Matthew 6 Sense and Non-Cents.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 18 August 2013
and 614 Warehouse Mission, 15 April 2018

by Captain Michael Ramsay

Some one-liners for you:

Ø      Venison for dinner again? Oh Deer!

Ø      I used to be a banker…until I lost interest

Ø      England has no kidney bank but it does have a…Liverpool

Ø      I tried to catch some fog but I…mist

Ø      Broken pencils are… pointless.

Ø      I know a guy who says he’s addicted to break fluid but he says he can stop anytime.

Ø      How long do marriages typically last? 16 years: 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poor

Matthew Chapter 6 is an interesting chapter. It is a portion of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, which does address times that are for better, for worse; for richer or for poor. Matthew 6 contains in its lines, the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), further teaching on prayer (6:5-15), teaching on fasting (6:16-17) and some of Jesus’ very clear teaching on money and possessions (6:1-4, 19-34). Chapter 7, which we may examine next week, also adds to this some of Jesus’ other well-known insights on the matter (7:7-12).

Matthew begins Chapter 6 with Jesus’ words about money and giving to the needy. He warns us not to do this for show, not to do this to please others, but to do this because we love God. Matthew then records that Jesus teaches us the same thing about prayer and fasting (cf. Luke 11:2–4). The point of our praying and fasting should not be to become known as pray-ers and fast-ers or even faster prayers. The purpose of prayer is to come before God, having already forgiven our enemies, to seek His will in our lives and the purpose of fasting is likewise not to be rewarded by people but by our Lord.

Matthew then, returning to his record of Jesus’ teaching on money (6:19-24), notes that you should not acquire possessions on earth where they will just get wrecked over time anyway, but rather you should concentrate your efforts in that regard on storing up treasures in heaven where decay and destruction have no claim to them.

Jesus is telling us here then that our hearts are going to be with what we value, our hearts naturally are committed to that which we treasure. If we treasure our possessions then that is where our heart is. This makes sense. Nothing is too complicated about that. So Jesus tells us that we should not give to the needy just for show, to impress others (Matthew 6:1-4); Jesus tells us that if we do invest our time in acquiring possessions on earth, then that is where our emotions will be invested and that is a very poor investment indeed (6:19-21).

Now in case there is any remaining doubt about what Jesus is saying, as recorded in Verse 24, Jesus is quite clear when He says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” The word translated ‘money’ or ‘Mammon’ here can refer to any or all belongings or material acquisition.[1] Jesus is quite clear you can either invest in material gain or you can invest in heavenly gain. You cannot invest in both.

To use the analogy of the stock market: if you only have enough money to buy one share in IBM, then you cannot also buy one share of Apple. And if you have tied up all of your money into IBM and Apple increases in value but IBM does not, you are not entitled to a cheque from Apple.

Or another gambling analogy: If you bet all of your money on the Roughriders to win but they cannot contain John Cornish, then the person with whom you placed your bet is not going to give you any money for a Stampeders win. Quite the opposite: he is going to be looking for you to pay what you owe him!

Or another sports analogy. If you are playing in the Grey Cup game yourself and the team you are playing for loses, you do not get to hold the Grey Cup; you do not get to take a ring home with you.

With God and money, like with playing football, you also can’t hedge your bets: you can’t spend the whole game trying to play for both teams. If you come out and start playing defence for one team and then when ball possession switches, all of a sudden you line up playing defence for the other team; one or both teams, or the referee, or the league itself will throw you out of the game. You will not win the prize.

If we work to acquire material wealth for ourselves, then we are not working to acquire eternal wealth in the Kingdom of Heaven.[2] You can strive for one or you can strive for the other; you cannot strive for both. There is an old expression: You cannot eat your cake and still have it to look at and show off to all your friends; you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Does this make sense? You can’t serve both God and money.

There are a few natural questions that arise from this then: If I cannot work for both money and God, then what should I do about planning for the future? Don’t I have a responsibility to ensure that I make enough money to feed my family and myself? Don’t I need to make enough money to make sure that my children can go to college or to make sure that I can retire someday? I’ll get you to think about these questions for a while; we will come back to them in a moment…if we can’t serve money/ material acquisition/ life savings, then how do we save for the future? Let this percolate for a moment and we will come back to it. First though, I want to look at Matthew 6:22-23. Right after Jesus says,

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”;

He says, Verse 22-23 (see Luke 11:34-36),

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

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

So how does all of this about light in ourselves and in our eyes relate to money and material acquisition and the eternal savings plans that we are talking about today?[3]

This parable of the eye – due to its placement in the text - obviously relates to our relationship with money; so, what does it mean? It says that A) my eye itself is a lamp: lamps give off light but how does that relate to our eyes and our possessions? And it says that B) If your eye (the lamp) is unhealthy you will be full of darkness, so much that the light itself that is within you will turn to darkness?[4]

Now this is a controversial text and scholars do not unanimously agree upon an interpretation but I will let you know what I think based on the journal articles that I have read. I think that it is really speaking to what we focus on. If we focus on God we will be enlightened but if we focus on money we may be blinded by greed or develop a dependency upon acquisition and so fall into that bottomless pit of eternal separation from God.[5]

Now this brings us quite logically – if not necessarily so nicely – to the questions that we left to percolate on the coffee counter of our brain a little while ago: if we can’t work for money/ material acquisition/ monetary life savings, then how do we save for the future? How do we plan ahead? How do we plan for retirement? How do we plan for our children's education? How do we make long term plans without putting trust in money that is held in trust for the future? These are the questions that Jesus answers in our next pericope today.

When the listeners to these comments heard them the first time, they were probably thinking the very same sort of thing as we are talking about. What about the future then? Even more: First Century Judea wasn’t nearly as wealthy as 21^st Century Canada. They weren’t worried about college or retirement. They were probably tempted to worry about whether they could even afford clothes or food to eat. To them and by extension to us then Jesus says, Verse 24-25 “You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?” To those who are thinking that they need money to plan for the future, Jesus says you can’t serve both God and money so don't worry about money at all.[6] You serve God and God will take care of your money and other needs.

Remember Jesus’ disciples. Remember when Peter tells Jesus that they have given up everything for Him (Matthew 19:27, Mark 10:28). They have left their jobs. They have left their homes. They have left everything. Jesus continues, Verse 26 on:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

    “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

When people who are living in an occupied territory, without much food, let alone money, are worrying about having enough for the future; Jesus tells them, “don’t worry about it.” Don’t waste your time with useless plans. Don’t work for your retirement. Don’t work for your financial security. Jesus says rather we should work for God, Verse 33: “seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Now this is important. I am not saying that we should all quit our jobs and live off welfare. That would be dishonest and God is not a liar and God will not be mocked (cf. Galatians 6:7). Welfare and EI are for people who cannot work. The Bible says we are to work at all things as if we are working for the Lord. (Colossians 3:23; Cf. Ephesians 4:28; cf. also John 6, Acts 20:35, Romans 4:4-6, 1 Corinthians 12:6) What I am saying is that we need to trust God for the future. There is no point in putting our faith in investments, if 1929 taught us anything it is that investments can be wiped out in the twinkling of an eye.

Now I will tell you that there are a few verses in the Bible that are indeed very near and dear to my heart. As a child, I was never the best at memory verse work but I have memorized Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” This verse has been very important to me in my life. It was important to me when I was a child; it was important to me when I was a young adult and a university student who at times couldn’t make ends meet. It was important to me when I was a businessman experiencing times of richer and poorer, better and worse. This verse -“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things (whether we will have enough to eat, drink, or wear, or whatever) shall be added unto you.” - is important to me when I think of others who suffer today in the world and when I think of you who are going through struggles here in the corps. This verse -“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” - is important to me when I think back to our decision to give up our whole lives and become first urban missionaries and later Officers with The Salvation Army. This verse is very important to me when I am overwhelmed with life. This verse is very important to me when I am plagued by deadlines, pressures, and the emotional toll, of not only my work, but also of my family and my own emotional and spiritual health. I sometimes am tempted to pack it all in, move back to Vancouver or to the Island, buy another business or two and earn money like I did before I came into ministry so as to better save for the future.

Now I do enjoy my life here immensely. No one could ask for a better corps (church) or a better community than this one here. We have the best people: congregation members, soldiers, adherents, volunteers, employees… We are so blessed to be here. No one really understands when I tell them just how good this community is. But nonetheless the Enemy can still catch us off guard and cause us to wonder about the future and to worry. I honestly sometimes look back to the certainty that we left on the coast and forward to the uncertainty of what’s ahead and sometimes I may feel like crying but I claim this promise: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” And I claim this promise often. God knows our problems and God knows what we need. God promises that if we seek first the Kingdom of God then all these things will be added unto us so we should not worry about tomorrow for each day does have enough trouble of its own.

These are words of comfort. So today I want us all to take our worries, our cares, our struggles, and our burdens and leave them at the cross as they say; I want us all to be free from them. We don’t need to worry about starving children in China; we don’t need to worry about our debts; we don’t need to worry about our eviction notices, we don’t need to worry about where we are going to live or whether or not we are going to eat. We need instead to seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and He will take care of the rest. He promises. God takes care of the birds of the air and the grass of the field and each of us here today are so much more important to Him than these. So today I ask us to cast all of our burdens upon Jesus. Today I ask us to seek first the Kingdom of God – and everything will be okay – one way or another – everything will be okay. God knows what we need even more than we do and He loves our children and He loves us even more than we do, so please let us just seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness through praying and reading the Scriptures and through loving Him and then He promises that everything will be okay.

Let us pray

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[1] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 143

[2] Cf. M. Eugene Boring, ‘Matthew’, (NIB 8: Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1995), 210.

[3] Cf. Sinai "Tamas" Turan, 'A neglected rabbinic parallel to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 11:34-36)', Journal of Biblical Literature 127, no.1 (2008): 81-93.

[4] Cf. Thomas Zockler, 'Light within the human person: a comparison of Matthew 6:22-23 and Gospel of Thomas 24', Journal of Biblical Literature 120, no. 3 (2001): 487-499.

[5] Cf. R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 143

[6] Cf. Ellen T. Charry, 'The Grace of God and the Law of Christ,’ Interpretation 57 (2003): 40.