Trinity 15
Beloved. Today’s Gospel is one of the greatest comfort—and yet it is the hardest to actually live out and experience its full joy: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For the unbelievers chase after all these things. Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” Perhaps some would say: well when it comes to the things of God like forgiveness of sin and salvation, I don’t have to worry. God does it all—isn’t that what we Lutherans especially emphasize? But when it comes to the things dealing with this world, then it’s up to me. I have to see to it that I take care of my needs, that I look for out for number one. But that’s wrong. What does Jesus say in today’s Gospel? But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So what is the point? It’s simply this: we dare not divide our lives into various compartments, like here is my “religious life” and faith in God—my Sunday morning life—and here is my life in the “real world”. And never shall they meet. It’s like our lives are like those food plates or TV dinner trays where each has its own little compartment and the peas dare not touch the meatloaf and heaven forbid the gravy touch the peach cobbler. It is probably better to think of our lives as a stew—all the ingredients of the stew are mixed together for the single purpose of blending their tastes and textures to make a tasty stew.
Our lives as Christians are to have and to be guided by that singular purpose: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Notice that purpose— seek[ing] first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Again, we do not divvy up our lives into the sacred and the secular but rather, as Christians, we let our faith leaven our whole life. In all areas of our life we follow the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit who is in us. It will often be difficult—it may mean not advancing in our career since we refuse to do something shady; it may mean great struggle against a certain temptation instead of just doing the easy thing and giving in to it; it may mean strains with family or friends as we hold to and live out our faith. But our faith is to leaven our life. Our faith shows itself in living a life in accord with the holy law of God, done out of love for Him. As we live out our lives in faith and love of the Lord, He will not forsake/ neglect us. Again His promise: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. As we live out our lives in the single purpose of living out our faith, all areas of our life are affected. In other words, spiritual and secular are not two distinct areas of life, but the spiritual influences the secular.
Isn’t that kind of foolish—after all we are like that “material girl living in a material world”? That’s where our text comes in. St. Isaiah the prophet gives a wonderful commentary on this—namely what great peace we have as we live lives of faith in the midst of the world, as we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. He writes: For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
St. Isaiah is not speaking abstracts; he is not speaking from an ivory tower. Instead, he was speaking to the Israelites who were being invaded by the Assyrian Empire, a mighty army that had conquered the neighboring nations. He doesn’t say, “This is the real world. Leave faith and the things of God behind, leave it for the Sabbath. Now we have to figure out how to fight and defeat this powerful invader.” Instead, he simply turns them back to the Lord’s word and promise: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” In dramatic real life situations our faith influences/ effects what we do. Even in the greatest earthly/ temporal/ worldly trial, we rely on and hold to the Lord’s word and promise. That’s faith mightily at work. That’s not compartmentalizing our lives but letting faith leaven/ influence our life. And that’s our greatest strength!
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But isn’t that opposite our usual way of doing things? Once the pressure is on, don’t we usually try to do everything we can think of to change/ fix the situation? Doesn’t the thought also come that our faith is useless in these things? Worldly problems require worldly solutions.
But remember our single mindedness as Christians—that’s our faith affecting our life and that’s our strength. Again Jesus’ in today’s Gospel: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. When the trials and pressures come, we rely on our Lord’s word and promise, and we endure the hardship and are patient in it. When the mighty Assyrian forces were invading Israel, the Lord told His people simply to endure, to suffer patiently, to renounce all self-help and wait for Him to help. Again, isn’t that the exact opposite of what the normal human reaction is? Of course! But when we bear what we must in patience, we are not relying on human help but are waiting for the Lord’s help. And holding to the Lord’s word and promise there we have peace—the almighty Lord of heaven and earth is handling the situation. If we believe and act as if it is all up to us—we will forever be uneasy and unsettled. But faith holds to the Lord’s word and promise that He will help and rescue and there—in the midst of all sort of trial and hardship—we have peace. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Notice the beginning words: In returning and rest. These words point us to the foundation of our Christian faith: returning—that’s confession of sin. In confession we return to the Lord. Confession of sin is faith at work, for faith holds to God’s word that He is gracious and merciful. By our sin, we turn away from the Lord but as we confess our sin, we go to Him, we return to Him; we turn away from our self-defiant will and toward Him. We go to Him with all of our sin asking Him to forgive us our sins for Jesus’ sake. And then there’s rest–that’s the forgiveness of our sins He gives us for Jesus’ sake; that’s the absolution. Our consciences are at peace and rest because our sins are forgiven us. And this is the foundation of our faith—the full and free forgiveness of all our sins for Jesus’ sake, that by His life, suffering and death He brought us the forgiveness of sins and peace with God.
Because, in Jesus, our sins are forgiven us we know that things are right between us and God, that He is our dear, loving, gracious heavenly Father. We, then, can trust Him to help us in all our needs. We can know with certainty that as we are His dear Christian, He will help us at the right time and in the right way. We know Him as God almighty who can and does and will work all things for our good. We, then, can patiently endure and wait for the Lord’s help. That’s faith influencing our life in this world. This is the quietness and trust that will be our strength. May we never relegate our faith to one corner of our life.
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” It is also vital to understand what this quietness and trust in the Lord is. The quietness/ trust that faith produces is not some sort of irresponsible inaction—not doing something you should do, cloaking laziness under some pious guise—or some unrealistic passivity—where you uncaringly say: “it doesn’t matter God will provide/ His will will be done”.
But this quietness and trust is that unflappable calmness that knows that nothing can go wrong with anything planned and carried out in the fear and love of the Lord. It knows that even if it turns out badly, that the Lord is still the Lord and still working everything for the good of His dear Christian; it knows that even in the midst of suffering, in Christ things are still right between me and God; it knows that the correction the Lord is now working is good, even though it may be unpleasant and says with St. Paul [1 Cor. 11.32]: we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. Where faith influences life there is peace/calm!
Notice in this, though, let all things be begun and entered into with prayer! St. Jerome says: Therefore if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves. As we begin everything with prayer and the word, we can have that great peace of heart and mind, which is our strength.
What was the Israelites’ response to the Lord’s promise: For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”? They rejected the Lord’s word and promise. Our text: But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. When there is no returning to the Lord in confession and resting in the work of Christ and His forgiveness and when there is no quiet trust in the Lord, when there is only looking to and reliance on self or on human help, there is nothing but busy care and stormy eagerness. Why? Because there can only truly be calm when the Lord’s promises are trusted. The Israelites had the Lord’s promise to rescue and save them from the Assyrians. But they refused it. Instead, they wanted to make a military alliance with Egypt with their renowned cavalry. They tried to rescue themselves and their misplaced trust would result in their defeat. Instead of relying on the invisible God, they relied on the visible presence of horses, gold, power. All that activity/ business trying to get Egypt in an alliance! How busy they must have been sending beasts of burden loaded down with gold to curry favor and sending messengers back and forth! All this is just the opposite of in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. They put their trust in horses/ military might and thought their rescue was in swift horses. But in the end, they would flee and be overtaken.
All that busyness, all that trust/ reliance that made perfect sense humanly/ rationally speaking did not help them. St. Isaiah in our text: A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Trusting in anyone/ anything other than the holy Triune God is a vain illusion. The image here is of chopping down a forest. It’s all chopped down except for a few stragglers of trees. And the one or two that remain, stand out. The image is of the few remaining trees, alone and unprotected. And this shows us that looking for help anywhere other from the holy Triune God only leads to loneliness and destruction. How foolish! And yet how often we do it! We see our lives filled with busyness and anything but quietness, looking for help in the things/ ways of the world.
Dear Christian, we all say here [Mk. 9.24], Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! We want that quiet trust in the Lord and yet, find it so elusive because of our sinful human flesh that wants us to trust in what we see/ touch/ the things of this world. But St. Isaiah at the end of our text holds out the Lord’s promise to us: Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Although we turn from Him, the Lord’s promise stands—He waits for us so He can show us mercy. In fact, He is glorified most when He shows us mercy. He is waiting for us to wait on Him so that “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. How beautifully faith shows itself in and influences us in our daily lives. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well INJ