Sermon Manuscript:
About 250 years ago some men in Great Britain began to do
some experiments with machines and the manufacturing of cloth. They had come up
with some clever devices that were able to spin yarn and, later, to weave it in
a way that was much more efficient than doing it by hand in people’s homes. At
first these machines were powered by water wheels on a river. Eventually they
would come to be powered by steam engines that used coal as their fuel. With
these sources of power, which, unlike humans, never got tired, these earliest
factories made a lot of cloth. The factory owners got rich. Their customers
were happy with the inexpensive cloth that they didn’t have to make themselves.
The tiresome chores of spinning and weaving became a thing of the past for the
normal home.
Soon the same kinds of ideas and techniques were applied to
other things—farming, cotton picking, transportation, and many other
pursuits—and productivity rose tremendously. This rather long process in human
history, which is arguably still going on today, is known as the industrial
revolution. The story is quite a bit longer than what we have told here.
I bring it up, because when we think back to life as it was
a few hundred years ago, the industrial revolution is perhaps the main thing
makes us think that we are so different from them. They generally didn’t have
indoor plumbing. It took a lot longer to communicate and transport things from
one place to another. Much more work went into the daily chores of producing
food, heating the home, doing the laundry, cooking, and so on and so forth.
We have a lot more stuff and we are able to go and do many
more things than they could. This is one of the ways that you can define
wealth, and so you could say that we are much wealthier than they. We have a
lot more food and a lot more drink. We have a lot more clothes, and they might
be of a better quality than Solomon’s were in all his splendor. So it might be
a little challenging to buy into what Jesus says in our Gospel reading.
He says, “Do not worry about what you will eat or what
you will drink, or about your clothes, what you will put on.” Well we can
probably check those things off the list. Who worries about what he will eat or
drink? Who worries about having clothes? The fault lines in our society, when
it comes to resources, is whether you can afford to buy fresh fruits and
vegetables or whether you buy the industrialized, cheaper, processed food. Nobody
is going without. For clothes it’s a matter of buying name brand vs. generic.
Something has to be way out of whack for any of our people to worry about food,
drink, or clothing.
So it’s very easy for our people to put this book back on
the shelf and thank God that we are not like other men, like those poor
pre-industrialized people. Or, if we want to be more pious, we can set it off
in the corner of our minds as a nice thing we can fall back on if ever we
should run into poverty. Either way, what Jesus says is not taken very
seriously. He was speaking to a different time and different place. This
doesn’t have much to do with us.
However, not only is this not taking Jesus’s words very
seriously, it’s also not paying very close attention. At the beginning of our
reading Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mammon is a Semitic
word for money or wealth. There was also a Syrian god called Mammon. And this
is the very thing that we have been talking about today. The reason why we
might look back at those poor saps, who didn’t have toilets, is because we
believe that the power of our wealth blesses us. They, in contrast to us, were
not blessed. They did not have countenance of Mammon shining down upon them
like we do.
So this is what Jesus is telling us today: No servant can
have two masters. One of them is always going to be preferred above the other.
You’re going to immediately go to one or the other with your heart. Either you
are going to breathe easy because you’ve got a six month buffer in your
checking account, or you are going to be content in lifting up your eyes to our
Father who art in heaven for your daily bread.
If you are satisfied with lifting your eyes to heaven, then
you are going to be content whether you have wealth or not. You have what you
want. You have our Father who art in heaven. On the other hand, if wealth is
what is preferred, then so long as you are rich, healthy, beautiful, have a
good reputation, are deemed successful, and will live forever, then what need
have you of God? You have what you want.
The evangelists of modern, western society preach that
everything has changed from the days of old. Now we have science so Jesus’s
words do not apply. But, again, this is simply being careless. Jesus’s words strike the careful reader today
just as it struck those who heard it long ago. That is not surprising, for we
are not dealing with different creatures today compared to biblical times. We have
the same flesh and blood as they. Our flesh fears the same things theirs did.
Accordingly, just like them, we do not want to live day by
day, reliant upon God. We want years, decades, lifetimes of wealth stored up so
that we can put up our feet and take it easy for a while. If it should so
happen that we don’t have enough storage units to store all our stuff, then
we’ll tear them down and build seven more. Then we’ll be content.
On the other hand, it is the stuff of nightmares to have to
live like the widow in Sidon. There had been a severe drought for years. She
had so little that she was going to feed her starving son one last time. But
then Elijah came, and, according to the Word of the Lord, she gave him what
otherwise would have gone to her dying son. But, as it turned out, her bin of
flour did not go empty nor her jug of oil go dry until the Lord sent rain to
water the earth.
Faith in God does not come naturally to us. Faith in money
or wealth does come naturally. There in nothing in the modern world that has
changed these basic facts. The people at Jesus’s time believed that if they
could just get ahead they would finally be happy and successful. So it is today
too. But Jesus says to all people that you can’t believe in both money and God.
This is why it can be an eternal kindness when God takes
away our wealth. Consider how it was for the Israelites. Sure, they were slaves
in Egypt. But at least they got to eat melons and garlic and other tasty foods every
now and then. They knew where there next meal was going to come from. When they
were led into the Sinai peninsula, however, they didn’t know where they were
going to get enough water. It was a desert. Finally they got water out of a
rock. They didn’t know where their food was going to come from. God had to make
bread rain down from heaven. People talk of living hand to mouth, but that’s
nothing compared to the Israelites. They couldn’t even keep extra manna in the
house. If they kept any leftovers it would rot by the next morning. Every
evening there was literally nothing in the pantry for the next day.
So how do you think these Israelites felt? Some of them
hated it with their whole being. They thought they got snookered by Moses. From
time to time they even tried to organize a rebellion so that they could go back
to being slaves in Egypt. This, they thought, was no way to live. But there
were others who had the Holy Spirit. That is to say, they had faith. Faith
makes all the difference. They were content with having God as their Lord and
protector. They would be content with whatever God would give them. Undoubtedly
their flesh kicked up a fuss every now and then. They were not yet perfected in
their sanctification. But what they loved was that they had been called out of
the darkness of not knowing God, to knowing him, and believing that God would
bless them even if it didn’t look like he would.
It is a lot better to have all your stuff taken away and to
know God, than to be stuffed to the gills with the good things of this world
and lose your soul. Mammon is like a narcotic. It puts people to sleep. So long
as people have everything they want it is very difficult to change their mind
about anything—including God. Just keep the good times rolling! Keep the good
times rolling until you slip off into the pleasant sleep of death, full of all
that the good life can offer.
Meanwhile, however, you have been robbed of what is most
important. Life is short. The pleasantries of life are pleasant, but what good
can they finally do you? When archaeologists dig up ancient graves around the
world they often find that the burial chambers are full of stuff. They find
gold and jewels and many other things. But as for the person, all they find is
rottenness and bones. What good did all their stuff do them? Nothing! They are
here today and gone tomorrow. It has no power.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, however, will result in a
blessed resurrection from the dead rather than a wretched one. It will mean
that we will get what we want—life together with our God, rather than being
smothered with things that rot and decay as you touch them. Instead of living
with a bad conscience, being afraid of God, you are forgiven for Jesus’s sake.
You can look God in the eye (a tremendous thought!). Instead of being filled with
doubt, fear, and suspicion—wondering who or what is going to take your
stuff—you may be filled with faith, hope, and love—not needing anything from
anyone because you have all that you need from your God. And if you should need
anything, then God is going to give it to you.
Money, technology, learning, power—wealth of every sort—none
of these things are good enough. We shouldn’t settle for them. This truth is so
relevant even for our proud times. With industrialization and all that comes
with it, you have people who brag about our supposed progress. “Just look at
how far we’ve come!” they say. “Pity those poor fools of the past who didn’t
even have toilets! Can you imagine?” Meanwhile, how are our people doing—I
mean, really doing? Are they happy?
The whole nation is on antidepressants! Suicide, which is Latin for murdering
yourself, is going through the roof! People can’t bear to live!
How come? Because they don’t have enough stuff? I don’t
think so. It’s because, as Jesus says, Life is more than food, and life is more
than clothing. We are not a bunch of hogs, who, indeed, are perfectly content
so long as they have enough to eat and comfortable wallow. God breathed into
Adam’s nostrils so that he became a living soul. We were created in God’s
image. We are capable of something more than all the other animals around us.
We may know God, and, more importantly, we have been known by God. God even
joined our race, coming down from heaven and becoming incarnate in the womb of
the Virgin Mary. We were always meant to walk with God and talk with God as
dear children might talk with their dear Father. It was a lie that threw us all
off course—a lie that said we would be better blessed by believing in what had
been created rather than believing in the Creator. Ever since then it has
always been easier and more natural for us to anesthetize ourselves with the
narcotics of riches rather than dealing with God in fear, in repentance, and
with faith.
None of you are going to live forever. It doesn’t matter how
much wealth you have. None of your children will live forever. And when you
die, you will meet God. It doesn’t matter if you live in scientifically
advanced times or superstitious times. It doesn’t matter if you are from an
industrialized nation like ours, or whether you are some poor person in Africa.
Death is the great equalizer because nobody can take their wealth with them.
But when God asks you, “What do you have to say for
yourself?” You may say that Jesus Christ is your Lord, who has redeemed you, a
lost and condemned person, purchased and won you from all sins, from death and
from the power of the devil. Not with gold or silver, but with his holy
precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. Therefore, I belong to
him. And he wants me to be where he is. Therefore I can’t say anything good
about myself, but I can sing your praises, O God.
In the meantime, before you make this confession before God,
you may also be assured that God will continue to feed you and clothe you. Look
at the birds. He feeds them. Look at the flowers. He makes them beautiful. You
are worth much more than birds or flowers. You have been redeemed with the
blood of God. You might not always have as much as want, but I know that you
will always have what you need. Indeed, it could certainly be the case that God
must take away what you have for your good—to keep you in the true faith. So be
it. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
will be added unto you. Seek first the better riches, the truly valuable
wealth, that comes with knowing God and being known by him. Don’t be put to
sleep by believing in mammon.
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