Sermon Leftovers: Serving Two Masters

One of the things that we often think is in the bible is “money is the root of all evil”.  That’s actually not in the bible.  What is in the bible- in Paul’s letter to Timothy- is “the love of money is the root of all evil”.  Throughout this Story series, we’ve talked about idols, and the idea of an idol being anything that we place a greater amount of importance on than our faith in Jesus.  For many of us in America- this idol is money.  For some of us, it might be physical money in terms of the money we have in the bank or in retirement.  For others of us, it might be the stuff that money allows us to buy- homes, cars, toys, gadgets, etc.  And for others of us, it might be the jobs or education that allows us the jobs that allows us the money or the stuff.  Really, these are just different symptoms to the same problem of trying to serve money.

Jesus is pretty clear- we cannot serve two masters.  If we claim to follow Christ, we will not be able to follow money.  And if we follow money, it will be impossible to follow Christ.  This doesn’t mean money is bad- that is not what I am saying- there’s plenty of examples in our world where followers of Jesus do well with money but still manage for it not to become their god. 

But I think there are some of us  who spend so much energy trying to please both- both Jesus and money, both Jesus and our job, both Jesus and out lifestyle we feel we need to maintain to fit in, both Jesus and our education- that this trying to please two masters has left us pretty worn out.  Tired.  Empty.