"No one can serve two masters

No One Can Serve Bot= h God and Money

St. Stephen’s<= o:p>

Year A, Proper 3

Mt. 6:24-34

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. =

"Therefore I tell you, do not = worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you w= ill wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of= the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a s= ingle hour to his life?

"And why do you= worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or s= pin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the gras= s of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, '= What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first h= is kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matt 6:24-= 34 NIV

Our gospel today has= several familiar verses. I’ve p= icked three that I want to focus on:

No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve bot= h God and Money

Seek first his kingd= om and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you

Do not worry about t= omorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself, each day has enough trouble of its ow= n.

The world would like= us to think that these verses are impossible to achieve, so why bother? We bother because as Christians we= are to be in the world, but not of the world.&= nbsp; Our decisions, especially about money and finances are influenced by= our faith. So when I talk about s= erving money in this sermon, I’m not talking about our day to day finances.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> But as Christians it is important = to look at what influences our financial decisions. I have a couple of experiences to = share and some tools to help us get rid of the anxiety of the current financial crush.

So let’s look = at the first one and see what is really being asked of us.

"No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and Money= .

When we serve God we= are members of the Kingdom of God and His Kingdom is about relationships; relationships with God, and relatio= nships with others – all others. The book of Isaiah teaches us about the characteristics of the Kingdom of God. These are: redemption, justice, peace, God’s presence, <= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> joy when particip= ating in what God is doing, healing, and finally repentance and returning to God.= This is what the Kingdom of God is all about. So if we invest= in this kingdom, we invest where we see these values at work around us.

When I talk about se= rving money I’m talking about believing that the fulfillment of life depend= s on how much one owns; serving money is the failure to care about the needs of others; and it is also when money becomes the source of our worthiness, righteousness, honor and reputation. Serving money this way makes it all about our self. It is about greed and all the sche= mes to achieve more wealth.

Serving money is abo= ut wants. It’s about wanting to have m= ore than what our friends or neighbors have. The media is doing all it can to co= nvince us that wanting things will make our life better.

Serving the <= st1:place>Kingdom of God is about fulfilling our needs – our need to be loved, to belong to a community; it is about being needed by others and being helpful to others.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We just heard in the gospel readin= g that God knows what we need, and by see= king the kingdom first, these things will be given to us – this is the second verse I wanted to talk about.

I do not buy into the prosperity gospel – the gospel that teaches that God wants us to have lots of nice things because we are children of the king – so God is g= oing to give all of us this wealth. You might be surprised to hear, but no where in the Bible does God speak well of money.

Instead, what I thin= k this verse means that as we function as members of the Kingdom of God, we will find that we already have all that we need, and if we don’t – we ask, and it will be provided.

Serving money feeds = on the dissatisfaction of our self – but in serving the Kingdom of God we are loved just as we are.

The third verse I wa= nt to look at is:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.

But you say there is= plenty to be anxious about today – our economy is in a downward spiral, gas = and food prices are through the roof, people are losing their home.

So, really, how does= one avoid being anxious. Let me s= hare a time out of my life where I learned how to rely on God.



It was the early 90&= #8217;s up in Oregon= . Rod was working for Intel, and they had their first major economic crisis and sever= al divisions were closed – Rod’s included. Fortunately Intel did not like to = lay people off, so those affected were put into a redeployment pool. Those in the pool had 4 months to = find a job within Intel without loosing any benefits and they were to be the first= to be considered when there was a job opening. At first I was very anxious. I would grill Rod daily about what= he was doing, were there any leads, etc. I did not like the person I was becoming. I wasn’t living this verse o= f the gospel and as a Christian – that bothered me. So one day I sat with God and talk= ed it out with him. At the end, I s= aid “Okay – I am giving it to you God.”   I said it out loud. I think that is important. Creation happens when speaking wor= ds out loud – in Genesis – God said – let there be light –= and there was light. What was cre= ated in me was a peace to let God and Rod handle this on their own. What was created was trust. I told Rod that I wasn’t goi= ng to bother him, but I may ask an occasional question of how he was doing, if th= ere was anything I could do to help, etc. We were careful in our spending and cut out extras until he found a = job. We went through that time then without any anxiety.

This is the first to= ol – give it to God – saying it out loud really helps. This may take some discipline unti= l we really mean it – but for me it created peace of mind and my trust in = God grew daily.

Another tool is to h= ave an attitude of gratitude and to speak well of God especially during the tough times.

I have a friend from= my Oregon church named Carol. Carol is a single mom with three sons. Her youngest is the sam= e age as my daughter Sye-Ok. Her life is filled with complicati= ons including abuse and serious health issues.= She never complained about them – ever. She was grateful for everything sh= e had and never wanted for more. She found a way to make do with a limited income. In fact she did more = than make do. Carol could make bread. So she took some of her bread and shared it with the workers in the migrant camps each summer.   Carol has been my role model= . From her I learned not to complain= and to be grateful for what I had.

This is the second s= tep – gratitude. Gratitude = for what we have is vital to living in the Kingdom of God. Money is not that big of an influe= nce on our life if we are grateful for what we already have.

The third step is to continue to work in the kingdom of God during the rough times.   Carol does this. Rod and I did that as well.&nbs= p; During those 4 months Rod was in the redeployment pool we reached ou= t to another family at our church in need. Laurie was a single mother on welfare with 5 girls – two sets = of twins. One of the older girls, Sarah, was having trouble with her mom.&nb= sp; Separately Rod and I were wondering how we could help. One day we started talking and fou= nd God had placed Sarah on both of our hearts.&nb= sp; Sarah was 15 and we could see she was potentially heading into troub= le with sex and gangs. We talked= to our priest and said, if mom ever kicked her out, we’d be willing to l= et her stay at our place for as long as she needed.   Time was ticking on, Rod had= no luck in finding a job and only two more weeks were left in the redeployment pool before he was going to be fired. We got a call from our priest; Sarah was kicked out of the house. We knew God was calling us to do t= his and with no idea of how to support our family, we went and picked her up. The next week Rod found a job. Several years later, Rod found him= self in the redeployment pool again. He found a job that first week.

            This last time he was out of work for over 3 months when his company was closed. We learned how quickly things can turn around these days. We were 1 month away from losing our health insurance. Yet Rod joined the Vestry and I co= ntinued my process toward ordination and my work in the church. Rod started work two weeks ago = 211; thanks be to God. During this time I had my Psych exam for this ordination process and= one of the tests showed that there was some tension in my life right now and th= at I was trying to put on a brave front, but I was probably suffering some physi= cal symptoms from the stress, like headaches and stomach aches. I challenged that test. I told the psychiatrist I wasnR= 17;t trying to put on a brave front – but that I actually was brave becaus= e I had learned a long time ago to put it all into God’s hands. He didn’t believe me, becaus= e that part is still included in my final report.

I hope that I’= ve shown you that despite the world’s influences and our own selfish inclinati= ons, we can live in God’s Kingdom and be happy and satisfied.

The world says we are incomplete. God says he loves= us just the way we are.

The world encourages= us to satisfy our wants, and cost does not matter. God says if we live in His kingdom= all our needs will be met. <= /o:p>

The world is in a frenzy and people are getting very anxious. God has given us the means to be at peace:

If we can adopt these principles of gratitude, giving out troubles to God, and reaching out to he= lp others, we will be an example to the rest of the world. We will be a people at peace and o= thers will want it too. We will then be able to tell them about the Kingdom of God where all our needs are met.