READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
1 Kings 17:8-16
Galatians 5:25-6:10
- St. Matthew 6:24-34
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 John)
Who speaks you this morning saying,
“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?”
And, “God shall bless us”, says Psalm 67 (v.6-7) and even though today’s Gospel seems to present blessings we have to earn, it is not so. God is a God of blessing. It is His nature to bless. He will do so regardless of what we do. However, today Jesus makes a distinction between the believer and the unbeliever. Being a slave to Mammon gains anxiety and worse, evil. Being a slave to God, to Christ, gains contentment.
This is how we see the world. Our sinful worldview is a struggle between anxiety and contentment. And in that struggle, the world benefits from you being an all-around decent human being. The world has already figured out, being a decent human helps more than just yourself, but also the people around you and the rest of the world.
“A little kindness goes a long way” or some junk like that. And its true and you can see it and test it. Being kind to others sparks in them some kindness…sometimes. And it gets passed on…but not always. This low rate of success produces anxiety. Some people will even mistake kindness and reliability for privilege and cause even more anxiety. They don’t realize that their continuous sour attitude towards others is what pushes them away, not any sort of made-up privilege.
The Law of God is the law of the land. Because the Law of God is the Law of the land, being content with your lot in life is considered valuable, even among those who don’t believe. “Duh”, you say, but not so fast. You see, even though the world may value this trait, it does not promote or teach it.
When you walk into a meeting for a corporate hostile takeover, you will not find contentment valued, but anxiety. When you come upon a protest group, or listen to a podcast, or turn on the TV all that is held up as worthy is anxiety.
This is why, when a Christian comes on the scene, he is able to offer clarity because his values have been properly ordered under God. The Christian, or I should say, Christianity makes the world a better place, as opposed to any other religion, by truly bringing God’s blessings to the table. Not by their own virtue, but by the virtue of God’s Promise to bless.
So, its not just morality and good feelings. First and foremost, it is God’s work. Second is the fruit of His work: morality and good feelings…sometimes. This is the reason for Jesus bringing up the separation between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Mammon, or civil life.
In the civil realm, the Christian is valued for his morality, but his morality is not his strong suit, of which he is often accused. Its a suit that doesn’t even fit, if only because we are still anxious and still worrisome, even after being told that the Eternal God has His mind on the things our life and body need.
Repent! Those things, that “daily bread”, God grants even to all evil people, not to be fair and balanced, but to teach that the Lord’s Kingdom will be distinguished from the civil kingdom. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7) and man’s “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9)
In other words, the Kingdom of God is hidden. But, if it is hidden, how are we to seek it? I assume none of you possess some sort of dimensional sword that can tear open time and space in order to reach where God’s Kingdom is. No, it can only be reached through suffering, through the bearing of the cross, as our Crucified Savior has already said.
Righteousness can also be found, somewhat, on earth, but the problem is we are to seek “His Righteousness”. That righteousness, that standard to which God conforms, is Himself. God is righteousness. The bad news is you are not God, so you will never be “His Righteousness” and will always miss the mark and will always miss the Kingdom.
Is this cause for despair? Only if you are seeking your own kingdom of works and reason, for the Lord is coming to judge works and reason in His Righteousness says Psalm 96:13. God’s Righteous Kingdom, to the sinner, means judgement and death. Yet, He also speaks of a Promise saying, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).
Not actual kissing, mind you, but an intimate marriage. A union of the Righteous Kingdom that comes to judge all flesh and the peace which passes all understanding. A reconciling of sinful hearts to the Heart of God.
It is into the midst of this impossibility, of a union with perfect heaven and perfectly corrupted earth, that Jesus steps. Not, mind you, as some sort of political or ethical inquiry, but in His own Body and Blood. In order to show and to teach that it is only the Blood of God that contains the Righteousness of God and it is only the Blood of God which gives the Kingdom of God.
Anxiety. Contentment. What do they accomplish? There is a futility there. A futility of sin that hounds and drags us down, every step of the way. So we are to live by the Spirit, says our Epistle reading. We are not Spirits. It is the Spirit of God alone Who lives by the Spirit.
Into the Righteous Kingdom of the Father, the Blessed union of the Son, and the New Life of the Spirit, we are baptized. The glorious fact about baptism is not that it is some magical hooey that is more powerful than God, and makes Him do things He may not want to, but that God chooses to make His promise in the union of water and the Word. It is His will.
And it is His Word that says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26). The Word that says, “Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet 3:21). The Word that says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus Who knew no sin of His own, but made our sin His own, makes us the Righteousness of God, in Him. In His righteous holy, innocent suffering and death, He takes away the curses of sin and leaves only blessings. In His Kingdom, which is His and His alone, He secures peace married to righteousness. Meaning, in Christ the wrath of God is absorbed in full and the peace of God overflows in full to those who believe the words and promises of God.
Which are these Words and Promises of God?
Christ, our Lord, says in the last chapter of Mark (Mk 16:16) : “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that does not believe shall be condemned.”
Jesus is the source of the Christian’s blessing on earth. It is not merit based, neither is it apparent all the time, but it is grace-based. You are not able to tell who has more just by looking at their adherence to certain codes or standards of living. Solomon was so cared for and favored by God, yet the lilies out shine him. Why? Because by grace you are saved and blessed.
Jesus is both God and man. He is not Mammon, who demands earthly progress, earthly success, and earthy remuneration for his blessings. Basically, all your hard work just attributed to him, thief.
Jesus is both God and man in order that He can make His Way known through which we may please God. Not earn His blessings, mind you, but believe and have it counted to us as righteousness, walking in His Way of the Cross.
Look at our Old Testament reading. The widow, whom Elijah blesses with his presence, is not even named. She is not one of the rabble, but one of the thousands of generations to whom God shows His love, without any merit or worthiness in them. What was her work in all that? To despair and die? No, to receive. Elijah came to her, spoke to her, gave to her the infinite blessing of Word and Sacrament.
That is how we name these Promises of God we find in earthly means: Sacrament. Today, its baptism. Christ, clothed with wounds, clothes you with His righteousness. Christ ingests sin, death, and the power of the devil and you digest His true Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins. Christ is made anxious to give you His contentment in His Church of Promises.
So we receive His blessing with thankfulness. When someone says its a joy to work with you we say “thanks be to God”. When someone says nice save, or good catch, or you are an amazing person. “Thanks be to God”.
Likewise, when people say I’m so sorry for your loss, or you don’t deserve that, or that’s horrible; Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God because He gives blessing especially when life doesn’t. Because He gives blessing precisely where you are at in life regardless of your mindset.
Because He blesses in the midst of suffering just as our Lord and Savior on the cross proves for us.
In the Cross of Christ, Job’s words hit home: “Should we accept the good from God and not accept the bad?” (2:10). We accept both, because His hand that sends me sadness will turn my tears to gladness. He knows how best to shield me. For after grief God gives relief, my heart with comfort filling and all my sorrow stilling.
Who speaks you this morning saying,
“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?”
And, “God shall bless us”, says Psalm 67 (v.6-7) and even though today’s Gospel seems to present blessings we have to earn, it is not so. God is a God of blessing. It is His nature to bless. He will do so regardless of what we do. However, today Jesus makes a distinction between the believer and the unbeliever. Being a slave to Mammon gains anxiety and worse, evil. Being a slave to God, to Christ, gains contentment.
This is how we see the world. Our sinful worldview is a struggle between anxiety and contentment. And in that struggle, the world benefits from you being an all-around decent human being. The world has already figured out, being a decent human helps more than just yourself, but also the people around you and the rest of the world.
“A little kindness goes a long way” or some junk like that. And its true and you can see it and test it. Being kind to others sparks in them some kindness…sometimes. And it gets passed on…but not always. This low rate of success produces anxiety. Some people will even mistake kindness and reliability for privilege and cause even more anxiety. They don’t realize that their continuous sour attitude towards others is what pushes them away, not any sort of made-up privilege.
The Law of God is the law of the land. Because the Law of God is the Law of the land, being content with your lot in life is considered valuable, even among those who don’t believe. “Duh”, you say, but not so fast. You see, even though the world may value this trait, it does not promote or teach it.
When you walk into a meeting for a corporate hostile takeover, you will not find contentment valued, but anxiety. When you come upon a protest group, or listen to a podcast, or turn on the TV all that is held up as worthy is anxiety.
This is why, when a Christian comes on the scene, he is able to offer clarity because his values have been properly ordered under God. The Christian, or I should say, Christianity makes the world a better place, as opposed to any other religion, by truly bringing God’s blessings to the table. Not by their own virtue, but by the virtue of God’s Promise to bless.
So, its not just morality and good feelings. First and foremost, it is God’s work. Second is the fruit of His work: morality and good feelings…sometimes. This is the reason for Jesus bringing up the separation between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Mammon, or civil life.
In the civil realm, the Christian is valued for his morality, but his morality is not his strong suit, of which he is often accused. Its a suit that doesn’t even fit, if only because we are still anxious and still worrisome, even after being told that the Eternal God has His mind on the things our life and body need.
Repent! Those things, that “daily bread”, God grants even to all evil people, not to be fair and balanced, but to teach that the Lord’s Kingdom will be distinguished from the civil kingdom. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7) and man’s “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9)
In other words, the Kingdom of God is hidden. But, if it is hidden, how are we to seek it? I assume none of you possess some sort of dimensional sword that can tear open time and space in order to reach where God’s Kingdom is. No, it can only be reached through suffering, through the bearing of the cross, as our Crucified Savior has already said.
Righteousness can also be found, somewhat, on earth, but the problem is we are to seek “His Righteousness”. That righteousness, that standard to which God conforms, is Himself. God is righteousness. The bad news is you are not God, so you will never be “His Righteousness” and will always miss the mark and will always miss the Kingdom.
Is this cause for despair? Only if you are seeking your own kingdom of works and reason, for the Lord is coming to judge works and reason in His Righteousness says Psalm 96:13. God’s Righteous Kingdom, to the sinner, means judgement and death. Yet, He also speaks of a Promise saying, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).
Not actual kissing, mind you, but an intimate marriage. A union of the Righteous Kingdom that comes to judge all flesh and the peace which passes all understanding. A reconciling of sinful hearts to the Heart of God.
It is into the midst of this impossibility, of a union with perfect heaven and perfectly corrupted earth, that Jesus steps. Not, mind you, as some sort of political or ethical inquiry, but in His own Body and Blood. In order to show and to teach that it is only the Blood of God that contains the Righteousness of God and it is only the Blood of God which gives the Kingdom of God.
Anxiety. Contentment. What do they accomplish? There is a futility there. A futility of sin that hounds and drags us down, every step of the way. So we are to live by the Spirit, says our Epistle reading. We are not Spirits. It is the Spirit of God alone Who lives by the Spirit.
Into the Righteous Kingdom of the Father, the Blessed union of the Son, and the New Life of the Spirit, we are baptized. The glorious fact about baptism is not that it is some magical hooey that is more powerful than God, and makes Him do things He may not want to, but that God chooses to make His promise in the union of water and the Word. It is His will.
And it is His Word that says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26). The Word that says, “Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet 3:21). The Word that says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus Who knew no sin of His own, but made our sin His own, makes us the Righteousness of God, in Him. In His righteous holy, innocent suffering and death, He takes away the curses of sin and leaves only blessings. In His Kingdom, which is His and His alone, He secures peace married to righteousness. Meaning, in Christ the wrath of God is absorbed in full and the peace of God overflows in full to those who believe the words and promises of God.
Which are these Words and Promises of God?
Christ, our Lord, says in the last chapter of Mark (Mk 16:16) : “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that does not believe shall be condemned.”
Jesus is the source of the Christian’s blessing on earth. It is not merit based, neither is it apparent all the time, but it is grace-based. You are not able to tell who has more just by looking at their adherence to certain codes or standards of living. Solomon was so cared for and favored by God, yet the lilies out shine him. Why? Because by grace you are saved and blessed.
Jesus is both God and man. He is not Mammon, who demands earthly progress, earthly success, and earthy remuneration for his blessings. Basically, all your hard work just attributed to him, thief.
Jesus is both God and man in order that He can make His Way known through which we may please God. Not earn His blessings, mind you, but believe and have it counted to us as righteousness, walking in His Way of the Cross.
Look at our Old Testament reading. The widow, whom Elijah blesses with his presence, is not even named. She is not one of the rabble, but one of the thousands of generations to whom God shows His love, without any merit or worthiness in them. What was her work in all that? To despair and die? No, to receive. Elijah came to her, spoke to her, gave to her the infinite blessing of Word and Sacrament.
That is how we name these Promises of God we find in earthly means: Sacrament. Today, its baptism. Christ, clothed with wounds, clothes you with His righteousness. Christ ingests sin, death, and the power of the devil and you digest His true Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins. Christ is made anxious to give you His contentment in His Church of Promises.
So we receive His blessing with thankfulness. When someone says its a joy to work with you we say “thanks be to God”. When someone says nice save, or good catch, or you are an amazing person. “Thanks be to God”.
Likewise, when people say I’m so sorry for your loss, or you don’t deserve that, or that’s horrible; Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God because He gives blessing especially when life doesn’t. Because He gives blessing precisely where you are at in life regardless of your mindset.
Because He blesses in the midst of suffering just as our Lord and Savior on the cross proves for us.
In the Cross of Christ, Job’s words hit home: “Should we accept the good from God and not accept the bad?” (2:10). We accept both, because His hand that sends me sadness will turn my tears to gladness. He knows how best to shield me. For after grief God gives relief, my heart with comfort filling and all my sorrow stilling.
Thank you, I needed that.
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