You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  

 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

 

- Luke 16:10–17 (18) 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"  My study bible declares here that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how one spends one's money.  The money that we consider to be our own is actually another man's -- that is, belonging to God, or at least to the poor.  It says that in the patristic tradition there is a universal understanding that a person's failure to give money to God's work is stealing.  St. Theophan calls it "nothing less than embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."  

"No servant 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."    Here Jesus lays out what is seemingly a rare division of the world into competing opposites.  But the truth is that He is expressing the idea that God's way of thinking and being, and therefore our participation in God's kingdom, is quite different from a perspective based on pure materialism and without God.  In true participation in this kingdom, we have a perspective on our wealth and possessions that comes from our faith, and what Jesus is demonstrating clearly here is the stark difference between a life with the perspective of faith and a perspective without it.  What Christ is laying out is the total incompatibility and contradiction within these two perspectives.  One view the world and all that is in it from the perspective of faith in a God who created it and dwells within it and among us; the other is a purely materialist perspective minus the dimension of spiritual reality. 

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study bible tells us that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.  Again, continuing His comment regarding loyalty to God or to mammon, Jesus lays out the difference in perspective between that which is illumined by faith in God and that which is not, when He says that "what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."   This leads us to understand that the justification "before men" -- that is before the society of human beings -- tends to be focused purely on the material, and misses the perspective of faith in the reality of God's presence.

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."   With Jesus' Baptism by John, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets has emerged into a new covenant of faith in the gospel of the kingdom of God, as preached by Christ.   In this context, we are given to understand that an understanding of justice and righteousness also must be given within this new context of the gospel of the Kingdom.

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Some might think this statement seems out of context.  In reality of the time in which Christ speaks, the hotly contested topic of divorce also revolved around rulings which concerned themselves with monies which accompanied marriage, and their transfer through divorce -- even manipulation of the law through divorce and remarriage merely for acquisition of this money.  Christ frames marriage in the context of the gospel of the Kingdom, teaching the heavenly perspective regarding marriage, and not merely based on material considerations from a purely earthly understanding of the institution of marriage.   On this basis, the Church understands holy matrimony as a sacrament.

In thinking about marriage, it strikes me that in the entire context of the Scriptures, marriage has been understood as that which unites Creator and creature, and especially God and God's people.  Infidelity is used frequently to describe the actions of an unfaithful people; as such metaphors of prostitution, adultery, and harlotry have accompanied prophetic calls to the people to come back to their faith.  This "unfaithfulness" has also been seen in the Old Testament context as that which is responsible for so many of the misfortunes of Israel throughout its spiritual history.  So, in the context of Jesus' speech regarding the inability to serve both God and mammon, the image of marriage is an important one, as Jesus is calling us to a fidelity of faith in God, and a rejection of serving and allying with mammon.  Our deepest need for fidelity is to God, first and foremost, and we cannot serve two masters who are divided in their aims, wills, and whole orientation to life and its purposes and functions.  Our fidelity follows Christ's "first and great commandment" given in Matthew 22:34-40:  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  The second one, which Jesus said was "like" the first, is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  On these two commandments, said Jesus, hang all the Law and the Prophets.  So, if we consider marriage as the metaphor for faith -- and especially in the context of today's reading, we are taught to direct our love in a very important way.  We must seek God first, and then all these things are added unto us (Matthew 6:33).  In yesterday's reading Jesus spoke about using the things of "unrighteous mammon" to make friends for ourselves.  That is, by using our material goods in a righteous way, to feed and clothe and help those who are in need, we are able to make friends in an everlasting home.  And so, this remains true in today's reading.  We are not asked to serve unrighteous mammon, but to serve God.  But here is the key:  we may use all the good things and material potentials of this world in the ways that God asks of us, keeping ourselves in fidelity and loyalty to God first, and putting the kingdom of God first.  In this way, we serve God and God's kingdom even with all the things of this world.  Jesus puts marriage into this context when He shifts the dialogue on divorce into an awareness of a spiritual, loving purpose to marriage that is not merely material in consideration and purpose.  Let us consider that when we pray, we may place all things at our disposal into God's hand for guidance for us.  That would include anything in our possession, as well as problematic circumstances, painful personal realizations and defects, and imperfect life, and all the rest that the world of "unrighteous mammon" may somehow present to us.  Our lives are to be transfigured in the fidelity to Christ, which is the true way of the Cross.  Let us consider how all things are in God's hands, as potential for us to use our lives and to live them God's way.