Jesus says to us today, “No servant can serve two masters; . . . You cannot serve God and mammon.”  . . . Now, what the deuce is “mammon”?  Well, I researched that word and discover it’s a Semitic word -- an Arabic/Hebrew word -- . . . it’s a Semitic word which means “things which are acquired for the sake of having them.”  . . . So, Jesus says to us today, “No servant can serve two masters; . . . You cannot serve God and possessions you cherish.”  . . . So, what do you suppose Jesus is getting at?  . . . Well, let’s look at the Scripture in which the saying is found.

    Last Sunday we heard Jesus ask us,

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?

And of course, if sheep are your mammon; . . . if they have been acquired for the sake of the financial security they represent, . . . then no one would risk loosing the ninety-nine in order to go off looking for one.  . . . But Christ’s point is that God isn’t like that.  Because the very next thing Jesus does, in Luke’s Gospel, is tell the story we call “The Prodigal Son”, which is not about a prodigal son at all, but is about the astonishing generosity of God Who affectionately takes back into His household not only the unrighteous son, the son who dishonored and betrayed His trust, . . . but God even goes out looking for the self-righteous son, the one who has contempt for his Father’s generosity.  . . . And then Jesus tells us about a certain business manager.  Jesus says that there was once a wholesale grocer who discovered that his business manager wasn’t very honest in his handling of the corporate assets.  And so, the grocer gives his manager notice that he is fired, and tells him to turn his records over to the corporate accountant for an audit.  Well, the manager, soon to be without a job, can’t see himself doing construction work or trying to get by on welfare, . . . so, he sits down with all the retailers who have been his customers and who owe the wholesale grocer money . . . and the business manager discounts their debts by rewriting their accounts and omitting his own sales commission!  And the object of the business manager in doing this, you see, … is to ingratiate himself to the other men of wealth and business, so that when he is fired by the one, he will be hired by another -- if not for his merits, then at least in exchange for a substantial financial favor.  In other words, rather than trying to gather all the money that was due him before leaving his present employer, . . . the business manager surrenders all of his immediate profits in the hope of gaining some future security.  . . . Jesus says that the wholesale grocer commended his dishonest business manager “for his shrewdness”.  . . . And, you see, . . . in this parable God is the wholesale grocer . . . and is urging us to be shrewd as well; . . . Jesus urges us to imitate the dishonest business manager for the sake of our everlasting security.  . . . Because Jesus says,

the sons of this world are more shrewd than the sons of light.  And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.

Jesus has thrown down a gauntlet(!); . . . He has challenged you to a duel.  He says that the dishonest business manager has more courage and common sense than you do!  . . . And Jesus wants you to show Him He’s wrong.  Because the sons of this world, like the dishonest steward, can readily relinquish the present power and security of money; eagerly give thousands of dollars to Political Action Committees, for instance, . . . in order to provide more power and security for themselves in the future.  But what about you whom Jesus calls “sons of light” -- people who claim the grace of baptism and the spiritual enlightenment of your “Baptismal Covenant”?  Are you as good as the wicked are?  Can you omit your own profit and power in this life, . . . so that God will take you in when this life is over -- if not because of your merits, at least in exchange for the substantial favor you have done Him?  Because, Jesus says, . . . you cannot serve both God and mammon.

    . . . Jesus calls mammon “unrighteous”.  He calls it unrighteous because when something is viewed as desirable for itself; . . . when something is regarded as mammon . . . it engenders injustice.  Look at the New York State Lottery for instance.  It is a scheme of robbery which encourages everyone to purchase lottery tickets for the sake of “winning” an enormous sum of money; . . . an enormous sum of money which is characterized as desirable for itself.  But that money is not “won” at all; . . . the money which New York State tells you is desirable for itself is acquired by one person at the expense of tens of thousands of others who have also “played” this wicked game and simply had their money taken from them.  It is a blasphemous injustice.  The supposed “good” of state lotteries which justifies their existence is a veiled tax invented by wicked men and women who unwittingly conspire with the Evil One to extol mammon by encouraging, in their political constituency, the most fundamental of the deadly sins:  avarice, greed, and gluttony.  If money is needed for public necessities, then just taxes should be levied so that no portion of it is set aside for “prizes”, but the entire amount is applied to the common good.  . . . Because, you see, . . . the righteous use of “unrighteous mammon”; . . . money that is not acquired for the sake of having it; . . . the righteous use of “unrighteous mammon” makes of money the blessing which God intends for it to be.  Money that is not mammon can be a means by which to communicate God’s grace; . . . it can be used to communicate the forgiveness, mercy, and love of Heaven.  And so, your offerings of money which are brought to the Altar each Sunday, for instance, are not gathered for their own sake; . . . your offerings, instead, empower this Parish to communicate to the world, by our Worship, Teaching, and Merciful Works; . . . by our fervent prayer, generosity, kindness, and willingness to welcome and to feed; . . . your offerings of what is mammon to some but which is God’s own bounty in our eyes; . . . your offerings empower this Parish to communicate Heaven’s grace.

    That is the good of money on a public scale:  to make offerings to God which empower the Church to represent Christ; . . . and to pay just taxes which enable the State to do good as well.  . . . But Christ also suggests, in the portion of Luke’s Gospel we have heard today; . . . Christ also suggests that our private use of money must reflect God’s grace as well.  . . . Not only throughout our lives . . . but at the end of them as well.

    The Collect for today acknowledges to God that we are placed among things that are passing away, . . . and, sure enough, Jesus tells us quite plainly in His parable of the dishonest steward that we are creatures destined to depart this mortal life.  Your last opportunity to make friends in heaven is to see that your worldly goods are distributed in such a way as to represent your life as something sacred … by providing for the care of the family which remains when you depart.  It is part of the responsible private use of money . . . to have a Will.

    We all say “you can’t take it with you”, but many people act as if they can by not preparing a Will.  But to die without a Will is the last stingy act of an unjust and inconsiderate person.  A Will responsibly provides for your family, society, and the Church, and it protects the weak-spirited from fighting over the goods you leave behind.  A Will should provide for the personal necessity of your spouse, if you have one, and other members of your family.  The state will take all it can get, and a Will protects your family’s interests.  Moreover, a Will ought to represent a love for your Lord by its care for His Church, which is your spiritual family on earth.  It is a merciful and loving thing, if you are able, that your Will provide a substantial gift to the Church in order to help perpetuate the work of Christ and witness to Him in the world which your life has begun.  I advise that you consult a trustworthy lawyer in order to provide for (or update) a Will or Trust.

    The sum of it all is this:  Jesus has challenged you to a duel; He has challenged you to be better with “unrighteous mammon” than the wicked.  Jesus has challenged you not to acquire things for the sake of having them . . . but to acquire things for the sake of honoring God and manifesting His mercy and love by using the things you acquire to do good; . . . to do good for your immediate family . . . your Church family . . . the community in which you live; . . . to do good for those who deserve your kindness . . . and those who do not.  . . . Jesus has challenged you to be faithful in the management of that which is another’s; to be faithful in the management of that which is God’s . . . and so prove yourself worthy to receive the priceless treasure of everlasting felicity that is intended by God to be the power and security of your own, . . . everlasting life.