Barry Unwin, Upton & Welland, 19 February 2017
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Let me tell you about a rainy-day in my life. It was a few years ago now, when I used to live about a mile from the church I was working at. And quite often I’d walk to meetings there.
And on this particular day, I hadn’t brought a coat. So you can probably guess what happened.
As I was walking home the sky turns black and there’s a great clap of thunder and the heavens opened; not so much raining cats and dogs, as elephants and giraffes.
I’ve never been so wet in my life. And eventually I got home, shivering, dripping, miserable, and I open my door, and on the floor there’s a postcard, from a friend who was on holiday in the Caribbean. Beautiful sandy beach. Hot sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky.
And I remember looking at the postcard, and then looking out my front door at the grey skies and rain lashing down, and then back at the postcard, and thinking, why can’t I be there, instead of here?
I don’t know if you’ve ever had a moment like that. I call it a “Postcard from Paradise” moment – where you get a glimpse of another better world.
Well our gospel reading today- is a “postcard from Paradise” moment. It’s a picture of another better world. In fact this whole section of Matthew’s gospel – from chapter 5 to the end of chapter 7 is a series of “Postcards from Paradise” – which Jesus gave in the form of sermon which we call “The Sermon on the Mount”.
And we’re pretty sure Matthew the gospel writer would have been there to hear it –he certainly lived in the area – and he becomes a follower of Jesus very soon after this particular Postcard from Paradise was delivered.
And just like with my postcard, this one also begins with a thunderstorm
First the thunderstorm
Jesus said,
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” (Mt.6:25)
So the thunderstorm – the thing Jesus is warning us about here is the way we allow money, possessions and clothes to define our life, to define our sense of who we are.
We live in a consumer culture today – and for a lot of people – shopping has become a form of worship. Money, possessions and clothes are the new Holy Trinity. Their cathedrals are shopping malls, their prophets are advertisers and reality TV stars, and the central tenet of the faith is to perfect themselves one purchase or one experience at a time.
And even if you don’t buy into consumerism as much as that, We’re all still buying things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.
And then we lie at wake at night worrying. About how we can keep the bank balance above a certain level, about how you can generate extra cash, about how you’ll put food on the table, about how you’ll afford that new gadget, about what you’ll do if the car breaks down. And if you can’t maintain those basic things in life – you feel a failure.
So clearly we all need more money. Well no.
Did you see that story in the papers this week about Jane Park, one of Britain’s youngest ever Euromillions winners? She won £1m aged 17, and is now suing the lottery for ruining her life! Apparently she’s sick of shopping for designer goodies; struggling to find a genuine boyfriend who isn’t after her money, and missing her old cheap and cheerful holidays in Benidorm because trips to upmarket resorts are too snooty.
When I read that story, I thought, “I’d not be that stupid.” But I would. Give me £1m and I’ll waste it. I nearly got seduced into this the other day with an advert I saw for the world’s most comfortable boxer shorts.
They claimed to have reinvented the underpant, to have resolved 6 common issues with men’s underwear. I won’t tell you what the six problems are – I confess I didn’t actually look – but it just felt brilliant to think that someone had invested so much time and effort into improving an already nearly flawless product.
And so I clicked “Tell me more”,And the boxers were glorious. Lovely colours. Bang on trend. Not that anyone ever really gets to see them. And then I saw the price.£35 for one boxer short. So I cancelled the purchase, though I’m still intrigued by those six improvements.
The point is – one way or another, We all allow money, possessions and clothes,To define who we are.And if we live that way – we’re heading for a fall.
So there’s our thunderstorm. Now let’s take a look at our postcard from Paradise.
Because sitting there on our doormat is a message from God saying that in God’s eyes, we are far more valuable than anything we could ever own or wear.
Jesus says,
Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Mt.6:25-26)
We are worth far more to God than what we own.And we’re also worth far more than what we can wear.
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.” (Mt.6:27-29)
Jesus is saying – if you want to know contentment – the answer isn’t more more more – it’s understanding that your value as a person doesn’t rest in anything as flimsy as fashion or as passing as possessions or as momentary as money.
Instead your value as a person comes from the never stopping, never giving up, always and forever love of our Heavenly Father.
And if we can just get that into our heads and hearts, then we won’t have to worry about what we’ll eat, or what we’ll drink or what we’ll wear. Those are the sorts of things that the pagans run after, says Jesus. We don’t have to worry about that –because our Heavenly Father knows we need those things. And he’ll provide for us.
This is pretty revolutionary stuff isn’t it? The idea that our value and dignity, can’t be purchased at Tesco, but instead comes to us from our creator.
So how do we receive it? How do we make the Postcard from Paradise real?
Jesus says,
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt.6:33)
So how do we that?
First – let’s start with that bit about “his righteousness.” How can we strive for God’s righteousness?
Well God’s righteousness is his total moral perfection and purity. If you measure how moral a person you are on a chart, God’s way up there, in perfection. And we’re way way down below. We might be better than Hitler but that’s not enough, and no matter how much self-improvement and meditation and kindness and religion you do, you can’t move yourself far enough up the scale into God’s righteousness.
It takes the death of God – Jesus dying on the cross – to do that for you. That’s how Christianity is different to all the other religions. In one way or another, all the other religions say, “Here’s what you’ve got to do to find God” but Christianity is about what God has done to find you. God came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, and died on the cross, to find you.
And all we’ve got to do to be found is repent of our sin and trust in Jesus death on the cross. And when we do that, God declares us righteous. He gives the status of “righteous” as a gift. So that’s how we strive for God’s righteousness. That’s how we become a follower of Jesus.
But what happens next? Well Jesus has offered his life for ours, and he invites us to offer our lives back to him,in service.
And that’s what striving for the Kingdom of God is all about. It’s serving King Jesus with your whole life – your resources of time, treasure and talent.
Let’s think about time first. That could involve you creating more time to go deeper into God through prayer and study of the Bible; it could involve more time serving your brothers and sisters in Christ; and more time for the Great Mission that Jesus gave us – to take the good news of the risen Jesus all around the world. But it could also involve, giving less time to an employer or a hobby, and more time to your family.
Then there’s your talents. Seeking God’s kingdom involves using your talents – your gifts and skills – in the service of God’s kingdom. That’s everything from administration, to teaching, via catering and caring. God has given all the gifts his church needs – but are we willing to offer them?
So there, Time & Talents, and then most contentious of all, there’s our treasure.
Our financial resources. How do we put God first in those? By spending them his way. You know at our church council meeting on Tuesday we were talking about how extraordinary it was that such a rag-tag disorganised bunch of disciples could take the gospel to the ends of the Earth in such a short time. How did they do it?
Well they offered their time, and talents, but also their treasure in service of the Kingdom of God. Time and again, the book of Acts shows the early church “Selling their possessions and goods” to fund missionary work and to care for one another.
That involved real sacrifice and hardship. They went without so that those who were without the gospel could hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Offering your time, treasure and talents. And that’s how we make the Postcard from Paradise real in our lives.
So to finish, I’m going to invite you all to make a step forward in your striving for the Kingdom of God.
Let’s close our eyes and bow our heads – and in the quiet of our own heart ask God how you can better use the time, treasure and talents, all the resources he has given you, in the service of his Kingdom. And then I’ll pray to finish.