Seek first the kingdom of God, not of Mammon

Sermon for Trinity 15

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

I don’t take polls. But if I were to take a poll this morning and ask, how many of you needed to hear Jesus’ word in the Gospel today to stop worrying, I’m confident that every hand would go up. I know mine would. That makes sense, because last Sunday we talked about the sinful flesh that we all still carry around with us, the original sin that corrupts our Old Man. And on Wednesday we noted that original sin includes both the lack of something and the presence of something. It includes the presence of evil, sinful desires, contrary to God’s will. And it includes the absence of true fear of God, true love for God, and true trust in God. On Wednesday we focused on the sinful desires part of original sin. But today’s Gospel focuses on the other aspect of original sin, the lack of fear, love, and trust in God. Worry and anxiety are the natural consequences of the lack of trust in God that we all suffer from by nature. We are worriers by nature, and since our natural self doesn’t trust in God, it has to go searching for something or someone else to trust in, for another god to serve. And in most cases, we can lump those things together under the term “Mammon.”

Now, first, what does it mean to serve a god? It means, as Luther explains in the First Commandment, to fear, love, or trust in someone or something above all things, trusting in someone or something as the ultimate source of all good, to supply you with every need, to save you from all trouble, to rescue you from all disease.

And what is Mammon? Mammon includes money and earthly wealth, but it also includes all earthly solutions, all human efforts to supply our needs and solve our problems.

What are those needs and problems? For most of human history, people lived much closer to the edge of survival than probably any of us here in this room ever has. Where is my next meal going to come from? Where will I take shelter tonight? Where will I get a single set of clothes from? People in the world still ask those questions and face those needs daily. But they’re not the questions or problems of the average American.

So what other needs of this life make people anxious, make people worried? How to avoid illness? How to find a job or keep one? How to find a spouse? How to escape government oppression? Will I have enough to live on when I’m old? What kind of world will my children grow up in? Mammon comes in many forms, offering earthly solutions to these problems—solutions other than seeking first the kingdom of God.

The Left is trying to be people’s Mammon, and many are their servants. “We’ll provide the vaccines, you be sure to take them, over and over and over, until we tell you to stop. No questions allowed! Serve us with your mask, and you can participate in society, and you’ll be safe from CV. And you may also need to turn against and snitch on your fellow citizens to be good servants of ours.” And people dutifully comply. Because they’re filled with anxiety and with worry, but they’re told, if you just serve Mammon properly, you’ll be fine. Of course, it’s all a lie. But that’s always the case. Mammon promises: if you make me your God, I’ll also be your Savior. But Mammon is always a false god, and no savior at all.

The Right has its own version of Mammon. “The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution—they’ll save us! The courts, they’ll save us! The right politicians or candidates for office! The right amount of activism. Our own might, our own strength! Our own zeal to resist the tyranny! Our guns and our determination! They’ll save us!” But those things, too, are forms of Mammon when we seek them first, instead of the kingdom of God.

There is a still more insidious form of this service of Mammon. I’ll call it the “American God.” He isn’t the God of the Bible, or the Christ who reigns in a hidden way at God’s right hand. He’s a god who holds up the Bible but doesn’t care about what it actually teaches. He holds up America as his chosen kingdom on earth. To him, “Seek first the kingdom of God” means seek first to be patriotic Americans in order to turn America into God’s kingdom on earth. He’s the god with whom many Americans believe they have made a covenant, or that they must make one. How arrogant! Man can’t make a covenant with God. Only God can make a covenant with man, and He’s only done that a few times in human history: after the Flood, then with Abraham and on Mount Sinai, in the Upper Room on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, and whenever anyone is baptized in the name of Christ, there is God making a covenant of peace. Any other supposed covenants with God are frauds in service to Mammon.

What other forms of Mammon exist? Drugs. Alcohol. Music. TV. Videos. Gaming. Porn. Wherever people turn, in their hearts, for refuge, for rescue, for salvation, for relief from their anxiety and worry. And none of it works. Not really.

And all the while, while you while away your time in worry and anxiety, there is your heavenly Father, quietly feeding the birds, quietly clothing the lilies and the flowers of the field, and calling out to you through the words of Jesus, pay attention! Pay attention!

He’s “your” heavenly Father, Jesus says to His disciples. He’s not speaking to the whole world right now. Not everyone can say he or she has God for a Father. Yes, God is the Creator of all. And He is willing to become the Father of all by adoption. But He is the loving, kind, merciful Father to those who cling to His Son, Jesus Christ. As He loves His Son Jesus, so He loves all who are united to Jesus by Baptism and by faith. So if He provides for the birds without their worry, and if He sees to it that the grass of the field is well-clothed, without its anxiety or frantic scrambling for solutions, you are to conclude, according to Jesus Himself, that your Father cares infinitely more for you, O you of little faith.

Now, when He says that to His worried people, it should smart a little. But it shouldn’t drive anyone to despair. Because that same Jesus doesn’t drive His worried disciples away. Instead, He corrects them in love. He knows the worry and anxiety that His people still struggle with. He knows we’re weak. He knows we’re flesh. He knows we get caught up in the world’s anxiety and that we’re susceptible to the temptation of Mammon, with its enticing promise to fix our earthly problems and supply our earthly needs—although it never does. (You’d think we’d learn.)

But there is invitation and forgiveness in that word, too, for those who shake their head at their own worry and anxiety. There is acceptance of the sinner, not because you’re worthy of God’s acceptance, but because Jesus is, and you’re with Him.

And then there’s direction for us from Jesus. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What does that mean? What does that look like? It means stop looking for the kingdom of God here on earth. It means stop seeking salvation from earthly sources and from human sources. More than that, it means stop focusing on your earthly problems entirely. Don’t waste your time with it, just as the birds and the flowers don’t waste their time with it. Instead, turn your attention to God’s kingdom. To the hearing and pondering and spreading of the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ. Turn to the unseen reign of Christ at God’s right hand, and to the coming of God’s kingdom at the end of this age. Turn your attention to God’s righteousness, which is your greatest need, and which He promises to provide free of charge through faith in Jesus. Focus on living a righteous life according to God’s commandments. And turn to God in prayer. As Peter writes, Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares for you.

And then there’s such a great promise here, if we would only take it to heart. And all these things will be added to you, given to you in addition to the kingdom of God. What things? Today’s provision of food. Today’s provision of clothing. Today’s provision of shelter. Divine providence, divine guidance, divine protection, divine comfort, the opening of just the right doors at just the right time. Today’s provision of whatever you need for today, because your Father will take care of it for you. It’s what we pray for every time we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We aren’t even to pray for tomorrow’s needs. Only for today. As Jesus says, Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble.

Now, Jesus’ promise here doesn’t mean you don’t go to work and work hard. It doesn’t mean you don’t do your chores at home, or study in school, or participate in society, or help your neighbor in need. It doesn’t mean you don’t tend to your health or even take a vaccine. It means you don’t rely on those things to solve your problems. You don’t do those things in order to provide what you need. You do the things that God has given you to do, in your vocations, in pursuit of His kingdom and His righteousness, and you leave the worrying, and the providing, to Him.

Those who serve Mammon are “sowing to their flesh,” as Paul said in today’s Epistle, and they will “reap corruption from the flesh.” But those who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness are the ones who “sow to the Spirit” and will reap eternal life from the Spirit. It’s hard to do that every day, to wake up and not think about all the problems you need to solve today, and all the things you need to get, to turn your thoughts instead to the things of God and to let Him take care of the rest. But the Word of Jesus and the body and blood of Jesus will give you the strength you need for today, and the Spirit of God will keep hammering away at your perspective on the world, turning it from serving the false god Mammon, who is a worthless god and no savior at all, to the true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who has made you His dear child through Holy Baptism, and who is the Savior of all, and especially of those who believe. Amen.