Then,why don’t we believe what He says in Matthew 6:25-33?
25 “Therefore I tell you,do not worry about your life,what you will eat or drink;or about your body,what you will wear. Is not life more than food,and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air;they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry,saying,‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things,and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Without fail, the #1 question people ask us in our transition out of paid/vocational pastoral ministry is “How do you support yourselves?” It is usually the FIRST question people ask as well. This confirms my theory that financial security is the number one obstacle people face in making any sort of radical missional jump -- at least for people in their 30′s and up. The answer to that authentic-yet-ultimately-bad question lies here. Seek FIRST the Kingdom,where God’s rule is and is about to extend,and the other stuff will work itself out. Contra charismatic prosperity gospel,it won’t be peachy-keen. God WILL cut us down in size through it (He makes us bigger by making us smaller as we like to say in our movement). In fact,count on it since he ALREADY told us we will have to deny ourselves and die if we are going to be his followers. We were ALREADY TOLD TO COUNT THIS COST,weren’t we? But out of his love and care for us,things will get worked out;they have for all of us in our movement. So,at the end of the day,worry is pointless and faithless.
I think it’s interesting in Matthew 10 and Luke 10 when Jesus is about to send out the 70/72,this is how he sends them all —penniless and weak. Was that a methodological quirk or key insight into multiplication in the Kingdom economy? If the church of Jesus Christ is going to join the mission of Jesus Christ,then it needs to quickly get over this faithless (v.30) and pagan (v.32) attachment to self-securing its financial wants and needs. Money is for the Kingdom. Life is for the Kingdom. None of it ever belonged to us to begin with. The sooner we let that go,the sooner we can experience the miracle of multiplication.
Two seminary masters degrees and ten years of church planting ministry later,I’m beginning to finally understand the truth of Matthew 6:25-33. And I didn’t need to know Greek to figure it out. I just needed to believe the King…and act in risk/faith on it. Profoundly simple. Practically devastating. Personally satisfying. But such is the imitation of our lowly,homeless,penniless and glorious King.