February 27, 2011
"What Do You Seek"
W. Gregory Pope, preaching
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Series: The Sermon on the Mount
The Good and Beautiful Life: Jesus’ Vision for a New World
Matthew 6:19-34
If we could watch a video of your heart this morning, what would we learn about you? I’m not talking about the heart that pumps blood through your body and what its rate and level of plaque might tell us about your health. I’m talking about the heart the Bible speaks of - the center of your will and desire. If it were possible to see your will and the deepest desires of your heart, what would they tell us you treasure most, that you want more than anything? What is it that you seek?
Jesus calls us in his Sermon on the Mount to seek first the kingdom of God. Is that what a picture of your heart and mine would say that we seek more than anything?
Among the words in this passage most difficult to follow are the ones telling us not to worry about tomorrow, what we will eat or drink or wear. God takes care of the birds and flowers. God will take care of us. In the face of the world’s starving children and tenuous economy, we see enough to make us anxious. For most of us, we may not worry about provision for tomorrow, but next month, next year, may be of concern to some of us. Who knows what tomorrow might bring!
These words of Jesus we read a few moments ago follow words from Jesus on giving, praying, and fasting - spiritual practices that help us relinquish control of our lives and possessions and appetites. Beginning next Sunday, over an 8-day period, we will study those three practices, including two Sundays and Ash Wednesday.
What other guidance does Jesus offer here that can help us get our priorities right and our minds at peace about our daily provision?
1. Consider your heart (6:19-21)
Jesus says:
Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth,
where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal.
How often are our lives, our emotions, our energies bound up in things a moth could eat, rust could ruin, or a thief could steal? Many of us have been captured by the tyranny of things. We are possessed by our possessions.
Jesus offers an alternative:
Instead, store up treasures in the kingdom of heaven.
For Matthew, “heaven” is a synonym for “God.” So he’s not talking about storing up treasures for an afterlife in heaven, but treasures in God, with God. The kingdom is present, in the now, here and all around us. Treasures in God, with God, are those things that matter in God’s kingdom: acts of generosity, deeds of justice, compassion, and love.
Why should we be concerned about our treasures? Because Jesus said:
Where your treasure is there your heart will be.
If we could take a look inside your heart we would discover what you truly treasure. In order to release our lives from the anxious knots in which we find ourselves tied, Jesus suggests we consider our hearts. And we do that by treasuring the right things; refusing to concern ourselves with possessions that can be stolen, things we will most certainly not be taking with us when we leave this earth. We must not place ultimate value on those things that will not last. We must keep check on our hearts by treasuring the things that truly matter, things of eternal value that will live on in the lives of others when we’re gone.
2. Consider your eyes (6:22-23)
Jesus also tells us to consider our eyes. He says:
The eye is the lamp of the body.
If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.
For those of us with the good fortune of sight, what we see with our eyes makes its way into our hearts. And that’s what Jesus is talking about here: the eyes of the heart. In Ephesians, Paul prays for the enlightening of the eyes of our hearts (Eph 1:18).
It seems Jesus is saying that if your eyes are focused on what really matters, your heart will be healthy and full of light to see as God sees. If your eyes are focused on the wrong things, your heart will be unhealthy and full of darkness, unable to see as God sees.
It’s a matter of “seeing” rightly. The eyes of our heart can be clouded; they can distort what we see, leading us to look at the world through the eyes of an anxious heart: Will I have enough? Will I get what I need? Jesus teaches us to look at the world in light of God’s great provision. So let us constantly consider our hearts and our eyes. The eyes of our hearts.
3. Consider your loyalties (6:24)
Let us also consider our loyalties. Jesus states for us an obvious universal truth that we all too often ignore at our great peril. He says:
No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and earthly treasures.
We cannot serve God and money, God and wealth, God and material possessions, God and the market. Money is not unimportant. It’s what makes possible our being able to provide shelter, food, and clothing ourselves and others. The market is not unimportant. Many of our retirements and livelihoods are tied to it. But the market is not our God. Our lives do not consist of the prices at the end of the day.
And possession is a passing illusion. Think about it. What do you truly possess? Just wait a few years and we’ll all see how much you really possess when you’re six feet under!
If increasing and protecting your wealth is your religion, greed and anxiety will follow you all the days of your life. But to serve God is to open your hands to freely give and freely receive and freely release your anxious heart.
4. Consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air
and the God who cares for them (6:25-32)
To help us live in such freedom Jesus tells us in addition to keeping check on our hearts and eyes and loyalties, to also consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and the God who cares for them and us all.
Wendell Berry says of the Bible: “I don’t think it is enough appreciated how much of an outdoor book the Bible really is . . . It is best read and understood outdoors. . . Passages that within walls seem improbable or incredible, outdoors seem merely natural. This is because outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that the miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread.”1
So I’m guessing his decision to remain inside the Frankfort capital building all weekend a few weeks ago was not his idea of fun. But he loved nature so much he was willing to go without it for a weekend in order to stop mountaintop removal from poisoning creation.
When you read closely you see that a fair amount of what happens in the Bible takes place outdoors. Jesus himself did most of his work under an open sky. His teaching made free use of what his listeners could witness in nature: the wind in the trees, a farmer sowing seed, or in today’s passage, birds and wildflowers.
Look at the birds of air, Jesus said. Consider the lilies of the field.
I think Jesus did this because he knows such words like “don’t be anxious” are empty. They never work by themselves. So Jesus directs our eyes to behold the beauty of flowers and the freedom of birds in the hopes that they will touch us deeply enough to release us out from under our anxiety.
His instructions are to look thoughtfully and ponder deeply God’s provision within the extravagant beauty of creation. The birds do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet woven into the very tapestry of creation is God’s gracious provision for the birds. The lilies grow and neither toil nor spin and are clothed in beauty that surpasses royalty. Jesus says we are of greater lasting value than the birds and lilies, yet God makes provision for them.
And yet it is hard to read these words and not think of those who starve and go unclothed. I think the point Jesus would make is that God has made provision for all the earth. Since Jesus’ day we have polluted that provision, and governments have been established that restrict access to those in need, and other nations like ours have consumed more than their fair share of those provisions - all of which cause others to go without.
So, how do hear these words of Jesus in these days of anxiety?
First, let’s acknowledge that there is a worry - perhaps we could call it a caring concern - a concern over those in desperate need, a concern over the character of our nation and the condition of our world. Such concern is a sign of care that often drives people to good action. Such concern is a Christian virtue.
But there is a worry, more accurately characterized as anxiety, that puts us in a state of paralysis. The root of the word “anxiety” means “to choke.” Anxiety constricts blood vessels and it constricts faith. And when Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious,” he’s talking about an obsessive worry that eats away at your life.
There is the anxiety of basic provision. But God knows what we need to eat and drink and wear and is always at work in the world through the daily miracles of farms and gardens and through the hard work and generosity of others making provision.
5. Consider today (6:34)
Beyond the anxiety for basic provision, there are more broader, abstract anxieties, the dread that is grounded in not knowing anything of what the future may bring: Will the people we love be happy and safe? What kind of death will we die? What other losses await us? Will there be enough of what we need? Jesus says,
Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow will bring enough troubles of its own.
Reminds me of the time Charlie Brown said: “I’ve made a new commitment. From now on I’ll dread just one day at a time.” Sometimes that’s the best we can do.
Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious about what tomorrow may or may not bring. Today’s troubles are enough. Just consider today.”
There is great wisdom here. David Stendl-Rast says we can only feel at home in the now, in today, “because that is the only place where we really are. We cannot be in the future and we cannot be in the past; we can only be in the present,” today.2 Just consider today, Jesus said. All we can really do is seek God’s kingdom right here, right now.
6. Seek first the kingdom of God (6:25, 33)
But this text and this entire Sermon on the Mount is about more than our needs. It’s really about turning our focus away from ourselves and toward the kingdom of God. Jesus said,
Don’t be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Of course it is. Life through God’s eyes is about justice and compassion and hope and love.
I’m reading a book right now by Ed Dobson entitled The Year of Living Like Jesus. It’s his journal of a year where he tried to literally obey Jesus’ teaching. I heard him speak of that experience. He called it “an incredibly bizarre year.” At the time he embarked on this journey, Ed had been battling Lou Gehrig’s disease for seven years. But he said what we found that year was when he got up every morning he was focused on Jesus, his kingdom, and obeying him. For the first time in years, he seldom thought of which muscle didn’t work today. He seldom worried about his life, his future, his disease. Because he was seeking first the kingdom of God.3
Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God, set your heart on what needs to be done in this world, and God will provide what you need.” Because when we seek first God’s kingdom, we will be at work caring about the needs of one another, making just social injustices, helping provide clean water for the people of Haiti, making sure refugees are able to make a home here with friends and basic provision. The most basic desire of us all is to provide the necessities for our families.
Four years ago on this last Sunday of February, the first group of our Karen brothers and sisters joined us for worship. If you have witnessed their lives and listened to their stories of life in Burma, Thailand Refugee Camps, and in America, you cannot help but be inspired by their courage, hope, and loving hearts.
The same is true of our Chin brothers and sisters. Last Sunday afternoon we celebrated Chin National Day. Jason Abbott, professor of Asian Democracy at U of L, read a poem that I want to share with you. It’s entitled “Not Just a Refugee” by Bri Mark.
I had to leave my homeland, my children and my wife,
to find a safer place to live and to save my life.
This wasn’t taken lightly, so try to be aware,
I only want security and you to show you care.
What you take for granted, we are not allowed,
we must say things quietly, while you can shout out loud.
You can walk for miles on end, without the need for fear,
I just want to do the same and to bring my family here.
I did what any human would, I want to stay alive,
while I’m still here there’s hope my family will survive.
Until you get to know me, don’t make a song and dance.
Try to learn who I am, just give me a chance.
Before you make a judgment, try to understand,
I come for your democracy, not to steal your land.
You’ve always fought injustice, a cause you’re fighting still.
I was doing just the same, I’d really had my fill.
That is why I moved here, on freedom you’re renowned.
Help me through to be as you and equality we’ll have found.
I do not ask for sympathy, just a friendly ear,
to listen to my troubles and help bring me some cheer.
If you think for just a moment, I really could be you.
Would you accept brutality? If not, what would you do?
If you’ve listened to all I’ve told you, you should now clearly see,
first, I am a human being, “Not Just a Refugee.”
We live in the kingdom together. God provides for our needs through one another. To seek the kingdom with all our hearts, to live loyal to the kingdom of God, requires of us that we truly see the depth of need in this world and make it our life’s aim to alleviate the sufferings of those who go without basic necessities.
If you want to calm your anxious heart, as best you can with God’s help, seek an undivided heart. That’s what Jesus is saying. Seek an undivided heart. A heart with one master, not two. You can’t serve the kingdom of God and the kingdom of possessions. To live free from the anxiety that chokes the life out of us calls us to place our hands over our hearts and say, “I pledge my full and undivided allegiance to the kingdom of God.”
An allegiance to the kingdom of God turns the eyes of our hearts toward the massive suffering of the world. And in so doing, turns our focus away from our own needs. I will not worry so much about my food and clothes if I look out upon the deep needs of the world and do what I must do to alleviate the sufferings I see there.
To give your heart to the kingdom of God is to say: I will do what I can today with hope and courage and faith in the God who loves and cares for us all. That’s what I will do today. And when tomorrow comes, I will do what I can tomorrow.
But for now I will look with the eyes of my heart and examine my loyalties and discover what I truly treasure. And I will walk outside and look at the birds of the air and consider the beauty of God’s creation and realize I am part of something glorious and much larger than myself. And I will give thanks to the God who holds this world in caring provision, the God in whose palm my name is inscribed.
Isaiah tells of God’s people who while in exile cried out: “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.”
And the God of all compassion said, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” Realizing that human mothers can sometimes be frail and neglectful, God says, “Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”
Isaiah says that God is our compassionate mother who will not forget us. Her heart won’t let her turn anyone away. Because our names and faces are inscribed on the palms of her hands. You will never, never, never be forgotten nor forsaken.
Seek first the kingdom of God and God’s justice, and there will be enough for us all.
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1. Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community, Pantheon, 1993, 105.
2. David Steindl-Rast, Music of Silence, Ulysses Press, 2002, 8.
3. Ed Dobson, The Year of Living Like Jesus, Zondervan, 2009.