Homily 647 – 3 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
June 29, 2025
Epistle:  (88) Romans 5: 1-10 and (193) 2 Corinthians 11:21-12:9
Gospel:  (18) Matthew 6:22-33 and (67) Matthew 16:13-19

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

This may be my favorite passage in the entire Scripture.  This passage from the sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6, has been my salvation in how I live my life on this earth in this society.

Christ tells us, “Do not be anxious.”  Easy for Him to say, right?  I will confess that I spent a great deal of my life being anxious.  Probably from the time I graduated college in 1987, through the mid-2000s – 2005 or 2006 – I suffered from nearly debilitating anxiety about the future, about my security, my family’s security, even about the end of the world coming.

But look at the word before that statement:  therefore.  He doesn’t just say “Don’t worry”, He says “Therefore, don’t worry.”  Meaning what becomes before is the actual reason why we shouldn’t worry.

He says, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”

Mammon – material blessing, wealth.  This is a Hebrew word.  It is only used in a couple of places in the whole bible – this place in Matthew, and the parable of the dishonest manager in Luke.

There are those who will tell us that you can pursue both Christianity and wealth.  That you can pursue wealth, money, in a Christian way.  Christ, however, says absolutely not.  You can pursue, you can serve, only one.

You have to choose.  If you are pursuing money, if you are pursuing wealth, then why are you here?  And if you are pursuing Christ, then why pursue wealth?

We do need to be careful here.  Note that it is the pursuit of wealth, not the pursuit of work, that is at issue.  In our world, indeed in every age, work is important and necessary.  God tells Adam that he will earn his living, his sustenance, by the sweat of his brow.  Nothing has changed since then, at least for the Godly.

It is God who provides, as Christ goes on to say.  Look at how God takes care of creation, Christ reminds us.  Look at the flowers, look at the birds.  Do they have to work?  Indeed, they do – but God provides for them.

We need to understand that God loves us more than anything else in creation.  That’s not arrogance.  That is just Truth.  And God will and does provide for us.

How?  Can’t really say if I’m honest.  How did I get through the 1990s as largely unemployed with $60,000 in credit card debt and emerge in 2008 debt free and gainfully employed?

For me, it was nothing short of God’s provision.  But I did have to give up something.  Something that until that point was very important to me.  That something was control.

I had to give up my grasp on control.  Rather, the illusion of control.

Candy and I were talking to friends, who were missionaries in Albania.  They were trying to convince me to become a missionary and join them on the mission field.  My primary argument was that I didn’t want to take that risk – the risk that Candy and I and our children might become destitute.

Cindy, may God bless her so richly, said words I’ve never ever forgotten.  “Have you ever been able to accurately predict where you will be two years from now?”

In that moment, sitting in their kitchen in Tennessee in 1999, God spoke to me through her.  I had to admit – no.  Never.  I have never been able to predict anything of the future.  So, I understood, relying on myself was only an illusion.  And to rely on God – well, that was suddenly not so frightening.

The scripture is full of trial and suffering.  Yet, in every single moment, God is there.  When the Children of Israel leave Egypt and sojourn through the desert for 40 years, God is there.  He provided manna, and pheasant, and safety.

When the children of Israel disobeyed God and were sent into exile in Babylon, God was there, protecting the Three Holy Youths, and ensuring the return of the faithful remnant to the Holy City.

St. Paul in today’s reading from his letter to the Romans speaks of the trials and suffering he encountered, yet still rejoicing!  Beaten with stripes, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, in danger from rivers and robbers and fellow Jews and Gentiles, in danger in every place – cities, wilderness, on the sea.

And yet, what does St. Paul say?  If I must boast, I will boast of my weaknesses.  Not what he accomplished, but his weaknesses.  Because it is through our weaknesses that God Himself is manifest in us.

God tells him, “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  And so, he says, it is with joy that I would rather find glory in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

Therefore, do not be anxious, saying: ‘What will we eat?’ ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘What will we wear?’ It is the Gentiles who seek after all these things, but your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

That doesn’t mean that we will be wealthy, nor powerful, nor respected.  What it means is that we will have our needs provided, sometimes in ways we don’t understand and can’t imagine.

That doesn’t mean that we will be happy all the time, or comfortable all the time.  What it means is that God is always in charge, and the eternal outcome of everything will be for our salvation.

Because as St. Paul said, when we give up on Mammon and pursue Christ, what we are left with is abundant peace and abundant joy.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ!