Preached at Burnham, 15th Sunday after Trinity, September 9, 1866,
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment?” —St. Matthew vi. 25.
Our Lord spoke these words to His disciples who were poor men, men that had to work for their livelihood. Do you think He told them that they need not work, that they might fold their hands and go to sleep, that God would take care of them if they did? Do you think He meant to say, ‘You need not provide for your children; you may spend what you have got, just as you like’? No, my friends, He meant nothing of this kind. He wished these poor people to work more diligently than before. He wished them to be less hindered in their work. He wished them to think more of their children than they had ever thought; to be wise men and not spendthrifts. Let us consider what He had said just before. He spoke of their food and their clothing, their lives and their bodies—you heard me read it a few moments ago.
“Ye cannot,” He said, “serve two masters;” that is, two masters of opposite minds, two masters that bid you do different things. And He tells them who the two masters are that had two opposite minds, and would bid them to do different things. “You cannot serve God and Mammon.”
He had been declaring to them the great message, ‘God is your Father.’ When you pray to Him, say, “Our Father which art in Heaven.”
He said they must trust Him for all that they wanted. They might ask day by day for their daily bread. They might ask Him to forgive them their sins. They might ask Him not to lead them into temptation. They might ask Him to deliver them from evil. He was willing to do all these things for them; they should not doubt or fear that He was.
And what made them doubt or fear that He would do these things? They did not really believe Him to be their Father. They did not give Him credit for feeling to them as a Father feels to His children. They thought He had a grudge against them. How came they to have such a notion? Because they were in their hearts worshipping Mammon; that is to say, a covetous god; a god who wants things for himself, a god who seeks to get and not to give. What made them dream of such a god as that and worship him? They dreamt of him because he was like themselves; they were covetous; they wanted to get and not to give. So they made a god who was such a one as they were. They might make no image nor picture of him; but they worshipped him in their hearts all the same.
Now our Lord said, ‘This you cannot do if you worship your Father in Heaven. You cannot have both these Gods for your masters. You will hate one if you love the other; if you will hold to the one you will despise the other. You will hate the covetous god if you love the good and gracious Father. If you will hold to the covetous god you will despise the true God.’
But what is it to serve the covetous god? It is this. If I am fretful and anxious about what I shall eat and drink, and how I shall be clothed, I fancy that I am his subject. I act as if he, this grudging covetous god, were my master. And what is it to serve the Father in Heaven? If I work without fear or anxiety, believing that there is One over me who knows what I am doing, and takes an interest in it, and desires that my work should be healthy and profitable, then I am serving my Father in Heaven; then I am acting as if He were my Master.
Now, you all know very well that men do not work better for being fretful and anxious; they work much worse; after a time they are not able to work at all. Then instead of being more decently clothed they become ragged; instead of having more tidy houses, and more wholesome food, the houses become dirty and the food bad; instead of providing more for their children, their children starve. Our Lord wished to save His disciples from this, He wishes to save us from this. And so He says to them and to us, ‘Remember Who your true Master is. Let no one persuade you that you have any other than my Father in Heaven; than He Who sent me on earth to deliver you from all bad Gods; than He of Whom I—who go about doing good—am the perfect likeness; than He Whose will is at all times and in all places to do you good.’ Assure yourselves every morning when you wake, ‘He and He only is my master.’ Say to yourselves, ‘We will not have the covetous god for our Lord. This is our Lord. He will be our Lord for ever and ever. He is our children’s Lord. He will be their Lord for ever and ever.’
That is the purpose of all our Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, of which you have heard part to-day. He made known to His disciples, He makes known to us, what He is Who created us, what He is Who governs us. They were apt to say, and we are apt to say, ‘Oh no, that cannot be our Master. That is too good news to be true. It cannot be that we have actually, at all times, a Father in Heaven Who does not forget us, Who never becomes indifferent to us, Who never ceases to desire our good, and to contrive good for us.’ And our Lord answers, ‘Yes, but it is true, wonderful as it is; true to the very letter, more true than words can tell you or than you can imagine.’ But then you may say, ‘Yes, perhaps He cares about great things, but not about little. He may care that we should be wise and good, but He will not care whether we have food and raiment.’ He does care, no doubt, first of all, that you should be wise and good. Doubt not that He does. And doubt not that He will enable you to be what He wishes you to be. Ask for that and you will have it; seek and you will find it. ‘But why,’ says our Lord, ‘should you fancy that He does not care about your food? Look at these birds that are flying in the air. Could they get food if He did not provide them food? if He did not give them power to seek the food, and did not make them fit to receive the food? Why should you fancy He does not care about your clothing? Look at these lilies in the gardens, or at any of the flowers in the hedgerows. Would they, any of them, have their beautiful clothing so much more beautiful than any that man ever weaves, or than any king has ever worn, if He did not clothe them? See what care He takes of the commonest of His creatures. And do you think He does not care more for men, whom He has formed in His own likeness; whom He has sent His own Son to claim as His brethren?’
That will explain why He bids you take no thought for your life. If we are fidgetty and restless about it, we shall do ourselves no good. But if we trust it with God, then we shall go manfully forth to do all that we have to do, knowing that we are safe in His hand. Then we shall say to ourselves, ‘Well, He has given us this wonderful life within us. How much more that is than the food which nourishes it! But since our life wants food to support it, He will surely let us have that. He will give us strength to labour for it, which is better than if it dropped into our mouths. He has given us these curious bodies; how much more curious they are than the very finest clothes we can put on them! But since they want clothing, He will enable us to obtain that. He has greater designs for us than for the birds and the lilies, so He will not treat us as He treats them; He will treat us more generously, more considerately. He will call out a faith, and hope, and love in us, which they cannot have. He will bring us often in what seem very hard ways, by great sorrows, to this trust and hope and love. It is worth while. We shall find it so at last. The clothes and food will have done their work and will perish. The faith and hope and love will abide for ever. They will bind us to those that have gone before us, and to those that shall come after us. They will bind us to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to God our Father through all ages.’ And it is, my friends, that God Who invites us this day to eat of that food which sustains our spirits. He wants them to live and not die. He wants them to believe Him and trust Him and love Him. And thus He enables them to do it. He says, ‘I have given My Son to suffer and die for you all, for the whole world. Remember that love of Mine, that love which He shewed forth in His death.’ Feed upon that in your hearts. There is nothing like it. Angels and Archangels feed upon it. Poor men and women may feed upon it with them. It will never wear out. And you need not take thought or be anxious about this food more than the other. We cannot earn it. God gives it. He sends you this simplest sign and token how real it is, and that He would have all partake of it together. He bestows it freely; we receive when we give Him thanks for it.