Matthew 6:24-34
May 25, 2008
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
I have a confession to make—I worry a lot. There are many nights that I get up in the middle of the night and worry about something. I toss and turn thinking about it that I would need to write it down on a piece of paper so that I can go back to sleep. I worry about practically everything. I worry about weeding and pruning a bush back before I leave for Israel. I worry about Joy being home by herself and what if the security alarm goes off—will she know what to do? Now I worry about Lauren and Daniel on whether they will have enough help in these first few weeks to watch Sage as well as care for Story. This is an extremely uncomfortable place to live.
When I became your senior pastor, one of the things that our Pastor Emeritus James Chuck told me is that in the advent of an earthquake, the senior pastor is expected to come down to the church to assess whether we sustained any damages. No wonder we spent $1.3 million to retrofit the church—to reduce my worrying. I worry about who will make sure the fans are turned off on the thermostats especially when the weather gets warmer. I worry about the security of the church building and the never-ending concern of being tagged with graffiti. I worry about who will sweep the sidewalk on Sunday mornings—thank God for Nelson Wong!
Now some of you want to say to me, “Don’t worry!” But there is nothing more irksome than someone telling you to not worry. It does nothing to rest assure my anxiety. If anything, I now have to worry about you who may be clueless about the situations that I described as well as the real and present danger at hand. Now I have to worry for both you and the situations because surely you will be of no help at all when the boom falls, which of course it will.
Then Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’”
Wealth
In our Western society, we act as if wealth is the remedy to our worry. We all tend to believe that when we have more money, we would have less to worry about. Some of us might even admit to saying, “Money is not the answer but it sure helps!” Before our lesson for today, Jesus taught his disciples,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21)
When we try to end our worrying by accumulating more wealth, we are saying that we can solve our own problems. If you store up treasures here on earth, your heart will be set on earthly things instead of on the Kingdom of Heaven.
One of the moments that clearly illustrated our society’s trust on wealth and on possessions rather than in God came not long after 9/11. We were told that we don’t need to worry and that everything would be all right in America, and the sign of that confidence was for all of us to go shopping. Instead of a call for national prayer or mobilizing together for an unprecedented community service as a sign of hope, we were called to acquire more possessions—go shopping!
How about those internet scams of winning millions of dollars in Nigeria. All we need to do is to contact this number and give them our name, our Social Security number, our date of birth, our bank account to collect the funds. But every year we hear about another person falling victim to one of these scams. The number of people who would fall for this astounds me; yet people are so eager to get rich that they would take all kinds of risks if the reward seems to be quick money. If it is too good to be true, it probably is.
Jesus says, “You can’t worship both God and money…” Well, of course not! That would be idolatry. We all know idolatry is forbidden. It’s one of the Ten Commandments. Our God is a jealous God who says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” We might say what self-respecting Christian would bow down and worship money!
But our idolatry of money is not as explicit as prostrating ourselves before it or praying to it. Our idolatry is not blatant like that. Perhaps that makes it more insidious. Our allegiance, our worship, our time, our energy is slowly, almost imperceptibly, transferred from worshiping God to worshiping money. Maybe that’s part of the reason somebody thought it a good idea to stamp a reminder on our money: It’s “In God we trust,” not this green paper.
If we keep on thinking that the accumulation of wealth will end our worrying, we would eventually end up worshiping treasures and money rather than God. Jesus is telling us that we can’t serve two masters. Each demands exclusive allegiance, and gaining one will finally mean losing the other. The masters Jesus names here are God and wealth. Neither is neutral. Neither is passive. They do not live in peaceable coexistence. If we choose wealth as the answers to all of our problems and worries, eventually we will serve wealth and it will ultimately reveal what you love and what you hate.
As a middle-class economic group, we always want it both ways on almost everything we do; a little of this and a little of that; a world of both/and. But that’s not Jesus’ definition of striving first for the kingdom of God. His view is that it’s either/or. If we try to put wealth to end our worries, it will eventually enslave us as our master.
Seek First the Kingdom
Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’”
The Greek word used here for “worry” means “split attention” or “divided concern.” This echoes the words about trying to serve two masters. If we are trying to serve God but let our attention be split so that we are overcome with worry about what we have or don’t have, our attention to God will undoubtedly suffer.
Jesus tells us that God knows what you need and has supplied it in all the ways on this earth. God will provide us with food to eat and water to drink because he does that with the birds and look how more valuable you are in God’s sight. God will provide us with clothing to wear because look at the lilies of the field and how they grow and not worry. If God so clothes the grass of the field, will he not much more clothe you?
Stress and anxiety do not rule over birds and lilies, and neither should they reign over humans who place their trust in God. We don’t have time to worry. We have the reign of God to strive after.
Jesus says God already knows what you need so you don’t have to worry. What you do is to strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Jesus is not saying that food, clothing and shelter are evil and that we should dismiss these things from our lives. Nor is he saying that we should not make sure that other people have what they need to live. That’s why we are collecting for the One Great Hour of Sharing to make sure people in Burma and China have food to eat and water to drink and clothes to wear and safe places to live. Jesus’ call is not a call to be irresponsible. It is a call to make sure our priorities are in the right places. We are called to place our trust in God and not worry but to have the courage and the resources to risk striving for God’s kingdom in a world that often does not resemble that kingdom or respect its values.
Trust in God’s providence frees us to give more of ourselves in pursuit of God’s kingdom, the kingdom in which the poor, the meek, the grieving, the hungry, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the persecuted are all blessed. Yet, most of us devote far more of our time and energy seeking after the kingdom of wealth than we spend seeking after God’s kingdom. Forty hours per week at work is a light week for most, but one hour in worship is a lot to ask.
Spiritual Pilgrimage
Whenever I tell people or the 22 other members of the group who will be visiting the Holy Lands this summer tell people that we are going to Israel, they always say, “Are you worry?” From everything that we have read and talking with people who had visited Israel before and consulting with the travel agents, the danger of getting hurt in the Middle East is no greater than if you sightsee in San Francisco. There is little to worry about.
The purpose of my sabbatical to go to Israel is to “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” “Strive” means to exert a lot of energy and effort toward a goal. I will be taking a 4-week intensive course studying with other ministers on the context of the gospels. I want to learn and see first-hand the cultural and geographical setting in which Jesus was born, grew up, ministered, performed miracles, arrested, tried, betrayed, tortured, crucified, and resurrected. I could have watched Mel Gibson’s Passion or continue to read the Bible. But I want to strive first for the kingdom of God with all the energy and effort that I have. I need to go to Israel to do this. But doing this has led to some worries.
I worry about getting from Tel Aviv airport to the study center all by myself. I worry about whether there’ll be enough vegetarian meals to eat. I worry about my room accommodations. I worry about the 90-100 degree heat. I worry about who else will be in my class and whether we will get along. But Jesus is saying that when we strive first for the kingdom of God, all of the things that I fret about are going to become non-issues because we’ve got more important things to be busy with.
When we focus enough on the things of God and not worry about all that we think we need including accumulating more wealth, we then have confidence in God’s providential care.
The Holy Land Pilgrimage is a way for the 23 pilgrims to strive first for the kingdom of God by focusing on the things of God. We hope that our lives will be changed and transformed to be more faithful and devoted to Jesus Christ. All the things that can be mentioned about why we should not go will no doubt worry us. But if we became concerned about what to eat and drink or what to wear or how risky this might be, we would end up not striving first for the kingdom of God.
Then Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’”
Don’t Worry about Tomorrow
On Thursday, I’ll be flying to Israel. Don’t worry; I have all intentions of returning home on July 13th. By the time I come home, our newest granddaughter would already be more than a month old. I’m not worry because Daniel and Lauren are good parents and Sage is a good sister.
By the time I come home, all my bushes and trees and grasses will need to be pruned again and the weeds will need to be pulled. I’m not worry because this means that the plants are live and well.
By the time I come home, Pastor Chris and you would have learned to do good worship without me and it will be just wonderful because God’s good news is being proclaimed.
And hopefully by the time I come home, I would not be worrying about so many things that I can sleep soundly through the night. You can ask me about this when I get back!
Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” After today, I will just worry about getting my things packed together and focused on going to Israel on Thursday. I’ll see Story and Sage every day too.
Why worry? We are in God’s trustworthy and capable hands. Whatever tomorrow brings, it brings God with it.
Let us pray.
Loving God, remind us that we don’t need to worry when you know already what we need to live. As you have cared for the birds of the air with food to eat and water to drink and you have cared for the lilies of the field, we can’t imagine how much more you would do for us when we trust you with our lives and strive first for your kingdom. Help us to discern your will and grant us strength to strive for it, to follow you no matter the costs, no matter the sacrifices. Help us to be so caught up in what you are doing in the world that we have no time to worry about our selfish needs. Enlist us in service in order that your kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.