Seek first the kingdom of God
A sermon on Matthew 6:24-34
Few pieces of advice are as unhelpful as the directive, “Don’t worry about it.” There you are, working over in your mind some current challenge, with all of its potential problems and undesirable outcomes, and someone says, “Don’t worry about it. It will all be fine.” It is almost as bad as someone trying to solve all the problems for you! The problem with the “Don’t worry” advice is that anxiety does not have an on and off switch, and it is remarkably resistant to all attempts to reason it away.
It is possible to mistake Jesus’s words in the gospel for this kind of unhelpful counsel, as if he were saying to us, “Don’t worry about how you are going to buy all the things you need but can’t afford. Just look at the birds and flowers and act like them.” Jesus gives us something to do instead of being anxious: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” But even this can be turned into simplistic advice. It calls mind a youth camp song created from this verse. Its use in that setting implied that if we stand by the fire, hold hands, sway, and sing “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” our anxiety will vanish. It did, in fact, relieve anxiety for a moment—until we returned to life the next week.
The root problem is the tendency to view faith and Bible verses as solutions to the problems of life. When times are tough we will turn to God for help. Then, once he helps us, we will return to life as usual until we need help again. A current song proclaims, “I only talk to God when I need a favor—and I need a favor.” God is so gracious that often grants the favor, but this approach to faith will add to rather than solve the problem of an anxiety ridden life.
We should note that Jesus is not giving advice. He is not saying, “You might want to consider a little bit of the kingdom in your life.” “Seek first the kingdom of God” is a command from the Lord of the universe. He is telling us how to live. He contrasts two ways of life: Seeking first the kingdom on the one hand, and serving mammon on the other.
Mammon means money. Serving mammon means that our behavior is determined primarily by the calculus of economic gain or survival, without regard to whether the course of action honors God, helps people, or is intrinsically good. Seeking first the kingdom means that our behavior is determined primarily by love for God and obedience to his commandments; and, secondarily, by love for and service to others—who are made in the image of God. The economic benefits, as Jesus said, are the by-product of the kingdom focus. Things work out when we live by the instructions given to us by our Maker.
Two examples illustrate the contrast. The first is the practice of giving through the disciplines of tithing and generosity. Faithful giving reflects a kingdom first orientation, but it never “pencils out” in the strict materialistic economic analysis. I mean, how does it make sense to give away the first part of our income? How will we have enough left to meet the needs and pay the bills? How does it makes sense to be generous and give when we have so many needs? But I have observed a profound truth over forty years of ministry. The lives of people who practice tithing and generosity with the motive of faith are characterized by less anxiety, more peace and joy, and more abundant provision for their needs. In contrast, the lives of people who focus on the strict economic analysis and give grudgingly are characterized by greater anxiety, more fear and discontentment, and always seem to lack something.
A second example is worship and prayer. This centers on the economics of time. Serving Mammon is characterized by the following statement. “I don’t have time for prayer.” The calculus is this. We have all these things we feel we need to do. When we put them all on paper, we discover we don’t have any time left for prayer. So, we start running about to do all things we need to do and there is never time left over to commune with God. We never get all the things done, and our lives are filled with anxiety and discontentment.
The kingdom first orientation realizes that time itself was created for prayer. God created time as the arena in which people would live in communion with him. When we seek first the kingdom, we begin with prayer, which is the first step in the right ordering of our time. We begin by gathering as God’s people on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, to offer back to God all that he has given to us, including our time. We learn to begin the day, and all activities with prayer so that all of life is experienced in relationship with God as a gift.
The result of a commitment to the life of prayer is that life settles down. Our to-do list had too many things on it. But prayer helps us to see that many of those things are not urgent and can wait, and that we are not called to do some of the others things. Prayer helps us to discern and focus on what God has actually called us to do. We learn the kingdom truth that God has given us exactly enough time to do the things he has called us to do. We actually become more productive—less frantic and “busy”—but more productive in the sense of fruitful labor for the kingdom. As Mother Theresa is purported to have said, “If I didn’t pray three hours a day, I’d never get anything done.” As life is oriented around worship and prayer, we experience a decrease in anxiety and a gradual increase in the joy and peace of God’s kingdom.
We all experience anxiety. We can’t talk ourselves out of it, and we can’t work our way out of it. We can only decrease our experience of anxiety by re-orienting our lives away from captivity to the task masters of strict economic analysis and productive efficiency, and towards a life oriented around God and service to others in his name—the things we were made for.
The kingdom of God is not just an idea. It is not merely some future thing we hope for. The kingdom is something we live in right now through our life of prayer in Christ in the Holy Spirit. The more we conform our habits of life to the reality of the present and coming kingdom, the more we will experience the peace and joy of the kingdom in the place of the anxiety that is the natural consequence of serving mammon in the world. Therefore, as Jesus said,
Do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matt. 6:31-33).