"Why are you worried about food, drink, and clothing?" Trinity 15 2024

8. September 2024

Trinity 15

Matthew 6:24-34

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

No doubt you have plenty of things to be anxious about today. You’re probably not worried about the necessities of life—food, drink, clothing. Instead, you’re thinking about, worrying about, what we call “first-world problems.” You’re thinking about car payments, property tax, and insurance increases. You’re thinking about politicians, policies, legislatures, and judges. You’re thinking about attendance, offerings, and enrollment. You’re thinking about “important” things. But in the end, even the first-world problems are distilled down to those basic, creaturely needs: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

That’s true for everyone, from the CEO who lives in her penthouse downtown to the one who lives up on the off-grid mountain in some third-world lawless jungle. The anxiety and worry of the heart is common to all mankind. It’s inescapable, heavy, and oppressive. There’s no exception, which means you’re not exceptional. Your challenges may be specific here but have been common to all mankind since Adam’s fall.

When our first parents took what God had not given, they were cursed, never to be satisfied again. The ground would not give up its food but thorns and thistles. Their shame demanded clothing, sewn fig leaves, or, better yet, sacrificed animal skins. Once watered by four rivers, the land would become a parched desert and have to be dug and struck to bear water for thirst.

Your heart, the sinful heart, tells you to be worried, anxious, afraid. Your heart tells you to look for rescue, saving, and freedom. Your heart tells you that hope is out there, external, from others. In your worry, you look for a savior or saviors. You look for someone or something to trust in. You look for someone or something to fear because the weight of trying to manage even the necessities of life–food, drink, and clothing–is too much. And add to that all the weightiness of life with work, home, neighborhood, and nation, and it’s overwhelming.

And the heart, the reliable idol factory, is more than happy to fill the void with gods. They may be lifeless, imaginary beings, but we’ll be damned if they don’t give us some solace, comfort, or relief. At different ages, they’ve gone by different names. And in different circumstances, they take on different forms. Our hearts will latch onto whatever god or goddess gives us even a moment of temporary stillness from the buzzing hopelessness of our world. You might think this is the stuff of myth and legend, and in our enlightened age, we’ve grown out of worshipping false gods, eating at the table of demons, or selling our souls to the devil.

You heard Jesus tell you about the god Mammon, sometimes called Money or Wealth. If you have riches or you don’t, it doesn't matter. As long as you live, your heart will serve him. Your insatiable appetite for more and more has its goal: eternity. You want to live for as long as possible. You want your memory to last. You want your children to be provided for. You want your congregation to thrive. You want, and you’ll be damned if you don’t get it. For those attentive to our Sunday Bible Study, you know what the Preacher says about serving this god: it’s vanity and grasping at the wind.

Then, there’s the lust for power, influence, and security. The god Politic is having to receive your fears and trust, too. Especially this season, when foolish and flighty candidates are in your mailbox, on your dumb phone, or in every ad break on the black mirror, it’s easy to see what they want. And yet, we’ll give it to them. “Just trust us; we’ll save you or this country!” Trust you? I can’t even trust myself. Serve you? Aren’t you just like me, greedy and fallible? But the abstracted party, platform, and ideology demand your love with the false promise of your salvation. All the god Politic needs from you is your consent and participation in its madness.

There are many idols that our restless hearts can dream up: Leisure, Technology, Futurism, Education. And an old god with new powers, Media, will promote them all. Media is the goddess that will take all the fears, worries, and insecurities of the heart and amplify them with talking heads, terrifying images, and repeated mantras. The idol Media turns you inward to selfish ambition. The idol Media turns you outward to false hopes, dreams, and saviors. Media is so powerful because it is a direct assault on the means that the true God uses to calm your worries, answer your worries, and still your troubled hearts.

All the false gods/idols that you fear, love, and trust, whether you want to or not, have gotten your attention with the false words of Media. All these gods are worthless and do nothing good, but Media contradicts God right where He is for you, in the preached Word. You’re worried about necessary and unnecessary things because you listen to the lies of liars. As hard as it is to break this devotion to Media, shut her off. Delete the apps. Close your accounts. Cancel the subscriptions. She and her cohort are powerless over you unless you consent, participate, and listen. Confess your idolatry and be forgiven in Christ’s name.

And in the silence, listen to Jesus again. As He told you today, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” The righteousness of Christ is here for you, daily and richly. That righteousness is the forgiveness of sins, purchased and won by Christ’s innocent suffering and death. That righteousness is imputed to you as a gift. He feeds you with His Holy Word, bread from heaven. He gives you to eat His body and drink His blood, there forgiving you by His last will and testament. His gracious Word is a spring of living water that satisfies your every thirst. Your pastor and congregation gives you every opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen.

And He promises that where your sins are being forgiven in His name, there He is giving you all the things you’re worried about life and salvation. If you don’t need to be anxious about death and resurrection, why are you worried about food, drink, and clothing? You won’t be now that He has repented you and given you to fear, love, and trust in Him alone again.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin