Scripture Reading: Luke 12:22-31
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, 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, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
The Real Conspiracy: Finding Peace in God's Truth
A Sermon by Pastor James Huenink
Amen. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have you noticed that people believe a lot of conspiracy theories lately? It seems to be everywhere. And I'm not talking about the really fun ones—the fun ones are things like wondering whether there was one shooter or two with JFK, things that don't really matter, or the Apollo moon landing conspiracy that keeps coming up.
Today, we have conspiracy theories everywhere. It seems like they're even in advertisements. The health industry supposedly doesn't want you to know that this one supplement will save you—it's really kind of a conspiracy theory, right? It posits that doctors are all getting together and saying, "Absolutely, we know that this one pill would fix all your problems, but then where would we get our money?"
There are lots of them: Big tech is hacking our brains. Big Ag is inserting chemicals into our food. The deep state is destroying America. Big corporations are sucking us dry. Globalists are out to get us all. I really hope you noticed that I tried to include one from both sides.
The False Story of Progress
The reason I'm bringing up conspiracy theories is because I think they come from a false story about history—a false story about the world that, because American culture generally believes this, is making us all anxious and worried about the future.
This false story is the theory of progress in history. There's a Christian version of this (we call it post-millennialism) and there's a secular version too. Post-millennialism is the idea that the entire world, all of history, is marching towards a better and better future. The world is supposed to get increasingly better through the course of time until we get to utopia.
That's the narrative of Star Trek (before the most recent versions)—that history would just get better and better and better, and then utopia. Of course, that's the secular version with no God in Star Trek.
This story of progress gives us the idea that everything is supposed to, all on its own, get better. Now, most people wouldn't say that if you asked them, but I think we have a soft version of that in our culture.
If you've ever heard someone say something like "the arc of history bends towards justice"—that's the story of progress. If you've ever heard someone saying "you're on the wrong side of history"—that comes from a theory of progress. But most of us have probably heard this most when the news says things like, "Is this the first generation that won't do as well as their parents?"
I've listened to some Gen X people online, and they talk about the news doing that when they were young too. The idea behind it is that life and history are just getting better and better and better, and that is the natural flow of things. Human beings are good, the world gets better, and as long as we leave it alone, we are heading towards perfection.
The Biblical Story
That is not the biblical story about the world. The biblical story is actually very simple. God gives us one promise about how our earthly life is supposed to go, and it comes from Genesis chapter three:
"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
I can see all your faces—you're saying, "Thank you, Pastor, for this uplifting message."
But here's why it's important to believe the real story: that life is kind of random (at least seemingly so), that bad things happen all the time to all sorts of people, that there really is no progress in history, that life will just keep going until the day that Jesus returns. It's because believing the opposite will cause the kind of anxiety that Jesus is warning us about when he says, "Don't be anxious about your life, what you eat, or about your body, what you will put on."
Believing that false story will lead us into all sorts of problems. The true story actually allows us to accept reality as it is, to be able to take in stride the bad and the good with the sure and certain hope that life will continue. The thing that we're waiting for is not utopia, but Jesus's return, resurrection from the dead, and the perfection that he will bring—that life goes on until that day.
Historical Examples: The Puritans
To talk about this challenge, I'd like to look not at the conspiracy theories of today (because that might get me in trouble), but at the conspiracy theories of many years ago.
The Puritans kind of had a conspiracy theory that the culture was out to get them—that there was this shadowy elite in the Christian church that were trying to stop them from practicing the true religion. And what that meant was, to get to utopia, they had a problem: the church of their day. Their anxiety and fear about that drove them to travel all the way across the Atlantic to Massachusetts, where they would create a new Jerusalem, a utopia, a place where they could practice their pure theology free from the evil influences of England back home.
They were the very first "the doctors don't want you to know" of their era.
The Saxon Lutherans
There's a similar story in a group of Saxon immigrants headed by one C.F.W. Walther. If you're new to the Lutheran church, those are our guys. They had a similar theory. They thought that the Church of Germany was so corrupt and so wicked that they needed to flee under the leadership of one Martin Stephan. So they left behind family, jobs, and businesses and decided they wanted to create their own little commune in Missouri, right around where St. Louis is (now known as Perry County).
What they saw was that the world was the problem. The reason their communities were facing these challenges, the reason their life wasn't going the way they wanted, was because there was a problem out there interfering with their progress.
But they made a mistake. The enemy wasn't out there. The problem is always in here.
The Real Problem: Sin
The problem is that we live with sin in a sinful world. Bad things happen all around us, and no matter how hard you work, no matter how much you plan, no matter how far you flee from society, sin always comes with you, and bad things always happen.
It's not because there's a shadowy cabal of people who are oppressing you and fighting against you. It's because sometimes life goes bad, and sometimes we cause it because we are sinners. All of us—even the most powerful—we're all just trying to get by, do our best, and navigate life.
But the best part about this is: if the problem is not a shadowy group of people out there, if the problem is sin, it means we don't have to fight that battle. It's already been won.
Jesus did it on the cross. Because our Savior went to the cross, suffered and died to take the penalty of our sin onto his body, was buried, and then rose again to give us a promise that sin will be defeated forever when he returns, we don't have to fight against it the way that you would if you were looking for perfection. We know that Jesus has already fought that battle. We don't have to be anxious about it. We don't have to constantly strive to defeat it, because the battle is already won, and we can rest in Christ's labors.
What Happened to the Utopian Dreams
So what happened when the Puritans got to the new world? They got to the new world, everybody was filled with vim and vigor and passion. They set up their perfect city government where the church leaders and everybody else was all on board, but their kids just wouldn't play the part. Can you believe it? They raised them in the faith. They didn't have this evil outside church pulling them away, and yet somehow sin went with them when they crossed the Atlantic.
Eventually, what they had to do was realize that they couldn't create a perfect community. They ended up coming up with all these other systems, like half-covenants and things like that, to include the people who just wouldn't play along.
The same thing happened when the Lutheran Saxons came to Missouri. Their fear, their anxiety about life, their worry drove them to do something crazy. While they were on their boats crossing the Atlantic, they decided to elect their leader, Martin Stephan, as bishop and give him all power over all their worldly assets. That's always a smart thing to do, isn't it—to give all your stuff to a charismatic leader and say "you're in charge."
When they got to Missouri, the plan was to start a commune. We all know how that usually goes. But when you're so afraid of an enemy, when the battle is always out there, you forget about the sin in here. Their anxiety and worry drove them to something crazy.
When they got to Missouri, they got off the boats and looked around and thought, "What in the world did we do?" Eventually, Martin Stephan was accused of improper conduct with some young ladies, and they put him in a boat and pushed him across the Mississippi River.
The Endless Cycle of Anxiety
The problem is, when you believe in this theory of progress, the anxiety never ends, because the false story says, "Once you defeat the enemy, utopia!" But the enemy comes with you—the sin is in our hearts. One defeated enemy leads to another, and we always end up doing crazy things.
The True Conspiracy
With the biblical story, you know sin is already defeated by Christ, and all we do is accept that there is one real and true conspiracy. There is a shadowy cabal, a secret group that is truly running all things: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and they are planning all things for your good.
Jesus tells us not to be anxious about our needs, about what we will eat, about what we will wear, about all the things of this world, because we can trust our Father who knows what we need. Even when bad things happen, even when the world falls apart and the curse becomes real for us, we have a Savior who promises that everything is marching towards the resurrection on the last day—that Jesus Christ will come and give you eternal life.
Conclusion
This means we can accept reality just the way it is. We don't have to fight against it, we don't have to seek out enemies to destroy, but we can trust that our Father is taking care of us—the same Father who sent His Son to die for you.
In Jesus' name, amen.
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