Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Matthew 6,25-34. Trinity XV

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Matthew 6,25-34. Trinity XV

Matthew 6,25-34 4924

Trinity xv 62

Nativity of Mary

Corbinian, Bishop of Freising, Bavaria, Apostle to Bavaria, ✠ 730

Elizabeth II, Queen of the UK, Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth, ✠ 2022

8. September 2024

1. ℣ O Yahweh, incline Your ear to me:

℟ O my God, save Your servant who trusts in You (Psalm 85,1a.2b vul mas).

Protector noster aspice Deus et respice in faciem christi tui: quia melior est dies una in atriis tuis super milia. lxx

Clipeus noster vide Deus et adtende faciem christi tui: quoniam melior est dies in atriis tuis super milia. mas

Blessed be Your Holy Name, because You have made us to abhor unbelief and sin, to mourn over them, to fight against them by prayer, and You have given us a heartfelt desire to live for you alone, to serve and obey You, O Christ Amen. (Stark 76; English transl. 210).

2. »Jesus said: „Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.“«

3. Καταμάθετε. Let your (pl.) minds dwell on how the lilies grow. A perplexing imperative from Jesus, for what do lilies have to do with the reign of God? Jesus’ peers anticipated the reign of God as a restoration of the David’s Kingdom and driving out the Gentiles from Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee. That was the golden age in the mind of many first century Jews. Psalm 2 was a favorite: »As for Me, I have set my King on Zion, My holy hill« (Psalm 2,6).

4. But Jesus, the Son of David, points the crowds, and His disciples, to nature, specifically to a lily. „The lilies of our text are neither of those large, splendid white lilies that we know by that name nor the Easter lilies. These lilies don’t grow in Galilee. The lily of our text is a tiny flower that grows among the grass in the field“ (Nagel 213). Jesus picks one of these easily overlooked lilies and holds it up for all to see: even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

5. What does this lily teach us? It grows, lives and dies – all as a creation of God. The lily is content to be a lily doing its lily thing as God created it to do. Restless human beings, take notice of the lily. Striving for power, prestige and possessions is not what God created us to be concerned over. Our Lord spoke through the Psalmist: »Be still and know that I am God« (Psalm 46,10). Stop, breathe and ponder God’s majesty and mercy.

6. For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils (William Wordsworth, 1802).

7. As the lily was held in Jesus’ hand, so do we grow, live and die in Jesus’ hand. What the world ignores as insignificant, Jesus holds dear in His grasp and close to His heart. The lily and human beings live in a creation where sin brought the world into a cursed mess that only the Son of God could rescue them (Nagel 216). And rescue us he did!

8. Jesus entered His creation, lived in this fallen world and subjected Himself to live under the very curse He had imposed upon His creation. He himself bore the sin of the world and became a curse for us, for cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (Deuteronomy 21,23; Galatians 3,13). Jesus lives, grew and died, just as the lilies do, just as each one of us do. But the lily, and all of us, can only be destroyed by death if Christ is destroyed by death (Nagel 216). This Jesus who holds each lily, man and woman in His hand was not destroyed by death; Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection means our resurrection and also that of the lily (Nagel 216). At the last day when the new earth is created, lilies will cover the fields in vibrant colors proclaiming the beauty of Christ’s new creation. And we will be there to behold this splendor with our resurrected eyes and walking amongst the lilies in our resurrected bodies. Behold, this is the reign of God!

9. Do not to be anxious about tomorrow. The lilies live each day under Christ’s Providence. Learn from the lilies. Seek the reign of God and His righteousness in Christ Jesus. He provides for you this day and every every day.

10. If death should come for me,

Then dying is my victory,

For Christ is my Life and Guide,

To Him, I do confide;

If I die today or tomorrow,

My soul, He’ll keep from sorrow.

(Auf meinen lieben Gott elkg 540,3 2021 Lübeck 1590, Wittenberg und Nürnberg 1607)

This is most certainly true.

11. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

12. Let us pray. O God, in whom all fullness dwelleth, who givest without measure to them that ask, give us faith to ask and faith to receive all that Thy bounty giveth, that being filled with all Thy fulness, we may as Thy faithful stewards impart Thy gifts to all Thy children; for Jesus Christ sake. Amen. (Trinity xv, 2^nd Vespers Collect. The Daily Office.)

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Matthew 6,25-34. Trinity XV

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