Matthew 6:19-24 • Mammon
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Matthew 6:19-24
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 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!
24 “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.
Abundance & Scarcity
Saint Clare of Assisi - “We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.”
Sexuality, pride, and power can all compete for our affections but mammon competes for our allegiance.
Peter Kreeft - Mammon is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power… it is natural to man to desire external things as means, but mammon makes them into ends, into gods. And when a creature is made into a god, it becomes a devil.
Douglas Jones - Jesus understood the antithesis or contrast between God's way and Mammon's way as the most fundamental distinction in all of life and history. He didn't divide the world into Left vs. Right or Liberal vs. Conservative or the envious vs. the entrepreneur or Christian vs. Muslim. Jesus didn't make Mammon just a side temptation for a few, like we do.
Ezekiel 28:11-17 - 11 The word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. 16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.
King of Tyre - “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.”
Victor Lebow - Our enormously productive economy ... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced, & discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.
• Inadequacy
• Planned Obsolescence
• Perceived Obsolescence
• Targeted Advertising
How do we contend with mammon?
• Wake up.
• Generosity
Christian Smith, The Paradox of Generosity - “Rather than leaving generous people on the short end of an unequal bargain, practices of generosity are actually likely instead to provide generous givers with essential goods in life—happiness, health, and purpose—which money and time themselves simply cannot buy. That is an empirical fact well worth knowing.”
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Each Sunday we come together we offer an open invitation into the way of Jesus. An invitation to enter into sacred rhythms - to draw near to God through singing, giving, learning, and praying.
As a community that desires renewal in Des Moines as it is in Heaven, we recognize that we cannot offer what we ourselves do not have. We cannot lead where we ourselves have not been led; in turn, these questions aim at reflection. Reflecting on God’s word and making space for his leadership.
After watching or listening consider the following discussion questions as a large group or in groups of three to four:
What stood out from the teaching?