Prokeimenon. Mode 4.
Psalm 67.35,26
God is wonderful among his saints.
Verse: Bless God in the congregations.
The reading is from
St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians 6:1-10
Brethren, working together with him, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation." Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in any one's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
The Gospel According to Matthew 6:22-33
The Lord said, "The eye is the lamp of the
body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if
your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the
light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 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 mammon.
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or
what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall 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 one cubit 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
men 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 all
these things; and your heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first
his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as
well.”
When I lived in Kisumu, I saw street boys every time I walked downtown. Some of them knew me and they would shout out ‘Dr. Black! Dr. Black!’ But others who didn’t know me would come up to me and say, ‘No food, no home, I’m hungry. Give me money!’ A friend of mine runs one of the largest NGOs helping street boys in Kisumu, and so I knew that if they were really hungry they could go there and eat as much as they wanted. And rather than sleep on the streets, they could find a safe place there to sleep every night, if they wanted to. So I would talk to them. But I would not give them any money. Instead I tell them to go to the NGO if they are really hungry. But these boys are desperate for money. And they will do whatever they can to get it. Beg. Lie. Steal. Sell their bodies. They need it to buy the glue and alcohol and the other drugs they use. They need it to get the things they think they need to survive.
I sometimes walked through the market on market day. It’s crowded with people selling and buying. On the one hand people trying to save as much money as they can as they haggle over the price of children’s clothes or a kilo of tomatoes or an armful of kienyeji. On the other hand, mamas who have bought a bundle of used clothes are trying to squeeze as much money out of their customer as possible so they can pay off the cost of the bundle and have enough to feed their children. Poor people fighting over money as if it is the most important thing in the world. And then there are thieves running around looking for an opportunity to relieve someone of their wallet or purse. And there are con men wandering around ready to tell a story in order to extract money from someone who believes what he is saying is true. And just about all of them, getting money is the name of the game; it is the most important thing in the world.
The politician looks smart in his suit. He says he wants to get elected to help the local people here. He makes a lot of promises. He has come to the church harambee because he knows he’ll have an audience and he can look good by making a generous contribution and by making a speech and buying some votes. But really this politician is like all the others. He will do anything to get elected because he knows that people in the government get rich because they have access to all that government money. And they come up with clever schemes to get that money out of government accounts and into their account. So they can build a big house. So they can buy a BMW. But they keep playing the game, keep pretending that they are fighting for you, the people. But this man, these politicians are desperate for money. For them getting money is the most important thing. They think it is the key to being successful, the key to becoming powerful, they key to becoming a big man or a big woman in this society. And they will do anything to get it and to hold on to it. They will lie. They will cheat. They will steal. They will sell their soul to corruption. They will even kill anyone who gets in their way. And if you don’t believe me, just read the papers.
An Orthodox priest starts an orphanage. He and his wife are caring for 15 children. He has to raise the money he needs, and so he creates a webpage online describing the orphanage and the children and what their needs are, including pictures. On the other side of the planet, an American couple sees the pictures and the description of the orphanage and they decide to help. In fact many people see the pictures and read the plea for help, and decide to send money. So the orphanage has plenty of money and is able to buy land and build a house for the children, and pay for their food and for their school fees. Another Orthodox priest hears of his success and wants to get money as well. So he gets someone to design a webpage with pictures of children and the school they attend and the place where they sleep and eat with a description of orphanage and the needs they have. And the same thing happens. Some tender-hearted American reads the description and he decides he wants to help. So he sends money to the priest. And so do a number of others. But the thing about it is, this priest has no orphanage. There are no children, there are no needs. His webpage is just a scheme to get more money. It’s a fraud. In my country, a man like that would be arrested and sent to prison. Here it seems to be business as usual. This is what the desire for money does to people. It corrupts their heart. Even the hearts of those in the Church.
Jesus knows that money will never satisfy the deep need of your heart. And yet He also knows that we all need money to survive. All of these people, running around trying to get money. They may succeed and get something of what they think they want, but all their money, all their riches, all of their possessions are powerless to fill the emptiness in their hearts. They spend their lives worshipping at the altar of money. And even though you will see almost all of them in church on Sunday, money is their god. But money is a cruel master and will abandon them all in the end.
It’s bad enough when this happens to the people in the world. But the real tragedy is what is going on right here, in our Churches, in our Church. People come every week pretending to be Christians, but their lives are no different from everyone else: no different from the street boys; no different from the con men and the thieves in the market, no different from the politicians, no different from the Orthodox priests and their fake orphanages. Attending Church makes no difference whatsoever in how so many of us are living our lives. We lie just like everyone else. We cheat just like everyone else. And we are running after money just like everyone else. Jesus simply observes that you and I cannot serve two masters. We cannot pretend to serve God while we are really trying to get money.
But in our passage this morning, Jesus doesn’t shame us or condemn us. But He does correct us. Even though our hunger and thirst for money pushes us down the path of destruction, Jesus is showing us a different way, a better way, His way. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose a different way. We can choose to trust God. We can choose the way of the Kingdom.
Why are you anxious about your life, says Jesus? Why are you anxious about having enough to eat or buy clothes or do the things you need to do? Can you not see that this life is more than food or clothes or the money that buys them? And to make his point, Jesus gives two examples.
Look at the birds, says Jesus. They have no job. They don’t make any money. They don’t grow crops, they don’t sell in the market, and yet they have enough. God gives them what they need day by day. They don’t worry about those things, and it sets them free to be what God has made them to be.
And look at the flowers of the field. They don’t sew their own clothes, they don’t go shopping at the market. And yet they are among the most beautiful things on the planet. God gives them what they need and it is more than enough.
And the same is true for us. We run after money to get food, to buy clothes, to get tools, to pay rent, to pay for transport, for school fees, for all the things we think we need. And then if there is anything left over (and there usually isn’t), we think of God. But we have missed the point of this life, says Jesus. It’s not about food, clothes, money and getting stuff. It’s not about looking like one is successful. This life is about knowing God, about trusting God, about living as if God actually exists, about living as if God’s word is true, about living as if heaven and hell are real. This is what it means when Jesus says ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!’
What about you? Can you see God from where you are? Or is your view blocked by your substitute gods? Are you part of what our Lord is doing in this world? Are you in the Kingdom? Are you being ruled by the King? There is no more important question you could answer. Everything - your life, your future, your hopes and dreams, your final destination - everything hangs on how you answer.
And this is how Jesus sums up the matter:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”
Don’t be anxious, says Jesus. Our behavior would simply be stupid and senseless if it wasn’t also leading us to tragedy. Your Father in heaven, says Jesus, knows that you need these things. Instead, get your priorities right. The first thing, the best thing is to seek the kingdom of God, and to order your life and your relationships and your priorities and your business and your education accordingly. Put the King first, put Jesus first, and God will take care of you. That’s the promise. This doesn’t mean that it will start raining shillings where you live. But God will use your job, your opportunities, your context to provide for you. But if you choose the way of Christ, if you choose to follow Christ and be His disciple, to live your life for Him, to make His priorities your priorities, He will go before you and give you a life worth living. Commit your way to Christ and He will make you rich in all the things that really matter.
So what does seeking first the kingdom of God actually look like? It means you give yourself and your time and your talents and your money to help the Church become everything Jesus has called you to be. It means being generous every week with your money. I have said this before and I will keep saying it until we start doing it: It means working together with the other faithful here to make sure that your priest has a salary that he can live on and do what God is calling Him to do. It is not the bishop’s job to pay our priest. This is not OCMC’s job to pay them. This is your job. And it makes us in our churches look very bad if our bishops and our priests have to beg people outside this country for money. It communicates to everybody around us with eyes to see that we don’t take Christianity seriously when we can’t even pay our priests a living wage.
But seeking first the kingdom of God also means that you get involved or take leadership in one of the ministries of the Church. Maybe you are gifted in singing or chanting. Join the choir! Or if you don’t have one, start one. Or start one for the children and the youth. And then work with them at being excellent at what you do. Maybe you are a good farmer. With the blessing of the parish leaders, start a small chicken farm to help the church pay its bills, to help support its ministries. If you want to grow as a Christian, start a bible study and a prayer group. Find five or six others who will be willing to meet with you on a Wednesday evening or Tuesday morning over Breakfast at Java House for 8 weeks. Study the Sermon on the Mount or one of Paul’s letters like Ephesians. Churches always need teachers to help teach the children, the youth and the adults. Volunteer to be a Sunday School teacher. And if you don’t have Sunday school for the youth or the adults, volunteer to start it. And then some of you may have a concern to reach out to the community, to share the gospel, to provide relief and help for the poor, or even to support missionaries sent to other parts of the country and the continent and the world. Start a mission committee and start reaching out to the world. Find a need in the community and help to fix it.
Very few of these things costs any money whatsoever. We could do any of these things and more right now. What it does cost is you making a decision to use your time and your resources and your talents for the sake of Jesus’ Kingdom right here. Jesus says that whoever wishes to come after Me and be My disciple, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. Most of our Churches are filled with people who do not know what a disciple is. And yet Jesus says the only real followers He has are disciples. A disciple gives up everything to live for the Master. All of these other people are living for other things. And so Jesus here is giving us the secret of the Christian life, the real secret of the blessed life. Seek first the kingdom, seek first the King, seek first his righteousness. And as we do so, God is reclaiming a piece of this fallen world for Himself. And your decision to be a disciple will have a huge impact on this church. You will change this Church from the inside out. And when this becomes a giving church rather than a taking church, you will have many many opportunities to become God’s blessing to many people. This is in fact what the Gospel is all about. This is the reality to which our Church supposedly bears witness. This is, in fact, what it means to be Orthodox. This is what it means to be a Christian. Do you hear the call of Jesus right now? He is calling you to Himself. What are you going to do.?
So seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these
things will be added to you as well.
This should be good news. Do you
believe it? When will you start to live
it?
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
A sermon preached this morning at Sts. Anargyroi Orthodox Cathedral on Valley Road in Nairobi, Kenya.
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