Brothers and Sisters,
In our Lenten class and sermon series, “Confronting Mammon with Jesus,” we continue to be confronted with the ubiquity of Mammon. Exploring and expounding on how thoroughly ingrained Mammon is in the logic of our day in and day out lives is an enormous task. As we have stated already, Mammon is very much the water we swim in, as such, learning to see it can be 1) extremely difficult and 2) overwhelming.
In this past Sunday’s class, we talked about how confronting Mammon is more like confronting powers and principalities in our world than it is just getting in touch with our own moral failings or how bad we are. On one hand, this is freeing news – it’s not up to you to ramp up your guilt or shame to try to behave better! On the other hand, de-internalizing the issue of Mammon also makes us more intimately aware of how enslaved to the logic of Mammon we are – because it is an entire system it feels out of my control to do anything about it!
If you’ve found yourself feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, or confused as we’ve begun this series, you are not alone. We are on this journey together!
Oftentimes we want to rush to fix something, but there is no ready-made, pre-packaged solution to the problem of Mammon. That may feel like bad news, but God is present and at work in the midst of this.
God is at work in our noticing, questioning, and wrestling! Instead of being under the gun to figure this out asap for the sake of your eternal soul, you are invited to bear witness to the work God is doing in your heart. The tension and unease you are feeling is not an obstacle, but instead a sign of the deep work the Spirit is doing inside you.
God is growing the first fruits of new creation in your heart. Sit and reflect on that good news today. Take a moment to reflect and notice where you feel lack, unease, tension, or confusion about this. Hold that tension in your heart and in a quiet moment hold it before the Holy Spirit.
God is not waiting on you to get right so that you can finally get to work. God is at work in you right now, reconciling even your desires!
May you walk in the knowledge that in your wrestling the Divine is present and is renaming you as God’s people.
Peace,
Fr. Spencer
