A Sense of What Is Vital
A Homily by the Ven. Canon Masalakulangwa Mabula, Class of 2004 from the Diocese of Victoria Nyanza, Tanzania, on Luke 12:22-32, given in Christ Chapel on August 25, 2003

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well" (RSV).

What type of a minister are you and me? What will you do in a parish where God calls you to be after seminary? My sample answer is "With God's help I will seek first and always God's kingdom and His will in every situation." Fortunately for me, God alone is the judge of the extent to which I fulfilled that solemn aim.

But this is what Jesus is pleading for in our text. He is recommending a sense of what is vital in religion. "Seek first God's kingdom and righteousness…" A sense of what is vital! Jesus is insisting that we must seek it, and seek it first. We are to give it top priority. Other things -- food, drink and clothing are important -- but we are not to put them first.

Jesus has already said so in the Lord's Prayer. "Pray then like this: Our Father… give us today our daily bread." We are to follow an order in the Lord's Prayer, glorify God first, not food first. We are to pray for God's greater glory -- the honoring of His name, the coming of His kingdom, the doing of His will -- then and only then for our human needs: food, pardon and protection. For what is vital in life must take priority over everything. A Scottish professor in England used to say "Do not touch Christianity unless you are willing to seek first the kingdom of heaven. I promise you a miserable existence if you seek it second."

Two things are involved in this sense of what is vital: First, always and everywhere God's kingdom! Of course we must not picture God's kingdom as a politician's paradise, a super Welfare State under God's patronage, or even the Church. It is God's "kingly rule." It is God breaking into history in redemptive love. Indeed, where Jesus is, there is the kingdom. Not merely a future hope, but a glad present reality! And because Jesus is king, what is vital in religion is that every part of our life should be surrendered to Him. This kingdom, according to Jesus, is among us, not just some far-off event, but here and now.

Think of it in this way. A group of sincere Christians meet for genuine worship of God -- there is the kingdom. A young couple honoring the vows of marriage and baptism, strive to create a Christian home for their children -- there is the kingdom. A university student, without any fuss or pretension, putting his very best into her/his studies and seeking to uphold her/his Christian principles of integrity, honesty and purity -- there is the kingdom. A business woman/man sticking to principles rejecting the slick motto -- "business is business, you know," rejecting it even at considerable cost to herself/himself -- there is the kingdom. In a world torn by hatred, hunger, terrorism, racism, civil strife and cruel war, the universal presence of the Christian Church, preaching, teaching, healing, casting out despair, and pointing to Christ the Reconciler and the Redeemer -- there is the kingdom. The moment when we know beyond all doubt that love, faith, goodness, beauty, joy, truth and peace are more real, more valuable, more enduring than any earthly possessions we own or desire -- there is the kingdom. Where Christ is in our lives, in our homes, in our work, in our Church, in our Seminary, and in the world -- there is the kingdom. First the kingdom.

But, secondly, He immediately adds God's righteousness. "Seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness."

It is not certain whether Jesus means righteousness to be understood in the sense of God's saving sovereignty or in the ethical sense of holiness. But whatever the exact theological interpretation, we need to face up to the ethical implication -- first, always and everywhere God's righteousness, God's holiness. As Christians we are to seek righteousness, seek to be like Christ, more and more holy, growing daily in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.

The tragedy is that, many Christians are quite the opposite, perhaps even some of us seminarians. At one moment people hear us declaring joyfully that we are saved, that Christ is our personal savior, but then they are puzzled because somehow you and I often fail to make the essential connection between our profession of faith and our ethics -- our daily conduct. We do not seem to realize that as a Christians it is not just sexual immorality and drunkenness that we should avoid like that plague, but also dishonesty, cheating, bad temper, racism, deviousness, unscrupulousness, manipulation of other people, two-faced hypocrisy. In other words, by God's grace we must be like Jesus. We must be integrated women and men, not walking civil-wars. We must be people of incorruptible integrity, people for whom honesty and truth are paramount; people whose word is our bond, who never try to take an unfair advantage of anyone else, and who treat everyone else as human beings of infinite value to God our heavenly Father. "Seek first God's righteousness."

Jesus Himself was very impatient with public profession that did not issue a Christian practice. Our Christian profession must be accompanied by moral obedience -- by genuine honesty, love, purity and every Christ-like grace. Jesus did not say to His disciples: "seek first popularity." A respected, elderly minister once gave me a good advice -- "Masalakulangwa, you can not please everybody, so do not try." The aim of our ministry should be not to please everyone, but to seek first, always and everywhere God's kingdom and His righteousness, and so to please the almighty God.

It is not popularity but spiritual resilience and depth of humanity that count in the ministry. Eventually popularity, or at least acquiescence in our leadership, may come, as the rightness of our policy or methods begin to bear fruit; but immediate popularity is not the rest of our worth and work. But if we take Christ with us into all aspects of our ministry, then our people will take us along with Christ -- and come to trust our Christian integrity and genuine spirituality.

If we do not seek, practical consequences must follow. If we seek, all the main comfort in living will be ours as well! As Jesus looked on the lilies growing in the fields, He saw in their beauty a message from God His Father about the main comfort in living. If God values the beauty of the flowers which last for one brief day, how much more does He value women and men!

So we should not worry ourselves ill over what we are going to eat, drink and wear. But when we get the logic of Christ straight -- God first, others second, Self last -- then and only then can we enjoy the main comfort in living: trusting confidence in our Heavenly Father's love and care.

Trusting confidence! Think of Solomon in the Old Testament. Soon after the coronation, Solomon was asked in a dream by God: "Ask what I shall give you" (Kings 3,5). Solomon was wise. He did not pray for riches and length of days. He asked for the really big things: "Now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king in place of David my father…" "…Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to govern thy people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to govern this thy people?" (Kings 3,7-9). God was delighted at Solomon's prayer, and He responded in effect: "Because you have not prayed for these other things -- long life or riches -- I will give you wisdom and I will give you the other things as well. I will give you riches and long life…" (Kings 3,13). God always does that when we really put Him first, when we seek first His kingdom, and realize that what is vital in religion is our nearness to Him and our holiness, the Christ-like lifestyles.

Well, then, how do we measure up -- you and I? Probably not very well. For perhaps all of us at times let God's kingdom and His righteousness slip into second or third place as we pursue material possessions or self-centered ambitions. That way, of course, leads to anxiety, constant frustration and eventual despair.

But women/men, those who seek first, always and everywhere a sense of what is vital in religion discover the wisdom enshrined in a saying of Jesus preserved by Origen -- "Ask for the big things, and the little shall be added unto you." Ask for the heavenly, and the earthly will be added unto you.
We must pray that, the king and Master of our lives, come and subdue us by the power of His love. That may we ever have a sense of what is vital in life; and seek first, always and everywhere our Father's kingdom and His righteousness. That we, doing so, may ever have that main comfort in living. And that, may we ever confidently trust in our heavenly Father's love and care. +