Matthew 6:24-34
Today’s Gospel is a well-known passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He says, “Do not be anxious.”
These words are in the imperative; they are an order.
Do not be anxious, you who have gone back to school and are learning that middle school, high school, or college are much more demanding than your previous years of education.
Do not be anxious, you who are newlyweds, who desire children, who’ve purchased homes, or are learning to support a family.
Do not be anxious, you who spend more time behind the windshield driving children from one event to another than enjoying time speaking with the child or using your time to get to know your husband or wife more.
Do not be anxious, you who have retired and must now learn new routines.
Do not be anxious, you who have become a widow or widower.
Do not be anxious.
It’s easy to say, but when we say it to one another when life is busy and challenging, it seems to make things worse.
In the Gospel, being anxious means being apprehensive, experiencing anxiety, or being unduly concerned. Other dictionary definitions add extreme uneasiness, worry, fear about what may happen, or being driven by a strong desire for something.
In some situations, a person with anxiety suffers from illness, but in others, it is a feeling or emotion that comes and goes for a person. Yet it’s rising in America and places throughout the world. Some reasons for this are our willingness to discuss mental illness and our feelings and emotions more openly. Even the military has worked tirelessly to remove stigma among those we have long seen as the strongest men and women of our time.
Economic pressures significantly impact families, with rising costs making essentials like food, housing, and education less affordable. Students face stress from assignments, achieving high grades, college admissions, job hunting post-graduation, and fitting in. Parents, eager to do their best, increasingly prioritize entertainment over quality family time. Retirees must adapt to new routines and reconnect with spouses, while widows and widowers deal with the quiet of a home once filled with conversation, alongside mountains of paperwork and grieving for their lost spouse.
Beyond all of this is the noise in the background of life: the 24/7 news cycle, real-time reports from Iran, and ongoing events around the Strait of Hormuz, along with news alerts streaming across your TV or phone, train your brain to stay constantly alert.
Many remember watching 9/11 on TV twenty-five years ago; now, instant news updates are just a tap away. Fifteen years ago, people live-tweeted the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. Today, your phone can instantly connect you to loved ones abroad or to the school bully next door, or it can sit unused, awaiting a text or call that may never arrive. This increased connectivity raises a new concern: an addiction to perpetual busyness.
The addiction to busyness is when a person feels they must be constantly engaged in something, always searching for something, always working towards achieving a goal, never unplugging. Never taking rest. Never caring for the body or the soul.
There is work to be done, and this type of person is going to do it.
Have you ever thought about that? The work or tasks you often find yourself doing are causing you anxiety; it’s the reason you worry about things that are out of your control. It’s why you keep going, because you believe you can control the situation, slog through it, or at least attempt to control it.
But any parent that has held a crying child knows that not all situations are controllable.
You can, however, entrust the affairs of life to your Father in heaven. As St. Peter wrote, “[Cast] all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
And this leads us back to our Gospel this morning, where Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
Our lives are often understood through a lens of being pulled in multiple directions, which leads us to having more than one master, and when this occurs, anxiety is not far behind.
As Jesus stated, “You cannot serve God and money.” A more accurate translation would be, you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon represents not just money, but also clothing, food, property, and all worldly possessions and desires.
When Jesus says you cannot serve God and mammon, He’s simply reiterating the words of His Father when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other Gods.” Why? Because He is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14), and He doesn’t put up with anyone serving Him and His enemy at the same time. “Either it is all mine” or “let it all be gone.”
These words should strike your hearts and call you to consider what holds and leads you. What keeps you up at night? What robs you of hearing, pondering, and cherishing God’s Word, and of allowing it to feed and clothe you?
Have you thought about that? The birds of the air and the lilies of the field trust God more than we do because we believe we have the power to control life’s outcomes. We believe we can fix situations, trudge through the valleys, lift a friend out of their fog, and tune out hurtful voices, earthly demands, and the weight of this life all on our own.
But when things don’t go as planned, and we try to solve life’s challenges alone, should we be surprised that the anxiety only deepens, builds, and compounds?
Scripture clearly teaches that the comfort for anxious hearts resides in the Word of God.
Jesus said in the Gospel, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
“Seek first the kingdom of God…”
To seek is to devote serious effort and energy toward an objective; it’s to strive for and aim for the goal.
This verse is also central to this morning’s Gospel reading. It outlines the priority for how to live: putting the divine and eternal gifts of life first. It encourages living according to God’s Word and letting it guide one’s vocations in life, whether as husband, wife, parent, child, widow, or widower, with the understanding that in all things, seek God first, then love your neighbor. Seek Jesus in His Word, because there He will give you the balm to calm your heart or the patience to endure adversity.
Be like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
While this trust may not come as naturally as it ought, Jesus is instructing you to put in the effort: make a routine, practice, exercise, and learn to depend on Him, who truly cares for you. You may not always see or experience this care in this life, but it is preparing you for the life to come. This is, after all, the goal, right? To be with Jesus eternally. For your spouse, child, family, and friends, the goal is to be with Jesus.
If this is the goal, then you must begin to exercise the faith needed along the way; you must learn to “[Cast] all your anxieties on [Jesus], because [in doing so you exercise faith and trust that] He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
Learn not to depend upon yourself; learn not to believe you can fix everything; but do learn to pray.
I’ve undoubtedly shared this prayer with some of you, but it’s a prayer from Luther based on the text from First Peter, and it goes like this,
Heavenly Father, You are my Lord and God, who created me when I was nothing and redeemed me by Your Son. You have committed and assigned to me this office and work, in which it is not as I will, and there is much that would oppress and afflict me that I find myself no help or solution. Therefore take it into Your own hands. Provide the help and solution, and be all things in these matters. Amen.
It’s not a long prayer; it’s not a difficult prayer, but it is a prayer for faith and trust in God and His Kingdom, to provide help in times of need, to grant the peace to endure, trusting that He has permitted the changes and challenges of this life to occur, not to your detriment, but for the building up and fortification of your faith.
Why?
Because the Lord God has already clothed you as the lilies of the field in the waters of Holy Baptism, giving you the robe of righteousness, claiming you as His own dear child, and inviting you to speak to Him as your dear Father in heaven; He also feeds you as a nestling bird in need of heavenly nourishment, the food of the forgiveness of sin, which prepares you for the heavenly banquet.
When you remember your baptism, hear the words of your Lord, and receive the Supper, you are seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And for that reason, you can hear the final words of today’s Gospel, depart, and take them to heart.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Today has its own troubles, but none that your Savior doesn’t understand. His very own words in the Garden of Gethsemane teach us as He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Even as your Savior was preparing to die for you upon the cross, He was teaching you how to commend the anxiety and trepidation of your heart to His Father.
Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by the new school year, experiencing challenging early days of marriage, exhausted from driving children to various activities, frightened by the thought of retirement, or grieving the loss of a spouse that still weighs on you, remember Jesus’ words today: “Do not be anxious.” He speaks these words with love and compassion for you and to you.
Trust your worries to the Lord and take what happens throughout this life as opportunities for God’s good. Face adversity and anxiety with patience and faith in the cross of Christ, making it your focus of trust and believing that your redemption is assured in your Father’s kingdom through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.+INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Website: www.goodsheptomah.org
The Shepherd’s Voice Podcast: https://goodsheptomah.podbean.com/
