First Things First

Matthew 6:25-7:12

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’

For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.

For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

“Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?

Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake?

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

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I have spent much of this past week trying to figure out how it can possibly be acceptable to both trust in God and to worry about whatever it is we worry about.

 It is sometimes said of pastors that our role is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

 How many of you are worrying about something today?

 So, if you are afflicted with worry, perhaps you are seeking a word of comfort from me, or from God through me, saying that of course it’s ok to worry about whatever it is you are worrying about. Of course it’s understandable. Of course there’s nothing you could possibly do other that worry about it.

 But in order to proclaim this Living Word we heard today, I have no word of comfort for you. Because this passage starts from the last verse we heard last week from Jesus: You cannot serve both God and wealth, or mammon. Mammon means property – both financial and real property. You can only serve one or the other. You can’t serve both.

 Or on the other hand, if you are comfortable with your current list of things to worry about, well, then, God is putting me in the quite uncomfortable position of having to afflict you, just as God regularly afflicts me on this very same issue. Because our worry, mine as well as yours, is an indication that we are not quite ready or quite able to trust God wholeheartedly. It indicates that deep down, we still prefer to rely on our own resources, our own mammon, rather than relying on God.

  It comes down to this. If we are worrying about what we have, you are not trusting God. And if we trust God, there is not a thing to worry about.

 Brian McLaren points out this week that Jesus presents us with three core problems.

 The first is anxiety. And more specifically, how our anxieties show us how little we trust God’s providence. In the list of worries Jesus brings to our attention, he points out that we behave as if we think that “God must be either so incompetent or so uncaring that we ight end up miserable, or starving, or naked, or dead!”

 What Jesus is advocating is the opposite of an anxiety driven system. Instead, he describes a system sustained by faith – a system he calls “God’s kingdom and righteousness”. Another translation is “God’s sovereignty and justice”.

 When he says, “seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness”, he’s not really putting things into chronological order. Instead, he’s telling us to put first things first. The highest priority in our lives needs to be striving for lives that recognize God’s sovereignty, lives that are lived as if we believe it.

 And Jesus promises that by putting God’s sovereignty and God’s justice as our highest priority, everything we truly need will be given to us.

 This promise makes sense on several levels. First, God knows what we truly need, and we don’t. God knows what our loved ones truly need, and we don’t. When we anxiously focus on our own individual well-being, on the well-being of the ones we love the most, we turn away from love for our neighbor, and we end up in rivalries with our neighbors, with those we regard as “other”. Everyone ends up worse off in this scenario.

 But when we live by faith in God’s abundance, then we watch out for each other rather than compete with one another. We bless one another rather than oppress one another. when we desire what God desires – for all to be safe, for all to be truly alive – then we work for the common good. We collaborate. We share. And God’s providence covers us, covers all of us.

 The second core problem that Jesus points out is that anxious people are judgmental. And only God can judge. Only God is worthy to judge. And God never asked us to step in and do God’s work of judgment. In fact, Jesus tells us that focusing on the speck in the eye of the other keeps us from doing our own work of salvation, working on removing the log in our own eye. Jesus tells us that the antidote to judging is self-examination. It is beneficial for focus on faults – our own faults. And by realizing how hard it is to deal with our own problems and shortcomings, we become more conscious and sympathetic and compassionate and sensitive about how hard it is for others to deal with theirs.

 Which leads to the third core problem identified by Jesus.

 We do not realize how deeply we are loved.

 Let me say this again.

 We do not realize, even begin to realize, how very deeply God loves us.

 My daughter recently preached a dialogue sermon with her pastor in the Chicago church she attends.

The theme was Decluttering, and she spoke about the cluttering that comes from worry and anxiety, and about the intentional focusing that occurs when people are nearing the ends of their lives, and especially in the conversations she has with them and their families about end-of-life care.

Talking about both that and her own personal struggle throughout her life with anxiety and depression, she offered a phrase from the Brief Statement of Faith that has especially helped and sustained her.

“In life and in death, we belong to God.”

 This is the way that God deeply, deeply loves us.

God does not promise a life without sorrow and suffering. But God is and always will be with us. God does not promise our lives will turn out the way we think is best. But God is and always will be with us.

 Worry clutters our lives and our hearts and keeps us from being present with God, keeps us from being aware that we are in God's kingdom, that we are citizens of God's kingdom, above and beyond any other affiliation we hold.

Why can’t we trust the living God to be generous and compassionate to all who call out for help?

 Why can’t we trust that God knows what we need, better than we do ourselves? Why can’t we trust that God will make a way for us to have what we truly need?

 My friends, Jesus is comforting our afflictions, and afflicting our comforts, with these words:
 
We can trust God completely to know what we truly need, and to provide what we truly need.

 We can trust God completely to judge perfectly, both us and others.

 And we can trust God completely to love us deeply, unconditionally, always.

 So let us catch ourselves when we fall into anxiety and judgment. Let us turn our worries into prayers, giving them to God, letting God handle them, trusting God knows best what is to be done.

 And let us always remember that God has conquered the troubles of the world, God has conquered even death, through the saving love, the sacrificial love, the ultimate self-giving love of Jesus Christ our Savior. And so, as wholehearted followers of Christ, disciples of the Good Shepherd, who gives his life for the sheep, there is nothing, nothing on earth or in heaven, for us to fear anymore.