May 24, 2020 Easter 7 Matthew 6:19-7:12

As we’re in Phase 1 of “reopening” our economy I’ve been thinking about how vast our nation’s economy is and what is the driving force behind it. A great deal of it is what many people never really think of, though they depend on it all the time – the physical infrastructure: pipelines, electricity, highways, communications, water and sewer treatment, and all the machinery needed to keep it working. As far as I know, all of that has continued operating with little interruption. There is also the emergency services like hospitals and garbage collection and the like. I name all of that because I want to isolate the consumer economy and look at it in light of Jesus’ teachings as we continue in the Sermon on the Mount.

When I think about what’s behind the consumer economy I realize that it’s mostly driven by vanity. We’ve talked about this before. I’m not just talking about things like cosmetics and high fashion clothing. I mean about how much of the way we use what we have to make statements about ourselves.

A car is about far more than just getting from point A to point B. A car is a statement about your life. If you drive a rusted out 25-year-old Buick people will think differently about you than if you drive a new Tesla. Your house says a lot about you. How successful are you? What areas would you not want to live in because that address would reflect badly on you.

I have to laugh sometimes when I tell them my street address: 133 Park Avenue, especially on the phone. Park Avenue sounds like such an upper end address. Of course Park Avenue in Canandaigua is by no means a bad street, but it is a short street with century old ordinary 3 and 4 bedroom houses. It isn’t as ritzy as it sounds.

Of course I’m not talking about the sound of your address, for any name can be given to any road. But there are probably places where if you lived, you would not be happy to let people know your address.

Brand names, clothing, autos, houses, computers, phone brands: it all gives us an image. And if we are honest with ourselves, that image impacts our self-understanding. If all the products and things of the economy around us signal that we are a failure, we probably feel like a failure. And if all the products and things of the economy around us signal that we are a success, we probably feel like a success. There’s nothing unique about that. I believe that goes for all people of all nations and across all of time.

So Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount that we read come across to us as outright scandalous. His teachings, “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,” are foreign to everything we experience. We use the consumer economy to define us. Jesus calls on us to live in a very different way.

His thoughts in verse 24 really lay out the reality, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” We may not like stark dualities, but this is certainly one. Either you let God define you or you let the world define you.

In the 2017 version of the movie Ben Hur, Judah Ben Hur, a prominent wealthy Jew tells his poor Roman friend Messala that wealth isn’t everything. Messala replies that’s easy for a rich person to say. It’s different when you are poor.

I believe most of us fall into the category of perhaps not being rich but being well off enough that we do not have to worry about our next meal. We do not fear having everything taken from us or entering abject poverty. And so our faith in God comes from that perspective. We may even look at our wealth and possessions and conclude that they do not own us. That we would not lose our sense of worth if we lost all our stuff. But try that from the perspective of the person who is truly poor – the refugee who has fled leaving behind a home, car, and retirement savings – now having only the clothes on their back. Or the migrant worker who will work his whole life and not get ahead at all.

I don’t intend any of this to make us feel guilty. Rather I believe we all live with a burden in our subconscious that we need to maintain an appearance that solidifies our value in the world. That burden is subtle, so subtle we may not be able to even clearly identify it, but it is there.

Jesus’ teachings about possessions are challenging to be sure. They are also immensely freeing. When Jesus tells people to sell what they have, give it to the poor, and come follow him, he is actually offering them a path to freedom.

You cannot serve two masters. Perhaps you do serve God, but when the needs of keeping your self-worth in the world’s eyes come into play I doubt you will be willing to drop them.

Oh the burdens we bear and we don’t even realize it! We think we are free, but the dualism is there. Either your self worth comes from the world or it comes from the one who made you – God.

A big step we can make to our own freedom is to take to heart what Jesus says later on: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” I think he is primarily talking about judging other people’s sinful actions, but he also means judging people in general.

I think we all contribute to judging appearances. I know I do. If someone looks like me and has the same sort of stuff I have I tend to trust him or her more. And if someone is – let me say – too far “above” or “beneath” me according to worldly standards, I’m not so quick to trust.

I am far more interested making friends with people who can help me than making friends with people who can’t. And yet isn’t that being judgmental? Is that not determining a person’s worth as a friend based upon their worldly standing?

Jesus says, “Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye?”

I don’t perceive there to be any logs in my own eyes. And yet, in light of what Jesus teaches, I’m not so sure. What subtle rules and expectations do I have that are out of line with God’s teachings? Who am I to advise someone with a speck in their eye when I unknowingly have my own logs?

Indeed we do need there to be accountability. Destructive behavior is destructive behavior. Abuse is abuse. We should not mistakenly tolerate it in light of what Jesus teaches. But most of judgment is not in this category. It is judging and grading people based on their usefulness to our own lives.

Jesus calls us to take a radical and freeing step towards building ourselves around who God, and God alone, made us. It is an amazing freedom.

And it is probably a freedom that we will fail at. Jesus knows we will fail. Jesus knows how hard it is. And he is not quick to condemn us for it. Instead he will continue to accompany us and challenge us.

This segment of the Sermon on the Mount wraps up with the Golden Rule, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you…” This concept did not originate with Jesus. It is a common teaching among many religions of that day. There is nothing uniquely Christian about it. But as Jesus uses it here it is the guiding principle underneath all that he said before:

If you judge others based on their level in the consumer economy, are you not also judging and measuring yourself in the same economy?

If you build your self worth based on your stuff are you not also judging others the same way?

If you refuse to forgive others are you not also refusing forgiveness for yourself?

If you cannot acknowledge the log in your own eye how can you take the speck out of another’s?

As Jesus applies it, the Golden Rule is not a strategic principle to ensure good stuff for you. It is a path of freedom from bondage.

May you be truly free – free from the many countless things that would entrap you – and know fully God’s love and intentions for life.