Bloghardt's Reflector

Then, there is the treat of being laid off.  We are not getting the business we expect, we’re going to have to make some “cuts.”

Or... The doctor’s report shows something “strange” -  we might need to do some exploratory surgery.

Or there shows up some abnormality with one of our children.... We’re sure it’s nothing to worry about, but we’re going to have to run some more tests.  

Worrying.  We worry about our health, our wealth, our family, or friends.  We worrying when people are just a little late, or when they don’t check in with us, or when they are going someplace different. We worry that they won’t come back, we worry that they will.  

We worry.  We worry about things a year away.  And when it comes to tomorrow, we got tons of worry for that! You do.  I know you do.  Because I do too.  

Then comes Jesus... “Don’t be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, about your body, what you will put on.  Life is more than food, isn’t it?  Your body more than clothing!”

Oh great, now Jesus is telling me to stop worrying!  That’s something else to worry about!  Ever worry about how much you worry?  How crippling is that?

But Jesus keeps speaking, keeps giving us comfort:  “Consider, no just consider the birds of the air - they don’t work, they don’t gather, they don’t store food in fridges, but yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.”

“Your” Heavenly Father - not theirs.  They don’t do the things you do, work as you do, but your Heavenly Father feeds them.  Aren’t you more valuable than some birds?

Aren’t you?  He cares for them.  Not one of them falls to the ground apart from His love and care.   Every last one of them He feeds - and that’s just the birds!  Surely you are worth more to your Heavenly Father than some dumb birds.

And if you have any doubts whether the birds get more loving than you, take a look here.  On the Cross, that’s where you learn that you have a Heavenly Father.  Sometimes, that’s the only evidence that you have a Father.

Jesus died for you.  If nothing is true about you, this is true.  If everything goes south, if everything seems to be staking up against you, there is this simple fact:  I have a Heavenly Father because Jesus died for me.

“Consider, just consider those lilies in the field.  Not the Easter lily, but just the wild lily that grows where it wasn’t planted.    

They don’t do anything but sprout almost spontaneously out of the ground and King Solomon - the richest king of Israel - with all his glory wasn’t decked out like one wild flower.”

And if lilies don’t work for you, think Texas Bluebonnets.  They are here in the Spring and disappear as fast as they show up.  God so clothes them - everyone of them with unrivaled beauty - won’t he so care and clothe you, oh little faith ones.

Christian Faith believes and trusts that God is always good, that all the things He does for us is good, that He’s working it all out for us His way.  

Faith knows for sure that the Father takes our good works and uses them for His kingdom.  He takes our evil works and works good for those around us - sometimes despite us.  He takes the good that befalls us and brings us closer to Him through it.  And when evil happens, or when we do evil, He works overtime, in Christ, through the Cross of Christ, to make it all good.

That’s the First Commandment - to believe and trust that God is good to us in Christ.  It’s that simple.   

But we don’t.  We can’t.  We doubt.  When we doubt, we start to bargain - with God and with those around us. 

Israel used to make deals, treaties, with the biggest countries they could find.  When they had their treaty, they felt safe.  When they had their money and chariots, they felt secure.  They couldn’t be more in danger!

The same with us, who scheme, bargain, and plan.  Who stay up late figuring out the right words to say to get what we want - to manipulate the situation so it turns out our way.  To make God, the people around us, our loved ones, our friends, do what we want them to do.

Why do we do this?  Why do we live this way?  Why do we worry?

Because we don’t believe that we have a Heavenly Father - or at least not one who is going to be good to us all the time.  Because we forget the cross of Christ.  It’s that simple and that damning.

Now, No one ever believed their way out of worrying.  Not by their hard work or labor.  That’s not how the birds live.  That’s not how the lily lives.

The lily lives, grows, as it gets it’s life from God.  Each day, gift from Him.  Each day spent glorifying Him in all that it does - even when it wilts, even when it dies.

Can’t live that way, can you?  Can’t be that free.  Can’t live as the lily.  Can’t believe that God is that good - even for someone like you?

You can’t, but Jesus did.  He lived that free.  Put your faith in the Man Jesus, the Son of God, who lived each day without any trust or confidence but in God.

For He kept the First Commandment for you - as He did all the other ones.  He believed that God is good all the time, even when things are darkest.  Even when they nail nails into His hands and feet.

He, like the lily, was here and then gone. He taught, He suffered, then He died.  But, his death is your death to sin, to unbelief, to worrying, and to despair.  His resurrection is yours already in your baptism.  

New life.  New salvation.  No longer living as if you have to muster up enough believing to save yourself or trust God through your difficulties and hardships.

So often Christians are ready to believe that Jesus kept the commandments for them, except the first.  We have to do that one.  We have to believe all by ourselves.

Yet, Jesus really did trust God for you.  He kept even that commandment for you.  He feared, loved, and trust in God above all things and He did that for you and in your place.

So, put your faith in Jesus who kept the Law for you.  The One who died for you and rose for you.

Then... when things seem darkest, when it can’t get any worse, when all your plans have failed, contemplate the lily in the field.  See it grow... Not as it toils or works, but as God gives it growth.  

You too... In the moment in which you are most alone, in the moment when things are the worst, when the tests go poorly, when the job seems lost... Contemplate the Jesus who makes God your heavenly Father by His death on the Cross.

God times, bad times. We have a Heavenly Father who gave up His Son for us.  

Happy times, sad times.  We have a Heavenly Father who gave up His Son for us.  

When we are rich and when the bill collectors come.  We have a Heavenly Father who gave up His Son for us.  

In Life.  In Death. We have a Heavenly Father who gave up His Son for us.  

And if He so clothes the grass of the field and the birds of the air, which are here today and tomorrow thrown into the first.  How much more will He tend to you?  Jesus more.  In the name of Jesus. Amen.