Food & Fashion

Sermon planned for Sunday, February 27th, 2011
Texts: Matthew 6:24-34

In the past few weeks we have been looking at the Sermon on the Mount and how it has given us a picture of God's Kingdom. The beatitudes gave us a sense of the kinds of folks that will experience the Kingdom of God with extreme joy and happiness. We learned about the radical call to discipleship and what it means to be set apart as a foretaste of God's Kingdom – about what it means to be salt and light, a witness to the world. We heard Jesus' teachings on divorce and anger, and saw how he not only kept the laws of Moses, but filled them to the brim.

This morning we're looking at another aspect of what it means to be a foretaste of God's Kingdom – and that is what it means to live in trust. I've entitled this sermon 'food & fashion' because Jesus speaks of clothing and food as two areas in which we need to trust God. Of course these are not the only areas in which God's people are called to trust God. In the Old Testament we hear many stories of how God's people were called to trust God for their national defence. At times we have been tempted to think that the only thing we need to trust God for is for our spiritual salvation – and that all other concerns are in our own hands. This morning, we learn from Jesus that our God is intimately involved in all aspects of life, caring for us, and even for the birds and the flowers. This morning I want to join you in exploring this text, but also diagnosing some of our struggles with trust in the areas of food and clothing. Finally, I want to explore with you how we might place our trust in God more fully.

Jesus begins by pointing out the facts: no one can serve two masters; you cannot serve God and wealth. Why? These facts are undergirded by the example that Jesus gives: a slave will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. This is the nature of a slave-master relationship. But isn't this also true for the relationships that we have in our time? Consider the marriage relationship: there's a great reason why the Church has discerned that polygamy is not a workable option for Christians... and a big part of that is because of loyalty issues, and jealousy. The devotion that marriage requires is one that resists any kind of sharing of loyalty and fidelity. But this loyalty is also displayed in the worker-employee relationship. What would it be like if Laverne was to oversee someone, in his office at CFAM, who was working on their own private business during work hours? Or what if I were to start a private business that would cut into my sermon prep time, or visitation? When Jesus says that you can only serve one master, he is pointing out a basic tendency in human relationships and loyalty.

In the rest of the passage, Jesus outlines the implications of how Christians are to live in light of this reality. Since we can only serve either God or wealth, Christians turn to God and trust in Him. Jesus commanded his followers not to worry about life, food and clothing. - to not worry about tomorrow. Do not worry! This connects to what we pray for in the Lord's Prayer, when we ask God to provide for us our daily bread. This was Jesus' message for the poor and the rich. Both the poor and the rich are to rely on God for their daily bread – this challenge might be easier for the poor than for the rich. But what about the question about anxiety? Do not worry. Is it easier for the rich or for the poor to not worry about their food and clothing?

How often do you worry about whether or not there will be food in your fridge or clothing in your dresser? I can't imagine that it's a frequent concern for any of us. The cost of bread and milk hasn't increased significantly in the last twenty years. Our food costs, in Canada, have remained the same, yet the average income of families has gone up. We just don't have to worry about food and clothing. We're afluent. What about the people who make our clothes? Do the parents who send their children to work 15 hour days in clothing factories worry about tomorrow? Do they worry about what they will eat and what they will wear?

Jesus' command to 'not worry' is followed by the command to seek first the Kingdom of God. Our Lord commands us to seek His Kingdom first and not to worry – he says that all 'these things', like food and clothing, will come along when we give our lives in service to God and His salvation project. But do we believe Jesus is telling the truth? Do we believe that God will take care of us, so much so that we don't need to worry about tomorrow? What about RRSP's? What about life insurance? What about savings – and the other kinds of barns in which we store up for tomorrow? Do we believe Jesus is telling us the truth?

Jesus' parables of trust point us to the spiritual truth in His teachings. All around us we see God's sovereign care for Creation – for the birds and the flowers. And although they may need to worry about a hunter like me... I just saw a heard of over twenty deer just north of Rosetown, calmly nibbling on the leftover corn sticking up out of the snow. They aren't worried about storing food for tomorrow. God takes good care of them – and He even permits us to harvest them so that we don't have to worry about food either.

The other side of this coin is the fact that God cares for deer, for birds and for flowers. Let that sink in! God cares for and loves the animals and the plant life – they are part of God's good creation. If God cares for plants and birds, and if God cares for easily-spooked deer – how much more does God care for people? How much more does God care for the families who have to send their young children to sweat shops and clothing factories to make cheap shoes for us? If God cares for animals and flowers, how much more does God care for the children who spend fifteen hours a day making cheap shoes for us Canadians so that we can have extra cash for things like HD TV, Nintendo Wii, or All-Inclusive vacations? Jesus' parables here are like a two-edged sword – they boldly tell us to not worry about food or clothing – after all, God takes care of us. But, on the other hand, this parable boldly claims that God even cares for animals – which ought to put us consumers on edge. We love treating God's creation as simply a means to a full and enjoyable life.

In one of my earliest sermons, way back in my Rosthern days, I preached that God cares what we do with our wallets. When Jesus points out that we can't serve two masters, he's telling us that the Kingdom of God has a lot to say about how we do business and how we deal with money. When Jesus went into the wilderness and was tempted, he faced the devil's offer to build a kingdom through economic means and displays of power. Turn stones into bread and leap off the pinnacle of the temple – and then you'll have a kingdom. But Jesus resisted, saying that God's Kingdom is not about wielding wealth and power from the top, but about radical trust in God. Jesus' words to us in Matthew remind us that our approach to wealth needs to be marked by a radical trust in God.

Do we have this radical trust in God? Do our economic transactions display our trust in God or our trust in wealth? Is it about hoarding up stones turned into bread? Or do we sit at the feet of Jesus and feast on His Word? This weekend we had several speakers talk to us about how God is calling the Church to be a witness to the watching world. During a question period, my former youth pastor, Erin Morash, who's now the pastor out West in Chrystal City, noted that many of our congregations are now in what she called a 'Third Generation'. The first generation of Mennonite Christians that came to Canada were exiles seeking safety and a new home. Much of what they had had been taken away from them. You could say that they lived in radical trust of God. Their children, the second generation became more comfortable in this land, but they remembered their roots and tried to build a safely structured community that could survive for the long haul. What we are now experiencing is the 'third generation'. We're a group of Christians who have set our roots deep into our Canadian soil. This is our home; and we plan on keeping it this way. We’ll fight for it, die for it, perhaps even kill for it. We have become far richer than our exiled grandparents and great grandparents that made their home here in the first place. And our affluence has given us reason to be self-confident and self-trusting. The question our text asks of us – the third generation – is: are you still trusting God? Do you serve God or wealth? Is southern Manitoba your home, or is the Kingdom of God your home? Where have we built our mansions?

One way of reading our situation is that God has surely blessed us here in North America. We’re rich, and that’s God’s way of blessing us. Like the birds and the flowers, you and I have been well taken-care of by our sovereign God. There's some truth to this. But I'm afraid that this way of putting it fails to tell the truth behind our affluence and wealth. Pastor and scholar William Barclay wrote about the beginning of the industrial revolution in Europe. He wrote about how people reacted against what they saw happening to their country's children. In Europe it was common to have children, from 7-10 years of age, being employed in the mines. Some would be standing in knee-deep water for twelve hours, pumping water. Others would be holed up in ventilator shafts for sixteen hours a day. When they were no longer able to do the work, because of injury or other health problems, they were granted their 'freedom' and sent to orphanages. Parents who couldn't pay their bills would sell off their children to mining companies, fisheries, or other kinds of work. The industrial revolution's early success was built largely upon the backs of slaves and child workers. When the society finally came to grips with what their greed was doing to the population – especially the young children – they outlawed child labour.

When Barclay wrote this story, he ended by saying that we can be thankful that things have changed... but I think he just didn't want to see the reality. Once the corporations realized that they couldn't have child slaves doing the dirty work in Europe, they farmed out the cheap labour to other countries. To this day there are over 150 million children between the ages of 6-16 who are working in factories across the world. Our governments will not hold other governments accountable on their child labour laws even though we enforce them in Canada. In other words, we're ok if Chinese or Indian children spend 12 hours a day making our cheap clothing, as long as our children don't have to. Imagine sending your six year-old to work in a factory for twelve hours just so that some other person in a far away country could buy cheap products. That's the reality in our world even today. Go through your closet sometime. Check to see where your clothes were made, and take time to think about this reality. Our God cares for flowers and birds, according to Jesus – what will God say about a generation that has accepted a system of economic exchange that enslaves the poor for the sake of our North American luxury?

What might it mean for us, today, to become servants of God rather than servants of wealth? How might we change our posture in culture, even though we`ve become quite comfortable with our position of power and wealth? This past weekend, Phil Wagler, one of the guest speakers, said something powerful that stuck with me. When we think of the big picture problems like economic injustice – including things like child labour practices, sweat shops and child slavery – it's easy to become despairing and hopeless. Phil challenged us with a gospel message. If we want the world to catch a glimpse of God's Kingdom in us – we first need to have a transformation in our own hearts. This is how big changes start – by first allowing your heart to be transformed by Jesus and His Spirit. I don't know how to change the economic situation that has our North American luxuries being built upon the strained backs of children in third world countries; I don’t know how to change the whole thing, but I know where the source of that kind of change lies. We as a community of faith know where the source of a world transforming power lies – it is found in the name of our Crucified Lord.

May you allow Jesus' words to interrogate you this morning. You can only serve either God or Money – not both. Be brutally honest with yourself – and seek to serve God. Find him in worship and allow God's Spirit to begin a new work in your life. Allow Christ's Spirit to transform how you deal with money. Find a way of using your wealth to join God's conspiracy of grace and radical sharing! Consider the example of a few members in our congregation who, quite a while ago, figured that they didn't each need a truck – so they bought one together to share. Some might say that's a fairly small gesture – I would disagree. In our consumer culture, acts of sharing and generosity are a foretaste of something different. Our scripture passage challenges all of us this morning to imagine new ways of showing our profound trust in God rather than money. Use your imagination! Start a conspiracy of grace and sharing in this town and in your home. Be shrewd for the sake of the Kingdom and join together to give the world a taste of something different – a taste of God's Kingdom where everyone has enough and there's still baskets left over. In the name of Jesus Christ, all of God’s people said: “Amen!”