Worry is idolatrous, useless, and needless

Sermon for Trinity 15

Deuteronomy 6:4-7  +  Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

Do we have any worriers among us this morning? If you’re a worrier, you’re probably pretty good at finding the problem to every solution, the cloud to every silver lining. You know what could go wrong with just about any scenario, and you’re always thinking, what if it does? You see things going wrong, and you think, what am I going to do?

People worry about all sorts of things, but in the end, worry is an anxiety caused by fear—fear that your troubles will overtake you, and there will be no one to help. So you’ll have to help yourself, but how? There are many things that are beyond our control. We aren’t God, after all.

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

Except that, no amount of money is ever enough to banish worry for good. Because, even if we accumulate enough money for today and tomorrow, 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 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, because we worry that it’s the only god that will actually put food on the table and clothes on our backs.

Jesus knows worriers very well. And He what worry leads to: idolatry. Fearing that God won’t help you, you put your trust in money to provide for you or in your own ability 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 toward God as the source of all help, or it turns somewhere else for help. And even though you’re not bowing down before an image of wood or stone, to make yourself your own Provider or Problem-solver with a capital “P” is just as idolatrous as worshiping a golden calf.

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 being God.

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. 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. And to 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, and there are so many things an earthly father can’t do at all. But the heavenly Father has no such limitations. 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, 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 eternal Son into death for our sins, so that you may again have access to a gracious Father through faith in Christ. And now, through Baptism, God has made you children and heirs of eternal life. 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—doesn’t have to be running after the things that you need for your body. 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 children of your heavenly Father. Love your neighbor. 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.

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 saw the words, “Don’t worry.” He has shown you how idolatrous worry is, how useless, and how needless. And He is giving you His Holy Spirit through these words, to beat down the Old Man with his fear and worry and unbelief, so that the New Man may rise again, the child of God who knows that he has a gracious heavenly Father who will help in every need.

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