I.N.I.
A sermon to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, VA on the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, also called 8 August 2010, and based on the Holy Gospel for the Day, St. Luke 12:22-34, especially verses 31 and 32
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In my experience preaching in various congregations from the assigned lessons for each Sunday, I find some Sundays that either the lessons don't seem to fit together so well or that it's hard to find a really sweet nugget in them to bring into the pulpit with me. This isn't one of those Sundays. All three of our lessons fit together well and are chock full of wonderful words of God for us to chew on and enjoy. The struggle this week was more a case of having to decide what to leave out for another time. This explains why I am not focusing on Abram, and God's really big promises to him; or Abram's belief in God that the Lord credited to him as righteousness. It explains why I am not picking up the echo of our Genesis lesson that we have in Hebrews 11, where we hear the beginning of that great exposition on faith as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, ending in the middle of the chapter but with again the story of Abram's faith.
And it explains why I settled on the two verses from Luke 12 that I am calling our attention to this morning. 'Seek first the Kingdom of God – strive for – his kingdom, and all these things (I'll touch on what things later on) will be added unto you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom – He wants to, and He will.'
This all sounds fine. Maybe you've sung some of these words in songs or hymns. They're probably familiar words. But at second thought, it might appear that they don't sound too Lutheran. Lutheran Christians have a kind of automatic response against if-then, work-reward passages. And that's what this passage could sound like. It's as if Jesus is telling us that once we get out our compass and maps, fire up the GPS unit, pack our bags and set off to hunt up the Kingdom of God – once we work hard to find it and get into it – then the Father will let us in or something (that little detail seems lacking in our text) and will also give us earthly blessings, especially food and clothing. And that sort of talk about rewarding our hard work of going out and hunting for God doesn't sound properly orthodox to us, it doesn't sound like good Lutheran teaching. Well, it isn't, really. But that's not what the text is saying.
What the text is saying is significantly different. Let's unwrap the meaning so that we can get to the point where we will see that all Christian people will eagerly seek first the Kingdom of God. A very good place to start is with the a-b-c of God's abundant blessed caring for each of His creatures, for you and for me. God's abundant blessed caring for us should be where we start and end our every prayer about earthly things. God's care for us overflows more than we could ever think to ask for. God's care for us blesses us in more ways than we can imagine or count. Yet we sometimes, perhaps often, don't really believe in it. Sometimes we use some other standard and think we've been left out of God's blessings. Or perhaps we let greed and covetousness run our day-to-day lives. Maybe we get jealous of what other people have. In those cases we show a lack of faith in God. And that always gets us in trouble.
We should, instead, seek first the Kingdom of God. What is this word “seek”? One translation has “strive for”. Others say “continue to be eager for” or “set your mind upon,” “set your hearts on,” “be concerned about.” It's as if the translators are struggling to capture the sense of Jesus's original word. For good reason. The dictionaries point out that the word He used has two senses: one is “seeking” in the sense of a shepherd searching for a lost sheep (Matthew 18:12) or a woman seeking a lost coin (Luke 15:8); the other sense is in a holy 'demand' by God who expects fruit from a tree (Luke 13:6) or faithfulness from a servant (1 Corinthians 4:2). So there are 2 sides to “seeking.” There is looking for what belongs to you; and there is a patient, hopeful expectation of what is due.
And neither of these senses of the word “seek” indicate working hard to get something that isn't already given to you. In other words, that picture of getting out a map and hunting for God's Kingdom, and then pounding on the door to be let in, is all wrong. The Kingdom of God is already ours. It has already been given to us. It's just that, in our sin and self-centeredness, we've lost sight of it. So we should patiently search for what we already have by the grace of God. We should look as the good shepherd searches for the one lost sheep. We should sweep the house looking for where we dropped the valuable coin like the woman. We should wait patiently and expectantly, looking down the road like the father of the Prodigal Son. We should keep returning to the fig tree year after year looking for fruit. What we are seeking is already ours. God has already given it to us.
Jesus gave us another way to remember this process. In the Lord's Prayer, He told us to pray “Thy Kingdom come.” Now, we believe that God's Kingdom comes whether we pray for it or not, but in this petition of the Prayer we pray that it comes also to us. We pray that God's Kingdom may prevail among us, so that we may be a part of those among whom God's name is hallowed. We are praying for the flowering of what is already planted in our hearts. We are seeking the Kingdom of God in all the various ways and places it already is.
So, what IS the Kingdom of God? Simply, it's what we confess regularly in the creeds: that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem us from sin, death and the Devil, and to bring us to Himself and rule us as our king of righteousness, life and salvation. To carry this out, God gave us His Holy Spirit to teach us through the Word, to call us through the Gospel, to enlighten us with His gifts, to strengthen and keep us in the one, true faith. THAT is “the Kingdom of God.”
When we “seek first the Kingdom of God” what we are doing is praying that all this may be realized in us, and that God's name may be praised through His holy Word and in our lives. So we are seeking to remain faithful to what was begun in us at Baptism, and to grow in faith through leading holy lives. And we pray that , led by the same Holy Spirit, many others may come into the Kingdom and become our brothers and sisters in the faith.
God's Kingdom comes to us in two ways as we seek it. First, it comes here and now through the Word and faith; and second, it comes in eternity through the Second Coming of Jesus. Seeking it, we pray that it may come to those who are not yet in it, and that it may come by daily growth in us all both now and in eternity when we go home to Heaven. As we are strengthened in the faith, God's Kingdom comes to us. As we live Christian lives, God's Kingdom comes. As we extend the outreach of His Church, we seek God's Kingdom. That's how we seek the Kingdom of God. That's how we set our hearts and minds on it. That's how we concern ourselves with it. That's how we focus our attention on the Kingdom.
And did you notice that we're NOT focusing our attention and prayers upon? It's often hard to see what isn't there until someone points it out. Let me point it out. We are not focusing our attention and prayers on a crust of bread or a shred of cloth. We aren't looking for food and clothing. We aren't looking for earthly, temporal, temporary blessings. Leap back to St. Luke 12:22-23 where Jesus says “I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you are to eat or about your body, what you are to wear. For life is ore than food, and the body more than clothing.”
You and I have a direct connection with almighty God, the creator of the Universe through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord. He has given us an eternal, priceless treasure by forgiving us our sins and giving us eternal life in Heaven. That's something way, way more than any of us would have ever thought to ask for on our own. Yet that's what God has given us. And because He is God, he claims the honor of giving us far more abundantly and liberally than anyone can comprehend. Like a deep, eternal, inexhaustible fountain that flows with more and more and more cold water on even the hottest day of the driest month, God keeps on giving to His children. He wants us to ask many and great things of Him. And He wants us to ask confidently.
Imagine, if you will, a rich and powerful person who calls to and invites a homeless beggar to ask for anything he wants. Imagine that the rich person is willing and ready to give lavishly. And imagine that the beggar only asks for some loose change to help make up the price of a cup of coffee. Would the rich person be indignant, upset, even angry? If you are the beggar, and don't ask the rich person for some substantial gift, then shame on you! Because God is the rich person in this little story and we are the beggars.
God's joy and purpose is to see to our blessing and comfort. Asking him merely for a little food and some clothing is a kind of insult to God's generosity. He has promised and is intent on giving us so much, so many blessings, we would be despising His gifts to barely croak out a petition for a morsel of bread.
The fault in this case lies wholly in our unbelief which does not look to God even for enough to satisfy our bodies, let along expect, without doubting, eternal blessings from God. Therefore we must strengthen ourselves against unbelief and seek first the Kingdom of God. Then, surely, we will have all the other things in abundance, as Christ teaches here in Luke's Gospel.
How do we strengthen our faith? By relying on God's grace which brought us that faith in the first place. His powerful grace comes to us in His Word, and in the Sacraments. We hear the Law and the Gospel in the words of the Holy Bible as we see how our sin is condemned, but how we are forgiven because of the death of Jesus. What a relief! What a source of inspiration and power! We are baptized people and therefore rely on the promises wrapped up in that cleansing whenever sin gets the upper hand again. We use the promises of God to fight off the attacks of Satan. We've been baptized! The evil one has no power over us any longer! And we are nourished in this life, both as we fight off the evil foe and as we carry out our God-given mission in life, by coming regularly to the Sacrament of the Altar, Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper. The “altar” reminds us that it is because of Christ's sacrificial death that we are here. The communion reminds us that we gather with other believers who are going through similar struggles, and finding the same godly assurances and love that we seek. The supper reminds us that what we have here was instituted by Jesus Himself as a way to feed us His true body and blood, strengthening and preserving us in the one true faith unto life everlasting.
We're in a great position. We have a loving and powerful God Who forgives us our sins and wants to sustain us in our earthly lives as well. He gives us the directions and means to approach Him, seeking His blessings. He has already promised to clothe us more gloriously than Solomon or the lilies of the field, and to feed us more regularly and fully than He feeds to birds who don't know how to farm and grow their own food. “Don't be afraid, little flock, for it is God's good pleasure – His delight! – to give you the Kingdom.”
So let's eagerly seek first the Kingdom of God. It turns out, as we've seen, that it's a very Lutheran thing to do – as, of course, it should be because it's a very Christian thing to do, because it comes from the lips of Jesus and is recorded in the Bible. Let's seek out the Kingdom like a shepherd searching for a lost sheep that he wants to rescue. Let's longingly search for it like the Prodigal Son's father looked down the road for his returning child. Let's keep checking like the farmer stopping in regularly, expectantly, hopefully, faithfully to see whether there's ripe fruit on the tree. We know the Kingdom of God is there for us with all its attendant blessings. Let's seek it out. Let's find it.
Amen.
And may the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
S.D.G.