God or Mammon: Which will you serve?

Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

When was the last time any of you here were tempted to bow down to an idol? Or to serve any lord but the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? There are people in the world who do bow down to idols and who do serve different gods—what we call “open idolatry”—and they stand condemned for it. God demands in the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” But I think I would truly be “preaching to the choir” if I were to spend the sermon preaching against open idolatry. You know better. Thank God for that.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, doesn’t preach against open idolatry either. He does preach against what we call “secret idolatry,” and that is most definitely a great threat to all of us. No one can serve two lords. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.

Mammon is a Hebrew or Aramaic word. It refers to earthly wealth or riches or possessions—really, anything of value on earth. It seems to come from a word whose root meaning is “trust or confidence.” So in a sort of play on words, Jesus describes Mammon as something in which people trust. And that is what gives Mammon the potential of being a person’s secret god. That doesn’t mean anyone bows down to it or calls it their god or pretends that Mammon is alive. It does mean that people end up putting their trust or confidence in their earthly resources, and that, Jesus says, is the equivalent of idolatry. You cannot serve God and Mammon. It’s one or the other. So, which will you serve?

Since the Lord Christ would have you serve God, not Mammon, He says, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life. What does worrying about bodily needs have to do with serving Mammon? Well, it’s a matter of trust or confidence. Either you trust in God to provide your bodily needs, or you put your confidence in your own resources, your own possessions, your own ability to provide for yourself, or perhaps your own government’s willingness to provide for you. All of that is part of Mammon. To trust in Mammon is essentially to trust in yourself.

But think about it. Mammon can do nothing for you. Mammon promises nothing. It doesn’t love you or care about you or even acknowledge you. You have no power to acquire Mammon. You think you do! You make plans, you store things away, you look out for your health. You can work very hard. But you can’t make it rain. You can’t keep your business open if the government just decides to shut it down. You have no power to hold onto Mammon, either. It can be taken away in an instant, by a thief, by a disease, by a tyrannical government, by a heart attack, by an accident, by wildfire. Oh, and God the Creator and Ruler of all can thwart all your plans, too. So, if you’re serving Mammon, relying on Mammon—on yourself and your own resources—to put bread on the table, worry is actually a very reasonable state of mind to have.

But if you serve God, if you rely on the God who is your Father through faith in Christ Jesus, then why worry? Why worry about food? You have a Father in heaven who feeds the birds without any worrying or toiling or anxiously storing up for the future on their part. Day by day, your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?, Jesus asks. Doesn’t your Father in heaven, who gave His own Son into death so that you could live in His kingdom forever—doesn’t He care much more for? Won’t He make sure you have what you need for today? So serve Him, not Mammon. Because even if you serve Mammon and spend your days worrying and toiling and storing up, Which of you by worrying can add a single foot to his height? It gets you nowhere. Whereas trusting in your Father gives you both peace and the assurance that He will provide your daily bread.

The same goes for clothing. Your Father dresses the lilies of the field beautifully, without any labor or toil on their part. He does this for them, knowing full well how temporary they are, knowing that they spring up for a moment and are then mown down, dried up, and withered away. Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? He has made you to live forever. He has purchased your eternal soul with the blood of His Son. Won’t He make sure you have clothing to wear for the day?

Of course, this applies to all our bodily needs, which Jesus, in the same chapter of Matthew, teaches us to pray for under the title of “daily bread.” Luther, in the Small Catechism, gives lots of examples of “daily bread.” What is meant by daily bread? Everything that pertains to the needs and necessities of this life, such as food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, yard, land, animals, money, property, a godly spouse, godly children, godly servants, godly and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, trustworthy neighbors, and the like. I encourage you to walk slowly through that list later on and consider, who do you trust in to provide it? God or Mammon? Your heavenly Father, or your own earthly devices? Notice, the list includes “godly and faithful rulers and good government.” If it doesn’t seem at times like we have those things, what will you do about it? Will you serve Mammon with worry, or will you serve God with trust? Will you look to Mammon for help, or to God, trusting in Him to provide what He knows we need right now, even as He often uses bad rulers to punish human societies for their wickedness and rebellion again Him? Notice, the list also includes “health.” People worry themselves into a frenzy over their bodily health, including staying safe from COVID and its possible effects. But you have a Father in heaven who is the Ruler over viruses and over how our bodies function, over who becomes sick, and when, and how much. Don’t you know that your Father will take care of you and will do what’s right for you, whatever happens? Why worry about your health? Worry is done in service to Mammon. But you don’t serve Mammon. You serve the eternal God. As Paul writes to the Romans, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

 “So, Jesus says, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ Or, we might add, How shall we get good rulers?, or How shall we stay safe from COVID? For the Gentiles chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

How do we seek first God’s kingdom? That, too, Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer. What is the very first petition of the Lord’s Prayer? Hallowed be Thy name. How is this done? Luther answers, When God’s Word is taught purely and correctly, and when we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. How do we seek first God’s kingdom? We pray in the second petition, Thy kingdom come. How is this done? When the heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word, and lead godly lives, here in time and there in eternity. How do we seek first God’s kingdom? We pray in the third petition, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. How is this done? When God breaks and hinders every evil plan and will—like the will of the devil, the world and our flesh—that would keep us from hallowing God’s name and prevent His kingdom from coming; and when He strengthens and keeps us steadfast in His Word and faith until the end. Only after seeking first God’s kingdom with these three petitions for His name, His kingdom, and His will, do we pray the fourth petition, Give us this day our daily bread.

So we seek first God’s kingdom in prayer, by setting aside for a moment the earthly concerns that Mammon might solve, and turning our hearts to more important things.

We also seek first His kingdom and His righteousness by seeking our righteousness in Christ and in His Church by faith, as our first and highest priority. And we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness by living as blessed subjects in His kingdom, as our first and highest concern. That doesn’t mean you don’t attend to earthly things. It doesn’t mean, for example, that you don’t work so that you have money to buy food and clothing. But you don’t trust in work or sacrifice anything of the kingdom of God for the sake of work. It doesn’t mean you don’t study for a career. But you don’t trust in your studies or your skills or your college degrees, or sacrifice anything of the kingdom of God for the sake of your studies. It doesn’t mean you don’t save for retirement, if you can. But you don’t trust in your savings or your retirement account, or sacrifice anything of the kingdom of God for the sake of gathering up Mammon. It doesn’t mean you don’t vote in the elections or advocate for what is right. But you don’t put your trust in princes or in the politicians or in the judges, or sacrifice anything of the kingdom of God for the sake of a political agenda. It doesn’t mean you don’t care for the health of your body. But you don’t trust in your healthy living or health precautions, or sacrifice anything of the kingdom of God for the sake of your health.

Why? Because in seeking first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added to you. All that you need for your body and life will be taken care of, not by Mammon, not by your own resources and work and skill, but by your Father in heaven, who loves you, who adopted you in Holy Baptism and has devoted Himself to your salvation since before the beginning of time.

Jesus concludes this portion of the Sermon on the Mount with this admonition: So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble. That’s hard for us who are weighed down by our sinful flesh, to focus only on “today,” and to be satisfied with the help God provides today, for today’s troubles, without dwelling on what we’ll need tomorrow and the day after, or how we’ll get it. But when your flesh urges you to serve Mammon with worry, remember, you don’t bow down to idols. You worship the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and you worship Him precisely because you know that He is real, that He is merciful, and that He is faithful—all the things that Mammon isn’t. And if you know that, then you can rely on His help for today, and you can safely leave tomorrow in His most capable hands. Amen.