“CHILD OR HIRED HAND?”
Saint Matthew 6. 24-34
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity: 20 September Anno Domini 2009
Fr. Watson, S.S.P.
Bow down Thine Ear O Lord, hear me. Lord, let Thy people of Augsburg hear Thy Word.
Stop resisting the Holy Spirit and live the new life to which you have been called. Repent of your idolatry and reliance on mammon and return to the family Table of Trinitarian sustenance.
If you acted like Christians when you heard today's Gospel reading there would never be a need for "Stewardship Sermons." Stop casting a longing eye for your old friend, "Mammon." Cease longing for the "flesh-pots" of worldly reassurance.
There are only two "masters" not many. The "One" is the "Sent One" of the Father and the Spirit. The other one is a dragon; a snake.
Those not worshipping the True Master, Who is The Truth, are, in fact, doing obeisance to the devilish one. There is no third choice and there is no middle way. Those who are not for Me are against Me speaks the Ancient of Days. "Oh, did He really say that" hisses the slanderer-a liar from the beginning.
The Lord Adonai, the Master of Mercies, has chosen you from out of the dark. The Lord Christ has adopted you in blood and made you His brother; has made His Father Who art in Heaven your Father, and has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in you as incense in a sanctuary.
This work of the Trinity is the only way one comes under the Lordship of the Master Christ Jesus. It is all because of the actions and work of God.
Your sinful old nature, that twisted "logic of license" deep in your core, is the "thing" which resists the adoption of God and opts for the "bad company" of Satan. The only thing a sinful man or woman can do is to leave the Holy Household like a petulant prodigal and chose the pig sty of Satan.
Stop worshipping that which is "create," made, having no eternal energy, and give all worth to The Creator-eternal, pre-existing, and infinite. Why would a beloved little dog leave its loving Master's home and "worship" a rodent or a cockroach?
If you worship "mammon" then you worship the devil. You worship mammon if you rely on it and not the only legitimate giver of worth: God. You rely on "mammon" when you withhold your trust from God; when you withhold your money from His Church and skimp on your "first-fruit" offerings to His Mission! You kneel at "Mammon's throne" whenever it becomes "my" and not "Thy!" Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. Even as Ananias and Sapphira tried to cheat God and slip an extra "fiver" to their old pal "Mammon" by short-changing the Lord with their "light giving," the urge has been with those wanting to be in THE WAY, but not wanting to Walk the Way. Buying what you want for entertainment and gluttony but only tossing in a "mite" when the plate comes by is to deny with your actions what you sing with your tongues. Don't do it. Tithing a "tenth" is a wonderful precept, but, it's by "way of the Law." Don't let a rule of giving ever short-change you Grace-kindled generosity to the Master…give 12 or 15 or more per cent in GOSPEL FREEDOM! Where your heart is…there is your treasure. "You live in the Spirit (in the Gospel)…walk in it," as St. Paul admonishes. Don't desire vain glory when eternal and supernal glories await you in The Master's Mansions.
What a blessed thing it is that the Lord does not consider only tithing His love and release to you. What good it is that He doesn't only throw you some loose change (you His Church, His Bride, His Family) while He directs the majority of His "giving" to extra-ecclesial and congregational "favorites" which He might have. BECAUSE HE DOESN'T ! He doesn't have them. He has no subject of love greater than you. For God so loved the world that He gave not 24% of His favor, but no, so that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
As Joshua once "spake" by the Holy Ghost: "choose this day who your household will serve," every day drown the "mammon-loving Old Adam" and chose to worship the Master Messiah.
Mammon can only hate because it can only accumulate, gain "interest," and be hoarded by the greedy and solitary. The Master, Who is pierced through for your freedom, is the Lover-Love incarnate, and the Giver. Jesus only gives and gives and gives in His Words, His New Birth for you at the Font, His Eucharist Feast, and His absolving + remission of your wrongs.
Master Jesus is the alpha & omega Life without limit or measure. The devil "mammon" is a perversion of the pure LIFE, the anti-love of Incarnate Agape, and the corrupted rot of He who is the genuine sweet Fruit of the Trinity!
"Mammon" seeks to be served, to be waited and attended on by your check books, your schedules and your drooling. The Lord came to serve and to seek that which was lost, and to give His Life as a ransom.
The choice is between your works which are filthy rags and His GRACE which is transfigured white and soaked in the grapes and wine-press of His precious Blood. The choice is between "wages," (what you've got coming) and His inheritance which He gives you in full with His own last will & testament.
The reason an employee worries, the reason a "hired-hand" frets is that they may be terminated, fired, cast out…into the outer darkness.
The reason a child (you, all of YOU) does not worry is that he is a child. Being a child means that there are PARENTS: The Father and Mother Church. The stranger wonders: "what if, I must, and more, more and more." The son and daughter of the Father knows, KNOWS, that there will be food, clothing, healing, tenderness, hugs & kisses, and that the safety and Peace of being "tucked in" passes all understanding.
Bow down Thine ear O Lord; hear me.
Who hears you? Does your IRA, or gold coins, or extra ammo & freeze dried foodstuffs? The Suffering Servant Who now fills the heavens and Who is seated at the Right Hand of Majesty hears you whenever you call out to Him.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
IT IS BETTER TO TRUST IN THE LORD THAN TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN MEN.
In The Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost