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God and Mammon

Preached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2008

by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults

Matthew 6:24 You cannot serve God and mammon.

This topic of God and Mammon is a subject that this priest approaches with great trepidation for at least a couple of reasons. First, it has been topic of preaching for literally hundreds of years by legions of preachers to the point that is well-worn, perhaps beyond meaning. That, being the case, how can a poor vicar like myself possibly hope to bring any light to the topic? Secondly, whenever any bishop, priest, or deacon even broaches the topic of money or material wealth, parishioners fear some sort of “hit” on their wallet. It’s natural with any volunteer organization funded by the largesse of its members. However, this vicar will endeavor NOT to do so.

However, I will probably make you a bit uncomfortable. Not by any overt design of my part, but the discomfort that occurs because of the very nature of the subject itself. Whenever anyone talks of money, people become uncomfortable. Why is that? No doubt it’s because our finances are probably one of the most private areas of our lives, outside of the marital bedroom, and because of our very attitude towards money.

First of all, you’ll probably agree with me that we tend to be, fairly or unfairly, defined by our money. The term “net worth,” which means the difference between your financial assets and your financial liabilities, tends to be applied to us in a real and literal way, at least in the eyes of the world. In fact, in England, the nobles and landed gentry used to be called “the Worthies,” owing in their great wealth and social position. The Church is supposed to be the place where wealth and social status have the least standing, but we all know that even it, being a body peopled with human beings, gets infected with the things important to the world. And of course, it does take money to fund the Church, as in all areas of this earthly pilgrimage.

All of this attests to the power of money is our lives. In fact, money is so powerful, it can create what I call “one-dimensional” people, for lack of a better term. These are people, who have mastered a subject area and are extremely knowledgeable in that area. They, because they know their field to the extreme, then assume erroneously that they are knowledgeable in all areas. For example, some professors, some physicians, some technocrats fall into this trap. Physicians, for example, while they certainly know the medical field, are notorious for making bad investment decisions and for not heeding sound investment advice from their advisors.

That being the case, what is “Mammon?” It is an Aramaic word used by Christ twice in the Gospels, in Mat. 6:24 and Luke 16:13. It means “wealth or riches” and implies the concept of something secure, on which one can rely. (Dictionary of the Bible, Grant and Howley, Ed.,Thomas Nelson, New York, 1963). Recently, I read a book lent to me by Bp, Grote, called Money, Power and Sex, written by a Quaker pastor named Richard Baker. In it, he talks about the “Light side” and “Dark side” of money. Now, this is a dualistic heresy that has followed mankind throughout history and is prevalent even today. The idea of the “Light” side and “Dark” side of the Force, for example, from Star Wars, is simply a restatement of the Manichean heresy. This idea, grossly oversimplified, claimed that there was a “good” God and a “bad” God, roughly equal. The so-called “bad” God was the Demiurge, who brought evil on the earth and was responsible for the “bad-ness” prevalent in Man. This is, of course, heretical, nonsensical and non-scriptural.

Let’s talk briefly about the “light” side and “dark” side of money, because it has both. First, the “light” side values:

1.   First, money as a means of exchange is a blessing. I recently finished Will Durant’s The Age of Faith, which is an encyclopedic overview of the Medieval era. As you are aware before the 13^th century in England, after the Roman era, money was unstable and unreliable. During the 13^th century England changed to a solid money economy and away from a feudalistic barter system to a modern economic model. Actually, the existence of money brings societal stability.

2.   Second, money has the power to do good. Endowments, benefactors, and patrons have enable arts to be developed, music to be written, universities to be established, hospitals to be built. Money is a powerful tool for good.

3.   The modern economic organization, the corporation, has the capacity to do good, both by employing thousands of people and by being a “good” corporate citizen to charity.

The list could go on and on Money can be very good, when used correctly.

On the other hand, money has “dark” values as well:

1.   Money has power, no denying that. In fact, money is power. Money and power have always had a historical connection, because one is integral to the other. One of the most renowned and oft-quoted Victorian quips, Lord Acton, once remarked that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.” This is particularly true of money. Witness the good and bad corporations, the good being one like GE under Jack Welch, which was the envy of the corporate world for a long time. The bad or corrupt corporation is personified by Enron, who only cared about enrichment for a select few and did not care about anything else. The book about Enron, called The Smartest Guys in the Room, is very telling of their arrogance.

2.   When money becomes an end in itself, it is idolatrous. It takes the place of God and is thus deemed worthy of all our effort, our worship and our time. I realized this one time as I regarded the activities of Wall St., which is a place of hallowed traditions. One of these traditions is that a few times during the year, the traders actually form of ring to sing and dance around the trading floor. Now, while this may seem quaint as they sing old-timey tunes, it is actually songs and dance dedicated to money! Thus, it could be said there can be little doubt that many of these folks worship money in word and deed.

So, what are the effects of money worship?

1.   First, there is a tendency towards inflated self-importance. This could be called ego-expansion, or simply the sin of pride. After all, when one can command people though money, it leads to this sense of “large-ness.”

2.   Second, there is a temptation to misuse money. One can try to influence events, outcomes and behaviors through money, with a large degree of success in many cases. This is the sin of manipulation or selfishness.

3.   When one misuses money, one is violating at least the First Commandment (“Thou shaft have no other Gods than Me”) and the Tenth Commandment (“Thou shalt not covet”). Again, we return to the sin of idolatry.

It all comes down to our attitude towards money. If one regards money as a gift and blessing from God, all is well and good. Or, if one says, “through my power, my strength, my brains, my business acumen, I did this,” one is potentially in serious spiritual danger. One may have these gifts, but “whence do they come?”

From Mat. 6:28: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.”

They are gifts. Recall the passage from pg. 591 in the Family Prayer section of the Prayer Book: “To our prayers, O Lord, we join our unfeigned thanks for all thy mercies: our being, our reason, and all other endowments and faculties of soul and body; for our health, friends, food and raiment, and all the other comforts and conveniences of life.” All that we have is a gift from God.

This priest is firmly persuaded that much evil in this world comes from the misuse or “twisting” of God’s gifts to mankind. Everything God gives us is good, food, wine, power, money, interaction between man and woman, etc. It is man’s fallen-ness, aided by Satanic suggestions and temptations, that “twist” each of these gifts into evils, in the form of overindulgence or exploitation. Thus, healthful use of wine becomes alcoholism, wholesome marital relations become adultery and pornography, and money becomes the power to manipulate and enslave.

Mankind needs to always remember that all things man has are gifts from a loving and merciful God. Even our ability to achieve, our ability to accumulate (which includes technology, which is simply the piling of knowledge from one generation to another) is a gift. Thus, we should not overuse our ability to accumulate to the point of obsession. Christ tells us in Mat. 6:25 to “Take no thought for your life.” Of course, we are to plan and prepare prudently, but we are not to worry to be obsess over our wealth, or lack thereof. We are not to be consumed by concern for our material well-being. Christ wants us to be “as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves.” (Mat. 10:16)

That is, Christianity is not a call to stupidity or to carelessness, but it is a call to Godly wisdom. When we recognize that all we have belongs to God and not to us, that is wisdom. When we know, truly know, that we are simply stewards of all we have, that is wisdom. When we agree with the Prayer Book on page 587, as it says, “Almighty God, is whom we live and move and have our being,” that is wisdom. This is elegantly stated in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Let us understand, truly understand, and give thanks for the knowledge that all things belong to God. When we make an offering, remember that we are merely returning a portion of what is His.

“All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given Thee.”

Amen.

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