Sunday Homily - September 22, 2019 - You Cannot Serve Two Masters

I.

"No slave can serve two masters;
 for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
  or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
   You cannot serve God and wealth."
    [Luke 16:12-13 NRSV]

Now, for you all who have been in church for many years
 or for those who may have attended our 7 week "How to Read the Bible" class:
  Did you notice something odd about what Jesus just said?

Let's think about it again:
 "No slave can serve two masters;
  for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
   or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
    You cannot serve God and wealth."

Does anyone else think it is slightly odd that Jesus talks about wealth this way?

I mean, wealth as a concept is a-moral:
 in other words, wealth isn't a good thing nor a bad thing.
  Wealth is simply a concept, often used to describe the state of one's bank account.

But, friends, what if I were to tell you that there is a better translation of Jesus's words?

Some of you may already know this,
 but the word that gets translated into the word "wealth"
  is a funny Greek word that is sometimes left untranslated.
   And that funny Greek word is "mammon."

"You cannot serve God and Mammon."

Mammon can mean something similar to "wealth."
 However, in the context of Jesus's parable,
  Mammon is not a simple item in the world or a concept like "Wealth."
   Mammon is personal, powerful, and demands our worship.

Personal.
 Powerful.
  Demands our worship.
   Anybody think that this sounds sorta like a...god?

II.

Guess what?
 That's likely what Jesus is getting at here.

Mammon is the name of the god of wealth,
 arguably referring to the Syrian god of riches. [various sources, including http://www.stfrancissartell.org/single-post/2016/09/18/What-is-mammon]

And Mammon carries this connotation of god for a long time in the Christian tradition.

Mammon gets associated with Plutus, the Roman god of wealth and riches.
 Mammon even carries with it a demonic connotation in the Middle Ages,
  with Mammon personified as the deadly sin of Greed.

Mammon even gets associated with Caesar himself,
 as the Roman Empire's currency,
  stamped with the emperor's likeness,
   referred to the emperor as a god and the one to whom taxes are due.
    This is why the argument with Jesus over whether one should pay taxes [Matthew 22:15-22]
      was WAY more important than it may seem.
        It was a real question as to which god you serve!

And because this god Mammon is put directly against the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob,
 the two masters that Jesus refers to has HIGH stakes!
  "You cannot serve two gods" is basically what Jesus is saying.

And this god Mammon is the interpretive key to understanding Jesus's parable that was just told.

Think again about this rich man who had an unjust manager.

The rich man summons this guy because he hears that the manager is squandering his wealth.
 So the manager (who by all accounts is a scoundrel) hatches a plan.
  He cuts the debt of the rich man's debtors and ingratiates himself to those debtors!

Basically, because the manager is in charge of the rich man's accounts,
 he forges the general ledger of this rich man's account in order to make himself look really good
  to those debtors who owe this rich man so much money.

This manager is dishonest,
 but that doesn't make the rich man in this story honest either.

Think of what this rich man says to the manager:
 he commends the manager because he acted shrewdly.

The rich man was outmaneuvered by the manager,
 and the rich man, spoken like a guy you don't want to work with,
  says to this unjust and un-stewardly man, "Ha, I knew I liked you."

And now pay really close attention to what Jesus says next,
 because it can be confusing if you don't read closely.

Jesus follows up this story with these few sentences:

"...for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes." [Luke 16 NRSV]

All that Jesus is meaning here is that the "children of this age"
 those who practice this coniving, squelching, squeezing, grasping greed
  are very very good at outmaneuvering each other
   in a rat race to the top of the Forbes list of richest people.

There are people in this world who make their money
 off of their shrewdness,
  not their fairness.
   The gain power by sapping the power from others,
     rather than laying down their power for the sake of the other.

And this shrewdness vs. fairness,
 and this struggle for power vs. giving up of power
  is exactly where Jesus brings in the god Mammon in the next few verses.

And Jesus says it way better than I can:

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

III.

So, maybe in a weird way,
 Jesus is asking us a very direct question this morning:
  "Who are you a steward for?"

Because "manager" and "steward" are interchangeable in this story:
 who are you a steward for?

Because you can't be a steward for two gods!
 You will either direct the flow of money toward one and shortchange the other,
  or you will try to outmaneuver one god and try to ingratiate another god.

And the whole point of Jesus's words today are directly associated with which god we serve.

Do we strive for the power that money gives us?
 Because guess what, friends?
  Money is a unit of power.

So, maybe think of it this way:
 which altar do those units of power get offered upon?

Do you offer your power to the god of shrewdness and dishonesty?
 The god of the biting and clawing to reach the top?
  The god that says, "You just need a little more,"
    "If only you had that car, your life will be complete."
     "If only you had a job that makes six figures, then you can rest."
       "If only you had that house with the three car garage and the pool in the back yard
         then you can finally be satisfied."

Y'all, that god will never let you be satisfied.

Do we instead offer our money, our power,
 back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
  The God who gave us all that we have already
   and continues to give us all that we have?
    The God who loved us so much that God became one of us,
      incarnate in Jesus Christ our Lord
       and saved us from death and hell?

Do we lay down our power and return it back to those whom it is due?
 Will we be faithful in the little that we have, sharing what we have,
  stewarding the things in the world that need the power that we can give
   and raise up the lowly with the power that we freely give away
    just like God freely gave his own power away for us?

Money and possessions, friends, is a spiritual thing.
 The money in your bank accounts is a deeply spiritual thing.
  Where you invest in will tell people where your heart is.
    Jesus said said something along those lines in another Gospel passage.

These are deeply personal questions that we are going to explore again next week
 when we talk about our finances here at Trinity and where God is asking each one of us,
  "What are we willing to give to God for the good of Trinity Church and for Searcy?"

So, this week,
 I implore you, friends,
  reflect this week on your personal finances
   and ask yourself, "Where is the power that I have going in the world?"

Because, brothers and sisters,
 if that power isn't being given back to God in everything that we do,
  then what other god is it going towards?

Do you give to God through the Church by your 10% tithe?
 Because that is a deeply spiritual practice that God commends people for.
  Do you give alms to the poor?
   Because as we have served the least of these, we have served Jesus!

And do I love God enough to let my bank account reflect it?

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.