselves for Hurricane Rita. It seemed to be headed right for us.
It missed. They say we lucked out. We know better, don't we? No luck, only the Father. Oh, there was still the stress of damaged homes. Electricity was out for weeks. There were those annoying brown outs.
Yesterday the kids had their carnival. There was fun. There were prizes. Cakes, eats, and treats. I should never be allowed to oversee a game booth again – I gave away far more tickets than I should I have! The Gospel is that free! It was a perfect day!
The question is: did the Lord love us more yesterday than when the storm was bearing down on us? Does He care for us more healthy than sick? More when we are rich than when we are poor?
Our Lord Jesus points us this day to the birds and the lilies to teach us, to save us. He's always doing two things: calling us to repentance and raising us to new life. Killing us and making us alive.
Take a hard look at the birds in the air. Consider the lilies in the field. Your Father is the God who tends to both. He tends to you too. September 24th is no different – whether the storm is coming or it's a perfect day.
Watch the birds, says Jesus. They don't work. They don't sow. They don't reap and collect their food in barns or refrigerators and freezes. But, they have a Father in heaven who tends to them.
Consider the lilies in the field. Not the fancy-smancy easter lily – just the common lily - the lily of the field. The lilies that pops up on their own like the Texas bluebonnets. No one plants them. They just grow and grow. They don't toil or spin – but King Solomon in all of his glory isn't dressed up like one of these flowers.
King Solomon, builder of the temple of God – Richest and greatest king Israel ever had isn't dressed up like one of these common flowers – which is here today and tomorrow dead and gone.
Today, Jesus speaks to us gently and calls us out of our idolatry and faithlessness. He uses one word to describe us: oligopistoi. He calls us, “little faith ones.”
“O Little faith ones, don't worry. Don't fret. Don't get all worked up about what you will eat, what you will wear. Don't doubt.”
Today He brings one specific idol to the forefront: mammon. Mammon – you can't serve it and God. Mammon is stuff – food, drink, money, your car, your job. Mammon isn't just the bling bling in your life – the shiney things that you have your safety deposit box. Mammon is all the stuff in your life.
Mammon is here today and gone tomorrow. Like the lily. Like the bird. Worrying about it won't add one foot to your height or add a single hour to your life.
As if often the case, the children provide the greatest example. A few weeks ago, we all went to watch the Astros play the NL East champion NY Mets. I took my boys. When we got to the game, my son Thomas looks at me and says with the most earnest seriousness, “Dad, I'm dying. I'm so hungry, I'm gonna die. I haven't eaten all day.”
I told him I'd get him something. But, the more we walked, the more He was sure that if He didn't get something to eat, he would die.
“Thomas, does your Dad love you? Has he ever let you starve in your six years of life? Will he ever let you starve?” Sure enough, there the biggest pretzel I've ever seen in his hands in no time. And just like us, as soon as the pretzel was gone, dear Thomas was going to die if He didn't have a soda. And then after the soda, cotton candy.
If we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children – pretzels, sodas, and cotton candy - how much does your Father who is in Heaven know how to tend to you!
Oligopistoi. Little Faith ones. We fret and get scared about mammon – not enough, not gonna get enough, the whole thing is going to get shut down – our house, our church, our school, you pick it. When we worry about that, we are living as if we don't have a Father who gave up His Son for us.
Jesus gently calls us out of that life of death. “Oligopistoi, the same Father who tends to the birds, who tends to the lilies of the fields, tends to you.”
In fact, Jesus says that specifically: That God that takes care of the birds isn't some uncaring God. He isn't indifferent to what's going on. He's Your heavenly Father. Your Heavenly Father feeds the birds – even though they don't sow or reap. The same Father who tends to the lilies, which are here today and tomorrow tossed into the fire., clothes and tends to you.
He isn't your father because of something about you. You know better than that! You are like the stuff that you put your trust in – you are here today and tomorrow you are tossed into the fire – or some fancy air-tight box.
No, Jesus first. But, not a box, a grave. You have a Father who loves you. You have a Father who tends to you like the lilies and the birds of the air because Christ was crucified for you, in your place.
He did everything that God requires you to do – He didn't serve mammon. He served God – perfect. He lived each day as the lily in the field with no other trust or confidence except in God. He lived the truth, He believed the truth, that no hair, no sparrow, falls apart from the Father.
Not even Christ falls to the earth apart from the Father – unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He lived that truth daily not for Himself, but for me, for you. He died that truth in your place for your salvation. All your sins – all your unbelief, all your despair, all your oligopistoi-ness was buried with Christ in Baptism. Christ has risen. You have risen with Him in Baptism.
Today, we saw that as Matthew M. raised with Christ in the baptismal font. God the Father made Matthew His child today in the water. He tends to the birds of the air. He tends to lilies of the field. He'll tend to Matthew too. Be not doubting, but believe.
You too. Me too. No more living otherwise. No more living as if Christ has not risen from the dead for us. He has. We have risen with Him.
Hurricane or sunny day, we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us in Christ. Cancer or good test result, God the Father has raised his Son from the dead – not just for anyone, but for me. Bankrupt or bank account running over, we will not despair. God has not abandoned us. He has never abandoned us. Never will.
This doesn't mean that we'll have fake smiles when calamity befalls us. No, these are hard things – poverty, job loss, sickness, and death.
No, in Christ, we live as the lily lives, as the bird lives – with no other trust or confidence but in the Father, who loves us in the giving up of His Son. His kingdom and His righteousness first and all these things will be given to you.
And since He has raised you, you can raise the next poor sinner. Carry their burdens. You can't save them – each person must carry their own load. But, you can lighten their day, bring them joy, help them along the way.
Same God – both years. Same Father loving us in Christ both September 24ths. Same Lord tending to us, giving us another day to bear one another's burdens, to care for each other, to tend to our work, and to receive his gifts. Same God though it all – sunny or rainy, rich or poor, healthy and sick, busy or bored, employed or unemployed, surrounded by love ones or alone.
The world has it backwards. They think that God cares for us only if we escape calamity. Only in Christ can we say without doubt that the opposite is true.
Yes, in the moment that the storm doesn't miss and it not only wipes out our house but our lives too. In the moment, when we don't have a house, home, a spouse, kids, a job, or anything, we'll still have all we need – a Father who cares for us in Christ.
The most that can happen is death. That's already happened to us in Baptism. We've risen from that.
Only in your Baptism, only in faith, can you confess in the Storm, “God couldn't be more my God than right now.” When you are all wet, you are most His child. Just ask Matthew. He has not a care in the world, only a Heavenly Father who cares for him.
He cares for the lilies. He cares for the birds. In Christ, He cares and tends to us a thousand times more. Oligopistoi, yes.
Lord, I believe, help now my unbelief. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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