15th Sunday after Trinity – September 8th, 2024
Trinity Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Matthew 6:24–34
“God Provides”
Theme: God provides for our needs of body and soul, despite our worrying about the things of this world.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Around the early 2000s there was a popular wall decoration called “Big Mouth Billy Bass.” It was a plastic, animatronic, singing fish. When you pushed the red button below it, it would sing a song from the 80s titled “Don’t worry, be happy; don’t worry, be happy now” while flipping its tail and moving its mouth to the music. I have no idea why that fish made such an impression on me as a youth, but it’s one of those pieces of nostalgia that I chuckle about now.
The fish itself is a funny gimmick. I’m sure it was easy to design mechanically. But the song is what has always made me roll my eyes. All it tells you is to “Don’t worry, be happy” without giving you any reasons to do so. If you listen to the full song, it even gives several causes of worry: verse 2 talks about not having a place to live, and verse 3 talks about no cash, no style, no a gal to make you smile. But the constant mantra that it comes back to is always “Don’t worry, be happy.” Here’s the reason why: the song borrowed that phrase and idea from an Indian spiritual guru who claimed he himself was a god in human form. We as Christians have a better God who addresses our worries, not with empty mantras, but solid promises.
Jesus, our true God, does understand our worries and anxieties. He understands that we are sometimes worried about the future and what it holds. It is easy for our sinful mind to become obsessed with what could happen. There are many forces in our world that play into these fears. News channels thrive on making you afraid, so you will keep watching, thinking that they will provide ways to protect yourself. Politicians always promise a better world if only you will vote for them. Economists are always predicting the next recession. Environmentalists are always predicting global chaos resulting from burning too much carbon. The list could go on and on.
Those are all grand things on a large scale, but Jesus’s insight is that they often boil down to the simple worries of, “Will I be able to put food on the table?” or “Will I be able to clothe myself” or “Will I have a roof over my head?” Whether it’s a climate catastrophe, inflation, Social Security, or any number of problems, we are not always as worried about others as we are about ourselves. How will these things affect me? Will I be able to survive what’s coming?
Worry is a good indicator for you about where you put your trust. Our worry exposes our mistrust in the things we believe in. If you trust that the American dream will work to make you rich, then maybe you’re worried now that America is falling apart. If you trust in the economy and stock market, worry comes in which bad news shakes the market, and you wonder about your investments there. If you put your trust in politicians, you may be really worried right about now about who should get elected to save you from your worry.
I’d like to put a name to this idea of living, believing, and worrying for the things going on now, and that is the word “Secularism.” The word comes from, Latin meaning “this age.” Secularists are those who believe and live for this age only. They act as if this world is all that there is, or that it is all that matters.
Even if someone *says* they believe in God, look at their actions. Are they, as St. Paul says, “Sowing to their own flesh” (Gal 6:8), that is, entirely focused on the things of this world? Where do they spend their time, especially on Sunday mornings? Where do they spend their money? What are they constantly worried about?
Deep down, secularists may say they believe in God, but they are more worried about mammon and the things of this world. They are living for this age only. By the way, “mammon” comes from the Hebrew word “aman.” It’s where we get our word “amen” from. It means to trust or agree with. When we say “Amen” to a prayer, we agree with it, we trust that God hears it. When an unbeliever worries about this world, they are trusting in it, and saying “amen” to the promises of this age.
The opposite of Secularism is what I might call “Eternalism.” Now, I could just call it “Christianity,” but let’s go with “Eternalism” for now. Eternalism is what Jesus is preaching in our Gospel lesson for today. Jesus wants you to know that God will provide for you despite your worries. We have a God who knows our past, present, and future. He holds all of it in his hand.
The first thing to know is that God values you above anything else in this world. Why? Because you have an eternal soul within your body. Nothing else other than other human beings has that. You are like an eternal candle in the midst of everything else that is decaying. And yet, God cares even for those things that are here for a moment then gone. He tells us to look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. God cares about them. He feeds them and clothes them. In fact, there’s some aspects to nature around us that is maybe more glorious than we as man. Lilies are more beautiful than Solomon in all his glory, for example (28). And yet, Jesus then turns on the lilies and calls them the grass of the field, “which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven” (30). Why? Because it’s part of this world. Lilies do not have an eternal destiny. They are destined for the burn pile, to be consumed in a conflagration.
You do not have this destiny. God has destined man for more than just fire. He has created you, and he sustains you with food and clothing. We are not to seek after these things as if they are the only things that exist, but we should still know that “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (32). We Christians have a right view of this world and what it’s here for. It’s not to trust in or worry about, but we live in it and are given work to do while we are able. God does not criticize work or storing things up or being busy with this world. He does criticize setting our minds and worries on the things of this world.
So, Jesus’s message ends with a wonderful encouragement. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (33–34). There is an irony here. If you seek to grasp this world and make the most of it while you are here, you will lose it all when you die. But if you seek God first, then He will give you things for this world, and even more: a life in the world to come. So do not be worried about tomorrow. What can you do today? What are the troubles that need to be addressed today? How can you serve your neighbor today?
And so, we Christians are Eternalists. Our faith and hope are set on God and the eternal life to come. We seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And God provides. He provides for you here and now. This is a much better promise than a plastic fish that sings “Don’t worry, be happy.” God does say, “Don’t worry,” but he gives us a reason why, which is that he loves you. He will feed you and clothe you and even bring you to life eternal.
Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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