Sermon - Trinity XV 2023 - Matthew 6:24-34

The Broad and The Narrow Path, Paul Beckmann, 1866

From anxiety to hope in God

1. Anxiety and how we often try to fix it

2. The only fix for anxiety is hope in God

“Do not be anxious about your life… Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” Anxiety and worry are prevalent among us. Hope, the opposite of anxiety, is however in seemingly short supply. Therefore, today, I’d like us to move from all of this worldly anxiety to having hope in God, both for our own sake and for the sake of this sad world.

I suppose the reasons for anxiety are numerous and maybe even logical. Inflation is terrible! If you’re older then you’re worried about your investments lasting you the rest of your life. If you’re younger, then you’re trying to figure out how to buy a house for 250k when 3 years ago it would’ve sold for 150k. As a congregation we look at the numbers and the demographic trends, and we worry about the long-term sustainability of our local parishes. With so many broken families today many worry about substance abuse, alimony payments, and custody of children. Others worry about hectic schedules, poor health, job security, and keeping up with their debts.

In response to all of these worries and constant anxiety we attempt to cope. About 30% of college students take antidepressants or antianxiety drugs. Lots of others self-medicate with alcohol, drugs, and food. But on top of all of those things, we often use money to cope with our worries. We buy stuff and experiences, all sorts of things, in order to try and make our lives seem fulfilled. We think if we just had this thing or that experience, then we wouldn’t feel this emptiness inside of us, we could fill up that void in our hearts.

But none of these things work. Not really. Money is a terrible god. You have to work and work and work to get it, then you buy all of the things, and then you’re still left feeling like dirt at the end of the day. So you have to cover up that empty feeling with drugs, whether it’s sugar, alcohol, marijuana, or prescriptions, so that you can feel nothing. People watch endless hours of screens to get that dopamine rush and live vicariously through others, since they feel like their own life is pointless. It’s a depressing world, truly, but the point is that none of these copes actually fix the problem of our anxiety, instead they usually make our anxiety worse!

Jesus is absolutely right! “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?... Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” Life is more than money, it’s more than food and drink and clothing, it’s more than all of the events and activities and experiences. None of these things can add a single hour to our span of life. You work for all of this stuff, spending years of your very limited earthly life to get it, only to end up still empty inside.

So if life is more than all of the stuff and experiences that we work for, what can fill up that emptiness? What is life all about? Why am I here? “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Or as St. Augustine so beautifully described it: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The only thing that fills that emptiness, the bleak void inside us, is God and His righteousness. He has made us to bear His image. He has made us to find our peace, our hope, our fulfillment, our righteousness, in Him.

I think by nature we all have the instinct that we have a god shaped hole. Everyone is religious by nature, we just don’t all realize it. For many people money and the stuff it buys is their god which they try to fill their lives with. But, “no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” So if you choose to serve mammon, then you will ultimately be left empty. But if you serve God, “all these things will be added to you.”

It’s almost ironic that when you seek to serve mammon you end up empty with nothing, but if you seek to serve God you end up with plenty here on earth AND with an eternal treasure to boot! Remember, God takes care of His children here on earth. If He feeds the silly little birds and clothes the hay which the horses eat, then won’t He do the same for us, who are of much more value than they. 

On top of that, “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?” God laid down His own life in order that He might rescue us from our foolish and damnable sin. Like wild branches grafted into the tree of life, He has adopted us into His family through the sacrifice of Jesus. He has clothed us with Christ’s righteousness, so that when the Father looks at us He sees Jesus’ perfection. He nourishes us with the body and blood of the Lamb of God. If God takes care of the sparrows, the little things, and He suffered and died for us, taking care of the big things, then rest assured that He will provide for us here on earth. Have faith in God, trust His promises, hope in Him.

Remember I said hope is the opposite of anxiety. Hope, at least in a biblical sense, is more than a wish. St. Paul describes it like this: “We have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” The symbol for hope is an anchor. A wish lasts as long as the shooting stars and birthday candles, which is to say not long at all. But hope is a sure and steadfast anchor, holding us in place through the most violent of storms, because our hope is in God and His promises.

That we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness is a fruit of the hope that we have in God! Through faith we cling to God’s promises and trust that He will preserve us in this tempestuous world. You know all of those things that we worry about? The economy, the future of our church and our families, the other issues that arise in our lives; God promises to take care of them all. Of course this isn’t an excuse to be lazy. “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Rather, this is comfort for those burdened by the cares of this life. God will provide for us, this is our hope, and we should act like it. 

This hopefulness which characterizes us Christians, instead of anxiety, is a hallmark of Christianity. Christianity is a religion of hope, not worry nor fear. This is why we seek first the kingdom of God, not the things of this world, because God’s kingdom is eternal unlike the fleeting pleasures and worries of earth. So first, I want you to cast your cares upon the Lord. This is one reason we pray, we hand the matter over to God, and then we trust that God will take care of it. I don’t need to worry about it anymore, because God has it under control. I’ll still do what I have to do, but I don’t have to be anxious about it.

Secondly, I want us all to see that this hope in God is what the world around us needs. No one can be fulfilled apart from Christ Jesus, their lives will always be empty and void of meaning until they have faith in the Lord. People are hopeless, but not us Christians. If you’re wondering how to evangelize to others, here you go! People need hope, you’re hopeful, and you can give them hope in Jesus!

Boy, do you have hope! Jesus died and rose and reigns over all creation! Jesus is King! He rose, so you’ll rise, meaning you’re immortal! Death has no power over you. Jesus told us the end of the story, and Babylon falls and we win! God’s heavenly kingdom is full of Christians, more than you can count! God will sort out the injustices upon the earth and judge the evil doers, while His Christians will recline at the Lord’s eternal wedding feast. Jesus wins! Jesus is King! You’re immortal! Don’t be anxious about everything you can’t fix. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”