25th sunday A. you can not serve both God and mammon

Stand Up And Be Counted
The folly of placing false hopes in false gods

"No servant can serve two masters ... You cannot serve God and mammon"

A preacher was becoming terribly distracted by a man who came to Church every Sunday and proceeded to sleep through the entire sermon. One Sunday he decided to do something about it. As he began to preach, the man, true to form, fell fast asleep. Whereupon the preacher said quietly, "Everyone who wants to go to heaven, stand up." The entire congregation immediately stood up, except the sleeping man. When they sat down, the preacher shouted at the top of his voice, "Everyone who wants to go to hell, stand up!" This startled the dozing man. Still half asleep, he jumped up, looked around to see what was going on, then said to the preacher, "I don't know what we're voting on but it looks like you and I are the only ones in favor of it."

In today's Gospel, Jesus is telling us we've got to stand up and be counted. "No servant can serve two masters," Jesus is saying. "The Kingdom of Heaven is here. Everyone who wants to enter the Kingdom in the service of God, stand up! ... Everyone who wants to enter a living hell in the service of mammon, stand up!" That means, if you want to enter the Kingdom of your life's fulfillment, if you want to experience genuine peace and joy in your life, God comes first. Period! Whenever you do anything, whenever you acquire anything, whenever you achieve anything outside the context of God's Grace, you are saying in effect, "God I hate you and I despise Your Rule. I have other resources to draw upon, other masters to serve." But inevitably, you will come to the end of your resources and you will find yourself unable to cope, unable to deal with your fears and anxieties, unable to affirm your own worthwhileness, unable to sustain an abiding hope in your ultimate fulfillment as a human person. Thank God we can gather together on a day such as this and listen to Jesus warn us once again about the folly of placing false hopes in false gods.

If we choose to follow the Lord who is God, we will have life, because this is the God who has created us and whose Resurrection Power is working in our midst, and whose Grace is with us. The Lord who is God gives us life. He gives us fulfillment. He gives us the strength to love, if we trust Him and only Him. But if we trust in the Baals of our modern world, if we trust in idols to bring us to fulfillment, we will not only be frustrated but ultimately destroyed.

We hear this and we say, "How quaint! Idols! Nobody worships idols anymore. We don't make figures out of metal or stone and fall down and worship them. Talk of idols has no relevance for this 'Now' generation." Don't be deceived. Our God is, ultimately, whatever concerns us most in life. We may not carve idols out of metal or stone, but we all have them. If the Lord is God, then follow Him -- with your marriage and your family. But if your marriage and your family is god, then follow them, to your own destruction. If your country is god, then follow it, to your own destruction. If your money is god, then follow it, to your own destruction. If alcohol or other drugs are your gods, then follow them to your own destruction. If work is your god, then follow it, to your own destruction. If sex is your god, then follow it to your own destruction.

What we are saying is that marriage, family, other relationships, and all our human activities are not ends in themselves, but means to an end which is God. They represent the opportunities we are offered in life to give honor and Glory to God. And whenever we take them out of this context, whenever we make them ends in themselves, we are in a state of idolatry. God is the Source of life. Our idols can do nothing for us.

There is a powerful, old Jewish story about an idol-maker. He did not himself believe in idols but he made a tidy profit selling them to others. When his son became old enough to realize what was going on, he began trying to talk his father out of his business. It was hypocrisy, but the father insisted it was his way to make a living and continued selling the idols. Until one day, he came into his shop and found that all his idols had been smashed on the floor. It was a scene of total destruction, except for one large idol up on the top shelf. The father stood aghast at what he saw, then turned to his son and said, angrily, "Who did this?" The son calmly pointed to the top shelf and said, "That idol did it." Still raging, the father said, "Don't be ridiculous. Idols can't do anything." And the boy replied, "Father, father, let your ears hear the words your lips have just spoken; idols can't do anything."

We receive our lessons in life from Jesus in many different forms. Jesus speaks to us in parables. Jesus speaks to us in prayer. Jesus speaks to us in symbolic language, using sharp, vivid images to stir our souls. Jesus speaks to us in His miracles. And there are times when Jesus speaks to us head-on, in straightforward, simple declarative sentences. "You cannot serve God and mammon." No need for interpretation. No need for Biblical scholarship. "You cannot serve God and money," or anything else you may wish to make the number one priority in your life. "I am the Lord your God ... You shall have no other gods before me" (Deut. 5:6,7). God is the sovereign Lord of history. He is the God of all that is and all that will be. False gods or the one true God? You cannot straddle the issue. You've got to stand up and be counted. If any of our modern Baals are your god, then follow them to your own destruction. If the Lord of Life is God, then follow Him to your eternal fulfillment.