St Mary, Mentmore – Sunday 27 February 2011 – 2 before Lent
Gospel Matthew 6.24-34
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon
Telling people not to worry isn’t easy. Like ‘pull yourself together.’ You have to give them a reason not to worry. Reassurance. Someone else to deal with their concerns.
Jesus does this often. “Do not be afraid.” “Fear not little flock...” So it’s only a comfort to read his words here if we are offered the reassurance we need not to worry. Some of us a born worriers – we worry if we have nothing to worry about.
So let’s examine the passage – does Jesus reassure us? Give us confidence not to need to worry about our livelihoods? In verse 24 he gives us a choice. God or Mammon? Spiritual capital or financial capital?
Problem is one of possessions. Desire for them. Comfort of owning them. Reassurance of being surrounded by them. Against all that, Jesus challenges us to take a position on Wealth. Wealth competes for our hearts. Money and possessions in themselves are not wrong. It’s what they do to us, and where we put out faith and trust?
That’s the first theme – TREASURE. What are your treasures? What in your life means most to you? What takes most of your time? What takes front seat in your heart?
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, ... 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Other themes are these:
1. Needs
2. Faith
3. Motivation
4. Energy
NEEDS
Not that Jesus is saying our daily needs are unimportant. Nor can he be saying God will always provide: there are starving people in the world.
But if God does not always provide, why not? Surely as God has created the world with an abundance of resources, it’s because some of us take more than our rightful share of what the world has to offer?
The question we need to ask: ‘Who do we trust to provide for us?’ Self-reliance, confidence, self-motivation – all things we admire in others and value in ourselves.
Is it not the case that God does provide, only he does so through us? We are the hands and feet and agents of God, and we have the responsibility to trade fairly, not throw away food we have flown half-way round the world, and not to treat creation and the planet with the careless abandon that denies our future and keeps the majority of our fellow human beings in poverty and need.
When the first disciples sent out on mission, they took no spare clothes, no money, no possessions. Did God provide for their needs? Yes – but that provision came through others. People they met. Villagers who offered them hospitality. We’re not talking miracles here – we are the hands, feet and heart of God. His provision is abundant, but we are the ones who have to distribute it aright.
FAITH
Where do we put our faith? Jesus several times brands the disciples as ‘you of little faith.’ Oligopistoi – people with weak faith.
It wasn’t that they didn’t have faith they could themselves act as their Master did. He who stilled the storm. Walked on water. Multiplied the loaves. Created wine out of water. No – it wasn’t that. The criticism was that, having observed these things, they put too much faith in themselves, and too little in him.
Worrying too much, being over-anxious, caring too much for our own needs – aren’t these just other ways of saying we lack faith?
MOTIVATION
So what is your motivation? Where do you attach most importance in your life? On security, comfort, saving? Or on things eternal? On developing your spirituality?
If God calls, do you follow – or turn back and bury your father first? Jesus is clear with the man who asks: “If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and follow me.” 19:21.
That’s the ultimate in trust. It might not be for everyone, especially in a modern economy. But remember the words of Mother Teresa. She said ‘If you cannot feed 100 people, why not start with just one?’
ENERGY
So, finally, where do you put your energy? What achievements in life are you most proud of? Where is your priority? What has most importance for you? What gives your life real meaning? All these are questions to ponder, because they reveal a lot about our treasure.
This reminds me of the story told later in Matthew about the wicked servant. Peter asks how often we have to forgive someone who wrongs us?
The parable is about forgiveness. A servant owes a huge debt to his master. It’s so big, he could only pay the money back in several lifetimes. The servant pleads for mercy, and his debt is forgiven.
Later on, that same man comes across a fellow servant who owes him a trifling sum but cannot pay him back. He near throttles him and has him thrown into gaol. The moral of the tale is obvious.
In the Lord’s Prayer, we receive forgiveness of our debt to God, again and again. But the prayer says:
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Debt relief is conditional. The need is clear. We have the choice of receiving God’s blessing, and then ignoring the needs of others. Of putting our faith in ourselves, or letting go of what has been important to us and acting as God’s hands and feet in the world. Of examining our own motivation and ensuring we act towards others as God has shown his grace towards us. Of using our energy as Christian people, and not regarding our faith as some sort of upgrade, bolt-on or extension to a life which is to all extents and purposes just the same as anyone else’s.
That’s the challenge of today’s gospel:
20 ... store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, ... 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Amen
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