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᛭ INI ᛭

5. Oops!: We worry about almost everything!

Christ mentions worry five times! “Don’t worry.” Don’t worry about food. Don’t worry about clothing. The birds aren’t farmers, the lilies aren’t clothiers. Don’t worry! Worrying about food and clothing—that’s child’s play!

We’ve got different names for worry, but it’s all on the spectrum of worry: phobias, fear, anxiety, stress, whatever you want to call it. You worry about yourself, your kids, your work, your spouse, the world, the weather. “Don’t worry,” Jesus says. Fat chance! You put one worry down, and your heart and mind picks up another one—maybe long into the night….

It’s not just you. Everyone has their own. In fact, we live in a society and culture of fear! From the news to social media—they’re all outlets of worry. They’re fear mongers! In fact, the robots running the internet give us it all the more! They know what will get you to watch, to read, to listen, to click. Worry and fear at your finger tips. And what’s even worse, at least as far as I can tell, we’re the most medicated society ever. SSRIs are given out almost like candy, because so many are addicted to and consumed by worry and fear.

4. Ugh!: To worry is to sin, thus unrighteousness.

The real problem with worry that Jesus tunes you into today isn’t just that it’s a mental or psychological problem. It’s not primarily a problem in your mind. It’s not an emotional problem. It’s a spiritual problem. It’s a faith problem. It’s a symptom of unbelief toward your heavenly Father, doubt that He will actually take care of you.

Worry, anxiety, fear, phobias, stress—whatever you want to call it—breaks the 1st Commandment. “You shall have no other gods.” It’s to covet because you’ve got to take care of you or your children or grandchildren, God certainly won’t. And we know Jesus is driving at that point because He says, “If God thus clothes the grass of the field…will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.”

To worry about your life, in whatever aspect you do, is to sin. Phobias are sin. Anxiety is sin. Fear is sin. “You shall have no other gods,” which means, “We fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” (SC I) We don’t want to absolve ourselves of our anxieties and worries by saying, “I can’t help it.” We should rather confess them. For you see the sin of unbelief and doubt affects us to our core. It spins out in various ways in our daily lives. In fact, it even rewires our brains! Sin is unrighteousness before God, worry is, doubt it, anxiety is. We’re sinful far deeper than we often care to admit—in our thoughts, words, and actions, of course. But we’re also sinful down into our mental conditions, emotional states—our anxieties, worries, and fears: Oh my!

3. Aha!: We need a righteousness not our own.

Now, to such unrighteous people Christ says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” But, instead, we’re often looking out for all sorts of things, worrying about them. God’s Kingdom and His righteousness are way down on the list of worries, but they should be first and only! “You shall have no other gods,” “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” (SC I)

We don’t, and God rightly condemns us for it. How can we seek such a righteousness like God’s? How can He demand unrighteous people to do such an undoable thing? How can God condemn a mental illness? Well, “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” And God’s unreasonable requirement of His unreachable righteousness is to point out the fact that you need a righteousness that’s not your own, that you don’t need to self justify or shy away from your unrighteousness, or hide it, but confess, and live with it in constant repentance and faith, trusting in the Lord to supply what you need.

2. Whee!: CHRIST, GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESCUES YOU FROM WORRY.

In fact, that’s exactly what He does. For GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS is Christ, as the prophet Jeremiah prophesies: “In His days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely; and this is the name by which He will be called: THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer 23) And CHRIST, GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESCUES YOU FROM YOUR WORRY.

And so you don’t have far to seek, because in Christ God’s Kingdom and righteousness come near to you. In the Sermon on the Mount, which is the context of our Gospel Lesson, Christ is portraying and preaching His perfect righteousness, which of course condemns us, but it also portrays and preaches all that He is and all that He does to save you. That CHRIST, GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESCUES YOU FROM YOUR WORRY.

He rescues you by living like a lily, living like a bird of heavens, always trusting in His heavenly Father in your place. “Birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Didn’t even have His own grave! Didn’t have His own worry, but He took yours. “God made [Christ] to be sin,” to be your sin, your worry, your anxiety, your fear, your unbelief, even though “[He] knew no [such thing], that you might become the righteousness of God in Him,” in Christ by faith. “For the righteous shall live by faith.”

But it’s not just His righteousness that’s yours. It’s His kingdom! His Kingdom is yours, you are part of His kingdom. “[The Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1) This happened in Holy Baptism, even as infants, for “let the little children come to Me, for of such is the Kingdom of God.” “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3)

“Are you not of more value than they?” Indeed, you are! “You are worth more than many sparrows!” (Mt 10) For “you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Pet 1) Indeed, Christ may “give to the young ravens that cry” (Ps 136), even though they don’t “reap nor gather into barns,” but from the grains of many hillsides, that Lord feeds you with His body given into death and raised for you and your sins, same with countless grapes—wine which is His blood for your forgiveness. See how much more value He places on you! The birds could never hope for such a meal and benefit!

1. Yeah!: Only in Christ do we truly live like lilies.

And since CHRIST, GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESCUES YOU FROM YOUR WORRY, that means that only in Christ do we truly live like lilies. All eyes and ears on Christ, we have complete trust and confidence in Him and not food or clothing or whatever other thing—many things—we worry about. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8) It’s all about faith not a formula. “Seek first and these things will be added.” To turn that into a formula is the way of unbelief.

So, if CHRIST, GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESCUES YOU FROM YOUR WORRY, does that mean you can’t have anxiety or depression or stress. Does this mean toss the pills? Don’t seek help? Absolutely not! It’s a call to not just treat the physical aspects, but the spiritual. It’s a call not to only look for the alert your prescription’s been refilled, but to hear Holy Absolution. The sin has rewired our hardware, so treat the hardware, but also the software, the sinfulness of spirit that’s broken our bodies. “To the pastor we should confess only those sins which we know and feel in our hearts.” (SC V) “Pastor, I have anxiety.” “I forgive you all your sins.”

Besides the spiritual counsel of Absolution, there is the true medicine against worry—the Supper!

19 What should admonish and encourage a Christian to receive the Sacrament frequently?

First, both the command and the promise of Christ the Lord. Second, his own pressing need, because of which the command, encouragement, and promise are given.

20 But what should you do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the Sacrament?

To such a person no better advice can be given than this: first, he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood. Then he should believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. Second, he should look around to see whether he is still in the world, and remember that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the Scriptures say in John 15–16 and in 1 John 2 and 5.

This is also how CHRIST, GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESCUES YOU FROM YOUR WORRY, and thus rescued, thus in Him, you’ll truly a lily, and He’ll begin to make you live like one.

᛭ INI ᛭