The concept of faith is rather easy to understand. The simplicity of faith is summed up in the simple meaning to the First Commandment. “You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Faith is simply defined as trust in God above all things. Hebrews 11 states it this way: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is to truly hope and trust in God alone, that what He says and does is true and right for our good even if we do not see it immediately with our eyes. But … you and I both know that this is much easier in theory than it is in “real life.” Putting faith into actual practice is a different ballgame.
In the Gospel for this 15th Sunday after Trinity, Jesus says more than once, “Do not be anxious” (Matt. 6:25, 31). And yet, hearing these words, we adults can’t help but laugh a little. “yeah right”. We live in anxious and uncertain times. In this media saturated world, we can’t ignore the reality of war, potential war, the growing violence in our cities and communities, even between people as they relate to one another with increasingly sensitive hair-triggers. Money is tight. Inflation and recession rage and rampage, the stock market seems volatile. Words such as “pandemic,” and “supply chain,” are now part of our everyday vocabulary.
And on top of this, there are the daily stresses of bills needing to be paid, deadlines on our calendar needing to be met, perhaps health related issues needing to be addressed with uncertain outcomes. The list of issues is almost endless.
“Do not be anxious? Sure. Nice ideal. How can we NOT grow anxious?”: we think. And yet, what is the root cause of this anxiety?… Where our faith truly lies.
Jesus stated this truth: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matt. 6:24). Literally, “You cannot serve God and mammon,” which is worldly things such as possessions, wealth, and success.
Like a slave who’s duty-bound to serve only one master, you can only serve one master – God or mammon. This brings us back to the first commandment. So, who do you fear, love, and trust above all things?
For us Christians, we want to say: “of course, God”, We’re to serve the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s the One who created you, the One who redeemed you with His holy and precious blood, the One who sanctifies you, you’re to fear and love and trust in Him above all things. You’re to look to Him as your greatest good, help, and comfort in life.
And yet, in practice, from day to day, week to week, when we are tempted to worry…Do we trust God and say, “God will provide. God will take care of us through cross or trial in this sin cursed world?” Again, easier said than done or believed.
Instead, in order to live and survive in this world, in order to feel safe and secure, we see how mammon meets those needs. We can physically see with our eyes the bank account or food on the table or the gas gauge in our car. So, we try to compromise. We say that we trust in God …and these hands, this money, that politician, whatever. Yet you cannot serve both God and mammon. You will end up loving and working for the one and hating the other. When we yoke ourselves to mammon, to this life, the inevitable slavery is to worry, to become anxious, to wonder: “whether or not there will be enough.”
Not only does mammon bring with it about anxiety and worry. It steals your heart, your peace, so that you don’t recognize the true God or look to Him as your greatest good, help, and comfort and source of hope in this life or the one to come. Yet He is where freedom and true life reside.
The words of Jesus “do not be anxious about your life,” and “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Ring hollow to the world and our flesh. The devil tells us in our experience: “God’s a liar. He is just trying to sucker you. You still need to worry. He will let you down like He has before.” But like so much in this media saturated world, those words are a twisting and revision of history, a twisting of the truth of what God has done and provided and it is a falsehood regarding the source of the troubles of this world and what plagues us.
God is not the source of evil and trouble. He does not cause anxiety for believers. He is its answer. Sin and unbelief are the cause of anxiety, of the curse of trouble and toil. God is actually the refuge in the midst of a world suffering rightly under the curse for sin. He is the only true source of hope and comfort.
Look at the Old Testament for this morning and the lesson of God’s care in the midst of suffering. Elijah is directed by God in the midst of a great famine to go outside the kingdom of Israel to a widow who God said would feed him. He doesn’t argue with God but goes. Elijah speaks to the widow who is not yet a believer and she has given up hope. She figures that she is gathering wood to make one last bit of bread and then she and her son will die. Elijah gives a command and promise. Make the bread for me and God will provide for you and not let your oil and flour run out. This widow woman could have said, “yeah right!” yet instead she thought, “what do I have to lose anymore? Why not?” Being brought to desperation, she by the Holy Spirit is being opened to a new hope: a hope in God’s promise of His Word. So, she obeyed and God rewarded that faith, first in the earthly things, but then also in the heavenly things as we will hear next week as she comes to receive a right faith in God.
Fellow redeemed, repent of looking to mammon for help in your time of need and not to the true God. Repent of the times that you have tried to justify your mistrust and unbelief. Repent of your sin and direct your attention, not to the news, but to the Word of the Lord.
Follow the example of the widow of Zaraphath or the 10 lepers from last week’s lesson. Live by faith in His Words. Know that God is the cure, the answer, the hope, the solution to our troubles: first eternal, but also to our earthly physical needs. He does not lie. His words are truth. How often we forget all the good that He has provided for us throughout our lives. A good hymn that we are not singing this morning puts it well. It is from hymn number 737 “Rejoice my heart be glad and sing” It challenges us to think thusly: “Why spend the day in blank despair, In restless thought the night? On your creator cast your care; He makes your burdens light. Did not His love and truth and power Guard every childhood day? And did He not in threatening hour Turn dreaded ills away?” It’s so easy to forget those times when trouble rears its ugly head and instead fall into unbelief and worry.
Because of our sin and mistrust, we deserve death both of the body now and in eternity, yet He continues to have mercy and gives us undeserved grace. So, when the Lord says, “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” (Matt. 6:25), you can believe Him!
Jesus’ call, “Do not to be anxious,” isn’t a guarantee that you won’t face danger and extreme need and eventual earthly death. We live in a sinful, fallen world.
We sang “What God ordains is always good,” And it is true. Everything the Lord Jesus is giving to you, and allows for you, is for your ultimate benefit either to return you to Him for strength or to complete your joy in Him. All the joys and all the sufferings.
“Do not be anxious.” This fatherly divine goodness and mercy is shown to you and me for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. This Son was given so that you may have a hope which the gentiles, the unbelievers do not: a hope for forgiveness of sins, a knowledge that God loves you now, but that He has defeated your death by Christ’s death upon the cross. By faith in Jesus Christ, you are saved from death, damnation, and despair now and for eternity. You know that through Christ, God loves you and will give you grace and mercy for every moment in this life. You have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and so you have a hope and a joy established beyond yourself, your failings, your worries, and even the passing joys of this life. Christ took upon Himself all your sin and also the pain and suffering and death that comes with it, and nailed it to the cross and buried it in the tomb.
As a result, the absolute worst thing that could happen to you, is death; it has already happened to you in the waters of your baptism. “[You] were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, [you] too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
In that resurrection, there simply is no reason left for you to live in worry and anxiety anymore. Christ has died for you on the cross. All things are yours in Him. There’s no need to fear, for the Son of God took on your flesh and died in your place. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Fellow redeemed, place your eyes toward the cross and the kingdom of God which comes to you in His Word and in His bread of life and cup of blessing in the Lord’s supper. Seek and receive. Rejoice and be renewed. See by faith how your Father loves you for Christ’s sake. He tends to you individually more than the grass of the field and the birds of the air. As St. Paul says in Romans 8:2 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Remember that, rejoice, and rest, in Jesus Christ, Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas