Putting First Things First

St. Matthew 6:24-34

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

St. Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  In the 1800’s a woman named Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote her now famous poem which begins with these words: “How do I love thee, let me count the ways.”  And then the next several lines speak of her love and devotion for another.

With apologies to Ms. Browning, I would like to use her opening line with a slight twist: “How do I love… to worry, let me count the ways.”

We worry about whether or not our retirement benefits will continue.  We worry about whether we can even afford to retire.  We worry about our health.  We worry about the health of a loved one.  We worry about our relationship with our wife or husband or children or other friends or family members.  We worry about our job – how much longer we will have it, or whether we will get one.  We worry about how we will get all our work done for school or in the workplace.   We worry about the weather – whether it’s cold or hot, dry or wet, and we worry about loved ones in the paths of raging storms.

But wait – there’s more!  We worry about our personal finances.  We worry about our creditors.  We may worry about the congregation’s finances.  We worry about the current and very volatile political climate in this country.  We worry about whether we will get the virus.  We worry about governing officials who may very well enact further draconian measures to control their state or county.  We worry about the potential demise of democracy should the upcoming elections go a certain way. There is no end to the things you can find to worry about.

You worry, you worry, and you worry.  And it is all sin.  All of it!  Repent.

In today’s Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ was well into the process of scolding His disciples for doing the same exact thing – worrying.  Worrying about things to the extent that we do amounts to lack of faith and trust in Christ; it amounts to ultimately believing that God either cannot or will not provide; it is believing that He either cannot or will not do anything about your concerns.  It suggests that He doesn’t even know about you.

Dear fellow worriers, listen again to your Lord Jesus.  Take heed to His words.  He tells you the truth; He does not lie.  He does not lead you astray.  Listen: “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.”

Now mammon, of course, means money.  Money is the key to understanding the disciples’ concerns, and it is the key to understanding your concerns as well.  Think about it:  What do you need in order to have clothes?  Money.  What do you need in order to buy groceries?  Money.  What do you need in order to have drink?  Money.  Money, money, money.  You never seem to have enough of it, you think you cannot live without it, and your love of it may end up taking you to hell.

No wonder St. Paul wrote these words to his fellow pastor Timothy, words which need no further comment other than to state the obvious – that this is also the Word of the Lord Himself: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Folks, listen carefully.  Every chance the devil gets he uses money to drive you crazy.  He uses it to lead you into temptation; he uses it to yank your focus away from God in Christ; he uses it to cause you to worry so much that, after a while, it is all you can think about.  That kind of worry is not from God!

The devil uses money to drive wedges between husbands and wives; this causes harsh words to be spoken, some of which do irreparable harm.  And he does the same thing in the church.  Hard feelings and harsh words may arise whenever money becomes the overriding focus of any congregation.  It is a sad and extremely damaging thing for a congregation to lose its ultimate focus: that of hearing and receiving God’s good gifts to her in Christ.  When that focus is dimmed, damaged or derailed, we are in for a peck of trouble.

Undue focus, undue attention, and unhealthy love of money turns you into Ebenezer Scrooge.  You end up worshipping money.  Money becomes your God.  Repent of your sin against the First Commandment!

In our text Jesus commands you to look around and see how easily and how completely He takes care of birds of the air and how their every little need is met by your heavenly Father.  Jesus commands you to see how the flowers of the field grow and flourish and how splendid they are.  And then these words: “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?”

And then the stunning blow: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.”  That hurts.  And do you know why it hurts?  Because the Gentiles in this case are unbelievers.  Jesus tells His disciples that they sound like a bunch of whiny unbelievers…and He is right.
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In the 16th century the pressures and concerns of the Reformation had so consumed blessed Dr. Martin Luther that his wife Katerina was noticing his sullenness and bad moods.  Finally when she had had enough, she asked him, “Dr. Luther, Has God died?”  “Why, of course God has not died,” he responded.  “Why would you ask that?”  “Well,” said Luther’s wife, “I thought surely God had died by the way you were moping and crying about.”  Upon realizing what a terrible witness he was giving to the Christian faith with all his worry and moping about, Luther was cheered by the sweet Gospel of forgiveness and the fact that God is alive and cannot die.

Dear friends, by your constant worrying and moping, you too give a bad witness to your neighbor who may think that God has died by the way you sometimes act, especially about the things we have talked about today.

So now, hear the sweet proclamation of the Gospel.  Jesus said, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

First things first, dear people of God.  First things first.  In fact, Jesus uses the word “first” in a way that suggests there is no “second,” “third,” or anything else.  The first thing, as far as Jesus is concerned, is the ONLY THING.  And He is right again.

The kingdom of God comes first; and with it, comes all other things.  “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  In fact, the Greek word that Jesus uses means to keep on seeking, so that you literally do not seek anything else, for there really is nothing else to seek.

The kingdom of God and His righteousness is nothing less than Jesus Christ Himself.  It is everything Jesus is for you; it is everything Jesus has done for you; it is everything Jesus gives to you.

Your Jesus is for you.  He knows, much more than you will ever know, what heartache and concern is about.  Recall His anguish and bloody drops of sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Recall how earnestly and intensely He prayed to His Father that if it were possible His cup of suffering would be taken away.

But it was not possible, for Jesus had to endure the suffering, He had to endure the beatings, He had to endure the humiliation, the torture, the spikes in His hands and feet, the excruciating death.  It was not possible that Jesus’ cup of suffering would be taken away because, dear friends, that suffering and death was YOUR suffering and death.  But He took it for you.  He took it in your place.  He died for you.  And by doing so, He took away from you your eternal punishment, making it His own.

Jesus is your righteousness.  Jesus is your First, your Last, and everything in between.  Compared to Jesus, there is nothing else: Period.  Jesus Himself is the very embodiment of the Kingdom of God.  He is the Kingdom of God in the flesh.

Therefore, with joy and confidence, receive Jesus in all the ways that He delivers Himself to you, and do not turn Him away.  Jesus comes to you daily in your Baptism – a gift in which God in Christ has given you His death to sin and made it yours; a gift in which He has given you His resurrection to eternal life and made it yours; a gift in which He has given you His own deliverance from death and the devil and made it yours.

Jesus comes to you in the preaching of God’s precious Word and Gospel; for this, too, is your forgiveness and strength.  Jesus comes to you as confess your sins and receive Holy Absolution, for here the forgiveness spoken by your pastor is from Christ Himself, and His Word always does what it says.

And Jesus comes to you regularly in your Lord’s body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  For here, in these earthly elements of bread and wine Your Savior comes to you bodily, physically, willingly taking up residence in your own sinful and dying body, thereby giving you forgiveness, life, and salvation.

You can be certain that Jesus has more forgiveness than you have sins.  You can be certain that Jesus has more comfort than you have sorrows.  You can be certain that Jesus has more peace than you have worries.  You can be certain that Jesus has more strength than you have weakness.

With Jesus there is always more and more and more – more of Him than anything you have to deal with.

Hear your Lord Jesus again.  Believe this Word of God to you.  It is His own guarantee, sealed in His blood on the cross for you: “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

First and only Jesus.  Then all these things; every one of them.

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