When man has two lords, anxiety will come, so we must be generous lords over such mammon.
I. Christ Jesus states what the cause of all anxiety is. It is simple: we serve two masters. The first is the one true God, and the second is earthly mammon. God, our Heavenly Father, has looked on us, fallen creatures, in such love and compassion that He has sent His only begotten Son to remove our sins by dying in our place and to be raised for our justification. This is His first gift to us, eternal life in Christ Jesus. The Lord has also equipped us with earthly and temporal blessings. These are mammon—money, possessions, much food, elaborate clothing, or whatever else we possess that could help our neighbor without bringing detriment to ourselves.
Christ says that we cannot have both as our Lord. To be our lord requires us men to put our fear, love, and trust upon it. To place our very life on the promises that it gives. That is what we mean by having a lord to put our trust in with our entire being. We know that Christ is Lord, worthy of these things, yet the old sinful Adam in us neglects the truth. As a result of the sinful state, we can only see our current and imminent needs and how they must be satisfied. Out of our own foolishness, those are the things that we put our trust in: where we will receive our next meal, how we will clothe ourselves the next day, and whether our current situation is what is needed. If these or any other anxieties occupy our minds, they are sinful.
Anxiety is a sin because it places our trust in ourselves to supply our needs rather than in the gracious provision of the one true God. If we trust anything other than God, that becomes our true god. Being anxious is not only bad for our minds, but it is a transgression against the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Therefore, if we desire to be heirs in the kingdom of God, we must cast off anxiety and put our trust in Christ alone for our eternal salvation.
II. Now we must repent and turn to the God of grace who has provided us so lavishly. For us to do so, we must know the root of our anxiety, as the devil is hostile to those who confess Christ by attacking us with various temptations and lies about the needs of life, throwing us into poverty and despair, and depriving us of food and drink, clothing, and all human comfort. For if he can take away those things, the devil can also drive us to trust ourselves completely to reclaim what he has stolen. In doing so, he would be victorious, making us rely on what we can do to cure the stomach, other than what God has provided.
Christ Jesus exhorts us to trust His Father in heaven by pointing to the birds and the lilies. These birds, who neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, practice a better devotion to God than we can. They are simply unable to do these things by their nature, and still our gracious Lord provides for them. The birds do not know Christ or where their food comes from; they simply do not fear what will come.
How much more is there for us, who are capable of believing in Christ Jesus, according to the Spirit of God. If the birds were not created in the image of God and do not know the promise of eternal life, how much more does God care for our needs?
Therefore, when we sow and harvest and gather into barns, and do those things that the birds cannot do for themselves, it is not out of fear that God will fail to provide. Instead, we do them in thanksgiving to God, that He has provided more than enough for today. For what God will do for the least of these creatures, He will not withdraw it from us.
And to the lilies that neither toil nor spin. The flowers of the field live by the sustenance granted by our heavenly Father. As they do not choose where they are planted or what source they draw from for water and nutrients, they live purely by God’s providential grace for survival and growth. These plants, which trust God perfectly, still last only a short time: they bloom one day and may be gone the next, and they guide our trust in the Lord. Let us, ones of little faith, see the grace of God in the life that abounds in creation and say, if God has provided for these, what will stop Him from providing for me in life and death?
III. After taking comfort in God’s grace and absolution that we are forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ when we believe we do not have enough. We are sealed in the promises that Christ has given us all good things that we do not need to worry about tomorrow, for today has enough trouble of its own. How must we treat our mammon so that they do not become our lords?
We must look to righteous Adam before his fall into sin. He was given all of creation to be his very own, more than you or I could ever comprehend, richer than Solomon, with dominion over all things. As all things came to him to be named in the garden, and to be used according to his pleasure, and for the glory of God, he was not meant to serve those things, but to lord over them. We must practice our authority and be the lords over our possessions; that is, our wealth and riches.
This is not a selfish use of God’s grace. It is truly acknowledging what God has given to serve our neighbor and to glorify Him. As our heavenly Father has spared nothing, even to the poor, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, and the infirm, neither must we. For when we give our neighbor, we are not only doing a good work for them; we are also realizing how much we have already received in abundance. God’s grace supply of all things needful is not meant to make us slaves of earthly things. Yet, according to what we have received, we are free to extend the grace God has bestowed upon us.
You, dear saints of God, are no slave to the mammon of this world. You are made a child of the living and gracious God by His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through His death and Resurrection. Our blessings are eternally secure in Christ. Do not put yourself under the yoke of burden for more goods and possessions. For even if we used everything we had for the sake of another in need, you would still have no shortage, as it would all be measured back to you by our good and gracious Father in the kingdom of His glory! Amen.
St. John's and Grace Evangelical Lutheran Parish 