Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
The sermon text is from Luke 12:22-34.
These are hard times. Reports this week suggest that as many as 1/5 of all home mortgages are “under water”, with many in danger of losing their homes. Unemployment hovers near 10%, with a still greater percentage who have given up looking for work. We just went through one of the worst ever 10 year periods in the stock market. Economic hardships have turned many homes into battlefields, with a huge rise in domestic abuse. Our military recently released a report on the terrible toll two wars have taken on the mental health of our citizen soldiers, with spiking numbers of suicides and other at risk behavior.
I’m not an economist, though Grandma always said, “Don’t spend what you don’t have.” Grandma’s advice, notwithstanding, I have no special qualifications to speak to the subject of economic prospects. I have no short-term opinion on the trajectory of our nation’s financial health. Things aren’t great. I don’t know when they’ll improve. But this much I can say with certainty, as this much God assures us in His Word: The last days before our Savior returns will be tumultuous times of economic hardship and upheaval, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famine. I also know with the certainty of God’s Word that false prophets will tickle the ears of their religious consumers with rosy forecasts and feel good messages about how God’s wants you to prosper. He wants to bless you. Stay positive. You can have the best of life right now.
But is it just possible that tumultuous times serve a purpose only God fully understands? Romans 5 says, “Suffering produces perseverance and perseverance character and character, hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” James wrote: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” Could it be that through hardship God is breaking a lost people to their knees? Doesn’t God say that He will refine His people as with a refiner’s fire, and that through all of this, God is stripping away the false gods we’ve chased after, stripping away the false security people seek in worldly things? The Prophet Joel wrote: “Return to the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love.”
I’m not the kind that tries to divine God’s will by reading newspaper headlines, but I’m inclined to think these are days of opportunity for God’s Church. Maybe God’s right, as He promises to “work all things [yes, even bad things] for the good of those who love Him.” It’s so easy for us, even as Christians, to say nothing of those who don’t believe in Jesus… it’s so easy for us to trust in our money, enshrining the “almighty dollar” as the true god of our hearts. We’ve learned from childhood to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread”, but seldom do we completely trust in God’s care for today. We fret over things we can’t change. We worry about the future, and seldom do we remember all our blessings come from God.
The opportunity is for the Church to remember her true message to the world: “Repent. In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” The church’s message to a dying world isn’t God wants to bless you and prosper you, at least not as that’s commonly understood. It is, rather: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our message is: “The wise man built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat that house, but it didn’t fall because it had been founded on Christ the Rock.”
Maybe times aren’t so bad, yet. The closest comparison to depression era breadlines might be customers lined up to buy the latest I-phone or watch the latest vampire movie – not exactly what the church has historically considered suffering! But now is the time to open your eyes and see this world, with all its blessings, for what it is – passing away. Now is the time to realize how weak and worthless is any attempt to find joy and fulfillment in things, jobs, boats, cars, people, vacations and houses. I chuckle at how important it was when I was younger to have Levis 501 jeans. Everything was all about stuff and more stuff. Jesus said, “Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.”
Thursday afternoon a busload of band students from St. James enjoyed a lovely day together, and in the blink of an eye it all ended on Interstate 44. Many were taken to hospitals. A couple were called out of this life to heaven or hell, depending on whether or not they knew Jesus as Savior. How many of us hit the road each day never considering the next moment could be our last? How many of our children go off to school equipped with the fanciest smart phones and latest fashions, but no idea what’s going to happen to them if they die? How many are crushed under the burden of worries about affording things that have no eternal value? Listen to Jesus: “Seek His Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”
The God who formed Adam and Eve from the dust and knit you together in your mother’s womb is big enough to handle your life. He knows what you need and how best to provide it. If birds sing their joyous songs flitting, unconcerned through the trees, and God takes care of them… If God lavishly spends His beauty on lilies of the field, how can we doubt that He will take care of our needs?
Now, the fact is, we do doubt. As sinners, we think we’re in control and handle things on our own, until life knocks our legs out from under us. Worry is a symptom of our sin – a bit of vanity on our part thinking we’re in charge. Seek God’s Kingdom, first. Life is short, and many who plan to seek God’s Kingdom second, find they made a poor choice.
Jesus doesn’t heap on our head empty admonitions against worry. That would be just one more thing we mess up, one more black mark in life’s ledger of fault and faithlessness. Jesus says don’t worry, because you are valuable to God, far more so than birds and flowers. You and I who waste our lives chasing moth-eaten treasures are valuable to God – so valuable our Savior left the glory of heaven to walk among us; so valuable He spent His life as the blood-price to make us His own in heaven. 2 Corinthians 8 says, “Jesus, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Yes, God does want you to be rich. Through faith in Jesus, He wants you to live like a King’s kid in a heavenly palace.
Hebrews 11 says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Those who aren’t sure of their salvation in Jesus, who lack certainty in His promises, should be very worried. It’s a terrible thing to face life and death and money problems and job problems and family problems without confidence and certainty in God. “Seek His Kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Whether you’re facing financial failure or health problems; If you’ve spent your life building your family living for today; or if the fears and uncertainty of aging bodies and failing health fill your days with worry and sadness; and even if none of that applies to you and things are going pretty well, God sent His Son as the true, loving life insurance policy for your future.
“Have no fear, little flock, for the Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom.” That’s a good reason not to fear. God chose to give you His Kingdom in Jesus. He didn’t wait for you to demonstrate some worth. He didn’t ask you to earn it, or pay it out as a reward for a job well done. Your Father chose to give you the Kingdom, because His love is bigger than our failures. His grace is simply beyond our ability to fathom. Jesus chose to lift our idolatry and chasing of false gods and lack of trust to His own shoulders: “I am the Good Shepherd,” He said, “Who lays down His life for the sheep. No one takes My life from Me, I lay it down of My own accord. No one can snatch you from My hand.”
As long as we live, we carry these sinful natures with us. We struggle with uncertainty and fear and poor priorities; and often we suffer the consequences of living to “Keep up with the Jones.” But our lives are more valuable than all those things. We are infinitely precious in the sight of the God who purchased us in the blood of His Son. Through faith in Jesus, we never need to face the future with uncertainty and worry. When Jesus rose from the dead, God declared the fact upon which you may base your life, “Because He lives, you will live also.” Like Father Abraham (the morning OT lesson was from Gen.15:1-6), God is your shield, your very great reward. Like the holy saints of old (Epistle lesson was from Heb.11:1-16), in Jesus you have a “better homeland waiting – a heavenly one – a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.” Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.