“BECAUSE YOU ARE FREE YOU ARE WORRY FREE”
Saint Matthew 6. 24-34
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity: 2 October Anno Domini 2011
Fr Watson S.S.P.
You cannot have two masters anymore than you can have two spouses. Divided loyalties are only divided and not loyal at all. All divisions end up like a division of meat-the animal dies from the wound.
The devil seeks to be your master, but in reality he wants to be your jailer and tormentor. The devil runs a secret torture prison even more sinful than the ones existing today. Likewise, your own sinful flesh and the pagan world also seeks to master you-to control and imprison you.
Only the Master Messiah seeks your companionship and your true freedom in love and peace. Only the Master Jesus seeks you at His Table and in His family. Because He frees you from your sins you need not worry.
Know again this day Who He is, and what He has done. Know this day who you are In Him and where your future faith IN HIS GRACE is taking you; where you are right at this moment!
The Lord knows all about your life, He is the author of it. Jesus knows you have health problems, financial concerns fears over what's happening in your city, state and country. The Lord is mindful of your children's states of well-being and your love and concern for them as well. You confess that the Trinity is omniscient so too you believe God knows all.
The Lord cares deeply about all your trials and tribulations. He is not an absent landlord but rather a very-present Help. He is not a Laird of the "Manor Born" who merely suffers gypsy tenants to sully his land, but rather a Good Shepherd Who sits with His sheep and Who spends every night protecting you and comforting you. But beyond being good and caring in all ways of mere human analogy and comparison, He is so much more than just he best and most loving man who ever was. HE IS. Jesus is true God. If you believe that Christ is God of God, the Creator and Sustainer of all, than you know He has the power to fix your life and to keep you in His kingdom now and forever. Even if perhaps in order to keep you in His Kingdom forever He does not "fix" your life right now the way YOU desire. There is no set-back, loss, tragedy, bad turn-of-events, or catastrophe which befalls you that cannot be made right by Jesus. He is RIGHT in His very essence. He is the Righteous One. He has kept all things right and well by being perfectly obedient on your behalf. When you doubt, when you worry so excessively that it's unbecoming of a Christian, when you get angry at God and your neighbor because you're just so tired, pained, disappointed, betrayed and empty, He obeyed and suffered all the wounds of the flesh, all the trespasses of you and everyone else. Jesus never doubted His Father's love for Him or for you. Jesus never fretted or obsessed about clothing or food or "place" in society. Jesus trusted in His Father's tender mercies and promises of deliverance. Jesus' merit of compliance and perfection are layed upon your brow and breast in Holy + Washing. In Christ you "Fear Not." In Christ you have peace of mind, and, PEACE ITSELF!
The mystery of why you suffer, why you are not always healed, why your parents died and why your own children go through such pain, IF YOU BELONG TO GOD, is indeed a perplexing mystery. The greater mystery is that God took on Flesh and Blood from a Virgin teen and lived amongst people exactly like you; with the same pains, fears, anxieties, and shortcomings-Sins! The real mystery is your gift of faith which compels you to hold on to Christ-the Mystery of the God/Man, in the face of all apparent contradiction and opaqueness. You live not by sight but by faith in the Word. You live under the Cross and its trials by hearing Jesus where He speaks to you and for you.
Hear Jesus. Believe Jesus.
You will not worry about what you should eat or drink or wear. This morning Jesus feeds you again with His Body and Blood and clothes you with Himself (as He has since + your Baptism). Eating and drinking God; wearing God; you are fed and clothed for the battle this day and this week, until He comes again in Glory. Christ in You is your holiness and your endurance to suffer whatever may come in the knowledge that you are loved, you are forgiven, you are His, and all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.
His ways in all their magnificent Trinitarian and Christological fullness and amplitude may be "past finding out." But His way with you, right now this morning, in His Word and Supper are clear, clean and immediate.
"The Kingdom of God for you;" the King for you; this true Body and True Blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ strengthens and preserves you both in body and soul unto life everlasting.
You are IN PEACE.
In the Name of The Father + and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost