No man can serve two masters

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

- Matthew 6:24-34

For over a week, we have been reading Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, from the Gospel of Matthew. It began with the Beatitudes. From there, He taught that those who live His teachings and follow His way are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Next, He expanded the teachings and understanding on the statute against murder, followed by a deeper talk on watching our own thoughts and guarding what we hold dear within ourselves. Next He taught about justice and compassion, again expanding on the Law. He taught about spiritual discipline, and prayer, and gave us the Our Father. In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught about the importance of choice, what we love and the power of the relationship to our Father who is in the secret place. See For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Today Jesus continues and expands upon the teachings in yesterday's reading: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Again, He talking about making a choice. What do we put our faith in? All along, He has been teaching us about a spiritual economy, the way in which God's love works through us and in us, and the blessings of faith that flow to us and flow back from us to, in turn, bless God, to give glory to God. He has taught us to pray in secret to our Father who is in the secret place, so that we may be rewarded openly. Finally He insists upon our natures here, that we must choose what we love, where our treasure is, as He put it in yesterday's reading. We are made for worship -- and if we try to serve both God and material life we will fail in one. We have to choose one as the captain of our ship, the thing that gives us guidance in life, and teaches us who we are. So great is the need in us for this alliance that He likens it to a slave/master relationship. What or whom do we choose to serve?

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" We can choose to think primarily - to put first - concerns about material life or the heavenly life. Jesus' question, "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" goes straight to the heart of the matter. What are we made of? Don't we need more than this to be fully alive, to truly live, for real life? It is a question of what we focus on, where we choose to place our love.

"Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" This is not a teaching about poverty, about choosing between having wealth and having nothing, but about what we dwell upon -- and in what we trust for our lives and the quality of our lives. We have a loving Father - we must focus on that relationship, and then all things fall into place behind that priority. He calls us, "O you of little faith" and this is really the purpose of this speech. It is to encourage us to faith, to understand the role of the Father in the secret place in this divine economy, in which even the grass in the field is arrayed more beautifully than Solomon in all his glory, in which the wild birds are fed. If you think about the beauty of the natural world, does not it seem right to teach that our Father cares also about the beauty of our own lives? It is a question here of putting that relationship first, with the Lord who is the author of the glory of the natural world, and then allowing our lives to fall behind that loyalty and love and where it leads us.

"Therefore do not worry saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." We recall Jesus' teaching about the divine economy, about spiritual discipline, which we don't do for show but rather for this primary relationship, that "your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." We put first this relationship. And we leave God to help us to understand how to live our lives, what we do and where we go, and to practice a righteous life. But our detachment is clear here, which Jesus teaches. To dwell only on material concerns is to lose our lives, in so many ways. My study bible says, "The kingdom of God is the central theme of the teaching of Jesus, and His righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount. Calling us to be set free from anxiety about earthly things, Jesus directs us to look to heaven, to this greater 'country' which will be received at the Day of the Lord, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings."

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." I love this saying, because it has proven so true in my life. How many worldly troubles are further stirred by our anxiety and worry - or others' anxiety and worry making trouble for us in our own lives? "Sufficient for the day" is what comes to us in the course of living our lives in this world, and we place those anxieties in the hands of God, so that we may find detachment, clear sight, and a fresh outlook for ourselves. It is a formula that helps with the stresses of life - especially modern life - and one that I find for many people is increasingly necessary.

Let us consider then what it is to live in this kingdom, and to live in its righteousness. Jesus continually asks us to seek a deeper reality within ourselves, the primary reality of God's love and God's care. How do we put that first, so that all things fall behind and around it to arrange themselves in our lives in accordance with it? How do we cultivate the detachment to put our cares in God's hands, so that we may come to terms with life on a more even keel, with a fresh perspective, with an inner lamp of the mind (see yesterday's reading) that shines clearly for us? I believe that Jesus gives us our greatest clue to our own natures, and how best to care for them, when He teaches that "no man can serve two masters." He is telling us that the greatest care of all our lives is to make this central significant choice. What do we love? Where is our treasure? We look to nature and its beauty for the reality of God, of that kingdom, for a hint of God's care for His creatures, and we remember Jesus' teachings. Shall we not put faith first? We must choose what we serve. The material life is not all there is to life - our Father in the secret place knows we have need of the material as well, and cares for our lives to reflect the glory even as we see reflected in the grass of the field. Can we let go of our worries long enough to find that relationship and live it?