Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity: September 12, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝
When you pray for your heavenly Father to give you daily bread, like you do in the Lord’s Prayer, you would have thought that would be enough. As you may already 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 that you won’t get your daily bread if you forget to pray for it. You don’t even have to believe in God in order for Him to meet your earthly needs. You are well taken-care of in this life, regardless of your destiny in the life that is to come.
And so you would have thought that it would be enough for Jesus to teach you to pray in the Lord’s Prayer for daily bread. After all, in praying this petition you are asking that the Holy Spirit would lead you to realize that it is God who gives it all to you in the first place. Then, that He would prompt you by faith to receive your daily bread with thanksgiving. But it is not enough for Jesus to leave the matter simply with praying the Lord’s Prayer. It is not enough to remind you that Jesus is the Son of God, more specifically the Word of the Father through whom all things were created and are continually sustained. Why is it not enough? One reason has to do with you, and the other reason has to do with Jesus Himself.
First, your Lord and Creator knows your heart. He would not plop you down into this world without taking care of your earthly needs, but He knows that in your heart, you wouldn’t trust Him completely to come through on His promises. And the visible result of that lack of trust is the anxiety and worry in your life, sometimes a little anger you’ve had at God because He didn’t quite get it right the way you see it. Jesus nails you to the wall with a cut-and-dried absolute statement: No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and Money. Nobody likes absolute demands. They’re so unforgiving. The popular thing is to say that something is right for one situation and one person, but not for another. But since it’s in fashion to throw out the standard by which to judge whether something is right or not, then the best way to describe our world was a refrain that was written thousands of years ago in the Book of Judges: Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
And when you throw out God as the master to whom you are devoted, the only other master that’s left (besides yourself) is Money, and everything that money can buy. The inanimate objects that you possess, you give them a life of their own, and they proceed in short order to run your life. This other master (it also goes by the old Biblical name Mammon) it doesn’t necessarily want you to give up your Christian faith. It would be kind of silly to see someone taking out a dollar bill and start bowing down to it. No, that’s the great thing with serving Money instead of God (I’m speaking facetiously, to make a point): you can use the Christian faith as the means to getting and securing worldly things, and a lot of people do just that. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…” but then look at what you’ve got coming to you! It’s kind of like dividends: “…And all these things shall be given to you as well.” You’ve got the best of both worlds! You’re really serving Money and the things money can buy, but all the time it looks like you are living a good, strong Christian life. How does that happen? Here’s how the reasoning goes:
God wants me to be happy. I, for one, have learned that since I was very little. The eternal life that He has promised for me, the salvation that He wants me to choose, must necessarily be constant happiness. Therefore, the more I am happy being a Christian, the more likely I will remain committed to my Lord, and the more likely I will fulfill my personal mission in convincing others to make that eternal decision in their life. Doesn’t God want me to thank Him when things go right for me? So then the more God gives me, the more I can thank Him. It’s a beautiful thing
Did you notice what happened? The love of Money and things didn’t even have to be mentioned, but you knew they were there as you were hearing that line of reasoning. It was just under the surface, and all along the way the Christian faith seemed to justify your lust and desire for more and more. The critical, fatal step that allows that other master to grab the reins away from your heavenly Father is the step that assumes that believing in Jesus Christ is your decision. You may object to this, saying that Jesus Himself forces a decision upon you when He says: You must serve only one master. Not so. Take a look again. He really says: You cannot serve both. There’s no decision on your part anywhere in there. And what about “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…?” If that isn’t a requirement for a decision, I don’t know what is. But then again, if that means there’s a decision, which is a work, then what have you done with being saved by grace, not by works? Without that, all you have is what the pagans hopelessly run after, saying: “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?”
The danger that comes with serving Money/Mammon, but making it look like you’re serving God, is when trouble and hardship come your way. When you star as the leading role in the latest reality show on the book of Job, then your prayers to God for those earthly benefits look like they’re fizzling on their way up like a bad rocket. Persecutions, disapproving glances, tragedies—none of these things make you happy, so then you think that God does not want to bless you. You must have done something wrong. You think you must make a more committed decision. You must give your heart to Jesus even more so the good stuff and the happiness can return. The love of those added things has become your master, and worry over them dominates your life. Thus it is not enough for Jesus merely to teach you the Lord’s Prayer. You also need your head turned to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. God takes care of them, He’ll surely take care of you. In Jesus’ words, “O you of little faith,” the emphasis is on the little part, because Money, that other master demanding your attention, causes you anxiety and worry that in the end eats away at your trust in Jesus Christ.
However, the other reason why it is not enough for your Lord to teach you to ask for daily bread, is because Jesus wants to go out of His way to comfort you of little faith. And this time the proper emphasis is on the “faith” part. Because whether it is big or little, your faith comes completely from God the Holy Spirit, and He determines its size. It was planted in your heart when you were baptized. Faith was never your decision to come to the Lord. It was a gift that saved you by the Blood of your Savior. That salvation is your most precious possession, and your most urgent need. And so, Jesus is saying to you that even little faith is enough to trust in Him for all things and not to worry. Be assured that He’s not condemning you or chastising you. That’s what we often make a practice of doing to each other. But when Jesus says, Do not worry, at that moment a miracle happens because He is Almighty God. With those simple, Gospel words, He forgives you and changes your heart to make it so.
What is the kingdom and righteousness you are to seek? None other than Jesus Himself. Use the little faith that you already have, because without it you would never seek Him. Without it you would be running around after stuff with the pagans and putting tomorrow’s worries on today’s agenda. The eternal life and perpetual happiness are yours now, but you will experience them later. To know that you have it now, takes the faith that only the Holy Spirit can create. And as costly as it all is, although it cost Jesus His life on the cross and His blood shed in suffering for you, it still is free. It makes no requirement for you to fulfill in order to get its eternal benefits, and yet your life never is the same since you have God as your master.
And because of this, a wonderful irony takes shape: God assures you of the “added” things to be there for you a-plenty, when by seeking Christ you are ready and willing to give up on everything else but Him. All your daily bread falls into place for you morning by morning like Manna in the wilderness, once you have laid hold of Jesus the Bread of Life alone. It’s wrong to think that God’s against having stuff, but it is true that He is plainly against your stuff having you. Now, if you want to hear what Jesus suggests that you do with the stuff, or the unrighteous Mammon that you have, then look for His words on this subject as Luke records them in his gospel (Luke 16). For now, pray for your daily bread, not so that you would get it, but so that you would receive it with thanksgiving. And if that isn’t enough, take heed to what our Savior says and consider the birds of the air, and the flowers of the field, 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.
Readings:
1 Kings 17:8–16 I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.
Psalm 146 Do not put your trust in princes
Gal. 5:25—6:10 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Matt. 6:24–34 Consider the lilies of the field