Second Sunday After Pentecost

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Matthew 6.24-34

Matthew 6.24-34

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Shelton, WA

God is Enough

Now, I’ve got to admit it… I had a tough time with this text. I know; it seems obvious enough: “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” What could be more obvious? What could be more plain? What could be more simple—focus on God not stuff, and when you do that God will provide the stuff?

But it’s not that simple. It’s not that plain. It’s not that obvious. And to be totally blunt, it’s not that trite. The world is far more complicated than that. Things are a lot more unpredictable and unfair and unjust than that.

You see, as I looked at the “obviousness” of this text—the notion that God will provide all we need if we put God first—I couldn’t help thinking about those Christians who are not being provided for. Are they not “striving first for God’s kingdom”? Are they not striving hard enough, fervently enough or sincerely enough? Is that why they don’t have enough food or clothes or shelter?

I kept wondering about those Christians who starve to death in places where drought and famine are very real. Or those believers whose lives hang by a thread, who think it a victory simply to wake up to another day, those who live on the fragile and frayed edge of existence. How has God provided for the small child who lies dead in the arms of her mother because food didn’t come soon enough?

It seems very trite and callus to say that God will provide when we know full well that there are places where there is no provision… where people—Christians—are dying everyday because it seems God has not provided.

It just seems so American… so easy for us to say, “God will provide.” In a land of super-abundance, where we actually pay farmers not to grow a crop, where there is more than enough of everything, where we waste more than most countries consume, it’s easy—far too easy—for us to chirp out, like some sort of pleasing little platitude, “God will provide.” But what about in those places where there is no Wal-Mart, no Fred Meyers, no all-you-can-eat buffet? What about in places where there is not enough… where it seems God has not provided? What does this text mean for them? What do you do when there’s not enough?

[trouble in/behind the text]

Jesus was talking to people who didn’t have enough

The thing is… those were the kind of people Jesus was talking to—folks who didn’t have enough. For the most part, those who gathered on the hillside that day to listen to Jesus as he taught his disciples weren’t the rich and the successful; it wasn’t the well-to-do who came to hear Jesus preach. It was the poor. It was the marginalized. It was the person who didn’t have enough.

In his home town of Nazareth—itself a marginalized city filled with the poor and the disfavored—Jesus announces that he has come to “preach good news to the poor.” And for the most part, “good news to the poor” meant food for the day, shelter for the night, and clothes to cover the body. Every day they had these things was a day they got to experience good news. For many, though, there were far too many days when there was not enough, when there was no food for the day or shelter for the night, when there was no good news.

Jesus himself confesses, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”[1] Jesus knew what it was like to not have enough. He was born in a stable; his first bed was a feeding trough; his first bits of clothing were simple strips of cloth. No doubt he had spent more than one night outdoors with no shelter and perhaps very little to eat. We know of at least one occasion when he went forty days without food or water as he was led through the wilderness. Jesus knew what it was like not to have enough.

That’s why I think it must have seemed somewhat strange and ironic that Jesus was telling them that they can’t serve both God and wealth. What did they know about wealth? What did they know about abundance? For them good news was a small barley loaf at the end of a hungry day, not a steak dinner in a fancy restaurant topping off a day already filled with three square meals.

That’s why it must have seemed odd that Jesus would say to stop worrying about food and drink and clothing. In a society where not-enough was the cultural norm for the majority of the population, concern over where the next meal would come from was not simply a luxury, it was survival. It might be a nice thought to say, “Don’t worry,” but the reality is they had a responsibility to themselves and their family to make sure that there was food for the day and shelter for the night. What do you do when there’s not enough?

[trouble in our world]

Many today don’t have enough

Not enough… certainly there are many places in our world today where the plight of not enough food or shelter or clothing is a very pressing problem causing great social anxiety. Poverty is epidemic. Everyday people die of starvation, or exposure—all completely preventable. All around the world there are people wondering where the next meal will come from, and worried when it doesn’t come.

Jesus could just as easily be walking among the villages of Haiti or Africa or the jungles of South America or the slums of India or the isolated inland communities in China as he was on a Palestinian hillside. He could be walking in the inner cities of the United States or Canada instead of among the poor of Judea. Our world today is faced with the same dilemma of poverty, the same simple struggle for survival. Everywhere we look we see people who don’t have enough.

And I think of more than just the poor. I think of the couple who worked hard all their lives. They built a good life together, raised a family, faithfully serving God and the church. And just when they begin to settle into their retirement years, sickness strikes, robbing them of all they were looking forward to. Though they may not be missing any meals, though they may have shelter and clothes, there is the disappointment of unfulfilled hope. What do you do when there’s not enough?

Or what of the person who is faced with cancer. Food and clothing isn’t what they need. They need health. They need healing. They need wholeness. They need time. But so often these are the very things there is not enough of. What do you do when there’s not enough?

Or what about the person who is struggling with depression? When it feels like joy has drown in a sea of hopelessness, when it feels like darkness has flooded your days under waves of despair, when it feels like the only way out is to run away and hide until the pain passes, where is God’s provision in that? Where is the “light at the end of the tunnel” when the tunnel turns out to be a cave? What do you do when there’s not enough?

And on this Memorial Day weekend, as we remember all those who have given their lives in defense and service to our country, as we remember the families who are left with only memories of loved ones; I can’t help but think how, as sweet as memories are, often times those memories leave a hole as they can never take the place of flesh and blood and a smile and a hug. What do you do when there’s not enough?

It is not just the poor who struggle with not having enough. And that “enough” we are longing for is not always food or clothes or shelter or money. Often times it is the simple things of life like time, or rest, or balance, or strength, or courage, or understanding, or happiness, or health, or hope. And in our world—whether it’s in the hyper-poverty of third world countries or in the super-abundance of Western opulence—in all the world folks are finding that life leaves them a little short, that for all the world has to offer it’s simply not enough. And this is equally true for Christians as well as non-Christians. There seems to be little difference. God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”[2]

[Grace in/behind the text]

God is enough to overcome the insufficiencies of life

So what’s the difference? What’s the point? If the sun rises on the evil and the good, if the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous, if problems come to everyone, if insufficiencies plague Christians and non-Christians equally and seemingly indiscriminately, why bother? You know, I have a funny feeling that many in Jesus’ day were asking those very same questions. Really, it’s nothing new. Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? What do you do when there’s not enough?

Well, the not-so-obvious answer that Jesus gives in this text is: When there’s not enough, God is enough to overcome the insufficiencies of life. That’s the only way I can make sense of this text—God is enough.

Jesus asks, isn’t the body more than clothing and life more than food? The key word here is “more.” There’s more going on here than simple survival skills, or a faith lesson about God’s providential care. Jesus is talking about a whole new orientation of life and living, one made possible by the already-not-yet Kingdom of God, a kingdom not simply about life, but about abundant life. Life is more than food because life is more than survival. It’s about what God has done and what God is doing. It’s about God being enough.

That’s what striving for righteousness is about. Jesus isn’t telling his listeners to do more. He’s not shifting the burden of human effort from working and worrying about food and clothing and shelter, to working for God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. That’s not the striving Jesus is talking about. It’s something far more dangerous, and something far more satisfying. It’s about God and God being enough.

The God who takes cares of the birds of the air, the God who clothes the fields in such grandeur that not even Solomon in all his glory could compare, the God whose love is so great that he took on flesh and blood and bore the weight of our poverty, and sin, and the emptiness of our not enough’s, the God who suffered on Calvary, bled and died on the cross, and was buried in a borrowed tomb, the God who exploded from that tomb three days later because death was not enough to hold him, that God is more than enough to overcome the insufficiencies of this world.

[Grace in our world]

God is enough to overcome the insufficiencies in our world

God is enough. In my life and in yours, God is enough. And because God is enough, God is our sufficiency. God is all sufficient. It’s not that God is first among many, even if he is infinitely ahead of second place. It’s that God is everything. God is enough because God is the one in whom all creation finds its life and its being. God is all in all.

For the retired couple who seem to be living in the disappointment of an unfulfilled hope, God doesn’t always reverse the clock, giving back what has been lost. But God is always present, redeeming the moment in a way that brings new vision, new hope, and a new future. God is enough.

For the person suffering cancer God may not always be the ticket for complete physical healing and wholeness. But God is always there in the midst of that suffering—not as an onlooker, not as a mere observer or even simply to offer solace and comfort. God is there to actually enter into the suffering of that cancer, to take it on himself. God is enough.

For the person struggling with depression, God may not be the light at the end of the tunnel, but God is that faint flicker of hope that burns even at the bottom of the deepest and darkest cave. God is enough.

For the person who has lost a loved one, God doesn’t come offering easy answers or quick fixes. But God does come offering hope… a hope that holds out the promise that one day God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”[3] God is enough.

[Conclusion]

For you and for me, as we face the insufficiencies of life, we can have confidence knowing that God is enough. That doesn’t mean that life will be free of pain and suffering. That doesn’t mean a life where there is no more hunger or poverty, where our every need is met as we faithfully strive after God’s kingdom and righteousness. What it does mean, though, is that we don’t have to worry about not having enough, because God is always enough. And in that we can rest secure.

Gracious, loving and all-sufficient Father; thank you—thank you for always being enough. Because of your gracious love we can rest secure in the arms of your abundant life. Because of your empowering grace we can strive first for your kingdom and your righteousness. Because of your gracious provision we can be free from worry and anxiety. Because of your grace-filled care of creation we can be certain of your care for us. Because your eye is on the sparrow, we know you are watching over us. Thank you, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

John Grant Page 1 5/25/2008

[1] Matthew 8.20; NRSV.

[2] Matthew 5.45; NRSV

[3] Revelation 21.4; NRSV.