The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity - September 12, 2010

The Church Season of Trinity
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (September 12, 2010)

“ALL THESE THINGS”

Readings:  
    Psalm 146
    1 Kings 17:8-16
    Galatians 5:25 – 6:10
    Matthew 6:24 - 34

Sermon Form    Deductive

+INI+

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Old Testament Lesson from the 6th chapter of Matthew, especially the following verses:

Matthew 6:24-34 (NIV)

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he 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 important than food, and the body more important 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 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor 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, O 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.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

For at least a couple of generations now, many pastors have been taught by the practical, seeker sensitive teachers and leaders among us to soft sell the Law and the Gospel lest they offend anyone and thus lose them to the abyss of hell.

That simply cannot and will not happen.  We know that God will not lose a single one of those whose names are written in His Book of Life.  And we also know that souls are saved precisely by the bold preaching of Law and Gospel, because the Law sears the sinful flesh, and the Gospel soothes the contrite soul.  It is not a preacher's business to flatter, amuse, or market people into heaven.  It is their call to proclaim the Word for what it is and let the Holy Spirit condemn or console according to God's perfect discernment and heart for what the sinner truly needs.

Pastors are not called to be salesmen of salvation, public relations consultants for Christ, or corporate builders of His Church.  Christ does not need or want that.  The Holy Spirit is quite capable of being the builder of Christ's Church.

But we Lutherans seem to be suffering from a desire to embrace virtually anything for the sake of "growing the church."  The people of God are persuaded into believing that it is not enough for the Baptized Christians to exercise their vocations in faith as the child of God according to the Ten Commandments, and instead must do something "special" to glorify God and win souls for Christ. It is hard even for a pastor to think or say, ‘Let the numbers come or not based upon our faithful preaching and hearing of the Word of God for the forgiveness of sins.’

Although concern for filling pews sounds loving toward the lost, hidden behind it often lurks greed.  A pastor who preaches to full pews can build his church, build his kingdom, build his glory before his fellowmen.  And the people in that larger church?  Well, they think they can count on greater security and prosperity.  So in order to build at least in our minds, bigger kingdoms and prosperity we are tempted to avoid offense and try to keep others attending in any way possible. 

Doctor Martin Luther spoke of these things in his sermon on Matthew 6:"Among the vices there is none that opposes the Gospel as terribly as does greed.  As soon as a preacher makes it his aim to get rich, he stops performing his office the way he should.  The concern about making a living traps his heart the way a snare does.  He cannot teach or denounce in the right places or in the right manner.  He is concerned about losing popularity and friendship among those from whom he can get it.  Whoever wants to do his duty as a preacher and perform his office faithfully must tell the truth fearlessly.  He must denounce anyone that needs to be denounced-great or small, rich or poor or powerful, friend or foe.  Greed refuses to do this, for it is afraid that if it offends the bigwigs or good friends, it will be unable to find bread.  So greed keeps quiet.

It is the same way with the common crowd, the so-called people in the pews  They should listen to the Word of God and help to advance the kingdom of God, each individual in his own life and station.  But if they listen to greed, they refuse to believe that they will suffer and have to sacrifice their need for the sake of the Gospel.  Above all, they see to it that they have plenty and their belly is taken care of, regardless of whether there is enough Law or enough Gospel or not.  So they scrape and scratch, getting along as well as they can without proclaiming God’s Word to their fellow man. 

Christ the Lord gives a warning to those that are His.  He prescribes in Matthew 6 a good and potent medicine called 'seeking the kingdom of God. Taking this medicine makes anxiety unnecessary, but it makes it possible for us to have enough, in fact, it is a medicine greater and more excellent than any Mammon can give us.   And by the way, mammon would be dollars and cents to us.

"By these words, therefore, Christ would like to wake us up and say: 'Seek for the treasure called "the kingdom of God."  Do not be anxious about the perishable treasure which moth and rust consumes.  You have a much different treasure which is in heaven.  This is the kind of treasure that will sustain you forever, and it cannot perish and it cannot be taken away.  Because the treasure you cling to by faith is an enduring one, you will endure, too, even if you may not have a single penny from the world.'

"What the kingdom of God is, to put it most briefly, means believing in Jesus Christ.  In this kingdom He is the Head and the only King, in whom and through whom we have everything; whoever abides in Him cannot be harmed by any sin, by death, or any misfortune, but has eternal life, joy, and salvation.

And, what does it mean to 'seek' this kingdom?  What is the method of reaching it, and what way or path leads to it?  Here people point in one direction, and Christ in another direction.  For there are many ways, but they are all departures from that one way of believing in Christ and practicing and applying the Gospel, to which faith clings.  This involves growing and being strengthened at heart through preaching, listening, reading, singing, meditating, and every other possible way, including thinking of new ways to proclaim the Gospel in this world to those who don’t or won’t hear it.  For this Christ’s children are called to be willing to risk everything they have, and they would be ready to lose it rather than to surrender the Word.  But we don’t want to surrender any of those things, we don’t want to surrender what we’ve always done, nor the way we’ve always done it.

"But our condition in the kingdom of Christ is half sin and half holiness.  What there is in us that belongs to faith and to Christ is completely pure and perfect, since it is not our own but Christ's, who is ours through the free gift of faith and who lives and works in us.  But what is still our own is completely sinful.  Yet under Christ it is He who is concealed and blotted out through the forgiveness of sins.  Daily it is put to death through the same grace of the Spirit, until we have died to this life altogether."

For this reason Jesus Christ suffered and He died.  He gave His life for us poor sinners so that, as we trust in His sacrifice for us, our trust in Hi will never be disappointed.  His Cross, will keep us safe through life and death, safe from hell and satan, and bring us finally to eternal blessedness.  Therefore, the Cross is our treasure, and Christ is our gold and silver, it is He who will lead us even out of our own graves to join Him in the resurrection life. It is His kingdom which we seek like the blind groping in the darkness.  It is Christ’s kingdom given freely to you by the Light of Christ which are the “all” things, the eternal things given to you.  Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
+SDG+