Grace to you and peace forum God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 12th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verse 22 - 40:
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Pentecost 12 - 7 August 2016 - Year CFather knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32 “Fear not, little flock, for tit is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 vSell your possessions, and give to the needy. xProvide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with ya treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 “Stay dressed for action6 and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants7 whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect
Today’s Gospel is one that convicts nearly all of us rather severely. In the majority we are , by nature, worry wart. For most people, it's genetic or learned behaviour in this high pressure environment we live in, so much important stuff to remember and so little time. As a former Infantry Officer in the Army I have ingrained training and experience in planning and contingency planning so that lives aren't lost and objectives are met. Perhaps that is the reason I worry, my culture of feeling responsible for desired outcomes.
Then we hear from Jesus in today’s Gospel or in one of the other places where Jesus tells us not to worry. You know, as I hear these words, it dawns on me that worry is idolatry. When we worry, We are confessing that We do not believe that God is looking after us. Well, We worriers of the world have to do something about this! Right!? We've got to change! We've got to step up and confront this problem! So, what do we do? The very last thing to do not to begin to worry about the fact that we are worried. You see the harder we try to deal with the sin of worrying, but he more we fall victim to the sin of idolatry. worry! It’s a vicious circle!
This is just one practical demonstration of Paul’s lament over his sins when he wrote, [Romans 7:15, 18–19] “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”
When it comes to worrying about our own life and our own salvation, I think Paul has "nailed it" - he is spot on!
Worry is hard to deal with because worry is sort of a negative worship of self. I worship me because I think I should be able to do something. When evil attacks and it is beyond my control, worry believes that I am my only hope. Therefore despair is all that is left when I can’t fix the problem.
Idolatry is placing our trust in something or someone other than God. Normally, we think of placing our trust in something outside of ourselves … something that we think can help us. In the Gospel chosen for last week, we heard Jesus speak about the farmer who trusted in his large crops. He worshipped the wealth he had stored up in his barns. Two weeks ago we considered the idolatry of praying to gods who are not there.
Worry doesn’t take this approach to idolatry. Instead of trusting in a false god that is outside of me, I trust in myself. Then I go into hopeless despair when I realise that I cannot fix the problem.
Worry is no respecter of status or wealth. A mother in a third world country might worry that her children will starve to death. Mothers in the Australia worry that their children might be obese. Poor people worry about getting money. Rich people worry about losing money.
Worry has been around for a long time. The devil used worry to tempt Eve in Eden. When she told the serpent that eating the forbidden fruit carried the death penalty, the serpent replied, [Genesis 3:4–5] “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” With these words, the devil planted the idea that God was holding out on Eve. Eve began to worry that she might be missing out on something if she did not eat the fruit. In spite of the fact that she was queen of the entire universe and could look forward to an immortal life of perfect health and happiness, she was worried. Perhaps God was not allowing her to develop to her full potential.
When we worry, we are saying one of two things about God. We are either saying that God is not powerful enough to help us, or that God is powerful, but doesn’t care – or maybe He even wants to hold us back. In any case, we are saying that we cannot rely on God and must therefore rely on ourselves and on our stuff. When we trust in ourselves above all things, we are saying that we are god. When we trust in our stuff above all things, we are saying that our stuff is god. Either way, we are committing idolatry.
Eventually, our stuff will fail us. Eventually, we will fail ourselves. When that happens, we should repent and trust in the true God. Instead, we worry. We are not trusting in God above all things. In fact, we are not trusting in God at all.
Worry is not only spiritually damaging, but it isn’t even helpful in this world. Worry accomplishes nothing and can be physically harmful. Jesus said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” Modern medicine tells us that the stress of anxiety may cause a variety of disorders that will shorten our life. Why then, in spite of all the harm that worry does, do we still worry?
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they corrupted the perfect human nature that God created. Because Adam and Eve sinned every one of their descendants enters this world with a lust for sin. This sinful nature opened the door for all the bad things that happen. Frustrations, injuries, illness, and death all enter this world because we are sinners. Worry is one of the many sins that brings the curse into this world.
What then can be done about this worry? Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” At first, it may seem that Jesus is telling us to simply change our attitude. If we are not careful, we might take these words to mean that we should just buck up and get with the program. We should just adopt a happy attitude and all our worries will go away. If that were all that Jesus meant when He said these words, we would have every right to despair because in spite of our best efforts, we still worry. Thankfully, there is much more for us in these words.
Jesus also said, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” These words contain a promise that Jesus will return to serve us. This is one more hint at God’s ultimate plan for us all. The day will come when He will return. On that day, He will raise us up out of sin and sin’s curse. There will be no more sin, death, pain, frustration, or any other evil thing. There will be no more worry.
Instead, we shall see Him as He is. We will fully appreciate all His blessings. We will fully enjoy His presence and all His gifts. We will live in His eternal love and peace.
Jesus was able to promise this because He had already set His face to go to Jerusalem. He already knew that, in Jerusalem, He would surrender His body to suffering and crucifixion. He already knew that as He hung suffering on that cross He would satisfy God’s righteous judgment against our sin. He would pay the ultimate price so that we could enjoy His presence forever.
All these things came true exactly as He knew they would and with His sacrificial suffering and death, He earned the right for us to wear His eternal righteousness. Now He gives us the right to be adopted as His brothers so that we can wear the glorious robes of His righteousness and call His Father our Father.
We have the assurance that Jesus has earned all these gifts for us because He did not remain in the grave after He died for us, but He rose from the dead and ascended to rule at the right hand of the Father. This resurrection assures us that the glorious robes of Christ’s righteousness now belong to us. The robes of Christ’s righteousness are infinitely better than the clothing of the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven.
Where can we find such wonderful garments? We find them right here. The Bible says, [Romans 10:17] Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The Holy Spirit has chosen to bestow these garments of righteousness through Christ’s Word – as it is taught in its truth and purity – as it is combined with the water of Holy Baptism – and as it is combined with the bread and wine so that Jesus Himself gives us His true body and His true blood into our mouth at His table. It is through these means that the Holy Spirit has chosen to create and nurture the miracle of faith. And it is the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith that covers us with the robe of Christ’s righteousness.
When we worry and the Holy Spirit reminds us that it is a sin, He will also remind us that we are a baptised child of God. He will remind us that Jesus has redeemed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. He will remind us that we wear the righteousness of Christ and not even the grass of the fields is arrayed as gloriously. He will remind us that after that grass has long since been converted to smoke, we will wear those robes of Christ’s righteousness in the eternity of His presence. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment