CHRIST IS SUFFICIENT

Saint Matthew 6. 24-34

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity: 31 August Anno Domini 2008

Fr Watson SSP

In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost

God speaks to you clearly. You can't be neutral and sit on the sidelines.

The Lord tells you to your face that you can't be an anonymous Christian That hangs back and lets the "other guy" do the believing, confessing, following, cross-carrying, and dying. This world is an all-out blood war, no quarter given, between evil and good, between sin and repentance, between self and Grace.

This isn't Law or Gospel, just truth-reality. The Law comes in to tell you that you don't accept, believe or comply with this reality any better than you do to the commandments. Deep down, way far down inside the real you, the old Adam traitor, there is a little person who hedges bets. Oh it's not that you openly bet a little on Satan, no! But you do consort in the darkness, in the dives, with Satan's buddy: Mammon. You trust God, kind of, but you put a lot of stock in money, resources, and financial reserves. You'll follow Jesus, kind of, but you're not willing to leave mother, father, son, daughter, job, or house. You'll give to His Kingdom's work, kind of, but you'll only do it out of spare change and coke money. God is your Father, this you confess, but your sinful nature still leaves the house with the old gang of Mammon: sin, the flesh and the world.

Even when you don't openly sin in acting out evil deeds, you still think thoughts unfit for a royal heir and divine son or daughter. You worry about what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear and what you are going to have. Be honest and reflect back on this past week. Just how many times did you whine, grumble, complain, and worry…and not just that you didn't have enough, but just because you couldn't have it (it being whatever your little ego said it was) the way you wanted it.

Not only does the Christ tell what is not God pleasing, He also gives you real, solid, everyday examples that bolster His pure words. He mentions birds and flowers as types of His creative artistry and Fatherly care. He loves all birds and there certainly are a plethora of types: all sizes, colors, songs, and characteristics. The God that made the giant condor, the humming-bird, and the toucan made you even grander. Birds sing the joys of nature but you sing the joys of Jesus. The God that made the flowers: the tulips, white roses, orchids, and begonias made you even more beautiful. Flowers reflect the beauty of their creator but you are made in His very image. God cares for His birds and flowers. There has never been a time on this planet when they did not exist. They are with their creator always. They were in Eden and they are here now, and they will be in the New Eden-the heavenly Gardens.

All truth but not yet Gospel. For Jesus to tell you not to worry, not to grieve, not to be anxious, and not to fret about the dangerous times you live in, is not good news. Telling a man with insomnia to get plenty of sleep is not Gospel. Telling a depressed man to snap out of it and be happy is no evangel. Jesus is your answer. Jesus gives what He tells you to have. Jesus provides you with everything required to take joy from His simple proverbial wisdom about plants and avians.

Jesus has made you birds, little birds, little precious birds-even more precious than the darling sparrows Whom He loves so much that not one of them falls without the knowledge and sadness of His heavenly Father. As Spiritually-Saved-Sparrows He feeds you with the never-ending seed of His word and the inexhaustible supply of His own Body. He has made you eagles; eagles like the mighty raptors that always gather around the carcass, the body of their kill. But this time the Body is His own Body given up freely to public humiliation and execution to satisfy your sin; to feed and nourish you with more than grain, with the very flesh of God. He gives you the Mighty Dove of the Third Person of the Trinity-the Holy Ghost to call, gather, and strengthen you with seed of the Word and the Sacrament of the Word made flesh. He gives you the mighty tree of the Church Catholic with branches of crucified wood, now the wood of life, as branches to rest on and be secure on.

All you need not to worry, everything that's meet, right and salutary to transform you into a peaceful, bold, and secure co-heir with your King is right here in this bird house, this greenhouse, this New Testament Garden that is even more beautiful than the one Mary Magdalene went to on that first Easter morning. For here you experience the reality of the Easter Lilly, the breath of the Resurrection Incense, and the watering/misting that preserves to the end.

So that the birds could sing and fly and not be worried; so that you can have faith and not be worried, Jesus obey the Law and did all the work during His 33 year long visible life. Jesus died on the Cross, where His body would have been picked on by birds (but for the attention and care of Joseph and Nicodemus) so that your bodies will never suffer eternal decay; will never suffer being picked on by the pigeons of hell. Jesus, God in the Flesh, allowed His flesh to be killed, to be taken down from the tree, to be wrapped up, hastily anointed, and laid in a tomb, so that when you smell the fragrance of the Lilly you think not of death and decay, of masking the putrefication of rotting flesh, but of Easter Joy, Resurrection, and Life eternal.

So don't worry about worrying…oops…I mean…Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you and now lives for you. Little birds, you are here NOW, singing His song of love. Tender sparrows, you are here NOW breathing deeply His scent of Lillies, which scent WAS His sweat and anguish but is now His pure, sweet, invigorating wholesome, and saving Body and Blood. Eat the seed; drink the Water, live forever. Your sins are forgiven.

In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost