Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 24, 2017

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 24, 2017

"Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (St. Matthew 6:24)

In the Sixth Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, we hear Our Blessed Saviour giving what has come to be known as His "Sermon on the Mount."  Now, bear in mind that this sermon begins back at the beginning of Chapter Five in St. Matthew's Gospel and it finishes up at the end of Chapter Seven.  So the passage that we are dealing with is somewhere near the middle, give or take.  If you look through chapters Five through Seven in this Gospel, you will be able to see for yourself a wide arrange of subjects/topics that Our Blessed Saviour talks about.  But in the passage that we are covering today deals with a very important topic.  I say "very important" because it is one that certainly still has bearing to our generation some two-thousand years later.

In Verse 24 of this Sixth Chapter, Our Lord states:  "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

As devout Christians, we are called to place God first and foremost in our life.  I am sure that every single one of you that is reading this would agree with that statement.  God should hold the utmost place in our life.  Period.  And yet as human beings we know that we are ruled very often by, how shall I put it, "base desires of the flesh," if you will.  In other words, people want to satisfy their desires at THAT particular moment.  For example, if I am hungry my stomach will rule my actions until I fill that hunger.  If I get focused on buying a new pair of shoes, for example, I will plan out when I can go to the mall and look for that particular pair of shoes that I want to buy.  If the shoes are expensive, I may have to wait until I save up the money . . . . work overtime . . .  until I get enough to buy the shoes.   How about the alcoholic man or woman that "lives for the next drink?"  And yet so many of us . . . myself included . . . . "live" for the next gadget or doo-dad or meal or pair of sneakers, etc, etc, etc.  We can all come up with our own examples of "what we live for."

We focus our efforts, . . . we focus our time . . . . we focus our energies into obtaining things of the world.  Again, in this same "Sermon on the Mount," Our Lord states:  "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:" (St. Matthew 6:20)

Our Lord states the obvious.  How many "treasures" do we own . . . how many "treasures" have we placed so much of our time and effort into acquiring? . . . . how many of these "treasures" are now "out of style," "out of date," "broken," "last years model," "rusted away"     Whether it be clothing that has gone "out of style" or technology that has been "outdated."  So much of our time and effort and energy is spent on things of this world that does not last.

Our Lord continues in Verse Twenty-One:  "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  (St. Matthew 6:21)  So many of us in the world have our "treasure" here below.  As Christians, our true "treasure" should be up above and not down below.   God calls us to a mansion up above where we will spend eternity.  We should spend our time preparing for that mansion that we are called to.   Let us spend our time focusing our attentions on "things above" and less time focusing on "things below."  Our Blessed Saviour assures us that we will always be taken care of by Our Heavenly Father.  Let us do our part, yes . . . let us work as we are called to do . . . .but let us focus on living for God and placing our trust in Him.  And let us always remember where our true treasure is . . . .up above and not below.

St. Margaret Church gathers together every Sunday morning for Mass at the beautiful Chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.  Mass begins at 9:30 AM.  Please join us as we gather together to worship Our Heavenly Father.  We use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the King James Version of the Bible.