Passage: Luke 12:22-34
Preacher: Rev. Bob Hiller
Series: Lectionary Series C
Category: Worry
Keywords: birds , care , fear , grass , worry
Summary:
If our Father cares for measly, noisy birds, and tends to temporary grass how much more will He care for you, the very person He sent His Son to bleed and die for.
Detail:
Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Have you ever noticed how there are certain commands that people give you that result in the opposite effect? Like Jesus says, You’ve heard it said, you shall not murder, But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. So, you hear it and then you begin to think immediately of the dude you shouldn’t be hating and everything they’ve done to you, and that bitterness starts to creep in. Or, we used to go to these haunted houses when we were in High School. And you’d have someone there saying in a really creepy voice, “Don’t be afraid.” And the opposite thing happened in your heart. Suddenly you are all freaked out, waiting for something to scare you! Or, like the doctor walks in and says, “I don’t want you to worry about this…but…” Ummm…now I’m worried about it! Or, your pastor preaches about a major financial deficit and says, “Don’t worry, it’s all good…” Yeah, commands tend to have the opposite effect on us.
So, today, when Jesus says today, multiple times, “Don’t worry about your life…nor should you worry…fear not…” the opposite emotion may start to swell up inside of us. I had a friend recently who wrote on facebook, “God doesn’t give us permission to worry.” To which, I thought, well that is the most counterproductive post I’ve ever seen! Not only was I worried about XY & Z before, now my worrying is upsetting God! If we aren’t careful in our reading of the text today, Jesus’s command against worry can begin to sound, at best, like a heartless platitude, “Oh don’t worry, every little things gonna be alright.” Or, at worst, it will drive you away from the God who you worry about keeping happy only to find that your very worries are even angering Him!
Besides, as soon as Jesus says, “Don’t worry about your life” what do you start to do? You start talking back, don’t you! Oh, don’t worry about my life, Jesus? That’s easy for you, a single, 30 something who also happens to be God, to say! But, I’ve got a mortgage! I’ve got kids who have 17 commitments in the next four days. I have a boss who won’t stop breathing down my neck. Our country is spiraling out of control! Don’t you watch the news Jesus? They are showing us very clearly that we must be worried! That’s why we keep watching, so we know what to worry about! Have you looked around lately, Jesus? We must worry! We are living in constant state of emergency! If we don’t worry, we could lose our lives! Worry keeps us alert and ready for action! We worry to survive!
We tend to operate with that mentality, don’t we? We worry because we think worry is productive. Think about that with fear. If you want get votes in this country, just paint the most terrifying picture of your opponent you can, and you will produce votes. Fear and worry are tools used by politicians and marketers that get us to act. If I want you to do something, I simply need to paint a very bleak picture of what will happen if you don’t. Sometimes this picture may be accurate and sometimes it may be manipulative.
The problem with worry is that it is a fruit of idolatry. We worry when we fear our idols will be lost. As we talked about last week, we tend to idolize our material goods and our wealth, so we worry and toil to make sure we can maintain a certain lifestyle. And it makes us miserable, but at least the A/C works. Or, we idolize approval from our peers, we are addicted to approval, so we will lie and put on a good show for fear of our sins being found out. Or, we idolize marriage, and so we work hard to have a good marriage without actually paying attention to our spouse. We put so much stock into our lifestyle, our reputation, or even our families, that we toil and spin in order to keep them in check. And we’ve done a good job and polishing our idols and keeping them clean.
And then, one day, they are smashed. We lose our job, our sins get discovered, depression sets in, our spouse leaves, our kids rebel, and our whole world falls apart because the thing we were clinging to, the thing we loved more than anything else, is gone. And all that worrying, all that working and toiling, couldn’t add a single hour to our lives. The worry wasn’t productive, it was hopeless.
So, Jesus steps into this and says, “Don’t worry about your life…fear not…” And you just want to tell him to shut up! But, you see, He won’t. And He won’t go away. For it is there, when He finds you, covered in the dust of your shattered idols, and weeping in fear of the future, that Jesus completes his sentence: Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” I mean, there is hardly a more comforting verse in all of scripture!
You and I must confess and repent every Sunday that our fears and worries come because we have hearts that are clinging to so many other things besides Christ. And, those hearts are going to be fighting that until Christ returns. But, He is returning, and it is His good pleasure to do it! It is His good pleasure, even now, to give you the Kingdom of God! That is, it is His good pleasure to destroy this idolatrous, worrisome life you and I live, by crucifying it on the cross, so that He can raise you to a new life in His kingdom of marvelous light! You dwell there now, you know, beneath His reign. In fact, this morning, it is my duty to tell you in His stead and by His command, that He is pleased to give you His kingdom! Your idols are destroyed, your sins are forgiven, and God is watching over you. Your life, no matter what may come or go, what fears or foes you face, is lived beneath the grace of a God who loves you and has sent His Son to die for you, conveying a Kingdom upon you.
Look at those ridiculous ravens! They are awful birds. Or look at those lilies in the field that do no work. And yet, the Lord tends to them. If our Father cares for measly, noisy birds, and tends to temporary grass how much more will He care for you, the very person He sent His Son to bleed and die for. He knows your needs before you ask them, He knows your needs better than you. He will provide, for you are His precious, beloved sheep. He is your shepherd.
Oh, the wonderful comfort that comes from God’s promsies of grace. Remember when you were a kid and you were scared of the dark? If, before your parents shut the lights off in your room, they said, Okay…don’t be scared! And walked away, how would you respond. Again, why should I be scared!?!? But, if you said, “I’m scared,” and they responded by saying, “Of what?” And you told them, “I don’t like the dark, I think there is a monster in my room.” If they looked under your bed for you, examined the closet, touched all the creepy shadows, and then laid next to you to pray, your fears would be alleviated. They could say, “Don’t be afraid, I’ve dealt with the darkness for you. Now I’m going to lay with you to keep you calm.”
I think of our church, right now, as kind of like that kid who is scared of the dark. I think about this with our church right now, how we are in such an uncomfortable place financially. We can choose to let fear drive us in our dealings with this, but that will only result in over-reaction, suspicion, and anger amongst us. Fear and doubt are not from the Lord and will harm our church. I know I’ve heard some of you are filled with anxiety over our current financial situation. So, to you, and to all of us this morning, the Lord comes to quiet our fears, and to remind us that this is His, not our, church. And, HE loves it far more than anyone of us ever could, which is remarkable, because I know how much you all love this place. It is His good pleasure to give you all you need here, as His sheep, to feed you with the body and blood of Christ, to guide you with His word of promise, to deliver Jesus into your ears and hearts, to, well, give you His kingdom. Our church will be okay simply because it isn’t our church. It is His, and you are His, because His Son has chosen to die and rise for you!
So is the promise of Christ to you today. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He does this by sending Jesus who is going to the closet and throwing out all the idols, all the things your fears held onto so tightly, He’s cleaned out the monsterours sins that resided under your bed and promised to never bring them up again, He’s silenced the devil and the world that stand against you, and now sits with you in the dark, making promises of the morning, of the light, of the resurrection. It is the Father’s good pleasure that He does all of this for you. So, have no fear, little flock! AMEN!
