Serve God
THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINTY
Soren Kierkegaard, a 19th-century Danish philosopher, theologian, and cultural critic who was a major influence on existentialism and Protestant theology, made the following observation: "Where unclarity resides, there is temptation, and there it proves only too easily the stronger. Wherever there is ambiguity, wherever there is wavering, there is disobedience down at the bottom."
He was a brilliant and conflicted man with an uncanny understanding of his time and what the future held at the forefront of modernity. Even in the 1800s, he identified in the philosophical discourse of his day, literary criticism, art, and politics an ever-emerging ambiguity, an intentional lack of clarity in western thought: moving from rationality to irrationality, easily observable in the cultural movements from realism to surrealism in modern art.
Unclarity and ambiguity in our day are badges of honor among the political, artistic, academic, and literary elite. Pundits fawn over long statements stringing big words together without any cohesion or precision given in response to the simplest of questions, leaving hearers in a greater state of confusion. Case and point: in response to a very straightforward question a beleaguered politician once responded, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." In a world of ambiguity, it's often better not to ask a question at all.
We might be so bold as to list ambiguity as a chief modern-secular virtue. And the more convoluted and erudite something sounds, then all the more will praises and accolades of brilliance, depth, and insight be rewarded. This, in part, is why we moderns struggle with even the most basic of questions: Who am I? Who are you? What shall I eat for dinner? We live in an age with 'no easy answers, and from one degree to another, everyone is a philosopher in crisis. So, when someone rises above the fog in this present milieu, offering an idea, a thought, or (should I dare say) a command with crystalline clarity and sublime simplicity, we moderns squirm a bit in our seats.
Have you ever noticed how drawn we are to the ambiguous sections of Scripture? Something in the human condition allures us to the undefined, the equivocal, and cryptic. How many people argue and debate passages such as "Love thy neighbor?" Surely not quite as ferociously and frequently as those shrouded in mystery. But this proclivity to walk in the cloud of unknowing has its benefits as well, leading on a pursuit to know the unknowable God, to understand the vast and beautiful Trinitarian mystery. Perhaps this is because we are drawn to puzzles, riddles, and unlocking secrets.
But our minds are fallen (we are fallen beings) and easily attracted to the convoluted in an unhelpful way. We come by this, honestly. Do you remember the serpent in the Garden who challenged God's clarity saying to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the rest, as they say, is history.
Ambiguity can be a safe harbor for inaction and accountability. It can too often become a bush to hide behind, an escape from the demands of God by forever engaging in murkiness, a kind of escapism from the plain teachings of Christ. "If I can't understand something, then perhaps I'm off the hook!" There is a bit of sinful comfort in never arriving at clarity.
Now, any fair reading of the Gospels will unearth a level of ambiguity even in the teachings of Jesus, especially concerning future things, and here he is in the company of the prophets who came before him. And yet, I would venture to say that most of the Lord's discourses and sayings are clear: very clear. And if we're honest, we struggle with his clarity just as much as we do with his more difficult teachings but not in the same way.
Our challenge with the plain and unambiguous teachings of our Lord isn't one of intelligence or comprehension, which leaves us asking, "what on earth is he talking about?" No, the plain things have their own unique challenge. Their difficulty lies not in whether we understand them, but rather in accepting and doing them, turning the question back to ourselves: "Goodness if I receive Jesus' teaching, will I have to do what he says?" In today's Gospel, Jesus gives two very clear and unambiguous commands to his disciples: 1) serve God, not Mammon, and 2) Don't be anxious for your life. And it's okay to squirm a bit.
Jesus said, "NO man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." This is a very simple statement on allegiance. It is the oldest and most fundamental question ever posed to humanity: whom will you serve? And its precision is genius because every person is a slave in service to a master. Here Jesus envisions two Masters: God and Mammon. We know who God is. But who or what is Mammon?
This word from Aramaic origins occurs only here and in the parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke's Gospel, who was commended for his wise use of Mammon. It simply means wealth or profit: worldly riches would be a good definition. "Now, what's wrong with worldly riches? Wasn't Solomons untold wealth derived from the Divine gift of wisdom?" Yes, it was. Riches and money and possessions are not inherently evil: the problem doesn't reside in these things. The problem lies in us. It is a problem of desire.
You see, Jesus knows that earthly riches can produce egocentric covetousness that claims men's hearts and thereby estranges them from God (Mt. 6:19ff.): when a man 'owns' anything, it actually owns him. Therefore Mammon in today's passage is capitalized because Jesus understands riches (Mammon) as a personification of evil, a deity demanding servitude: a Master of men.
Service to God and service to Mammon are irreconcilable; they are marked by a radical dichotomy. Jesus isn't pulling any punches; there is no middle ground; you must choose between God and Mammon because no one can serve two masters. Jesus says because you will eventually love one and hate the other.
If you serve Mammon, you will hate God, which means you will oppose him and diminish your love for him. Serving Mammon draws you away from serving God because Mammon is an anti-God, an idol enslaving people unless they are wholly devoted to Divine service. Clear and to the point. Jesus doesn't offer nuance or a third way of compromise. He says, "choose this day whom you will serve." No wiggle room.
The service of God is antithetical to the service of Mammon; it is the way of detachment, primarily turning from serving self and not God. This is exactly what the Lord teaches in the preceding verses, where he instructs his disciples on what kingdom servitude is as personified in the basic duties of every follower of Christ: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, all of which is a form of self-denial and devotion to something other than self.
Regarding almsgiving, Jesus "when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others." Instead of amassing riches, Jesus' people are to give it to those in need- to embrace lack. And notice that giving to others is to be done without fanfare, willing to give up the praises of others which is another form of worldly riches.
And what about our precious time? Time is money, right? Yet, Jesus says to pray, to give up "our time" in devotion, supplication, and worship to Him. And what about food? Jesus calls his servants to fast and to give up the means of basic sustenance, to willingly endure hunger as a means of increasing desire for God. In all of these, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, Jesus strikes at the heart of Mammon: money, time, and food.
He sums this up nicely in one important statement: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Mt 6:19). Any way you slice it, Jesus' command to serve God and hate Mammon is a call to a level of commitment and dedication permeating every aspect of life.
To serve God, and him alone, demands faith. And by faith, I mean trust, not merely belief, but trusting in God. Because we serve, obey, and follow that which we trust. Who follows a blind guide? Or Entrusts possessions to a thief? The question is, "who do you trust with your life? You or God? Jesus or Mammon? Again, our Lord doesn't cloak this in ambiguity. He says serve God: Trust in Him because there is nothing in this world more worthy of your trust.
"Therefore, take no thought for your life." Now that's a bold and clear statement. Let me say it again, friends: take no thought for your life. You see, to serve God is to trust him with your very life, but isn't this the exact thing we have done in repentance and turning to Him for salvation? If we trusted him enough to save us from death, judgment, and destruction, will we not also trust him now in this present life? Have we not, by faith, been placed into his loving care?
"Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"
God's measure of love and care is not determined by the quantity or even the quality of faith but in trusting God, even faith the size of a mustard seed. And this is because God's faithfulness towards you is covenantal; it is covenantal love; as a mother loves her child, God loves all who come into his family by faith: and he is faithful to his promise to be our God as we joyfully serve Him out of love.
"Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Be not anxious. "But I am anxious vicar about all sorts of things; things that are and things that may not be." Who isn't anxious in a fallen world, in challenging times, in an age of uncertainty and confusion?
But the world has always been this way which is why St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says, "The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God." To trust God is to accept the world as it is and face it with courage (a diminishing virtue in our day), not trusting our own strength but in the mighty hand of God. Courage, to turn from the service of Mammon (and its false securities) and serving the Kingdom of God and seeking his righteousness.
Then, says Jesus, as wholly dedicated servants of God, all things will be added unto you. What things? The basic needs of any disciple about the business of the Kingdom: time for you to pray, food for you to serve, and money to give away. If God's first priority is the business of the Kingdom, then he promises to supply the necessaries of life. And these are met through the mutual generosity and concern of Christ's church, through his people in which we bear one another's burdens and freely give all things within the household of God. This is exactly how St. Paul's ministry was empowered: the churches supplied what he lacked. Listen to his testimony and thanksgiving for the church at Philippi through whom God added all things unto him,
"And as you Philippians know, in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church but you partnered with me in the matter of giving and receiving. For even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs again and again. I am not seeking a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account. I have all I need and more now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:15-19).
Our Lord’s teaching is very clear: He who trusts God serves him, and he who do the King's bidding shall lack in nothing. So beloved, hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and take courage: serve God and be anxious for nothing. Amen+
