Did Jesus tell his disciples not to worry “about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body…”, because he wasn’t living in the 21st century, during a major economic downturn with high unemployment and home foreclosures? Modern people suffering in these situations might not want to look up at “the birds in the air who do not sow or reap.” They are too busy looking down at their feet, putting one foot in front of the other. Many in our country and billions elsewhere, are just hoping to make it through to tomorrow.
Perhaps we need to wait till things turn around in our economy or, if we are unemployed now, till we get a good, secure job. Then we will have time to open to chapter 6 in Matthew, read today’s passage and tranquilly “consider the lilies.” Or, maybe Jesus was only addressing a select group of prosperous merchants at a seaside Mediterranean retreat somewhere: people with plenty of time, leisure and security. If he were, we could easily dismiss what he says today as being out of touch with “the real world,” — our world.
It turns out Jesus wasn’t speaking at a seaside spa for the rich and famous. He was talking to his disciples, a motley group in the eyes of the established. Nor was he unaware of their daily struggles to survive; he came from their class and location. Galilee was considered the “boonies” in the eyes of the big city Jerusalem folk.
Still, to the poor and disenfranchised he advises that when they dream their dreams for themselves and their children, God must be their focus. God and God’s righteousness were to take first place when they considered their plans for the future and their choices for each day.
If God is also our first consideration, then God is the one we must trust to help us fulfill our goals and endeavors. Not all we hope to accomplish, even with the best intentions to do good, will succeed. Even in failure, we trust God’s plans and care for us. God does not desert us when our projects fail or come up short.
If however, we choose mammon as the “master” or guiding principle that defines who we are and what we want out of life, then we have, as Jesus will tell us in next week’s gospel, “built a house on sand.” The first storm we experience will show how fragile our life’s building project has been, disappointment and even collapse will be the outcome.
Jesus’ disciples had made their choice to leave their families and possessions behind to follow him. Christ would be there master. At first, during the days when Jesus was enthusiastically received by the crowds, those disciples must have thought they had made a choice for success. Then their hopes collapsed with his death. But with his resurrection new life opened for them and, the bright future they never could have imagined in their lives, now was available to them. In Jesus, they chose to serve God not mammon and that made all the difference.
While many of us are struggling and worrying over real concerns these days, still there are so many people in our surrounding world who are miserably poor and live in desperation each day. Perhaps Jesus’ words today broaden our vision and help us focus: less on ourselves and more on those in need; less about getting and more about giving; less worrying about our own welfare and more attention to others–their struggles as immigrants, their lack of healthcare, their children’s need for proper nutrition and education, etc.
Choices Jesus asks us to make don’t happen just once in our lifetime. They come every day, in large and small ways. How will my being Jesus’ disciple affect the decision I must make right now? What will be the consequences of my choice for me? How will my decision affect others? Jesus leaves very little wiggle room for us, “no one can serve two masters. You will either hate one and love the other, will be attentive to one and despise the other.”
Originally Jesus spoke these words to very poor disciples. He was inviting them to follow him and trust that God would provide for them. Over 50 years later Matthew wrote his gospel for his community in Antioch. They were a more secure and established community than Jesus’ original followers. They were more like us. To them Jesus’ words would be as challenging as they are to us today.
Soon after hearing this gospel we will be receiving the Eucharist. Before that we will pray the Lord’s Prayer together and say, “hallowed be thy name.” We want our lives to reflect the holiness of God so that people will be able to discern in our actions that we have chosen to serve the caring and providential God Jesus revealed to us. We will also pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” because we know that each day we are going to need strength and wisdom so that we can keep choosing God over both the obvious and also subtle disguises mammon takes.
Lent is coming. It’s a season when many of us decide to make some personal sacrifices. We do it for many reasons: to deepen our awareness of our spiritual life and our inner hunger for God; to give up something we like and give the money we save to the poor; to express sorrow for our sins, etc. These and many others are noble and worthy intentions indeed. (Less noble perhaps is the desire to use the season for weight loss–a kind of Lenten Weight Watchers!)
We could use the Sermon on the Mount we have been hearing these Sundays as a guide for our Lenten practice. Why not use a portion of the Sermon each evening as our nightly examen? Before retiring for the night we might ask: How did we do this day?
So, for example, reviewing today’s gospel we ask: Did we try to serve two masters today and compromise our love for Christ? Though we might be in tight financial situations, did our worrying leave God’s loving providence out of the picture?
Were we so preoccupied with our health that we were less sensitive to the needs around us of family, friends and stranger? Are we spending too much on clothes and personal grooming, becoming insensitive to the very poor who lack decent clothing and health care for their families? Are we overdoing the purchase and consumption of pricey and specialty foods, while not seeing the hungry in our community?
In other words, are God’s concerns our concerns? What have we done this day to manifest to others the “righteous” God who has forgiven our sins and brought us into loving relationship through Christ? For those of us who worry about the future, possible loss of health and our inevitable deaths, did those worries distract us from seeing God acting graciously towards us this day?
Depending on our life situations, embodying Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount will vary–sometimes greatly among Christians, who are also attempting to live the Sermon in their own situation. Nevertheless, we are not free to easily dismiss what Jesus says as, “non-applicable,” or “too impractical in the real world.” We have to leave room for the Spirit to work in each of us. We might begin our evening examen with a prayer to the Spirit for clearer insights into what happened to us this day. When we complete our examen we might pray to the Spirit asking that we more fully live the Sermon the next day.
The Sermon on the Mount, which has been our Sunday gospel these past weeks and will be again next week, can be found in Matthew 5 through 7. Section by section, verse by verse, we pay serious attention to it this Lent and let it form us into very recognizable Christians. Or, we can decide it’s not practical and turn our attention to losing 10 pounds by Easter.