In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Our society is surrounding itself with distractions: phones, televisions, computers, consoles, music, sporting events, books, newspapers, gossip, intrigues. These are making us numb—and we choose them precisely because they make us numb—to the one fact which faces each and every one of us, believer and non-believer alike, rich and poor together, we are going to die. Distractions around us will not change it, we may live for a hundred or more years or we may be nearing the end of our lives, but not one of us can prevent our dying.
What does the world have to offer us as we face this reality? Money and luxury, and this is alluring. But in the face of death money can only delay the inevitable, a luxurious path to death is still a path to death. Yet I am so easily entranced by Mammon’s appeal, I desire the comfort that it may bring me.
And into this world Christ comes. He does not come offering a new system—how you can extend your life—but comes asking each of us to place our hope and our trust in him. He comes offering not comforts but a cross, not life according to the terms of this world but death, neither riches nor possessions but eternal life.
“Do not be anxious,” says the Lord, “about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on,” because such anxiety will not gain us anything: “Is not life more than food,” he tells us, “and the body more than clothing?” Because the life which is offered by the Lord is not a few extra days to add to our life, but eternal life. And when we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” when we place the Lord first in all we do, then according to our needs and according to his will, “all these things shall be yours as well.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our world is being led on a life of distraction from the inevitable: it all leads to death. And our message to the world, to our society, is that Christ is risen! Christ is risen and your life has eternal meaning, Christ is risen and you have value, Christ is risen and you are loved, Christ is risen and even though you will die death cannot hold you. And when we place our hope, our trust, our life, into the hands of Christ we no longer need to worry about making profit in this life because our citizenship is not of any earthly city nor nation but of the Kingdom.
Place your trust in the Lord, dear brothers and sisters, and serve him. Serve him whether we can see the reward before us or not, serve him out of love, serve him because his is the only path to holiness, to completeness, to life. And in serving him he will make sure we have what we need for salvation—union with him—which is eternal life.
To our incarnate, crucified and risen Saviour, Jesus Christ, be all glory, honour and worship, together with his Unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man — though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
— Romans 5:1–10
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.”
— Matthew 6:22–33