Our struggle with mammon

by Max Stackhouse

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns that "you cannot serve God and mammon." Most modern translations keep the ancient Aramaic word mammon, which suggests riches that have become a god. People begin to worship this god of riches, and to structure their lives and society around it. They seek their security, even their salvation, by and in it. This is not mere greed; it is an atheistic theology of history. Those who worship at this altar think the almighty buck makes the world go around.

The world is in a perennial struggle over mammon. The last half century's dramatic economic growth has made an amazing number of people super-rich, and more than half the world's people have been pulled out of subsistent drudgery. All this is now threatened by the worldwide economic crisis. So it's a good time to meditate on some central scriptural insights.

Money and wealth are not evil in themselves. The Bible presents numerous images of wealth as ordinary and morally neutral, even as symbols on which to hang parts of the good news. God wants us all to have abundant life, and the Bible's constant concern for the poor suggests that a lack of access to money and wealth is evil. We're called to be prudent with our money, to give generously and to help people become self-sufficient.

The decisive question is deeper: In whom do we place our faith—in mammon? Or in the God who knows what we need, who calls us to be active agents of the reign of righteousness, who promises that these things will be given to those who do? Our government's current efforts may help to re-establish economic growth that's both steady and inclusive. But over time, it's doubtful that such attempts will accomplish all that much unless there is also moral renewal among the world's business and state leaders.

An economic system is not, in and of itself, the purpose of life. A viable economy is, however, a precondition for more people being able to live as God intends—the basis for what some have called the "Protestant work ethic," as well as for the fact that some people are called to be business leaders. These individuals are entrusted to generate and help us manage our wealth, just as doctors help us with our health, engineers with our habitat and clergy with our faith.

The Bible warns against both too much poverty and too much wealth. The poor are often forced to worry about their survival to the point of desperation and despair, while the rich are often tempted to structure society to benefit only themselves. Both lose confidence in God's providence; both damage their neighbors and society. In this sense we might say that God wants everyone to be middle class, with existential warrants for a confident hope and generous spirit.

1 Timothy 6 commends godliness and contentment with what we have. It presumes that most people should and do have access to enough to live decently and then points out that those who try too hard to get "rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people [not only themselves, but others] into ruin and destruction." The reason is not money or wealth but "the love of money." Mammon wants our love, the binding loyalty of our soul, as does God—but worship of this lesser god cannot satisfy. The author of Ecclesiastes offers a similar analysis and advises us to live in a way that recognizes that we came into the world with nothing and will leave it the same way.

The point is this: we are not in charge of human history. We all should be responsible in our work and lifestyles, recognizing that some are called to economic leadership. But our destiny is not entirely in their hands or in our own. We do not always know what God is up to, but we can accept what we have, share as much as we can, take seriously and enjoy the tasks to which we are called and leave the rest to God—for all that we do have is the gift of God.

There may be great changes ahead as we find our way in a globally interdependent world, and no change of this scope will be without turmoil. The struggle with mammon is not likely to be over soon. But its power may be reduced by our stumbling efforts to find new ways of structuring economic responsibility, and it can be reduced in our hearts if we are thankful stewards of what is given to us—living with the joy and hope of God in our hearts, even if uncertainty threatens our hopes.

Max Stackhouse recently retired from teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is general editor of the God and Globalization book series and a Century editor at large.