Matthew 6:24–34 (ESV): 24 “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.
25 “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? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
If there were ever words we need to hear but do not want to hear, Jesus said them. Part of us cannot understand why He would speak so – doesn’t He know we are in the midst of a pandemic still? Or is that exactly why He speaks in this way.
No one can serve two masters. You notice that Jesus does not make a case for this truth but merely presumes it. Not the part about serving two masters but the part that you and I will inevitably serve a master. In other words, we are not masters. We are always servants, even slaves. That is the part none of us wants to hear. We think of ourselves as masters of our technology, our schedules, our lives – so good at multi-tasking and balancing work, home, and play. But Jesus insists we are slaves, but of what?
We want to believe that we are masters of our own destinies, adults who are large and in charge, and people of substance. Perhaps it was easier to believe this lie before COVID came alone and shook us to the very ground of our being. Yet, the technology and social media tries to still allow us the lie. Stay at home, watch the world go by on your screens, and keep distance from people and you will wait it out and still be in charge. I am here today to say it is all a lie.
You are not at the top of the food chain or the height of creation. You are at the bottom. You were created to be at the top and you were made by God to be the pinnacle of His work. But you exchanged this privileged position for the bottom of the heap. You are a slave. Your parents exchanged their privileged position as lords with the Lord of all Creation to become slaves, captive to sin and bound to the destiny of death. But this was not their choice alone. They brought down you and all those born after them and through them. Their curse has become your curse even though there is enough of Eden left in you to believe that you were made for better than what you are.
Worse than this, they brought down all of creation. The whole creation groans under the weight of sin and its death, like a woman in labor without any prospect of producing a child. Yes, we love the illusion that we are large and in charge, masters of our own destinies, but we are slaves who have brought down the world upon us and with us. Now we are not lords of creation but we suffer because of it. What we think improves on God’s work, destroys it and what destroys God’s work are the very people who were supposed to be its masters – you and me!
Even creation is better off than you. For the Lord takes care of the birds of the air, the foxes in their holes, the fish in the sea, and the flowers of the field. The Lord does not watch over their demise but clothes with the beauty in spite of sin and reveals the nobility of all God’s creation in spite of our screw ups and the curse that sin has cast over all that God has made.
But there is one thing God has done for you that He has not done for the birds of the air, the animals in the forest, the sea creatures, or the grass of the meadow. The Lord has come to save you. He did not expend all the resources of His mercy on behalf of nature and its crowning glory but He has emptied the bank account of His mercy for YOU.
You cannot serve two masters. You cannot live under the dominion of your desires or your lusts or your wants or even your fears and claim to belong to Christ. He will not share you but will challenge any and every kind of mammon that stakes a claim to the you He has purchased and won with His own blood. So do not live in fear. Do not live in lust. Do not live in want. Do not live in desire. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. For you are His and whether you live or die you belong to Him.
Listen again to the hymn stanzas we just sang and pray them as your daily prayer in the face of hearts captive to desire or worry or anxiety or fear:
Consider how the birds above
Feed day by day with carefree ease—
Does God not keep them in His love?
Are we not worth much more than these?
The lilies grow, they do not toil;
How fair is their fragility—
If God clothes these, which quickly spoil,
Will He not clothe both you and me?
Set not your heart on food or drink,
Nor be weighed down by worldly care;
About such things the godless think,
Yet never thank the Lord in prayer.
Be on your guard against all greed,
For life is more than what we own.
Our Father knows our ev’ry need
Before our needs to us are known.
Be not afraid to suffer loss
Of all the things for which you pray,
For He who faced for you the cross
Will give you strength to live each day.
Seek first God’s reign, His boundless grace,
His holy name in all you do:
Christ first and last in ev’ry place;
All else will then be given you.
4 comments:
You say: Listen again to the hymn stanzas we just sang and pray them as your daily prayer in the face of hearts captive to desire or worry or anxiety or fear:
What does that mean? how does one do that? Not trying to be a smart a##?
The stanzas are listed at the end of the sermon. Listen to them as you read them and make them into your prayer, praying the words to God as you sing them. By this, God plants His peace into our hearts when we are tempted to fear.
Pastor Peters:
This is in regard to your comment to a previous comment on the Thread ‘Slaves of Fear.’ Never felt comfortable with tying to pray. Heard Pastors say, you have to pray God's Word. What does that mean? How? I don’t know what to pray for. I don’t know what to pray about. I don’t know how to pray in concrete practical terms. Pastors don’t say.
I read Thomas Winger's commentary on Ephesians who wrote about the 'Barakah,' a form of blessing or thanksgiving. Traditional form of prayer for Jews. He also wrote about how the 'Barakah' morphed into the collect pattern. Prayer came into better focus for me when I started paying attention to the collect pattern. Jesus teaches us to pray as you would a child. You pray for them and get them to pray with you. The Church, via the ‘collect pattern’ teaches you how to pray; the Church prays for us and gets us to pray with the Church. Similarly, the ‘prayers of the Church’ from the Liturgy teach me what to pray for and how to pray
I have come to several conclusions about prayer. If the Bible is God’s word (and it is) then when we read Scripture, we are listening to God. Prayer begins with listening to God. By virtue of who Jesus is (the Son) and what He has done (life, death, resurrection, ascension) I have been brought into a relationship with God the Father by the Holy Spirit (John 17). How do we participate in a relationship? We listen to each other and we talk to each other. Ever talk to a parent whose kids don't call them or come to see them. Parents like to hear from their kids. God likes to hear from his kids as well.
It is too little taught or discussed (basically ignored) with the congregation. One of the patterns behind prayer is Law and Gospel, Confession, Repentance, Petition. I think some dude named Luther taught something like this.
I think it would be terribly helpful if Pastors would give examples of how, specifically was rewritten to be a prayer.
For example: Seek first God’s reign. I don’t think I have ever done this, put God reign over everything else. I repent for my failure. I ask for your grace to do this.
Pastor Peter:
I would like to amend my previous by adding an invocation to the Holy Spirit asking for His aid and by adding a dosology, in Jesus Name.
This is in regard to your comment to a previous comment on the Thread ‘Slaves of Fear.’ Never felt comfortable with tying to pray. Heard Pastors say, you have to pray God's Word. What does that mean? How? I don’t know what to pray for. I don’t know what to pray about. I don’t know how to pray in concrete practical terms. Pastors don’t say.
I read Thomas Winger's commentary on Ephesians who wrote about the 'Barakah,' a form of blessing or thanksgiving. Traditional form of prayer for Jews. He also wrote about how the 'Barakah' morphed into the collect pattern. Prayer came into better focus for me when I started paying attention to the collect pattern. Jesus teaches us to pray as you would a child. You pray for them and get them to pray with you. The Church, via the ‘collect pattern’ teaches you how to pray; the Church prays for us and gets us to pray with the Church. Similarly, the ‘prayers of the Church’ from the Liturgy teach me what to pray for and how to pray
I have come to several conclusions about prayer. If the Bible is God’s word (and it is) then when we read Scripture, we are listening to God. Prayer begins with listening to God. By virtue of who Jesus is (the Son) and what He has done (life, death, resurrection, ascension) I have been brought into a relationship with God the Father by the Holy Spirit (John 17). How do we participate in a relationship? We listen to each other and we talk to each other. Ever talk to a parent whose kids don't call them or come to see them. Parents like to hear from their kids. God likes to hear from his kids as well.
It is too little taught or discussed (basically ignored) with the congregation. One of the patterns behind prayer is Law and Gospel, Confession, Repentance, Petition. I think some dude named Luther taught something like this.
I think it would be terribly helpful if Pastors would give examples of how, specifically was rewritten to be a prayer.
For example: Seek first God’s reign. I don’t think I have ever done this, put God reign over everything else. I repent for my failure. I ask for Holy Spirit that I might do this. In Jesus Name. Amen
Post a Comment