+ 9thSunday after Pentecost – August 11, 2019 +
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
Series C: Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-16; Luke 12:22-34
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Picture yourself in Catechism class, bible study, or Sunday School. Your coffee or tea in one hand. Your bible in the other. You’re waiting for the bell to ring. And then, instead of the pastor or teacher walking to the front of the room, a raven swoops in.
That’s what Jesus is doing for us Luke 12. He’s giving us a little Christian theology and ornithology. Today Jesus wants us to learn from the birds.
To know, trust, and believe that we need not worry about our daily life. God has you covered in Jesus. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
To know, trust, and believe that if our Lord cares for birds in such abundance, not only does He give us the greatest gift of eternal life, but every day gifts we need for Sunday or a Tuesday.
To know, trust, and believe that if our Lord clothes the flowers of the field with a greater and more glorious wardrobe than Solomon, he clothes us, not only with his righteousness in Christ, but also clothing, shoes, and all good things.
So today, Jesus invites us to consider the birds.
Consider the birds he created and blessed on the 5thday of creation to be fruitful and multiply: to soar and sing his praises. Consider the ravens and doves he gave to Noah to scout the dry lands of the new creation after the flood. Consider the ravens he sent with food to sustain Elijah in his despair.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
I love how Martin Luther illustrates this in one of his sermons. “I take my hat off to you, my dear teacher, I have to admit I don’t have the art you have. You sleep all night in your little nest without a care in the world. In the morning you leave; you’re happy and bright. You sit on a limb of a tree and sing, praise, and give thanks to God, then you fly off looking for a little kernel of grain and find it. Why haven’t I, old fool that I am, learned to do the same?”
Luther’s right. The birds put us to shame. We worry. Fret. Doubt. Despair. We have sleepless nights, churning stomachs, headaches, heart palpitations, stress, and the list goes on.
This kind of inward focused worry and anxiety is like a cancer of the soul, consuming us from the inside, paralyzing us, disordering our lives, our eating, our drinking, our priorities. It eats away at us like rust, corroding our souls until we are nothing but a shell.
Jesus knew His disciples’ hearts just as He knows our own. He knew that He had called them away from their fishing boats and tax collectors office. And there were probably days when they wondered aloud, “What are we going to eat today? How will we afford clothing when ours wears out?” They were following someone who had no place to lay His head, who didn’t promise them wealth and prosperity like the prosperity preachers you hear today. Jesus never promised them any of that. Instead He promised them hardship and persecutions in this life and eternal life in a kingdom that has no end.
Consider the ravens, Jesus says to His anxious disciples. Look at the birds. They neither sow nor reap nor store in barns, and yet God feeds them.Yes, they spend the bulk of their day looking for food. And yes, they work their feathered tails off building nests. But in the end, they are completely dependent on their environment. “And yet God feeds them.”The hidden hand of God cares even for the birds of the air. And if He cares about the birds, how much more he cares for you. You are worth so much more than the birds.
You are worth so much to our Lord, valued so greatly and loved so deeply by him that he became - not a bird; not a flower – but man for you. Jesus became an infant, without a care in the world, born to carry our burdens, worries, and cares upon himself. Jesus came to die on a tree for you, to gather you in his arms as a hen gathers her chicks. Jesus sends the same Holy Spirit that descended upon him in the form of a dove to dwell with you. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.
Jesus feeds us as he does the birds of the air, only better. Grain that becomes bread that is his body. Fruit that ferments and becomes wine that is his blood. Given. Shed. For you. For your forgiveness, life, and salvation – not just eternally, but presently too. Reminds me of a popular Christian symbol from the 12thcentury: a mother pelican who was thought to be attentive, to the point of piercing her own breast to feed her young when food was scarce. It’s a symbol that points us to Jesus who was pierced for us and feeds us with his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. His kingdom which comes to you in his word, water, body and blood.
Seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
That’s the good news Jesus speaks to our anxieties and fears today. It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, and He works everything together for you to receive the kingdom. You have it all, thanks to Jesus. His death and life has purchased what you cannot afford. Life with God. You have His Word on it. He clothes you in Baptism; He feeds you in His Supper. You have the kingdom. And because he’s given you the big stuff, you can rest assured that he’ll care for you in the small stuff too.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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