Matthew 6:24-34 - “Selections from the Sermon on the Mount: Unworried”

8th Sunday after the Epiphany (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, February 27, 2011

In the past, when I’ve heard today’s Gospel reading, I’ve usually heard it this way: (shouted with upraised hands) DO NOT WORRY.

Oh, the reader, the preacher, they didn’t actually need to yell it, but that’s how I heard it in my mind. (shouted with upraised hands) DO NOT WORRY. And since very rarely I have heard this passage as part of the whole Sermon on the Mount, I would very rarely also hear a whisper of the beginning of the sermon, the beginning words of Jesus, (whispered) “You are blessed.”

Which meant when it came to hearing this passage about not worrying, well, I mainly heard it as Law, as command, as condemning me for all the worrying I do on a regular basis.

Here Jesus was actually offering some good news, some Gospel, an assurance that we don’t need to worry, that He’s got things covered, that we can trust in Him to take care of things, here these words are meant as a hope and promise, but all I could hear was: (shouted with finger waving) DO NOT WORRY.

Hmm, that’s a sad thing to realize, to realize that I couldn’t really hear what Jesus was saying, couldn’t hear the good news in the words of Jesus, and a lot of that was because I forgot about the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

I mean, we have been reading different sections of the Sermon on the Mount over these past weeks, but it’s really, really important to remember that this is one sermon. This is Jesus sitting down and in one fell swoop teaching many things, but it’s really, really important to remember that there was a reason Jesus said all of these things together in one sermon. We can sit down today and talk about this passage about not worrying, about not being anxious but trusting the Lord to provide, we can talk about this section, but it’s really, really important that we remember that the whole sermon started this way:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That’s what’s so loud in this sermon, that’s the loudest word in this sermon, that’s where Jesus began, that’s what would stick in the minds of the disciples, that’s the hook that Jesus starts with, and from that beginning everything else follows. Instead of shouting (shouting with upraised arms) DO NOT WORRY, and then whispering, “You are blessed,” if we look at the Sermon on the Mount, we realize that it’s exactly the opposite. (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED, (whispered) so do not worry. (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED, (whispered) so do not worry.

Do not worry. That’s an invitation from Jesus, that’s an invitation to a new kind of life, a new kind of life because of what Jesus has done for us. God has blessed us in Jesus, God has blessed us, God has made us His children, God has given us comfort and mercy and peace and righteousness, God has given us the promise of eternal salvation. God has blessed us. (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED.

And because of that, because we are blessed, that’s why we don’t have to worry, that’s why we don’t have to be anxious, that’s why we can rest in the Lord, that’s why we can trust that God is going to take care of us, that’s why we can seek God’s kingdom first because He has promised to give us comfort and mercy and peace and righteousness. We don’t have to seek our own way, we don’t have to fight to get our own stuff, we don’t have to focus on taking care of number one, because (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED. God has already done everything we need for salvation, God has already promised to take care of us, God has already shown that He will bless us in ways that we can’t even imagine. (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED, (whispered) so do not worry.

I was recently talking to a friend of mine going through a whole series of challenges, challenges that threaten his faith, challenges on a deeply spiritual level. A lot of things to be worried about. He was anxious and wondering what he was going to do. And in conversation, a few times he made reference to needing to do something about these challenges, to be praying more, to be in God’s Word more, to take the right steps to prevent these challenges from stealing away his faith in Jesus.

But it was like saying all of that out loud made him realize that he was trying to do it all on his own, trying to take matters into his own hands. When that dawned on him, he realized that was a problem—he was trying to handle these challenges by himself.

Of course he was worried. Of course he was worn out. Of course he was feeling weak. Of course this wasn’t working out so well. Here my friend was trying to do it himself instead of relying on Jesus, instead of asking Jesus to handle these challenges. Of course he felt as if he couldn’t do all of this by himself—we’re not meant to handle these challenges by ourselves. We need God. We need His help, His intervention, His power, His strength, His guidance.

Then as we were talking, he remembered what his home pastor had said. When my friend talked to his pastor about his troubles, his pastor immediately reminded him: “You are a child of God; you are in Christ.” In other words, (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED. (whispered) Do not worry. Do not worry about what threatens you, because (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED.

That’s exactly what my friend needed to hear. And I couldn’t agree more. I just repeated the same thing to my friend—“You are blessed, you are a child of God, you are in Christ, you are under God’s care.”

And that’s what I want you to hear today—(shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED. (whispered) Do not worry. You are blessed, you are a child of God, you are in Christ, you are under God’s care.

I want you to hear how much you are blessed. I want you to know that because you’re blessed that you don’t need to worry. Because of what God has done for you, you can truly rest and relax in Jesus.

It’s like driving through a snowstorm—something we’re familiar with these days and something I was especially familiar with last weekend while we were on vacation in Minneapolis visiting my parents while they got 17 inches of snow. Driving around during the blizzard, driving home the next morning, I kept being aware of how tense I got holding onto that steering wheel, hunched a bit closer to the wheel, peering out into the snow.

I think part of the reason I get tense is that I think I can then keep the car from sliding. It’s sort of like I’ve transferred the way I ride my bike in the rain to how I drive a car. On my bike, if it’s raining, you have to prepare your body to hold that bike upright, to keep the bike from sliding, you need your whole body to work together to stay upright. Well, somehow I take on that same kind of posture while I’m driving a car in slippery conditions, as if I could use my body to keep the car from sliding into the ditch. It’s absurd, I know, so when I catch myself doing it, I try to relax and realize that tensing my whole body isn’t going to do much for keeping the car on the road.

As much as it’s absurd to try to use your whole body to keep a car on the road, it’s absurd to walk around worrying about what you’ll eat and drink and what you’ll wear. That’s what Jesus was saying: it’s absurd to be so worried about these things as if by worrying you can make food and drink and clothes appear. Birds gathering things into barns is absurd; flowers making their own clothes is absurd. And trying to use my body to keep a car on the road is absurd; worrying is absurd.

Oh, I don’t mean that just because it’s absurd that it’s any easier to stop worrying; if you have a habit of worrying, it’s definitely not an easy thing to stop. Just because my friend knows he doesn’t need to worry doesn’t make it easy for him to stop worrying.

But Jesus here is helping us to kind of chuckle at ourselves about it, to realize worrying is the same as…birds with silos and flowers with sewing machines. Instead of worrying, we can turn to God instead, turn to Him and realize we’re His children, realize that He’s blessed us, that He’s promised to watch over us and care for us.

So, then, relax your shoulders; you don’t need to drive in the snow like you can keep that car on the road by tensing your whole body; that’s absurd. And you don’t need to live your life as if you can make it all work out if you just worry enough.

(shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED. (whispered) Do not worry. God is your source of strength. God is your true focus. God is the One who will bless you and watch over you and care for you.

(shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED. (whispered) Do not worry. Instead of feeling like you need to take matters into your hands, instead of thinking that you need to do stuff by yourself to make your spiritual life right, remember that you are blessed by God, you are God’s child, God will provide for you in so many ways.

And that’s what it means to seek first the kingdom of God. It means to seek out the places where God has promised to bless us, to go to the places where God has already promised to bless us in tremendous ways spiritually, to seek the Word of God, to remember our baptisms, to seek the Lord’s Supper, to seek out the fellowship of believers, to seek out all of these places because in them we find God’s blessing, in them we are reminded that we are blessed in incredible ways, because in these places we are reminded that we do not need to take matters into our own worrying hands, we are reminded that God has done it all for us.

(shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED. (whispered) Do not worry. (shouting with upraised arms) YOU ARE BLESSED.

Matthew 5:21-30 - “Selections from the Sermon on the Mount: A Surpassing Righteousness”

6th Sunday after the Epiphany (Year A - Lutheran Service Book Readings)
Sunday, February 13, 2011


(Front of sanctuary, stretch out a circle of Caution tape).

The Pharisees and the scribes, the very religious teachers in the days of Jesus, they drew lines around sin. They marked out what broke God’s commandments. They taught their interpretations of “do not murder” and “do not commit adultery.” They drew a circle around the forbidden actions, and then they made sure they didn’t set foot inside that circle. They drew a circle around the forbidden actions, and then they made sure they pointed out who fell into the circle, who was sinning in a way that deserved judgment. They drew a circle around sin, but they clearly didn’t think they were within that circle.

When you draw the circle small, you start to believe that you can keep the commandments, that you can be righteous in your actions. You define murder as unjustly taking someone’s life, and you raise your hand and say, “I’m innocent of that.” You define adultery as cheating on your spouse, and you raise your hand and say, “I’m innocent of that.”

And this isn’t just the Pharisees and the scribes, even today there are Christians who believe they can stop sinning. A short search on the Internet turned up people who think that they really can stop sinning and that only people who stop sinning are Christians. But in order to claim that they’ve stopped sinning, they’ve got to draw the circle pretty small, draw the line around a small group of sins, draw the line in such a way so that they’re not in that circle. They’ve got to draw that line with the Pharisees and the scribes.

But Jesus comes in the Sermon on the Mount and says, “You have heard it said.” Jesus says, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” You have heard what others have taught, you have heard how they interpret the Law of God, you have heard their claims about their righteousness, but I say to you there’s more to this that, there’s more to this that what they’re teaching. Jesus takes that small circle and stretches it wider than anyone had been teaching. (Stretch out the Caution tape to circle the entire congregation). Jesus stretches it wider than the interpretation of the Pharisees and the scribes. Jesus stretches it wide so that there’s no escape, there’s no way to believe that you are sinless, there’s no way to see yourself as holy and righteous, there’s no way to see yourself as being without sin. You are inside the circle. You are a sinner.

When Jesus expands the circle, He shows what a surpassing righteousness looks like, shows what righteousness in God’s kingdom really looks like, shows what it means to truly follow God’s Laws, to truly have a heart bent on loving God and loving neighbor, to truly understand the Law of God as being about relationships with others, to see that it’s more than just narrowly defining the rules so that we can follow them, that it’s about expanding those rules to show how the righteousness of God is incredibly radical.

It’s radical because it’s not just about keeping the letter of the law; it’s about the spirit of the law. It’s about what it means to love God; it’s about what it means to love your neighbor. It’s about having relationships with God and others; it’s about being wholly committed to serving others in love. That’s a surpassing righteousness; that’s a righteousness that goes beyond what we’d expect of ourselves; that’s a righteousness that originates in the heart of God; that’s a righteousness that looks incredibly different than what we see around us and in us.

And that’s the thing, when Jesus expands the circle, He also shows us we’re sinners. We’re in the circle. We’re inside the lines. We’re the ones who have fallen into the circle, gone into the danger zone, follow our evil desires right into the trap of sin. When Jesus expands the circle, we’re caught in our sinfulness.

“Do not murder” becomes “do not become unjustly angry at someone, calling someone a fool.” It’s no longer just about physically taking someone’s life; it’s also about what goes on in your heart, about condemning someone with your thoughts. When Jesus expands the line that way, it’s impossible for us to stay outside of the circle.

“Do not commit adultery” becomes “do not lust after someone in your heart.” It’s no longer just about a physical act; it’s also about what goes on in your heart, where you let your mind wander. When Jesus expands the line that way, it’s impossible for us to stay outside of the circle.

But where does this leave us? Are we just left inside the danger zone? Are we just left inside the circle of sin, left to be condemned because our righteousness is lacking?

Actually, this section of the Sermon on the Mount sends us back to the beginning of the sermon by Jesus, sends us back to how Jesus began, how He began with the Beatitudes which help us to know what God has done for those who are sinners, what God has done for those who are in the danger zone.

(Begin wrapping up the Caution tape) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” Blessed are the ones who are lost, who are sinners, who are spiritually poor, blessed are they, for they have the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Blessed are the ones who mourn about their sinfulness, who repent, who turn away from their sin, who have sorrow over their sins, for they are comforted, they are given the comfort of the promise of forgiveness.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Blessed are the ones who want righteousness in their lives—not through making the circle smaller, not by redefining God’s commandments, not by pretending that they are without sin. Blessed are the ones who want true righteousness in their lives, who want God to work His righteousness in their hearts, who want God’s Spirit to work in their lives. Blessed are they, for they will be filled, they will be filled with a righteousness that is not their own, a righteousness that is from God, a righteousness that comes from the Holy Spirit.

We are taken out of the danger zone by Jesus. We are forgiven by Jesus. We are given a righteousness, a surpassing righteousness that is not our own. It’s the righteousness of Jesus. We are taken from our place in the danger zone, taken from the place of breaking God’s law, and now we’re forgiven, given the promise of eternal life. We are blessed as a gift. Blessed in ways that we could not even imagine. Blessed in ways we definitely don’t deserve.

And it’s not that Jesus removed the whole Law. It’s just that He removed us from the danger zone. We’re still sinners. We’re still breaking the commandments every day. Because of our sinfulness, there’s no way to pretend that we can be perfect. But what God does is He removes us from the position of judgment, removes us from that place that would condemn us, that place that would leave us dead for eternity.

So that’s what I want you to remember when you think about the caution tape being gone. I want you to remember that Jesus has saved you from the danger zone, Jesus has saved you from the condemnation of the Law, Jesus has blessed you who are poor in spirit, you who are sinful and cannot escape that by your own actions.

Instead of leaving you there in the circle of condemnation, instead of leaving you there in the danger zone, Jesus ultimately through the cross put Himself in the circle, put Himself in the danger zone. He removed you from the danger zone and stepped in to be condemned Himself. He was judged on the cross for our sins, judged to death, while we received His righteousness, His surpassing righteousness.

So while it’s true that we all deserve to be in the danger zone, while it’s true that according to the Law of God, according to the true understanding of God’s Law, that we are condemned, we are not innocent, we are judged for our sins, while this is true, it’s also true that Jesus has removed us from the danger zone, given us His righteousness, saved us for all eternity, transformed our lives.

“Selections from the Sermon on the Mount: Fulfillment” - Matthew 5:17-20

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, February 6, 2011

(Motioning with hands) Up and up and up and then—nothing.

I was with my parents and my sister on a family trip, and we were driving from Tampa to Sanibel Island, driving across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that goes across the bay, and as we got to the high point of the bridge, we looked over at the other lane and that lane just stopped. Made our stomachs drop just at the site of it, seeing this bridge just end, an open-ended bridge high up in the air above the water. No wonder why that side of the road was closed.

Up and up and up and then—nothing. We were safe in our lane, but I still had a sensation of falling, a sensation of the bottom dropping right out from under us. I remember craning my neck to see through the back window, to keep seeing where that bridge ended. There was this bridge waiting to be connected to the other side of the bay.

That’s the image I want you to have in your minds this morning, the image of a bridge that leads up and up and up and then just stops. I want you to have that image in your mind, because that’s kind of what Jesus is saying about the Law and Prophets, saying about the Old Testament. When Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them,” when He says this, it’s like He’s saying, “I didn’t come to knock down the bridge; I came to finish it, to connect it to the other side of the bay.” The Old Testament leads up and up and up and then—Jesus comes to complete it.

As my professor, Dr. Gibbs, wrote about this passage from the Sermon on the Mount, “the Old Testament story…was incomplete, forward-looking, waiting for God’s decisive in-breaking and rule” (CPH, 267). It’s a story waiting to be completed, waiting to be connected to the other side, waiting for Jesus to break into history, to bring His kingdom, to make the story complete.

It’s a bridge waiting for the rest of it to be built, and Jesus is the rest of that bridge. The bridge leads up and up and up and then—there’s Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the Promised One, the Savior that brings all things to completion.

Jesus will live the perfectly righteous life that His people could not. Jesus will die in our place on the cross. Jesus will rise again to conquer death. Jesus will ascend into heaven. Jesus will come again to bring us to eternal life with Him. Jesus will complete this bridge to eternal life; Jesus will complete this story.

Now, why does Jesus bring this up in the Sermon on the Mount? Why is He making this point that He didn’t come to abolish the Old Testament but to fulfill it, to bring it to completion?

Well, apparently Jesus didn’t want His disciples to get the wrong idea. Jesus was going to say some things that sounded new and different, but He wasn’t there to do away with the Law and the Prophets. He might be saying some things in a new way, but He wasn’t tearing down the first part of the bridge. He was there to complete the bridge. He came to fulfill what the Old Testament had said. He came to be the Savior that had been promised to the people. He came to finish what God had set out to do since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, God had been working out a plan to save the world from sin, death, and the devil. And now Jesus is saying that He is the One who will bring this plan to completion, He is the One who will build the rest of the bridge.

And the disciples needed to hear this, needed to know that no matter what people accused Jesus of, no matter what the religious establishment said about Jesus, that the truth is that Jesus came to do exactly what the Old Testament had promised, He came to bring salvation to all people through the forgiveness, love, mercy, and grace of God. It’s up and up and up and then—Jesus. It’s the Old Testament story waiting for God to break in and bring about a completion of the story and make the way for the bridge to be complete.

And maybe that’s where we’re at, maybe we’re with the disciples sitting on the side of the mountain, maybe we’re wondering if Jesus really came to do away with the Old Testament or if He came to complete it, maybe we’re wondering what the Old Testament has to do with us or whether we can just sort of ignore that part of the Bible, but I don’t know if that’s so much our struggle.

Maybe we struggle with that question at times, but I’m wondering if this passage doesn’t more apply to another question we might have, another question that might occur to us more often.

I think the truth is that many of us may feel like life leads up and up and up and then—nothing. That this whole thing about believing in God leaves us at the end of an open-ended bridge, high up in the air above the water.

It’s not so much that we struggle to believe that Jesus came to keep the Law and the Prophets. We can see how Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament, and so that part we get, that part we see, that part of the bridge is still there.

Maybe our real struggle is believing that there’s more to the bridge, that the bridge has been completed, that Jesus came to bring us all the way to the other side of the bay, that Jesus came to bring us to life after death, that the bridge goes up and up and up and then—there’s really something there, there’s more to the bridge, there’s a connection to the other side, there’s hope beyond wherever we are on this bridge. It’s up and up and up and then—there’s Jesus, there’s a Savior, there’s hope beyond today.

So if that’s our struggle, then we’re going to hear these words of Jesus in a completely different way. We’re not as concerned about the first part of the bridge; we need His assurance that the second part of the bridge is there, that we’re gonna make it to the other side of the bay, that God’s not going to just leave us there hanging up in the air above the water, that this bridge is going to bring us to the other side, that this bridge is going to take us to eternal life, that Jesus really is the fulfillment, that He is really the One who will bring the bridge to completion.

We need this assurance, and that’s exactly what we find in Jesus. He didn’t come just to repeat what had already been said in the Old Testament; He came to fulfill all of the promises. He didn’t just come to tell us the same thing—that God loves and will save us; Jesus came to do the work of love, the work of salvation, the work necessary to save us from sin, death, and the devil. He didn’t come just to be on the first part of the bridge; Jesus came to be the second part of the bridge. Up and up and up and then—Jesus. And then—fulfillment. And then—completion. And then—the way to everlasting life.

Life is going to leave you up in the air, leave you at the edge of the bridge, leave you wondering just how you’ll go on, leave you standing there staring out from an open-ended bridge wondering how God is going to bring things to completion. Life is going up and up and up and then—nothing, it’ll seem like nothing, it’ll seem like there’s no answer for the future. Life’ll do that to you, but in Jesus, there’s hope. In Jesus, there’s a promise. In Jesus, the bridge continues.

For instance, many of us have Lori Jakolat on our minds today, a member of this congregation who at the age of 47 passed away this week after a battle with cancer, a woman who touched so many lives of people in this congregation and the people around her, a woman whom God used in many ways. Lori’s passing may make us feel like life goes up and up and up and then—nothing.

But this is exactly when the words of Jesus come into play, come to remind us of the greater truth, come to remind us that it’s up and up and up and then—Jesus. And then—completion. And then—eternity. And then—the promise of life after death. The bridge continues, the bridge stretches to the other side of the bay, the bridge makes it across whatever tragedies lie in our path, the bridge reaches across even when we can’t see it, the bridge reaches across to salvation.

The bridge reaches across and shows us that Jesus didn’t just come to repeat the past, didn’t just come to repeat the Old Testament. Jesus came to bring all things to fulfillment, bring all things to completion, bring us to life after death—a promise that now holds Lori in peace and joy and comfort, a promise that can lift us up above the troubles of this world.

We started with this image: Up and up and up and then—nothing. The image of a bridge that just stops high above the water. Do you have that image in your mind? Are you remembering that life sometimes leaves you feeling like there’s no way to go forward?

Well, if you have that image, if you know that feeling, then I’m asking you to picture the rest of the bridge coming into place, the rest of the bridge taking shape. I’m asking you to picture fulfillment, to picture what it means that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament, to picture how God makes salvation complete in Jesus, to picture how God gets us beyond the “Bridge Out” sign, how God gets us beyond what troubles us, gets us beyond what causes us to feel like there’s no way forward.

Picture the bridge being complete, and then you start to get an idea of what it means to picture Jesus as your Savior. Picture the bridge being complete, and then you start to get the idea of what it means that Jesus did everything necessary to get us off this bridge and onto the dry land of eternal life. Don’t just picture yourself up at the top of the bridge staring down at the water. Picture yourself walking the rest of the way down the bridge, a bridge that’s complete, a bridge that will get you there, a bridge that will bring you to eternal life.

Up and up and up and then—Jesus. And then—fulfillment. And then—complete. And then—a complete bridge spanning the whole bay. And then—a complete way to salvation.