Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and his justice; and all these things will be added unto you
In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew Jesus warns his disciples to seek first the Kingdom of God. A man cannot serve two masters and in the same way it is not possible to serve God and Mammon. There is no point in being consumed with anxiety about the things of this world. Life is more than meat and the body more than raiment. “Behold the birds of the air; for they neither sow nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them… And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they labour not, neither do they spin; but I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these.” Jesus’ disciples are not to be like the pagan world around them. Life does not consist of the abundance of material possessions. Rather, “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and his justice; and all these things will be added unto you.”
But what was the context in which Jesus spoke these words? In his words and mighty works he proclaimed that the Kingdom of God, the hope for a new heaven and a new earth when God’s will would finally be done on earth as it is in heaven, was now being inaugurated in his own person and ministry. Hence, the Kingdom of God was to be the focus of the lives of his followers. They were called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They were not to be preoccupied with the passing things of this world where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break in and steal, but rather with the Kingdom of God which was the pearl of great price, the buried treasure hidden in the field. Some of Jesus’ followers left their own homes and families and followed him. Jesus sent out some of them into the towns and villages of Galilee without purse or scrip to proclaim the gospel of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps it was in answer to the inevitable question about how his followers would provide for themselves that he spoke the words we have heard today about not being consumed with anxiety about the things of this world, but rather to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and God would provide all that was necessary. Not all of Jesus’ followers renounced their possessions and followed him permanently, for some remained in their homes with their families. However, he called all his followers to detach themselves from the preoccupations of earthly society.
In past ages Jesus’ call to forsake the preoccupations of earthly society was taken very seriously. Religious orders were founded dedicated to following the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. People were taught to follow the example of the saints, who denied themselves, took up their cross and followed Jesus. However lamentably people failed to practice what they preached at least they knew what the Christian ideal was to which they were called to follow.
Today, what was once seen as the sin of covetousness, the desire to store up for oneself more and more treasure upon earth, is no longer seen as a sin to be denounced, but rather as something to be cultivated. The world is divided into winners and losers and this is seen in purely economic and material terms. The advertising industry encourages people to buy things that they do not need with money they do not have in order to impress people who are not worth impressing. Success is defined as “playing the game”, in other words manipulating the system in order to maximise the economic gain for oneself. People now see the marketplace as the arbiter of morality. They are reduced to economic units competing against each other, and seeking to gain as much for themselves as they can. They see themselves as emancipated from any constraints of religion and morality and are encouraged at every available opportunity to cultivate “self worth” and “self esteem”. Yet, though they have reduced morality to the marketplace and claimed unlimited freedom to follow the devices and desires of their own hearts, they have abandoned any sense of taking responsibility for their own actions and have been happy to surrender control to the State.
The Government is no longer seen as a necessary evil to keep the civil peace in a fallen world, but has now taken over the responsibility for behaviour that people have abandoned for themselves. Consequently morality has been transferred from God to the marketplace and responsibility has been transferred from the human person to the State. The paradox of the situation is that a generation that has claimed unlimited freedom to follow their own devices and desires has been willing in practice to surrender responsibility for their actions to the State. People are frightened of death and of the world’s changing climate. They have consequently been willing to surrender ultimate responsibility for their actions to the State because they think it will help them survive in the present crisis. This has produced the extraordinary situation of a people who claim to be emancipated from the constraints of religion and morality being willing to surrender control over responsibility for their actions to the Government. They renounced Christianity because it was world renouncing rather than world affirming, and they preferred to follow their own desires and gather up for themselves treasure upon earth. Yet, frightened by the Government’s propaganda machine, they have allowed the State to stage a power grab, to take over responsibility for their actions, to control their behaviour, to destroy their economies and so create what is now recognised as a cost of of living crisis.
The truth of the matter is that in this fallen world disease and climate change are facts of life which we have to adapt to and historically have adapted to. It is not ultimately something that the Government can do for us, but rather a matter for which we have to take responsibility ourselves. Instead of transferring morality to the market and responsibility to the State we need to acknowledge God as the source of all that is good, and to accept responsibility for our own actions, our sins and our shortcomings. When we have learned to love God then we will learn the folly of trying to lay up treasure on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal, and to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Yet we should renounce the false standards of this world not in a spirit of despairing resignation, but in order to become more fully involved in it as we learn to see life in a true perspective. G. K. Chesterton said that “thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world…. The secularists have not wrecked divine things; but the secularists have wrecked secular things, if that is any comfort for them. The Titans did not scale the heavens, but they laid waste to the world.” This is the lessen that we can draw from the behaviour of our own secular governments and their fellow travellers in the present crisis. Only when we learn again to follow the straight and narrow way that leads to life and renounce the current path to destruction can we begin again to love God and to love our neighbour.
Let us therefore pray that we will seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all things that are needful will be given to us.
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