William Loader
Pentecost 2: 25 May Matthew 6:24-34
In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord's Prayer rises like a pinnacle at its midpoint in 6:9-13. So in 6:24-34 we are coming down the mountain, having just passed instruction about fasting (6:16-18) and warnings about wealth (6:19-23). As we enter our passage we need to do so with the previous verses ringing in our ears: don't hoard up earthly wealth! (6:19-21); and a greedy eye corrupts the whole person (6:22-23). When we read then in 6:24 about not being able to work for two bosses, it is clear that one of them is greed for wealth and possessions. That is what "mammon" means. To serve God is something opposite; it sets opposite priorities. The issue is idolatry of the kind which is alive and well today.
The contrast only makes sense if you really do think they are opposites. If your image of God is of one who will guarantee you blessing, here or beyond, so that you can do better than others, then your God is in close alliance with mammon. They are mates. It matters little whether your satisfaction is to be at peace in this world with possessions while others go without or to have peace in the life to come knowing that others face pain and oblivion. They are both versions of non-love. But if your God is a God of compassion, your passion and your pain will be wherever there is suffering and distress (whether some say it is deserved or not - because nothing justifies violence without relief or can veto love). So we choose the God of compassion who calls for sharing or we choose the God of greed and self-indulgence, making ourselves rich and happy at others' expense. Both can be very religious.
But can we afford it? If we deny our need for food and shelter, we are lying to ourselves and playing games. We have needs and God has made us to care about ourselves, indeed to love others as we love ourselves and vice versa. Love does not mean denial of our needs, but believing that it is possible to live in ways that my needs do not have to be met always at your expense. Love and care can flow equally to us all. So these sayings of Jesus assembled in 6:25-34 address human need, taking it seriously. We can get by! We can trust the process. We don't need to be distracted by preoccupation with our needs. That means we can get on with living and with loving. Intensive self-preoccupation won't feed us. Relax! Look at the birds! Look at nature!
Such advice can address us at a number of levels: a call to simplicity, a call back to nature, a call not to engage in expensive and time consuming indulgences in food or clothing. Step back and live! Get out of the rat race! Stop being captive to the marketing which wants to buy more and all that is bigger and better! Think justice. Think world poverty. Think what such excessive behaviour does to the environment.
In Galilee the strategy probably worked. Jesus and his followers were in an economic system which was poor but well enough for people like Jesus and his group to turn up on someone's doorstep and expect to be fed. Everywhere, the Jesus tradition assumes that level of support and it made mission possible. You could even survive on bush tucker as John did, but certainly in the villages you could get by. There was no need for most people to get distracted with worries. In fact, the more the community became caring and embodied the gospel of the kingdom the better the chances were that you would survive, at least with the basics. The strategy would not have worked in desperately poor areas and still does not. Starving people look with vacant faces at birds and, if anything, would want to eat them or drive them from the little they have. It is even worse when people imply that the desperate lack faith or are somehow left on the scrap heap because they worry and don't trust.
Seeking the kingdom of God first, making the vision of justice and peace your focus, and living by its inspiration by thought and prayer and in the eucharist, is not about turning your eyes away from human need toward a heavenly realm, but about turning towards it. In that context you will usually find support around you, enough and to spare, but you will hold in focus the faces that have nothing, the infrastructures that fail, and the systems that need to change. These people don't need to be told to look at birds and lilies. But we do, so that in the process of living with a heart open to others we don't find ourselves caught in self-preoccupation. Even then, we need to see the wider picture which includes making sure mutual support is there for each other. These words are not a recipe for loners, but for people in communities which care..
Jesus' challenge is also not a mandate for stupidity and irresponsible planning. It is about having a clear goal and setting up the path in a way that takes us there and not down the side alleys of spending too much time thinking about ourselves. To make it work, we need at least to make sure there is something like Galilee in place for a start. with the advantages of fertile soil and Herod's building projects to give people employment. There are no economic shortcuts. Our problem is not that we lack a Galilee. It is that we refuse to believe the way of God is the way of life and hope - for all.