“Lord of the Future” - Luke 12:13-34
Anxiety. Worry. Stress. These feelings hover in the background of every part of my life and I would be surprised if it wasn’t the same for you. I usually just assume that anxiety, worry, and stress will accompany me in some form wherever I go and in whatever I do.
What will I eat? Where will I sleep? What will I wear? How will I pay my bills? Electricity—gas—water—rent—internet—cable— cell phone—tuition—books—health insurance—car insurance—taxes. Will I be able to finish paying for school without going into debt? And will I be able to get into the grad school of my choice? Have I been saving enough money for retirement? Will my pension and social security be enough? Is the economy going to finally crash? Is the housing market going to continue to go down? And what about my health? Is my blood pressure too high? What are my cholesterol counts? Am I exercising enough? When I am older how will I be able to be self-sufficient and stay out of a nursing home? And what about family? Should I be married already? Does God even have marriage in the plans for me? Will I ever have any children of my own? And am I doing a good enough job as the vicar? Will the college students listen to me? Am I even in the right career field? Does God really want me doing this? Should I be doing something else? And even today—right now in fact!—the anxieties and stresses are still assaulting me. How will this sermon go? Will my nervousness show? Will I lose my train of thought? Will y’all stay awake? Will y’all even care about what I have to say? And on and on and on…
It’s endless. The things of this life just never stop assaulting us. And our whole lives are consumed as we try to chase all these things away. One worry after another—one stressful thing after another to keep us tossing and turning in our beds in the wee hours of the morning. It’s non-stop. We tackle one thing—and then three more quickly replace it. There seems to be no end. It’s even down-right exhausting just thinking about it all. And now I’m worried that I’m worried so much!
But we have no choice, right? We can’t possibly live without anxiety, worry, and stress—if we didn’t worry about the future, then nothing would get done, right? Where would the food come from? Where would we stay? If we don’t do it, then who will? Jesus tells us that this whole world of worry about the future is flat-out wrong and completely unnecessary. “Do not be anxious about your life” (Luke 12:22). Jesus’ command from our text is clear and simple and it hits home with a bang: “Do not be anxious about your life.” But surely Jesus couldn’t have meant that literally or meant that about our entire life—right? How could we survive in this society if we weren’t constantly looking ahead and planning and worrying and stressing and figuring things out for the future?
Maybe our whole approach to the future is wrong. The rich man in our text for today tried to hold on to his life and take control of his future by storing up all that he had—but his life was suddenly taken from him despite all his best planning and organizing. His life was consumed by building up his storehouses in order to survive tomorrow, in order to preserve his life for the future. But as Jesus shows us through this parable, hoarding is death—fighting to control our own future leads to death.
There is a little story that illustrates this well. One morning Death came to a town and a man saw him and asked, “What are you going to do?” Death replied, “I am going to take 100 people.” The man jumped into action. He quickly ran out and warned everyone in the town he could. Then, later that evening the man saw Death again and confronted him, “You told me you were only going to take 100! Why did 1,000 die?!?” Death simply replied, “I only took 100, worry took the rest.” Studies and statistics back up the truth of this little tale. The US National Mental Health Committee reported a few years ago that half—half!—of all the people in America’s hospital beds are constant worriers. Mental distress over the future can lead to migraine headaches, arthritis, heart trouble, backaches, ulcers, depression, digestive disorders and, yes, even death. Worry literally kills.
Listen to Jesus’ words: “Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:24-25). Jesus wants you to live for today and place the future into God’s hands, where it rightly belongs. If you try to save this life for the future then your worrying and anxiety will slowly kill you and in the process you will lose your very self. An unknown author said it well, “If you spend your time with worries over what might happen tomorrow, you have no today in which to live.”
On the other hand, if you let God be the Lord of the future then you will be free from the struggle for tomorrow that burdens you with anxiety, worry, and stress. Anxiety, worry, and stress are only the symptoms. No stress relief program will work, for as any doctor will tell you, to fight only your symptoms is futile. You cannot win that way. You have to tackle the root problem—you have to tackle the disease that is causing the symptoms. And this disease is your desire to be lord of the future, your desire to control a future of your choosing.
Therefore, we need to let go of our desire for control of the future. Our fighting and struggling is killing us. We need rest. We need to be able to finally stop. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it very well: “The next day, the next hour is completely out of our hands’ reach. It is meaningless to behave as if we could worry. We can change nothing about the conditions of the world. Only God can change the conditions for God rules the world. Because we cannot worry, because we are so powerless, we should not worry. Worrying means taking God’s rule onto ourselves.”
Listen to that last line again: “Worrying means taking God’s rule onto ourselves.” In my worrying I am trying to do God’s job—I am trying to play God, I am trying to be lord of the future. And this is something I am not good at, though I may like to think I am! I have no control of the future. Jesus told us this much: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26). Control of the future is never mine, no matter how hard I try. I need not be anxious. I need not worry. I need not stress. Because they accomplish nothing. The future belongs to God alone. And Jesus tells us why this is good news—Jesus tells us that we need not fear at all because our God is a gracious Father. A gracious Father who is Lord of the future. A gracious Father who is caring and providing for us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“Ok, that’s all well and good” you might think “but how is this letting go of the future feasible, how is this actually done in everyday life?” Thankfully, Jesus tells us very plainly. Because we are certain of our heavenly Father’s rule and care for our life we can turn around and generously give to others. This active generosity will free us from anxiety, worry, and stress. Mark Buchanan in his book The Rest of God discusses the miracle of generosity: “Generous people have more time. That’s the irony: those who sanctify time and who give time away—who treat time as gift and not possession—have time in abundance. Contrariwise, those who guard every minute, resent every interruption, ration every moment, never have enough. They’re always late, always behind, always scrambling, always driven….We hold time so tight we crush it, like a flower closed in the fist. We thought we were protecting it, but all we did was destroy it.”
Therefore, Jesus calls you to live active lives of giving and generosity so that you might be free from anxiety, worry, and stress. And Jesus doesn’t just recommend “inwardly” giving—he implores you to very literally sell your possessions and give to the poor because it is only in action that your anxieties will start to fall away. Notice how there is no lack of concreteness to Jesus’ words. Often times when we hear a teaching it comes across as abstract and we may ask “Well, how can I do that? What does that look like in real life?” Here, in the face of the tangible words of Jesus those questions are powerless. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” It’s that simple. It’s that clear. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” No, you may not want to hear this. No, you will probably fight with everything you have to come up with some sort of excuse why you can’t do this and why it is impractical. But in the end you and I have no excuse. The words are plain. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” The promise is also clear. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” So stop killing yourself by hoarding things for the future—stop crushing the delicate flower of your life by trying to be in control. Give—give generously! Let the daily blessings of time and possessions from your heavenly Father flow through you to those who are in need around you. Jesus promises that this generosity will free you from your anxiety, worry, and stress!
The command may be simple, but it is much easier said—and preached from a pulpit!—than actually done. So how can I bring myself to actually do this? How is it feasible to live this way in our capitalistic culture and society? You and I can only give completely of ourselves in this culture of greed because of the generosity of the one who went before us. Jesus gave up his entire life—everything!—for us and was abandoned by his Father as he went to the cross to die. But the Father did not abandon him for good; he turned back to Jesus and raised him to new life three days later.
Because Jesus was abandoned, you will not be. You—you can give and give and give because in your baptism you were united to Jesus Christ and received the same Holy Spirit with whom he was anointed. Because you bear this Spirit of God—because you have been given the Father’s kingdom—you will stand out as a beacon of generosity in the midst of a society that consumes and hoards with every breath it can muster. Since you bear the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ path from death to life—this alternative to the world’s empty paths—is now your path.
Yes, this path and journey will surely take the shape of the cross: If you are faithful to this path then the world will reject you, the world will hate you, you will lack the luxuries that this world has to offer, and you will have to die. But despite this you stand today in hope because you have a Father in heaven who will not abandon you to the grave. When you are faced with suffering and death—as you most certainly will be—you will not be alone. You have a Lord who will be with you always—even in death. You will be raised to new life just as Jesus was. You will be raised to new life in the resurrection of your body. Your Father in heaven who watches over the flowers and sparrows will not abandon you or forget you. He will take care of you always, no matter how dark and hopeless your circumstances may become.
Therefore, you don’t need to hoard your time or your possessions. You can stop trying to be lord of the future. You can stop worrying. You can stop stressing. You can relinquish control. You can generously give to those in need. And then you can finally rest, rest because in Jesus Christ all your anxieties, worries, and stresses are swept away by the assurance of your future—by the assurance that in Jesus Christ your body will be raised from the dead.
And at the end of it all, on that day of resurrection, when you see your Lord face to face he will ask you: “Did you lack anything?” (Luke 22:35) and you will be bold to respond: “Nothing, Lord.” For how could you lack anything when you have the continued assurance that your Father in heaven is Lord of the future? He is watching over you and your future whether you are in hunger, suffering, or even in the midst of dying. Your hope is truly beyond description because your Father in heaven loves you and will never abandon you! And to this I say, thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen.
What will I eat? Where will I sleep? What will I wear? How will I pay my bills? Electricity—gas—water—rent—internet—cable— cell phone—tuition—books—health insurance—car insurance—taxes. Will I be able to finish paying for school without going into debt? And will I be able to get into the grad school of my choice? Have I been saving enough money for retirement? Will my pension and social security be enough? Is the economy going to finally crash? Is the housing market going to continue to go down? And what about my health? Is my blood pressure too high? What are my cholesterol counts? Am I exercising enough? When I am older how will I be able to be self-sufficient and stay out of a nursing home? And what about family? Should I be married already? Does God even have marriage in the plans for me? Will I ever have any children of my own? And am I doing a good enough job as the vicar? Will the college students listen to me? Am I even in the right career field? Does God really want me doing this? Should I be doing something else? And even today—right now in fact!—the anxieties and stresses are still assaulting me. How will this sermon go? Will my nervousness show? Will I lose my train of thought? Will y’all stay awake? Will y’all even care about what I have to say? And on and on and on…
It’s endless. The things of this life just never stop assaulting us. And our whole lives are consumed as we try to chase all these things away. One worry after another—one stressful thing after another to keep us tossing and turning in our beds in the wee hours of the morning. It’s non-stop. We tackle one thing—and then three more quickly replace it. There seems to be no end. It’s even down-right exhausting just thinking about it all. And now I’m worried that I’m worried so much!
But we have no choice, right? We can’t possibly live without anxiety, worry, and stress—if we didn’t worry about the future, then nothing would get done, right? Where would the food come from? Where would we stay? If we don’t do it, then who will? Jesus tells us that this whole world of worry about the future is flat-out wrong and completely unnecessary. “Do not be anxious about your life” (Luke 12:22). Jesus’ command from our text is clear and simple and it hits home with a bang: “Do not be anxious about your life.” But surely Jesus couldn’t have meant that literally or meant that about our entire life—right? How could we survive in this society if we weren’t constantly looking ahead and planning and worrying and stressing and figuring things out for the future?
Maybe our whole approach to the future is wrong. The rich man in our text for today tried to hold on to his life and take control of his future by storing up all that he had—but his life was suddenly taken from him despite all his best planning and organizing. His life was consumed by building up his storehouses in order to survive tomorrow, in order to preserve his life for the future. But as Jesus shows us through this parable, hoarding is death—fighting to control our own future leads to death.
There is a little story that illustrates this well. One morning Death came to a town and a man saw him and asked, “What are you going to do?” Death replied, “I am going to take 100 people.” The man jumped into action. He quickly ran out and warned everyone in the town he could. Then, later that evening the man saw Death again and confronted him, “You told me you were only going to take 100! Why did 1,000 die?!?” Death simply replied, “I only took 100, worry took the rest.” Studies and statistics back up the truth of this little tale. The US National Mental Health Committee reported a few years ago that half—half!—of all the people in America’s hospital beds are constant worriers. Mental distress over the future can lead to migraine headaches, arthritis, heart trouble, backaches, ulcers, depression, digestive disorders and, yes, even death. Worry literally kills.
Listen to Jesus’ words: “Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:24-25). Jesus wants you to live for today and place the future into God’s hands, where it rightly belongs. If you try to save this life for the future then your worrying and anxiety will slowly kill you and in the process you will lose your very self. An unknown author said it well, “If you spend your time with worries over what might happen tomorrow, you have no today in which to live.”
On the other hand, if you let God be the Lord of the future then you will be free from the struggle for tomorrow that burdens you with anxiety, worry, and stress. Anxiety, worry, and stress are only the symptoms. No stress relief program will work, for as any doctor will tell you, to fight only your symptoms is futile. You cannot win that way. You have to tackle the root problem—you have to tackle the disease that is causing the symptoms. And this disease is your desire to be lord of the future, your desire to control a future of your choosing.
Therefore, we need to let go of our desire for control of the future. Our fighting and struggling is killing us. We need rest. We need to be able to finally stop. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it very well: “The next day, the next hour is completely out of our hands’ reach. It is meaningless to behave as if we could worry. We can change nothing about the conditions of the world. Only God can change the conditions for God rules the world. Because we cannot worry, because we are so powerless, we should not worry. Worrying means taking God’s rule onto ourselves.”
Listen to that last line again: “Worrying means taking God’s rule onto ourselves.” In my worrying I am trying to do God’s job—I am trying to play God, I am trying to be lord of the future. And this is something I am not good at, though I may like to think I am! I have no control of the future. Jesus told us this much: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26). Control of the future is never mine, no matter how hard I try. I need not be anxious. I need not worry. I need not stress. Because they accomplish nothing. The future belongs to God alone. And Jesus tells us why this is good news—Jesus tells us that we need not fear at all because our God is a gracious Father. A gracious Father who is Lord of the future. A gracious Father who is caring and providing for us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“Ok, that’s all well and good” you might think “but how is this letting go of the future feasible, how is this actually done in everyday life?” Thankfully, Jesus tells us very plainly. Because we are certain of our heavenly Father’s rule and care for our life we can turn around and generously give to others. This active generosity will free us from anxiety, worry, and stress. Mark Buchanan in his book The Rest of God discusses the miracle of generosity: “Generous people have more time. That’s the irony: those who sanctify time and who give time away—who treat time as gift and not possession—have time in abundance. Contrariwise, those who guard every minute, resent every interruption, ration every moment, never have enough. They’re always late, always behind, always scrambling, always driven….We hold time so tight we crush it, like a flower closed in the fist. We thought we were protecting it, but all we did was destroy it.”
Therefore, Jesus calls you to live active lives of giving and generosity so that you might be free from anxiety, worry, and stress. And Jesus doesn’t just recommend “inwardly” giving—he implores you to very literally sell your possessions and give to the poor because it is only in action that your anxieties will start to fall away. Notice how there is no lack of concreteness to Jesus’ words. Often times when we hear a teaching it comes across as abstract and we may ask “Well, how can I do that? What does that look like in real life?” Here, in the face of the tangible words of Jesus those questions are powerless. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” It’s that simple. It’s that clear. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” No, you may not want to hear this. No, you will probably fight with everything you have to come up with some sort of excuse why you can’t do this and why it is impractical. But in the end you and I have no excuse. The words are plain. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” The promise is also clear. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” So stop killing yourself by hoarding things for the future—stop crushing the delicate flower of your life by trying to be in control. Give—give generously! Let the daily blessings of time and possessions from your heavenly Father flow through you to those who are in need around you. Jesus promises that this generosity will free you from your anxiety, worry, and stress!
The command may be simple, but it is much easier said—and preached from a pulpit!—than actually done. So how can I bring myself to actually do this? How is it feasible to live this way in our capitalistic culture and society? You and I can only give completely of ourselves in this culture of greed because of the generosity of the one who went before us. Jesus gave up his entire life—everything!—for us and was abandoned by his Father as he went to the cross to die. But the Father did not abandon him for good; he turned back to Jesus and raised him to new life three days later.
Because Jesus was abandoned, you will not be. You—you can give and give and give because in your baptism you were united to Jesus Christ and received the same Holy Spirit with whom he was anointed. Because you bear this Spirit of God—because you have been given the Father’s kingdom—you will stand out as a beacon of generosity in the midst of a society that consumes and hoards with every breath it can muster. Since you bear the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ path from death to life—this alternative to the world’s empty paths—is now your path.
Yes, this path and journey will surely take the shape of the cross: If you are faithful to this path then the world will reject you, the world will hate you, you will lack the luxuries that this world has to offer, and you will have to die. But despite this you stand today in hope because you have a Father in heaven who will not abandon you to the grave. When you are faced with suffering and death—as you most certainly will be—you will not be alone. You have a Lord who will be with you always—even in death. You will be raised to new life just as Jesus was. You will be raised to new life in the resurrection of your body. Your Father in heaven who watches over the flowers and sparrows will not abandon you or forget you. He will take care of you always, no matter how dark and hopeless your circumstances may become.
Therefore, you don’t need to hoard your time or your possessions. You can stop trying to be lord of the future. You can stop worrying. You can stop stressing. You can relinquish control. You can generously give to those in need. And then you can finally rest, rest because in Jesus Christ all your anxieties, worries, and stresses are swept away by the assurance of your future—by the assurance that in Jesus Christ your body will be raised from the dead.
And at the end of it all, on that day of resurrection, when you see your Lord face to face he will ask you: “Did you lack anything?” (Luke 22:35) and you will be bold to respond: “Nothing, Lord.” For how could you lack anything when you have the continued assurance that your Father in heaven is Lord of the future? He is watching over you and your future whether you are in hunger, suffering, or even in the midst of dying. Your hope is truly beyond description because your Father in heaven loves you and will never abandon you! And to this I say, thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen.
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