14th Sunday after Pentecost 25.8.13 Two masters
We cannot have two masters, as both readings tell us today. The epistle speaks of the flesh being at war with the spirit; the Gospel that we cannot serve both God and money.
When Joshua was about to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land he put an ultimatum to them: You must choose whether you will follow the God who has led you out of slavery or one of the other gods round about here (cf Joshua 24,15). Put like that they did not have much choice, at least as to what they said. Actually being loyal to the one true God is not so easy, as we find for ourselves.
Why do we find it so hard to trust in God? The same God who has created us, saved us, kept us in being, promised us eternal life as well as daily bread? Yet constantly we are tempted to disobey Him, to take some other course than the one He puts in front of us.
A lot of the problem is just the time factor. We know we are promised a reward in heaven but we want happiness right now.
So we are tempted to snatch at every passing thing that seems to offer happiness. But some things that seem as though they will make us happy will in fact make matters worse. All sin comes under this heading.
Sin is any time we try to do things differently than God wants us to do them. We make a calculation: if I do this particular action it will make me happy. Then we find we have been tricked.
This has been the story of the whole human race. Eden is repeated all over again, in every life, in every generation.
How can we get this right? How do we train ourselves to see past the shiny apple to the indigestion the apple will cause?
Lots of prayer, self-denial, sacraments and all the usual practices of our faith will help us to make sure our treasure is located in heaven, not here on earth.
It is not that we are miserable here and happy in heaven. We can be happy in both places. But it will not be sin that makes us happy here; it is holiness that does that. We sin to make ourselves happy and we fail miserably. If we obey the will of God we find that we are happy, even right now, leaving aside eternal life.
It is easy to see how holiness of life makes us happy if we think in terms of how other people treat us. If I am surrounded by murderers and robbers (to name two kinds of sin), does this make me happy? Certainly not. If I am surrounded by kind, honest, caring people? Then I am happy. Thus we see that holiness produces happiness.
The only reason this life is so difficult is that people disobey God. But if everyone would obey we would have a much happier world. So much tension and anxiety would dissolve.
The Lord provides for us, as we know. He has more than one way of doing that. One major way He provides is through moving us to do things in a better way. Thus to set up a society where people care for each other (the Kingdom of God).
It has to begin in one’s own soul. Not grasping, but giving. If we must grasp something then let it be the will of God. This will make us happy, short and long term.
As we are still a long way short of such a society God provides grace to deal with such hardship as we encounter; until better times come. But come they will, to those who trust in Him.
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