Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
September 13th, Year of Our +
Lord 2026
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
Based on Matthew
6:24 - 34, 1 Kings 17:8 – 24
Audio of the sermon can be found HERE.
Don’t worry.
Today Jesus tells us not to be anxious.
But, you have to talk to a good friend about a real
problem, and it’s keeping you up at night.
But your finances are really tight, and you don’t know how
you can pay all your bills. Or perhaps you
know that you need to confront a loved one about something that’s threatening
to ruin their life and the lives of others, but you don’t know how to do
it. Sometimes we have worries on our
minds and it drives us crazy, and it’s all we can think about.
If your married, your wonderful spouse will kindly tell you, “Honey, just stop worrying about it.” And that fixes it…
But actually, no. That’s kind, but it doesn’t help much.
Last Tuesday Caleb Schewe, the new senior pastor at Divine Shepherd
Lutheran Church in Black Hawk, preached on today’s texts at our circuit meeting. This was a real gift. He did a fine job unpacking the Word for
us. And, he told me about something I’ve
never heard of. He said that Jesus suggests
something similar to a common psychological tool called “the blue elephant and
the purple dolphin.” The idea is that if
there’s this big blue elephant in the living room of your head, distracting you
and it’s all you can think about and it’s driving you crazy and you need to be
able to get around and get past it, you should simply think about a purple
dolphin, instead. That is, you should
think about something completely different to get your mind off the first thing
making you anxious. Stop thinking about
the blue elephant; instead, think about the purple dolphin. Voila! Worry gone.
I’m not sure how broadly this technique works in real life, but Jesus
does say something fairly similar. Our
reading starts with Him telling us that we can’t serve both God and money. Either we will hate one and love the other,
or we will be devoted to one and despise the other. As the lectionary summary in our bulletin put
it so well, the worship that money demands is our worry and our envy toward
others. The worship God seeks is faith,
that we trust that He is our loving Father who will take care of us, body and
soul, now and forever.
We are all susceptible to trying to serve God and
money. But, I think we can understand
why we don’t want to make an idol out of our money and our stuff. That’s a
miserable life.
But Jesus takes it further, moving on to tell us not to worry. Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat.
Don’t worry about what you’re going to wear.
Instead of worrying, look at something else. Look at the at the birds of the air. They don’t plant crops or harvest and store up
grain, and yet the Father provides food for them. Don’t worry, think about something totally
different. Don’t worry about what you’re
going to wear; instead, consider the flowers of the field. Even King Solomon in all his glory wasn’t
dressed as beautifully as the plants with their flowers, which today are alive,
and tomorrow are thrown into the fire.
To help you not worry about material goods, Jesus suggests we consider
how His Father provides for the natural world, and trust that He will take even
better care of us.
Pastor Schewe just moved here from Iowa farm country, and so he went on
to talk about sparrows, which are apparently a big deal there, and quite a
problem for the farmers. Maybe the next
time he preaches on this text, the Black Hills will have shown him a few more
interesting birds to consider. I
certainly have a more interesting list.
Our back deck overlooks Spring Creek, then out to tree-lined ridges,
with Humbolt Mountain dominating our northern skyline. Our skies are filled with soaring vultures,
noisy osprey, cooing doves, swarming blackbirds, bald eagles, mallards, geese,
goldfinches, house finches, swallows, pine siskins, and yes, also sparrows. Shelee and I do spend a fair bit of time
watching them, and we love it.
And, while I’m gazing at the birds, I’m not worrying about things. I’m too busy being amazed.
But. But, we can only spend so
much time watching birds, right? And
while we want to obey Jesus’ command to not be anxious, indeed, we love the
feeling of not worrying, the truth is most of us worry, maybe all of us. Considering the birds and the flowers may
distract us from our worries for a while, but if that is all Jesus’ has for us
today, it isn’t very helpful, a psychological band-aid for profound human
problems.
Because our problems are real, and have bad consequences. Which is why the widow of Zarephath is
included in our readings this morning. She
had problems. Widowhood and death by
starvation, not just of herself, but also of her son. That’s terrible. Starvation is not much of a threat to us, and
our lives are awash in material blessings, especially compared to the lives of
most people of most times and places.
But we have other terrible problems that afflict us and our loved
ones. A sudden cancer diagnosis. A chronic and debilitating condition. Broken relationships. Addictions to alcohol, drugs, gambling or
pornography. All precursors to the final
enemy, which is death.
We need something better than a pious version of the “Blue
Elephant/Purple Dolphin,” distraction technique. We need to face our real problems, our real
enemies.
Thankfully, our Lord knows this.
Better than we do, actually. Most
people have some idea about God and good and evil, and almost everybody is
afraid of death. But we can’t understand
the truth about God and sin and righteousness and life and death, unless the
Lord sends us His Word.
Which He did for the Widow of Zarephath.
Foreshadowing the good news that God’s desire to save and bless extends
to all nations, the LORD sends His Word to this foreigner, this Gentile widow,
because He wants to save her and her son, use her to care for His prophet
Elijah, and because He needs to teach all of us how He works, and about the
true nature and incredible depth of His love for mankind.
The Bible doesn’t tell us how she came to recognize that YHWH, the God
of Israel, is the true God. But when His
prophet Elijah (whose name happens to mean ‘My God is YHWH’) asks her for water
and a cake of bread, she has enough faith to trust and obey his word. Now, maybe it was easier for her to give away
some of her last bit of flour, since she knew they were about to run out
anyway. What does it matter if their
final meal is even smaller than she thought?
Starvation was at the door, either way.
Regardless of these unanswered details, the LORD through His Word
enabled her to trust and obey, then be convinced, and then to rejoice in God’s
miraculous provision. In the midst of
want and encroaching death, a miracle of bounty and life, in the never
exhausted containers of flour and oil in her cupboard. Through this, the widow of Zarephath, and her
son also, I assume, learn to trust the Word of the LORD.
Still, this is still just an earthbound story about material blessings,
so far. Believing the Word of the LORD
is a wonderful and necessary start, but like Jesus feeding the 5,000 from five
loaves and two fish a millenia later, only physical hunger has been
addressed. That’s important, but sin and
death are still looming. Which, spoiler
alert, we will hear about in next Sunday’s Old Testament reading, which is the
continuation of the Zarephath story in 1st Kings 17. And this is the real blessing of believing in
the Word of the LORD. As much as the
LORD loves to give us food and clothing and shelter, and speaks of them often,
the Bible is not primarily focused on material blessings. Which brings us to the critical phrase in
Jesus’ little sermonette this morning.
As lovely and true as all His poetry about the birds and the flowers was,
Jesus cuts to the point with this sentence: But seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things (the material blessings we
need for daily life) will be added to you. Life, the Bible, God’s desire for you and
every person, these are all centered on this goal: that you should be in God’s
Kingdom and have His Righteousness, that is, that you should live under His
blessing, protection and rule, holy, sinless and pleasing to the LORD.
Sin is not bad primarily because it ruins life in this world, although
it does and that is truly bad. And death
is not bad primarily because it is the end of our physical lives on this earth,
although that too is true and bad. The
greater problem with sin is that it cuts us off from God. The more serious death we should be worried
about is not the cessation of biological life, but rather eternal death, which
is not nothingness, but rather a continuous, never-ending miserable existence,
totally and eternally separated from God.
If we do not have God’s righteousness, we cannot be in His Kingdom, we
cannot have the life He wants for us.
God is the almighty giver of every good thing, and He is also Holy. We cannot live under His loving rule unless
we are righteous, that is sinless, holy, good, without blemish, just as God
is.
And, just as we cannot rightly understand our problems without God
teaching us the truth, neither can we solve our problems and win our way back
into God’s good graces. We can’t buy
citizenship in God’s Kingdom; we cannot generate the righteousness needed to
qualify for entry. On our own, sin
defeats us, utterly.
And so, because He wants you and me and many more souls, God through His
Word has been bringing His priceless gifts to His people since the
beginning. The Widow of Zarephath got a
glimpse of God’s generosity and His pursuit of souls. Jesus is God’s generosity and
His pursuit of souls, sent to us from heaven, righteousness made flesh.
Seeking God’s Kingdom and Righteousness would be just as impossible for
us as never worrying is, except for the reality of the Man who told us to do
all these things. All the demands that
Jesus puts on us that we cannot fulfill, and there are many, these demands He
fulfills in our place, and then delivers the fruit of His work to us, through,
as always, His Word.
The glory of God’s heavenly kingdom is beyond our understanding. But God in His Word has revealed where we can
see His Kingdom and Righteousness. We
can see with eyes of faith the Kingdom and Righteousness of God hanging on a
Cross outside Jerusalem, 2,000 years ago.
And, we can see, hear, feel and taste God’s righteousness coming to us
today, as Jesus comes to us, delivering His forgiveness, washing sinners into
the Kingdom, feeding souls with bread even better than the Widow baked, the
bread and wine of salvation, through which Jesus feeds us with forgiveness,
through which Jesus shares His Righteousness with us, week after week. Through Christ’s forgiving blood, you are
covered with the Robe of His Righteousness, which makes you a member of His
Kingdom.
The miracle at Zarephath led the newly believing widow to rejoice, and
to provide for Elijah, along with herself and her son. So also, God’s Kingdom Gifts to us should
give us joy, and overflow into care for others.
As Paul exhorts the Galatian Christians: Let the one who is taught
the word share all good things with the one who teaches, and as we have
opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the
household of faith.
The world and our own fallen
natures daily call us to seek fulfillment, joy and peace in things of this
world. Many of these are good things,
gifts from God. Other things we are
taught to chase after are not good. But
none of them can truly satisfy. No
earthly gift can truly remove worry and give joy like the Righteous Kingdom Life
which is yours in Christ Jesus. And so that
you can enjoy it, your Jesus comes to you, every time you hear His Word, every
time you seek His gifts, every time you gather with the Church family He has
made you part of.
Let us pray: O Holy Spirit, as every rainbow reminds us of
Your promise to Noah, so also, grant us to see in every feeding bird and every budding
flower the eternal banquet and the eternal robes of righteousness that the
Father has given to us in Christ Jesus, today, and forever and ever, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment