Matthew 6:24: Trying To Rep Both Sides

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. - Matthew 6:24

When my wife was a real estate agent and I was her trusty sidekick, it was a big deal when she would get a client-either a buyer looking to find a house or a seller looking to put theirs on the market. She was responsible to represent the buyer to sellers or represent the seller to potential buyers to the best of her ability. When the deal was concluded, my wife would receive a commission for her work and the other agent-the one who represented the other party-would also receive a commission.

There was always the question: could a real estate agent do both? Could you represent the buyer and the seller and thus get both commissions? The answer was (I don't know now) yes, it was legal. But it was full of potential difficulties. Sure, in a normal case, things flow smoothly and everybody is happy. But what if issues come up?

Real estate agency has always contained the danger that the agent would pursue the sale at the expense of the people involved. Maybe by glossing over an issue with the property or contract conditions that were not in their best interest. The commission can be an incentive for personal advantage at the expense of those you represent. In our experience, when you represent one party, they are "your" people and you can feel an attachment to their well-being. We were so involved in the lives of my wife's clients that I once presided at their wedding. This can change when you represent both people and neither party is "your" people. Instead it is you (the agent) and them (the buyer and seller).

But the real danger comes when there is a conflict between the parties. If you try to represent both sides, you are either squeezed or you end up favoring one or the other.

This is the issue Jesus highlights when he refers to "two masters". It seems good when you are receiving the benefits from both sides and all is going well. When they come into conflict, in terms of goals, dreams, hopes or even failures, that is when you see which is really directing your heart. The fault line in your heart can be ignored before the earthquake, but it is waiting for the tension to build to a point where the tectonic plates of our desires must go different directions.

I believe that God leads us into difficulties and temptations to reveal to us where our loyalty lies. He knows to where our heart tends, but we are often ignorant of its inclinations (or deceiving ourselves).

One of my favorite parts of the Lord's prayer is "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." It is a puzzling phrase that even has given the pope trouble recently. But I see it as the prayer of a man or woman who wants rescue from the divided life before God must use stuff in our life to make it obvious to us.

God, please show the way out of the split-loyalty life before you have to use more drastic measures to draw it to my attention. In my mind, I call this the coward's plea: a request made from someone who knows he is flawed and accepts that God should do whatever it takes to make him whole, but prefers the gentler path if possible.

This requires careful examination of what is tugging at your heart. What is delighting you? Or maybe more telling, what is frustrating or irritating you? I have found that finding the root cause of these questions often reveals something that wants to be rep'd on an equal footing with God in my life. Sometimes it isn't clear because my heart is full of mixed motives swirled together and the Spirit must be involved to help me sort it all out. Sometimes it is frustration for the right reasons: for example, my heart is frustrated that the world is not as it ought and I long for something better. But usually, it is my own desires to be recognized or to be central. I can't rep both myself and God.

Matthew 6:11: Today, Grace Arrived Because God Thought Of Me Days Before

Give us today our daily bread. - Matthew 6:11

When I was a young boy it was my mother's regular habit to inspect our rooms-and even our closets-before we were allowed to watch our hour of television. So it was on one occasion that she discovered my cache of vitamins, granola bars and other miscellaneous items. Marching me before the closet door, she demanded to know what this was all about.

"In case I should want to run away." I informed her.
"Are you planning to run away?" she asked.
"No, not really." I replied tersely.
"Then why?"
"Just if I should need to?"
"Well, if you think you need to, we should talk about it."

Then she promptly gathered all my hoarded items and put them away. We never spoke of it again.

The sermon at our church was on verse 11 of the Lord's Prayer by pastor Kent Carlson provoked my recollection. What would such a life-style of keeping back bits reveal about our opinion of God and our satisfaction with his provision for us.  I'm sure my mother was worried what was inside my young head when she found my running-away cache. Was it a commentary on how I saw our relationship as mother or our situation as a family at that point?

My wife, Helen, told me of an occasion where her mother brought her home an apple from the far-away household where she worked. The apple was so unique and precious that Helen would admire it and smell it. She admired it so much that she could not bring herself to eat it until--finally--the emaciated, rotten apple had to be discarded.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. - Matthew 6:26

What is it that the pea-sized brains of birds know that our 3+ pound brain can't grasp? That today has enough supply for what he wants for us today. That our lives are a necessary celebration of God's goodness. That our needs are met through vast, incomprehensible systems of nature, labor and commerce which God manages to the benefit of his children to arrive each day. That we receive far more than we remember to ask for. 

We can't eat tomorrow's bread. I will not take it for granted that today's bread, or shelter, or health this morning arrived on schedule, but instead regard it as the grace it truly is.

Give us, Father, what we need today. I'm so glad you do-that many days before, you started thinking of what I would need today so that I wouldn't need to worry, because you are good. Amen.