Choose God

Introduction

Mammon is not an English word but an Aramaic one that means wealth. Yet, in English and American

popular culture it is something that has been greatly injected into our literature, movies, and even

comic books. In literature, found in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, The Alchemist by Ben Jonson, and

In Dungeons & Dragons. In the film, Constantine, Mammon is the son of Lucifer/Satan himself,

conceived before his father fell from Heaven but born after Satan was sent to Hell. He has a lust for

power and tries to gain control over Earth with the aid of renegade angel Gabriel (Gabriel seeking to

make humanity worthy of God’s love by forcing them to endure Hell on Earth). Mammon is found in

the comic book Spawn, God is Dead, and Final Crisis. Mammon is without a doubt an important part

of our popular culture which make him/her appear either mythical, fabled or imaginary. Beloved, I

stand today to tell you that this is not the case. Mammon is real and desires that we would serve him

instead of God.

God Appears to Have Competition

In our text today, nestled in what is known as the sermon the mount, Jesus teaches something that

should be common sense but it is not. His statement cuts at the heart of what those in his day

struggled with, loyalty. Loyalty has always been a problem with the Israelites since they first left

Egypt. Jesus tells them that it is impossible to have divided loyalties and remain faithful to God. He

tells them that “no one can serve two masters.” The two masters is God and the spirit of wealth

known as mammon. Mammon is personified as a power that comes into competition with God’s claim

on humanity. Jesus in this text rejects securing one’s life though possessions and property, inasmuch

as it would be an attempt to secure one’s life by submitting to a false lord. Beloved, it would appear

that God has competition. There is something that seems to rival God and not because its more

powerful but because people who live in poverty, lack daily needs, and have failed to see

worth and value of self in their own eyes view mammon as a way to come up. In an essence

they are right because money does change ones life. The issue isn’t the money or having the money

but how did one obtain it. Mammon is frequently associated with dishonest acquisition and deceitful

gain. Many serve mammon and in this context it means to worship. It is to put the importance of

obtain wealth over that of serving God. God does appear to have competition because humanity has

historically put wealth, possessions, and treasures above the worship of God. This has led to some

confusion in our understanding of service and worship.