Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is riches, money, and wealth of all kinds. Mammon is just part of life. It takes money to live. Jesus doesn’t condemn possessing money and riches. The patriarchs were wealthy men. So was King David. Christ himself used money in his earthly life. He even had a money box that Judas was in charge of. Having money, wealth, and riches isn’t sinful in itself. David says in Psalm 62:10, “ If riches increase, Do not set your heart on them.” Solomon writes in Proverbs 11:28, “He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like foliage.” And St. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” The entirety of Scripture teaches this: God gives wealth and riches us. He tells Israel in Deuteronomy 8:18, “It is He who gives you power to get wealth.” It is serving mammon that is sinful. We serve mammon by setting our hearts on it, pursuing it, and overworking ourselves for it. We serve mammon by trusting that if we have it, then we have all good things and everything we need.
If we begin serving mammon—thinking that with enough wealth we’ll be safe and secure—we usually don’t realize it precisely because we try to serve two masters. We may hear Jesus’ words about loving and being loyal to the one and hating and despising the other and think that that is how we tell if we’re serving mammon. “I don’t hate God, therefore I’m not serving mammon.” But hate in the Scriptures doesn’t always mean an absolute hatred of someone or something. More often than not it means thinking less of someone or something. Jesus says in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Jesus doesn’t want us to actively hate our family. He put us in our families and commanded children, “Honor your father and your mother.” Jesus warns us against love and loyalty for family taking priority over love and loyalty to Him and His Word. It’s the same here. If we serve mammon—thinking that with enough wealth we’ll be safe and secure and ordering our life and thoughts around obtaining mammon—we prioritize riches and our pursuit of them, and demote God, thinking less of His promise to provide daily bread. This is what trusting in riches and setting our hearts on them looks like. This is what makes serving mammon such a subtle temptation. It’s not like bowing down before an idol of silver or goad. It’s daily living of life in which we use mammon that mammon calls out to us to serve it, to set our hearts on it and believe its false promise that with enough of it we’ll be safe and secure.
Jesus points us to the chief way we serve mammon: Worry. Isn’t that what we do as we exchange our riches for goods and services? We worry if there will be enough. We worry about the cost of things. We worry that things cost a lot more than they used to and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. If we have money in the stock market we see the daily up and down and worry about whether or not we’ll outlive our retirement savings. The pandemic revealed just much people worry about mammon and set their hearts on it. People panicked at the sigh of half-empty shelves and bought things they didn’t need. The most bizarre example of people setting their hearts on mammon was the hording of toilet paper. That was driven by sheer worry for tomorrow. Comparatively, Jesus’ examples of “What you will eat or what you will drink . . . and what you will put on” may seem elementary to twenty-first century disciples. After all, we have food in our pantries and freezers—typically enough to live on for quite some time. We have clothing in our closets. So we don’t worry about these. But look closer at why you don’t worry about what you’ll eat or drink tomorrow and why you don’t worry about what you’re put on. Is it because you trust your Father in heaven will give you all things as He’s promised or because your panty and closet are already full? Even in the twenty-first century first world, for all we have, we are still tempted to serve mammon, thinking that if we have enough of it, we’ll be safe and secure no matter what comes tomorrow.
The First Commandment is “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Dr. Luther explained that this means, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That is precisely what Christ is inviting us to do in today’s Gospel lesson. He knows how mammon tempts us to fear, love, and trust in it instead of our Father in heaven. He first warns us against making an idol out of any earthly wealth when He says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.” But then He gently chides us with the examples of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. The birds of the air are such a great example! They don’t sit in their nests and wait for God to rain down insects and seeds on them. They fly about, working for their daily bread, gathering it for themselves and their young. And the Lord provides for them. Like the birds of the air, God gives us our daily bread through our work and labor and through the work and labor of others. And while we should sow, reap, and gather into barns, we do so trusting that through these means God is providing daily bread for us. The birds teach us about our bellies. The lilies of the field teach us about our bodies. Look how God clothes them! There is nothing so beautiful in nature as a blooming flower, tree, or vine. The drought has taught us this, hasn’t it? If the heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air each day, and clothes the flowers of the fields and ditches, won’t He feed and clothe you? You are, after all, much more valuable to your heavenly Father than birds or flowers. He made these for you and your enjoyment. He made them as illustrations and examples of His provision for you.
God will provide daily bread. He uses the ordinary means of our work, our savings, and a whole economic system. And in any of that should bend, break, or shatter entirely, God will use extraordinary means to provide daily bread. He rained down Manna on the children of Israel six days a week for forty years. The Lord commanded ravens bring bread to Elijah during the drought. He provided oil for the widow and her son when they had only enough for their last meal. He fed multitudes in the wilderness with only a few loaves and small fish. He provided His and Peter’s temple tax in the mouth of a fish. One of God’s means that should never become extraordinary though is Christians. He even provides daily bread for us through the generosity of others. St. Paul says at the end of today’s Epistle lesson, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” So it is that we, as children of the heavenly Father and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ are means through we He provides daily bread to others in need. There is no reason to worry about what we will eat, drink, or wear, and not because our pantries and closets are already full. That’s how the unbelieving Gentiles think, and in their thinking they serve mammon. But you who are baptized children of God, “your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
Instead of worrying about the things of this world and whether or not there will be enough of those things for tomorrow, Jesus redirects our hearts to fear, love, and trust in the true God above all things. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Don’t seek wealth, money, and riches so that they are your priority. Prioritize God’s kingdom and righteousness. Prioritize—seek in the first place—the blessings Christ gives you in the gospel. Doesn’t He clothe you with His own righteousness, with His very self, since we are to daily put on Christ and put off the old man? Doesn’t He give you Himself to you to eat and drink? We eat His flesh and drink His blood spiritually when we hear or read His Word, believing it and applying it to ourselves. We eat His flesh and drink His blood orally in the Sacrament of the Altar? These things—His Word, His Gospel, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His Holy Spirit, His peace—these are the things we are to seek first and prioritize above all earthly things because these are the food and clothing that equip us for the life of the world to come, eternal life beyond all worldly things. Jesus promises that, seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness first, “all these things shall be added to you.” Therefore do not worry about the things of this life, but seek first the riches He gives you in His Word and gospel, for these are our true life. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.
