Worry in service of Mammon

Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

Today’s Gospel deals with the topic of worrying. You know anything about that? Specifically, Jesus deals here with worrying about things that people think money (or “mammon”) can fix, although, in reality, worrying about anything comes from the same place: fear—fear that you won’t have what you need, fear that you won’t have the things you want, fear that you’ll have to face a situation that you don’t want to face, fear that your troubles will overtake you, and there will be no one to help. So, you figure, you’ll have to help yourself, figure things out, provide what you need. But, how?

Well, money can solve a lot of problems, can’t it? We think that, with enough money, we could take care of things. We could gather enough things around us for tomorrow, so that we don’t have to worry about tomorrow.

But then, most of the time, it isn’t actually tomorrow you worry about, is it? It’s “figurative tomorrow,” that is, the future, a ways down the road, even into retirement, especially when it comes to your earthly needs. You here probably have plenty for tomorrow, don’t you?, just sitting in your refrigerator or your pantry or your closet. And for that matter, it isn’t your basic needs of simple food and simple clothing for your bodies you worry about, I imagine. It’s all those things beyond your basic needs that you worry about. Imagine! You’re familiar with worry when your pantries are full! Imagine if they were empty! Imagine living like the vast majority of people in the world have lived for thousands of years, without full pantries or refrigerators, without retirement accounts, having just barely enough for simple food and clothing for today. If those people living at the time of Jesus had what you and I have in our pantries and refrigerators and closets, they would think they had died and gone to heaven. They would think, “I’ve become a king or a queen! I’ll never worry again!”

But that isn’t how worry works, is it? Even when you have plenty for tomorrow, worry isn’t banished. Because something could always go wrong—an emergency that drains the savings account, a sickness that breaks the bank, a stock market that tanks, a lawsuit unforeseen, a job that suddenly goes away. So we have to spend our time planning, making money, pursuing wealth, “serving mammon.” And yet, the more we serve it, the more we worry about feeding this god and keeping it happy, lest we lose our security blankets and our safety nets and fall into ruin!

Jesus knows worriers very well. And He knows what worry actually is: it’s a form of idolatry. It’s not trusting in God above all things, but in something else or someone else. It’s the suspicion that God won’t help you, won’t be there for you, or will give you something that you just don’t want. And so you search elsewhere for help. You put your trust in money to provide for you, or in your own ability to make the right plans and to provide your own help somehow. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the god of wealth and material possessions). Either your heart is turned confidently toward God as the source of all help, or it looks elsewhere.

Not only that, Jesus says, but your worry is useless; it doesn’t provide for you or solve your problems for you. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? You know very well, as you lie awake at night worrying about your problems, that nothing will be better by morning simply because you didn’t sleep. You dwelling on things doesn’t fix a thing. It doesn’t make you any taller. It doesn’t get you any closer to feeling secure.

So worry is idolatrous, and it’s useless. And in addition to that, Jesus shows you in today’s Gospel that worry is needless. Because you have a Father in heaven. Did you forget? Now, He’s speaking here to Christians, to His disciples, to the baptized. God offers to be the Father of everyone, through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. He offers all people the adoption of sons through Holy Baptism. You who have been baptized in His name—you already have God for a Father.

And He’s not like any earthly father. Earthly fathers—the good ones, at least—do their best to provide for their children. But they don’t do it perfectly. They don’t know what all their children need. And there are so many things an earthly father can’t do at all. But the heavenly Father has no such limitations. All needs are known to Him. All things come from Him. And He is willing and able to provide all that His children need.

Look at the birds of the air, Jesus says. And He reminds us that these little creatures are perfectly provided for by your heavenly Father. He has given them all food to eat, and He also guides them so that they know where to find it. They don’t spend a moment of their short lives brooding over their next meal. Are you not of more value than they?

But don’t stop at the birds. Consider the lilies of the field. They neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

The obvious implication in both of Jesus’ probing questions is that, yes, of course you’re more valuable than the birds. Much more! You’re children of the heavenly Father, created in His image and redeemed by the blood of His Son. And yes, of course God will much more clothe you than He clothes the grass of the field. Birds live for a few years or a few decades, and then they’re gone forever. Flowers live for days or weeks, and then they’re tossed out or burned up. But human beings have an eternal soul. God made you to live forever with Him. And even when our first parents, Adam and Eve, messed all that up by sinning against Him, even though all of us were born in sin and have rebelled against God in countless ways, He gave His own Son into death for our sins and sent His minister to pour water over you in His name, so that you may again have access to a gracious Father through faith in Christ. Yes, you’re worth more than birds and grass.

What’s the message here, then? You don’t have to work? You should sit around all day waiting for God to drop food and clothing into your lap? No, Jesus tells you what the message is: Your heavenly Father knows what you need. So your first priority shouldn’t be running after the things that you need for your body. The Gentiles do that! That’s what unbelievers run around doing. Instead, He says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. That means, on a daily basis, make hearing His Word and receiving His Sacraments your highest priority. Repent of your worry and all your idolatries and all your sins and look to Christ for forgiveness and righteousness, because your heavenly Father promises forgiveness to all who trust in Christ. Then do righteous things as subjects of Christ our King. Live as children of your heavenly Father. Don’t make earning money your highest priority. Let loving God and your neighbor be your highest priority. Carry out your vocation in righteousness, justice, fairness, kindness. “Worry” about those things. That is, be concerned with doing those things. And your heavenly Father will see to it that you have what you need, each and every day.

I’ll give you a very real scenario in which Christians will be called upon more and more to put this into practice. Up until now, the Lord has provided much of what you need through the opportunities and abilities He’s given you to work. But what’s happening in our world is that Christians are being called upon more and more to do things or say things in the workplace that go against God’s will as revealed in His commandments. “Call that ‘him’ a ‘her’ or lose your job. Perform abortions or lose your job. Teach evolution as fact or lose your job.” And who knows what else they’ll come up with as the world grows more and more degenerate. What will you do? Will you seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, trusting in Him to provide, even if you lose your job? Or will you let worry get the best of you so that you’d rather deny God than risk losing your livelihood? Prepare yourself for it! But don’t worry about it!

Worry is something most Christians will still struggle with throughout their lives. But Jesus says, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Now, just saying those words to someone doesn’t usually help. But Jesus has done far more than just say the words, “Don’t worry.” He has revealed worry as the service to an idol called mammon. He has shown how useless and how needless it is. And He is giving you His Holy Spirit through these very words, to beat down the Old Man with his fear, worry, doubt, and unbelief, so that the New Man may rise again, the child of God who knows that he has a gracious Father in heaven who will help in every need.

Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Amen.