Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131; I Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34
The good news found in today’s gospel lesson can be summed up by a quote from Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) one of the spiritual leaders of the early Christian church. He said “if you think you understand it, its not from God!”
The good news about this passage from Matthew is that it is not easy to understand and actually raises more questions than it provides answers! The bad news—or maybe better described as “the Hard News” is that, like all profound truths that Jesus taught, living into this gospel observation that we “cannot have two masters..One cannot serve God and wealth” is one of the hardest lessons that Jesus repeated in many ways over and over again. The fact that it is such a hard thing to think about makes me pretty sure that Augustine was right—this is one of the things that comes from God and if we are to be faithful, we had best wrestle with it in our lives; and our lives should reflect our love of God more than our love of wealth.
Questions immediately come to mind when I hear this lesson---does this really mean –when we do not worry about what we are to eat or how we are to dress and trust that God will provide for us as God does for the birds adorned with glorious feathers and the lilies and wild flowers of the fields that God will provide for us so gloriously also? Is there some magic formula of faith that gets us designer clothing?—or even clothing at all? gets us shelter? gets our shelter heated and our stomachs full of nutritious food? No! Of course not. Alas..
Faith is not magic and neither is God. Loving God more than money does not give us our heart’s desire—but what happens when we find ourselves loving God more than wealth, our deepest desire is changed.
Loving god more than wealth does not mean we will win the lottery and all things of financial concern will vanish! It does nt mean that our job will be perfect and neither will our marriages of children! (though of course our grandchildren will likely remain perfect!) No, loving god more than wealth still requires us humans to work hard..at our jobs at our relationship ships at the art of living—Loving God we must care not only for ourselves and our families but to work just as hard to make sure that others—less blessed, less fortunate, less lucky than we are given -----from the sweat of our brow—as a sign of our love for God—they must be given shelter and food and safety and ..Whatever else we can provide. And if we truly love god more than wealth—doing so will becomes our desire.
There is a not-so-subtle nuance in this tension between loving god and loving wealth—and the nuance has to do with how we answer the question: “where is our priority?..Wealth or God?” What do we truly desire? I think perhaps that if Jesus would come among us today he would admonish the ones of us who use all their energy and resources and education and time and focus to make money, one who enjoy the successes and privileges of success and wealth. —Even, if they like the Pharisees, attend church each Sunday, pray regularly, give generously to the poor as evidence that they do indeed love god. I think perhaps that Jesus would see that their priority is not in loving God but in the passion they have for succeeding and having the material proof of that success…
or maybe not.
I think—and I could be wrong because I do not know the exact mind of God, (like everyone else I can only assess God’s mind by heeding the clues I have of god from my prayers and what I have learned from scripture.) So based mainly upon my understanding of scripture, this passage and the others like it—I believe that Jesus would ask us to consider the focus of our lives. I believe that Jesus would ask us to firmly establish our priorities and desires in ways that diminish the self centeredness of our lives and our own sense of entitlement. I think Jesus is asking us to set serving others as our priority and as a measure of our devotion to God.
It is hard to do—I really do think it is very hard to do—and so like Augustine, I think this hard ask is truly from God.
Were Jesus to sit with us this morning I can imagine that Jesus would instruct us about what loving God looks like as Jesus did with his entire life—and it seems to me he might tell us that we would be wise to prioritize how we spend our time, our money, our education, our experiences, where we invest in relationships and networks and how we use all those resources. I believe Jesus is admonishing us as he was admonishing those with him that day on the mount, to consider what we love, what we are passionate about. Is it wealth, the making of it, the making more of it? or is our love God whom we serve by serving each other, the poor, the hungry—even, a the Prayer Book says, this fragile earth our island home?
In fact I think that is the very HARD reality of this lesson—perfectly good people can be seduced by wealth very easily. It is much more difficult to be totally focused on God and serving God than it is to be focused on the making and stock piling of wealth.
Most of us are not very good at either one! Most people—even in our relatively wealthy country and in this fairly wealthy community can always imagine having more wealth. Or can imagine using one’s wealth more wisely or working harder to figure out how to gain more. And, I would observe that most people do not expend the energy loving God that they spend worrying about wealth or how the increase of wealth might happen to them or for them or what they can do to make it happen—especially in this economy. Jesus saw that imbalance between thoughts of wealth and thoughts of God in the first century Palestine community—and I believe he would see it in us today. I think that is why he confronted the people with this little conversation about setting priorities between wealth and loving God.
Jesus saw as we see that wealth and love of God are essential to each human being—for it doesn’t matter how much one loves god if one doesn’t take care to earn enough wealth to care for one’s family. Likewise, if one has all the wealth in the world and relishes each dime spent and each overindulgence seems a righteous entitlement for having earned the money—it is very difficult for one’s soul to then know god.
A balance must be struck—to work hard and earn money is a good thing—as long as that working hard is not for the sole purpose of getting more and more, —not the priority of one’s life—not the obsession of one’s life. Loving God must be the priority of one’s life. The how we love our work and how we love our money is often a measure of how we love God. That is what makes this such a hard lesson to hear…to really know our own heart and our own priority is not easy—for most human beings are very adept at fooling themselves in the hope they are fooling the world—and even God.
To really set one’s priorities, to know how to balance our love of wealth and our love of God takes rigorous, intentional, self reflection and constant vigilance—and “watch dog like” self monitoring to measure one’s own heart and intention. I can imagine that Jesus might –after telling us that we cannot have two masters—suggest we follow him into the desert and do that self examination. I can imagine that he would encourage our passion for each other and for God by encouraging us to serve others. I can imagine that he would say –“this is a hard lesson. It is from god, but it is not impossible because Jesus will walk with us as we try to temper our passion for wealth and flame our passion for God. Amen.
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