Here is an large excerpt from a sermon preached by Dr. Nagel in London 1954, the text is from Matthew 6:28. – Selected Sermon of Normal Nagel – Concordia Publishing House

Nature is tragedy not only for those who exclude God from nature but also is felt by our Lord Himself. St. Paul speaks of nature made subject to vanity, groaning in pain. For the corruption, the decay, the tragedy of all creatures now subject to death, St. Paul unrelentingly blames man who sins. The creation is now a world gone wrong because of sin. We, my friends, are partners with Adam in bringing vanity on all creatures. If we think this strange, it is because we do not realize the dread horror and consequence of sin. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Sin brought the world into such a cursed mess that only the Son of God could rescue it. This He did by becoming part of our sin-cursed world, making Himself our brother and subject to the curse. Jesus staked Himself with us. If He is crushed by the curse, there is no hope. If He overcomes the curse, then death cannot have its way with us. The fate of Christ and the fate of me are one. I can only be destroyed by death if Christ can be deserted by death. Christ did die, but He rose again. His resurrection means my resurrection and also that of the lily. When I come to die, I can now die as the lily dies, quietly and without complaint.

The tragedy is abolished. Death does not destroy. That God is sure of this we see in the way He deals with the lily. Lavishly He clothes each little lily with beauty. It lives its little day to God and dies, but it is not wasted life. God delights in its beauty and the lily fulfills itself in His design. In the face of the lily’s death, God makes mockery of death and feasts the flower with beauty.

So God makes mockery of our death with all the abounding gifts of beauty and strength that He showers on us. Our life is in His hand. The whole of our life is in God’s hand, even to old age. The lessening of strength in old age is to us, therefore, not just the pathetic relic of a vigorous youth that we miserably covet. The flower, indeed, is gone, the pant shrivels, but soon the seed will fall into the ground. From that seed comes the resurrection, a new life untouched by sin, entirely free of every anxiety, for it is a life entirely to God. We are on with the lilies not only in that we must die but also in that we are the creatures of God, fellow creatures with Christ. Our Lord takes our brother creature, the lily, and bids us learn how to grow, to live, and to die. Therefore, consider God’s lilies.

Amen.