Matthew 6:24–34

Second Sunday after Pentecost

²⁴"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. You cannot serve God and money. 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? ²⁶Look 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? Con sider 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.

Dr. Peter Singer, who sits in the Ira W. DeCamp chair of Bioethics at Princeton University, sees "species membership as morally irrelevant." In his view, while a fetus is a member of the human species, it is not a person because it is not a rational, self-conscious being that sees itself over time." Therefore a fetus has no right to life. For that matter neither does a new-born baby so if during the first few months after a baby is born, it is seen that this baby will never become a useful, productive member of society, then it should be eliminated. This goes as well for the elderly who are no longer useful, or the mentally handicapped or those in a coma and so on. He views the value of a person as being merely utilitarian; the question being, "is he useful to society?"

This reduces humanity to a mere material level. And though his viewpoints are at the extreme end of the spectrum, his basic idea is not any different from the views of society and perhaps even many of us here today.

Let me explain. What is the view of human life today? Today there are 3 or 4 narratives for humanity. I will call them the consumer narrative, the power narrative, the pleasure narrative and the entertainment narrative.

The consumer narrative values a person in terms of his possessions. The consumer is on a never ending shopping spree. He determines his value and that of other people by what they have, the things they own, the size of their house, the kind of car they drive, the kind of designer clothes they wear, and so forth. This person tries to find satisfaction in his things. He is always thinking to himself that if he had such-and-such he would be happy. Perhaps a new iPod, or a PDA. Maybe a new car or a new dress or a new pair of shoes would fulfill me. He drives by a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood and thinks how happy he would be to have such a house. Or he gets jealous when a sleek sports car pulls up alongside him at a stop light. What does it take to satisfy his hunger for things? Nelson Rockefeller was once asked, "Just how much is enough?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." It always takes a little bit more. No matter how much one has, he needs more. Because ultimately, as Jesus said, human life is more than food and the body is more than clothes. Therefore, such things don't ever satisfy our yearning. Even if a man had all the riches and wealth in the world, he would still want more. The shopping spree never ends because he will always be hungry for more.

The power narrative person defines life in terms of his status and position. He wants to have authority over others. He ranks himself and others by their position, their intelligence, their influence or their success. The student in school ranks himself by grade point average. The teenager rates himself by how popular he is and worries about his looks and being in the "cool" group. The employee ranks himself by his position. Success drives the power person.

Then there is the pleasure narrative. Those who fall for this one seek thrills, experience, and fun. They live from thrill to thrill always looking for the ultimate thrill in life or the ultimate food or restaurant. I call this the "bigger rollercoaster syndrome." They always look for some bigger and faster excitement.

Finally, there is the entertainment narrative. They sit for hours in front of the TV or playing video games, or you can find them several nights a week in the theater. They never miss a game on TV. They know all the music celebrities, the movie stars and the sports heroes by name. These are the ones who keep "People" magazine in business. It is noteworthy that the heroes of today, the people we read about, idolize, and chase around with cameras are mostly sports heroes, Hollywood celebs and pop music singers.

What do all of these narratives have in common? What do they have in common with such radical philosophers as Peter Singer? They all reduce humanity to the level of the material. We are what we possess; we live for physical pleasure, our worth depends on the things of the world or what we can contribute to society. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said, "The Gentiles seek after all these things."

Even the church is not immune from these narratives. First, just how many of us found that one or a combination of these is the narrative of our own life? In fact not just we as individuals find ourselves in these narratives, how many churches today are centered around entertainment or the status and success in numbers or popularity? The message of some churches today is wealth, prosperity and success. One of the best-selling books today is "Have your best life now" which says in a nutshell, "God wants to bless you now, in this life, with material things like money and success. He will make you wealthy and make whatever dream or desire you have come true." It reduces God to a cosmic benefactor whose job is to shower us with all sorts of material things.

In fact, so engrained is the material narrative in us that we usually read this text to say that God will give us all the things we want. The most important verse we think is the one that says, "All these things shall be added unto you."

Indeed, Jesus is saying that God will provide what we need, but he goes far beyond just that. What he was telling his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount was much greater. The key to understanding what Jesus is saying here is the phrase: "Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

He is telling us, "Do not be anxious for these material things because they really aren't the most important things." Yes, he knows we need them to live in this world, but there is something much greater than the material world; something much more important. "Are you not of more value than the birds of the air who neither sow nor reap?" Isn't the worth of a human being more than just what he has or how useful he is to society? Perhaps Peter Singer has it all wrong. Perhaps the morally relevant issue is just being a member of the human species after all. For what is the human species? It is the purpose and goal of creation. Man was created in the image of God. Mankind was created for God and for the purpose of living in an intimate, loving relationship with God for eternity. He was not created to just be useful. He was not created just to live here in this world for a while and then die.

Man has a much greater purpose and life has much greater meaning. In fact, so exalted is man that the entire material universe was created just for him. The heavens and the earth were created for us. God gave them to us as a gift and then put us in charge of all this. They are a blessing to show us his love.

At the end of each day of creation, good saw what he had made and it was good. He made the heavens and earth then and set his man and woman down in the middle of them so that we would live surround by his goodness and grace.

While the world's narratives reduce man to mere material things, God's narrative of man exalts us to the highest level of worth and importance. Each one of you, just because you are of the human species was created in the image of God and is of more value and worth than the entire universe put together. That is what Jesus is telling us here in this text. That is what Jesus meant when he said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up treasures in heaven." That is why the Psalmist sings: "what is man that you are mindful of him?" That is what John means when he says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world." It is not the things of the world that are important, it is our relationship with the God who made us to dwell in communion with him.

The things of this world cannot satisfy our desires, our dreams, our hopes because life is more than food and clothing. Our desires and dreams and hopes are fulfilled only by abiding with the God who is love and who gives us himself as a gift. We were made for fellowship with God. Our joy and delight come only from that, not from worldly blessings and riches. Every boy and girl in love knows this. They go on dates, do things together, go to movies, restaurants, and so forth, but it doesn't really matter what they do or where they go. It doesn't matter what movie they see or what restaurant they eat at, the only thing that really matters to them is being together; enjoying the presence of each other. That's the way it is with us and God. In the end it doesn't really matter if we are rich or poor, sick or healthy, or even if we are alive and well in this world or on our death bed. The only thing that really matters is just being with God because his presence fills our every need, gives us every joy and satisfaction, gives us all peace and happiness whether we are suffering in this world of sorrow or at home in heaven, the only thing that matters is being in the presence of God. And because every boy and girl in love understand this too, when they get married they pledge their allegiance to each other, "for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health," because having each other is the only thing that really matters, not the physical circumstances that surround them.

Therefore, though we owned all the world we would not be happy. It is not the material things that give us happiness. That is why Martin Luther says we should not go to work to earn a living. "Do not toil for your bread or your house," he says, "but go to work out of obedience to God's command to Adam to subdue the earth and rule over the creation." Go to work not for your sustenance, but to help others in need and to serve others with the goods and products and services that you render through your labor. In spite of all our labor, we cannot add one cubit to our stature or one hour to the length of our life. Rather we should labor and work because that is what God commanded Adam to do. We are to work to fill the needs of our neighbor. Not to acquire the things of the world. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth."

And the God who has made the heavens and earth has already given them to us for our enjoyment and our sustenance of life. That is the point of Jesus lesson here. We are worth much more than the material things of creation. So why worry about them? If we are so important, God will make sure we have what we need. There is nothing that will ever be lacking to us because when we abide with God in his kingdom even if we die. We are of much greater worth and value than all these things and besides, God has already given the world to us.

But how can a sinner abide with God and dwell in His presence? How can the unrighteous have fellowship with the righteous, or the unholy stand in the presence of the holy? Because God in his love provides for all our needs. Just as he provided a world to live in and the blessings of creation for us, he has given us his only begotten Son to be our righteousness and holiness. He not only gave us the heavens and earth, he gave us himself. He delivered up his very own Son to die for us that by his death we might be made the righteousness of God. By his own love he suffered and paid the price for our sin on the cross that we might be spotless and unstained before him. He made us his bride and presents us to his Father as a holy nation, a royal priesthood, without blemish or stain of sin.

In our baptism God himself washes our sin away and comes to dwell with us and give himself to us as our God. by the suffering and death of Jesus to which we are united in baptism, we are declared righteous and holy so that we can dwell in the presence of God.

In the Lord's Supper he comes to us in the physical element of bread and wine. He comes into such a close and intimate presence with us that he allows us to eat his very own body and drink his very own blood.

And this is the good news we proclaim to all the world. Through us God invites all mankind created in the image of God to come into his presence and dwell with him. We do not proclaim the nations of men, but the kingdom of God, for all other things shall pass away, only God's kingdom is of eternal worth and value. And being made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ his Son who died for us, we possess God himself and all things in heaven and earth which he created for us.

Amen.