Sermon - 2019-09-22
We can not serve two masters. I once heard this described message as a sermon that would never end because it is a message that people need to hear over and over again. Have no fear, I do not plan on doing that to you today. Yet this is a lesson we know but it is so hard to do. A lesson that is told to us many ways and at different times. Perhaps the most well known time is in the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the first commandment but also the hardest commandment for us as people who wrestle with an understanding that WE are not god. We struggle with the concept for Free Will and what that means for our relationship with God and one another. We struggle with the events and outcomes of this world when they seem to be working against us.
Today within the Gospel Jesus informs us that we are often trying to make money into a god that we serve. We say it to ourselves, “If only we have more money, then we would be happy. Then we would have the life that we are truly wanting in this world.” So we work tirelessly at jobs so that we can earn an income or store away enough money so that we can finally retire and live our lives the way that we truly want to live. However, it is not the money itself that we are truly longing for because we can not eat money, but money does help us purchase food. It is not the money but the place in which we are able to sleep at night, to be dry and warm (or cool in case of Texas heat). It is not the money but the medical bills that can easily pile up after an injury.
So we view money as the means to the ends that we truly desire. However, then we are confronted with these words of Jesus, that we can not serve two masters. We are reminded that it is not the money truly that we are seeking but the results of that money. I am reminded over and over again, that Jesus calls us to look at the birds of the air, where do they find food? It is provided in nature for them. Where do they find shelter? It is provided in nature for them. If they find themselves faced with illness, do they have a hospital to go to? There is but it is run by people who can not speak to them.
Ok so we know that we shouldn’t worship money, we got that out of the way. Instead, I am going to choose to follow Jesus Christ. A powerful message and one that many churches throughout the world and history have called their people to declare. However, even in saying that, it has it’s limitations. It places us as having the power and authority to chose our Heavenly King. it is not as powerful as the message that we hear in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son”.
Think about that for a moment. When God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, including the things that we are longing for, declares to us that we are loved and we are His very own. Then it is not us, the weak who can not even realize who we are suppose to serve, we who fall down and falter so many times. But the one who can truly lift us out of despair and fear even death itself, who shall truly be our Master both now and for all eternity.
This is the Heavenly King, this is the master whom we are called to worship and serve in this world. This is the one who is calling us to understand more of this world. However, tomorrow we shall forget this, in an hour, we shall forget this, and we will need this sermon again and again. So we come back to God to seek forgiveness and hear the message of God’s grace and mercy coming to us once again within a world that seems to have none. This is a message that we shall share over and over again. It is what makes us a People of God and beacons of light of hope in this world. Amen.
Today within the Gospel Jesus informs us that we are often trying to make money into a god that we serve. We say it to ourselves, “If only we have more money, then we would be happy. Then we would have the life that we are truly wanting in this world.” So we work tirelessly at jobs so that we can earn an income or store away enough money so that we can finally retire and live our lives the way that we truly want to live. However, it is not the money itself that we are truly longing for because we can not eat money, but money does help us purchase food. It is not the money but the place in which we are able to sleep at night, to be dry and warm (or cool in case of Texas heat). It is not the money but the medical bills that can easily pile up after an injury.
So we view money as the means to the ends that we truly desire. However, then we are confronted with these words of Jesus, that we can not serve two masters. We are reminded that it is not the money truly that we are seeking but the results of that money. I am reminded over and over again, that Jesus calls us to look at the birds of the air, where do they find food? It is provided in nature for them. Where do they find shelter? It is provided in nature for them. If they find themselves faced with illness, do they have a hospital to go to? There is but it is run by people who can not speak to them.
Ok so we know that we shouldn’t worship money, we got that out of the way. Instead, I am going to choose to follow Jesus Christ. A powerful message and one that many churches throughout the world and history have called their people to declare. However, even in saying that, it has it’s limitations. It places us as having the power and authority to chose our Heavenly King. it is not as powerful as the message that we hear in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son”.
Think about that for a moment. When God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, including the things that we are longing for, declares to us that we are loved and we are His very own. Then it is not us, the weak who can not even realize who we are suppose to serve, we who fall down and falter so many times. But the one who can truly lift us out of despair and fear even death itself, who shall truly be our Master both now and for all eternity.
This is the Heavenly King, this is the master whom we are called to worship and serve in this world. This is the one who is calling us to understand more of this world. However, tomorrow we shall forget this, in an hour, we shall forget this, and we will need this sermon again and again. So we come back to God to seek forgiveness and hear the message of God’s grace and mercy coming to us once again within a world that seems to have none. This is a message that we shall share over and over again. It is what makes us a People of God and beacons of light of hope in this world. Amen.
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