The Day of Thanksgiving , 11/26/2009

Sermon on Matthew 6:25-34, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

²⁵ "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ 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? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

ABUNDANT PROVIDER

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

The Lord Jesus declares: "Do not be anxious about your life...." And it's tempting to respond, "That's easy for you to say! You're God in human flesh."

We are living in anxious times. This Thanksgiving is a bit more stressful for many in our parish than in previous years. Two of our parishioners are serving in the military either in Afghanistan or Iraq and are in harm's way. Our growing prayer list shows just how many of our members and their loved ones have health concerns, some seriously ill. Several of our parishioners are out of work. Others are underemployed. Some are facing bankruptcy. Many are grieving the deaths of loved ones especially this time of year. A few are in significant marital stress including legal separations. Those that make their living either directly from real estate or construction or banking are facing the end of the year with not a lot to show for all their hard work. Pension accounts still have not recovered from last year's major slide. And many of you are concerned about what's going on in the world, in our country, in our denomination, and in our congregation.

So when the Lord Jesus declares: "Do not be anxious about your life..." Yes, it's easy to respond: "Yeah, right! You're the Lord. The rest of us are only human!"

In the church of which my father and his father's family were members, everyone has the right to interpret Scripture for him or herself. That's their tradition not ours. So someone from my Dad's church might respond: "Well, the Lord doesn't mean it the way some folks think He does. He's not saying you shouldn't worry if you have a good excuse...after all God is a compassionate God who knows we can't help worrying about things when times are tough." And so on. That kind of reading of this text would be the equivalent of someone answering the Lord Jesus with "Yes, but..." It sounds like agreement, but it's just disagreement with a little crinoline and lace put around the words.

To the contrary, the Lord Jesus offers zero wiggle room in today's text. He says, "Do not be anxious - period!"

Now you will note that it's a lot easier to listen to these words of Jesus when we don't have much to be anxious about. We know that no one ever has a perfect life, yet there are certainly seasons in most lives in which things are going along fairly easy. Those are the years that Thanksgiving isn't at all difficult to celebrate. Sure, if you get together with relatives, there's that moment when you want to strangle a loud-mouthed brother-in-law who likes to talk politics or make fun of your church or to bad mouth your team. That's not anxiety. That's not even stress. It's just the joy of having siblings that refuse to be monks or nuns.

Anxiety is that tight-chested feeling when you start to wonder if you're having a heart attack or if you've got pneumonia. Anxiety is that nauseated feeling when you lose your appetite. Anxiety is that restless feeling when you can't go to sleep because your mind won't stop racing. Anxiety is that foggy feeling behind your eyes when you don't want to hear another word, you just want to run away...or perhaps hurt someone badly.

Someone once said that anxiety is like oxygen. It's just there all around us. When anxiety breaks out, people are tempted to do really stupid things to make the anxiety go away. We clergy know all about that, because we're constantly dealing with anxiety - either someone else's or our own.

Now, let me remind you, that there are some genuinely evil people in the world: sociopaths, homicidal maniacs, con-men and women on a grand scale, and folks that live by the lie that there is no God and that ethics, morality, and virtue are reserved for the weak. When you meet a genuinely evil person, he or she is eventually going to end up dead or in prison for life. Wars are started by these people. Lives are wrecked by these people. You don't try to hold hands and sing kumbaya with such people. Only great force works! Those that don't figure that out become just what's for lunch. Naïveté can get you killed when you're dealing with evil people! If you want an example, please read Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

I rarely deal with evil people, but I do deal with a lot of very anxious people. Occasionally I deal with a really bitter person who just can't stop spewing venom, and all I can do is pray for someone like that. Anxiety, as I said before, causes smart people to do some really dumb things. The sad part of this is that none of us thinks clearly when we are anxious. The saddest part of all is that none of us trusts God when we are anxious. That's what the Lord Jesus is trying to get across to us. He says: "Don't be anxious!"

Now if He left us there with nothing more to say, our response might well be: "Sure, that's easy for you to say." Kind of like when a person who's not worrying about where her or his next paycheck is coming from says: "Don't worry. Be happy."

The Lord Jesus understands how anxiety feels. He is, after all, both God and human. The Lord Jesus can empathize with anxious people, because He feels what we feel. Yet He reminds us that at the end of each day whatever we are complaining about, whatever we are worried about, whatever we are fearful, whatever we are anxious about is still going to be there. He says: "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

The Lord Jesus doesn't just say "Don't be anxious" and then leave us there puzzling with how to do that. Instead He says: "Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness." Notice He doesn't say "its righteousness" as if God's kingdom were somehow an entity apart from God.

You see these words are commentary on the prayer that the Lord Jesus has taught us to pray: "Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."

The antidote to our anxiety is prayer. The antidote to our lack of trust in God is prayer. The antidote to our anger and frustration and fear and bitterness is prayer. The antidote to gossip and complaining and worrying is prayer. The antidote to temptation is prayer. The antidote to sin is prayer. And, as Martin Luther reminds us, prayer begins with listening to, studying, and meditating upon God's Word. One of Luther's famous comments was: "I have a very busy day today. I need to pray twice as long."

Some of us are familiar with an old gospel hymn: "Yield not to temptation, For yielding is sin, Each vict'ry will help you, Some other to win; Fight manfully onward, Dark passions subdue, Look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through. Ask the Savior to help you, Comfort, strengthen, and keep you, He is willing to aid you, He will carry you through" (Horatio R. Palmer).

The very One who says: "Do not be anxious" and "Seek first God's kingdom" has taken on our nature and our lot. True God and true man, born of the Virgin Mary, He has borne our sins and carried our sorrows on His lonely cross. There is no place we will go that He has not already been there ahead of us without sin. He has been rejected. He has contemplated His own death. He has been maligned. He has been mocked. He has been lied about. And He has suffered and died a death that none of us will ever have to die. The Lord Jesus has risen from the dead to declare His victory over sin, death, and Satan. And all of this He has done, says Luther, "that I may be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness."

The Lord Jesus says "Do not be anxious," because He does something about everything that causes us to be anxious. St. Paul declares in his wonderful 8^th chapter of Romans: "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus."

Last night at Monday Bible study and Evening Prayer, someone talked about a close relative who received a very bad cancer diagnosis. This young woman discovered what many people who have also been there discovered ahead of her: When you realize that you are mortal, you suddenly begin to be grateful for all those little blessings that you don't normally pay attention to when you're running around being anxious.

The Lord Jesus says "Do not be anxious," because He knows that anxiety steals the joy from daily life and keeps us from being grateful for all that God has done, is doing, and will do for us. God is so good. Why do we keep acting as if He isn't?

Someone once said that generals are always fighting the last war and can't seem to see how the present war needs a different response and different resources. That's anxiety...that's you and me when we are anxious. We aren't paying attention to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only One who is able to help us and save us in the present moment!

Anxiety does strange things to people and to churches. It gives people carte blanche to behave badly and to look for all the wrong answers. So...you may not like me or you may not agree with me and vice versa. Nothing about human nature has changed since the days Scripture was written. You may think that I'm everything that's wrong with your life and this church. You may think that what this church needs is to be a lot more like the megachurch down the street or more like the YMCA or the Junior League. If you feel that way or think that way, there's not much I can do to change your mind. I will say in response that there's nothing in Scripture that suggests we need to be a lot more like the culture around us. I will say that Scripture never mentions which of the twelve played third base on the disciples' team or who brought home the city trophy.

What Scripture does say is that you and I are to seek God's kingdom and His righteousness first...always! And, along the way, we are not to be anxious - which because we are anxious, means "stop it" and "listen to Jesus and look to Jesus" always!

I'm grateful to be alive. I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful to be your pastor. I'm grateful in all things for the one true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!"

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

STS Samuel D. Zumwalt
St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

Zusätzliche Medien:
(www.societyholytrinity.org)

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