NRS Matthew 6
24 "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 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? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.

Peace to you and grace, from God our Father and the Son our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.

Many words of comfort aren't all that comforting. Sometimes words that are meant to reassure us actually leave us much less sure than before they were ever uttered. When our mechanic hands us an eye-popping bill and then tells us to "Relax," we usually don't. When our friends and family urge us to take it easy, we're likely to answer, "Easy for you to say." And even though our doctor may tell us that it's really nothing to worry about, any diagnosis that has the word "cancer" in it is still likely to worry us very much.

Over the years we've grown not a little cynical at the so-called assurances of people who promise false hope and lead us on with phony comfort. When I was a very young pastor, I had a parishioner whose husband left her and their three young sons, moved to another state, and took up residence with another woman. This parishioner desperately wanted me to tell her that her husband was coming back, that everything would immediately then go back to the way it was (which really wasn't that great!), and that they would, more or less, live happily ever after. She eventually found a pastor who, in a vision, miraculously saw precisely those things happening for her, and of course, she joined his church. I guess I don't need to tell you how that worked out.

"There's light at the end of the tunnel." "We're turning a major corner here." "It's always darkest before the dawn." We've heard such assurances so often now that they pretty much go in one ear and directly out the other, frequently leaving us not less but more skittish, anxious, and worried than ever. In fact, we've been betrayed and bamboozled so often by so many with soothing platitudes and grand promises that even the words of Jesus might sound a little tinny to us.

"Do not worry about your life." "Look at the birds of the air." "Consider the lilies of the field." "Do no worry, saying 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'" "Do not worry about tomorrow." Would Jesus say that with all the dead and dying, homeless and bereft in China and Myanmar? Would Jesus say that today with oil at $135/barrel? Would Jesus be so confident if he saw the great masses of people now desperate for just a little rice and a pail or two of clean water? Would Jesus feel the same way if he had a good look at our own church financials?

Yes, the answer is yes, and that's because the words of Jesus are not based in fond hopes, or wishful thinking, or hidden agenda, as ours so frequently are. Rather, Jesus speaks from the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is not some far-off, distant realm of angels on puffy clouds playing harps of gold. The Kingdom is the rule, the power, the glory of God that has come to earth in Jesus, and where that Kingdom takes flesh, the lame walk, the blind see, the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, and the poor have good news preached to them. Of course, where human will holds sway, there is never enough and can never be enough. Wherever, whenever God's world is governed as man's property, hearts are forever beating anxious with fear and dread. But in the Kingdom, under the rule of God, there is abundance, there is plenty, there is always enough whatever the crisis, no matter the trouble. For where God rules in the Spirit of Jesus, hearts soften, hands become unclenched, pantry doors and pocketbooks are flung wide open to care for the orphan and widow, to minister to the weak and the vulnerable, and to make places at our tables for the strangers in our midst.

Yes, you can hear and read today's Gospel as the simple assurance that God will provide and we'll all eventually eat pie in the sky by and by. But that's just scratching the surface of what Jesus is telling us. Yes, we can give up worry. Yes, we can relinquish all our anxieties over what we'll eat, drink, or wear. Yes, we can surrender the dread that overwhelms us every time we start thinking about what tomorrow will bring. But that also means striving for the Kingdom and its righteousness now. And by the way, striving for the kingdom is not just wishing it were so, but acting now in the faith and confidence that the Kingdom has come in Jesus and is yet coming. God does indeed know what we need and all these things will be provided for us as we live now, pray now, and work now for exactly those things that Jesus lived, prayed, and worked and suffered and died and rose again for: healing, peace, mercy, justice, forgiveness, reconciliation, abundance; or in other words, the Kingdom.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.