“No one can serve two lords. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Ouch! Because that's exactly what we try to do! We want to live like the world, grabbing for all the stuff we can. Taking what we can get even if we can't afford it. Stepping on others to have what I want. Shoving them out of the way so you can have your stuff. Brothers and sisters in Christ, that's how the world lives! And we're not immune from trying to serve two lords. Today we sit in church and say that Jesus is Lord. The rest of the week we'll be sad that our bills have to be paid because I'd rather buy a bunch of other things that will make me happy. Today we'll praise the Lord in hymns and songs. The rest of the week we'll be grumpy and crabby to others because I have to give them my time or hand them my money. Not enough of me for me! Not long ago my paycheck was just about gone. But some extra money came my way. It's disgusting how quickly I cheered up and became nice to others because now I knew I could pay my bills and go eat out and buy some new toys! It's pitiful! Happy when I'm in the money. Gloomy when I'm in want. Brothers and sisters, there's our repentance! To repent that I give glory to God today and spend the other days knocking people out of the way while I scrape and scrabble for more, more, more! To bring us to such repentance we have more words of Jesus.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” Hold on! There's a great danger here when we hear those words. Pay close attention because otherwise you'll go down the road that every false preacher has led his flock down when he gets to those words. The preaching of the world hears Jesus say these words, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and the rest will be added to you” and says, “See? If you put God first, if you give Him (that is, me) your money, if you “invest” in God, He'll give you loads and loads in return!” As if God is just like mammon! Think about it. That's what preachers preach: Mammon, money won't make you happy. But God will make you happy. Money runs out. But the Lord doesn't run out! All that preaching does is replace one false god with the Lord as an even bigger idol! Give your heart to Jesus and you'll have everything you need. I once pulled up behind a beautiful, shiny Cadillac Escalade. This was a spotless, shiny, probably $60,000 SUV. And in the silver-framed plate holder, the license plate read, one word: “Tithe.” There you go! Give to God and He'll give to you. Brothers and sisters, let's not hear Jesus' words that way today. Let's not take Jesus and make Him an even bigger false god than our money. That won't do us any good. No, let's learn to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness as the Lord gives it to us, not as an investment opportunity, but as salvation from our greed and selfishness and all of our other sins.
I want you to understand something very important about Jesus today, brothers and sisters. Jesus didn't come to get us to switch from money to God like we switch from regular to diet. He came to teach us and show us the heart of our heavenly Father. And that means that He did not come to show us how to be happy and worry free. He came to die on the cross and shed His blood because of our worthless worrying. Jesus didn't come to give you some heavenly investment plan whereby you give 10% to God and get 100 times more in return. He came to seek and save us, who are lost in a maze of trying to please ourselves and have God and money as our lords at the same time. Jesus did not show up on this earth to teach us that if we really show God some commitment, God will give us a big house and a nice car and fancy clothes. He came to be obedient to the Father, to seek not after these worldly things, to be poor and finally naked and scorned on the cross in the place of sinners who can only think of themselves. In short, Jesus did not come to tell us to stop worrying but to die for our worrying. He didn't come to teach us how we can have a calm feeling of trust, but to die because of our lack of faith and unbelief. Jesus came to save us from our sins. He came to obey the Father because we don't. He came to always trust in Father because we worry all the time. His trusting, His obedience, His death and payment for sins, counts FOR YOU.
So what's with the whole “seek first His kingdom” then? Jesus does actually tell us to quit worrying about all that stuff. He tells us that the nations live like that. Worrying, fretting, bothered about what they have and don't have and what they can get and how they can get more. But YOU—dear Christian, dear baptized, absolved, body and blood fed—children of God: you don't NEED to worry about all that stuff. I want you to think about the leaves as they turn colors. For a few weeks the Lord lights up our world with the most fabulous colors and a brilliant display of the shades of autumn. And then what? The Lord spends all that time making the leaves look beautiful but what happens? Before you know it we've slammed our windows shut all over town because those beautiful leaves are dead and dry and filling our burning barrels! Why on earth does the Lord spend all that time making such a pretty show of leaves if we just end up burning them? To teach you something. To teach you that if that's how much He does for leaves, how much more do you think he'll do for you? That's what Jesus says. Birds are taken care of. Lilies look beautiful. The grass looks green even though it's going to get burned. Learn something from your Savior, here, dear Christians. If God did not spare even His only begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Christ graciously give us all things? Hear what you have in Jesus: All of your sins have been wiped away. You have been washed clean at the font. Given a “not guilty” from the lips of your pastor. Been feasted at the altar of Christ with His body and blood. You have every treasure, every blessing, every gift in Christ. You don't NEED to worry about food and clothing. If God the Father gives you all that in Jesus, He'll surely make it so you won't go out the door hungry or naked. But if He does let you have to tighten your belt or wear out your britches, then what? You still have everything you need in Christ and the promise of more than you can desire or dream in the life to come!
So stop worrying! But why stop worrying? So you can be a really good Christian? No! Because YOUR worrying doesn't do any good for your neighbor! The reason the Lord rescues us from serving mammon, and the reason He rescues us from making Him into just another Mr. Moneybags is for the sake of our neighbor! The Lord promises to a poor widow in Zarephath (which, I think must be somewhere near Pinckneyville) that her oil and flour will not run out. But why? Not just for HER sake. Not just so she can say, “Well, I never worry!” No, he keeps the flour and oil flowing so she can do the good work of feeding her son and taking care of her neighbor, who in this case is also the preacher, Elijah. Brothers and sisters I want you to listen very carefully. The Lord has given you ALL things in Christ. He has therefore, in Jesus, promised to give you what you need for this body and life but NOT just for yourself. For you to use to take care of others. Here is where our true rescue from worldly mammon is put to use. So that instead of just thinking about my next big purchase, I can look around and be so free in Christ I can blow my money on my wife or kids or the church or whoever there might be that I could help out and bless. Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus rescues us from our sins. He rescues us not simply from false gods, but from the selfishness that so plagues us. He rescues us from sin and death, not for our own sakes but for the sake of our neighbors.
The kingdom of God and righteousness is the forgiveness of sins. The kingdom of God and righteousness is Baptism. It is Absolution. It is the Supper. Seek those as the highest treasures that they are. The best gifts. The most desirable riches. Seek those gifts. Cling to them. Live in them. For they promise that even our selfishness and worry are overcome by the Lamb's blood. And they rescue us from always thinking only of ourselves. Know that the Lord has done and given you all things in Jesus Christ. That's what makes Him the true Lord and mammon not! For only the true Lord can take us worry warts and forgive our sins and make us something useful for our neighbor. Praise be to Christ who brings us the kingdom of God and His righteousness forever. Amen.