Matthew 6:24 – 34 says,
24. You cannot serve two masters: God and money. For you will hate one and love the other, or else the other way around.
25. So my counsel is: Don’t worry about things – food, drink and clothes. For you already have life and a body – and they are far more important than what to eat and wear.
26. Look at the birds! They don’t worry about what to eat – they don’t need to sow or reap or store up food – for your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to Him than they are.
27. Will all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28. “And why worry about your clothes? Look at the field lilies! They don’t worry about theirs.
29. Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they.
30. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?
31/32. So don’t worry at all about having enough food and clothing. Why be like the heathen? For they take pride in all these things and are deeply concerned about them. But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them.
33. – and He will give them to you if you give Him first place in your life and live as He wants you to.
34. So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.
What are you going to wear?
- is the question in an article in one of the many magazines available for teenagers and pre-teens. Well, I don’t have any teenagers in my house anymore and boys are not always as preoccupied with what to wear as girls are, but I grew up with three sisters!!! Before the kids are going out what is the first thing that happens? You can be sure that most will be on the phone with their closest friend – who is also going – and the question is, “What are you wearing tonight?”
I’m pretty sure that most of us have been thinking about what to wear for church this morning and probably about what to wear for work or golf tomorrow. The flyers in Saturday’s paper offered great deals on the new style in summer wear and……
What does fashion mean to us?
There’s a saying: “Clothes make the man”. It is a body language that signals something about us even before we have opened our mouths. And all of us would like to make a good impression, so that we are heard when we speak and are accepted by those we would like to impress. Think about the police uniform. We look not at the person inside the uniform, but rather at what the uniform signals: (in this case) protect and serve!
Had I for example been dressed in mink and diamonds this morning, this particular sermon or message would probably have made you all laugh!
Don’t ask, “What am I going to wear, but rather think about what’s important in life. Is not our body and soul or spirit more important than the clothes we wear?
God cares perfectly for the lilies in the field and we are far more important to Him than they are.
But we are worried about our “looks” – and why is that?
Because we are quick to judge others by what they wear and how it is coordinated.
But, really – how important is it whether you are wearing a green or brown sweater, gray or black pants, turtleneck or shirt etc, etc….
Is it really the exterior, the style, the clothes that we wear that decides who we are and how we behave?
Maybe we should not disregard this idea or thought too quickly.
Put on a pair of old, comfortable and worn jeans, a cap and you are ready to jump on the motorbike and go for a wild ride – or a night at the tavern drinking beer from the bottle.
Put on your good suit, white shirt and tie and polished shoes and you are ready for something entirely different …
Fashion and clothes create a setting or a “stage”, which is not completely without importance.
We choose our clothes for many reasons: they are comfortable, sexy, it’s our taste and they create a certain image, which can be a problem – as when a “good” girl projects an image of something she is not or the 60 year old woman dresses like her 25 year old daughter or her grand daughter, just because it’s “in”.
What about the person who lives to use money on fashion clothes and food, as if it’s the most important in life?
In Ecclesiastes 2:10 Solomon says, “Anything I wanted, I took, and did not restrain myself from any joy…..” 2:11 But as I looked at everything I had tried, it was all so useless, a chasing of the wind and there was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.”
What do you see when you look back? Does any of it have substance? Will it “carry” you through your worries or is it all just pretty packaging, which, like in advertising, says that happiness lies in our image and sexuality – in materialism and consumerism?
So, what are we worried about?
We did not win our life, body and soul in the lottery – no, they are gifts from God! Jesus asks, “Why do you worry?”
Why do we worry? – And you know why. We cannot live without food, drink and clothing. We have to – to a degree – also be “with it” as long as we are participating in this worlds pulsating life. Food and clothes do not materialize on their own and not without funds either.
So you can yell at me and ask if I’ve gone completely off my “rocker” and is this sermon “stuff” going to my head?
OK, I can see that the birds are flying and that I can’t even dream of getting off the ground. I’m not a plant like the lily, nor do I live on a paradise island where you just pick “Bounty Bars” out of thin air.
And then Jesus says, “Be not anxious for your lives, how you get something to eat and drink nor how you get something to wear!”
Huh?
But this is what’s behind those words:
God knows that you need all this - it worries Him too and therefore YOU need not worry. It’s not meant as a command but rather as liberation. It’s an invitation to “throw out” or “hand over” our burden of worries to God – a wonderful God who gave us life.
Don’t “muddle” through your life worrying whether you have enough power to go through it as if you by your own will or power should or could add a day more to your life. You don’t have to.
Because of Jesus we can be like children and pray with Him, “Our Father in Heaven give us this day our daily bread – house, home, clothes, shoes, spouse, work and everything we need in this life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
This is what Jesus has to say from God, “You don’t have to live by your own power and slave for the devil who stands for the hunger for money and power.
As Solomon says about money in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money shall never have enough. The foolishness of thinking that wealth brings happiness”.
Jesus invites us to come into the World of God, belong to Him and receive life from Him, who has given us body and spirit and who has counted all our days on this Earth.
Psalm 139:16, You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in Your Book.
And so Jesus says, ”Do not be anxious for tomorrow.
But seek the Kingdom of God,
Seek it as it meets you with Jesus and His words of liberation. Receive it and believe in it so that you raise you hands in praise of God, “ I thank you God for creating me and every living soul in Your image, for giving me life, a body and spirit, eyes, ears and all limbs, a sound mind and all senses. Then you will be free of all worries about your life.
So right here there could be some protests: From the devils point of view believing in and praising God is completely useless – follow that view and before you can turn around your belief in God is almost nil because you want to hop on the train of power and money with the movers and shakers and show that you too can make a mark, can handle the situation and be with the “in” crowd.
Jesus repeatedly calls us back to the life with God. Just because you live in the world of the devil does not mean that you have to conform to his rules: the power the money, the fashion, the clothes. We do not have to show off - or stoop to his (the devil’s) level. We are still living in the universe created by God and we are in His care
.Seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness and everything else shall you be given also.
Simple? But how?
Listen to Jesus – meditate on the Word – and God will cover you in a blanket of love and protection and you will not feel empty or powerless, but you will feel strong in the knowledge of His love and knowing that not only does He make you life joyful and happy, but also gives you life everlasting.
Know that it’s not what you wear on the outside that “makes” a person, but how we are on the inside.
1 Samuel 16:7, ……….the Lord does not look at the things man look at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart!
You are who you are for a reason.
You’re part of an intricate plan.
You’re a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God’s special woman or man.You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You’re just what he wanted to make.The parents you had were the ones he chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God’s plan in mind,
And they bear the Master’s seal.No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into His likeness you’d grow.You are who you are for a reason,
You’ve been formed by the Master’s rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!
(Poem by Russell Kelfer)
Amen.
Anne Jorgensen
June 6, 2004