"Where Your Treasure Is"
Matthew 6:19-24; 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 24-34
In the movie “Jaws,” a marine biologist is desperate to find out what’s
gone wrong with the sharks in the area.
A large shark is brought in, and the biologist lays the shark up on a
table and proceeds to do an autopsy. He
slits open the shark’s belly. Out of the
belly comes first one fish…and then another.
He takes dozens of fish from the shark’s belly. Then there’s a blender. An old Florida license plate. Assorted bits and pieces of this and
that. The shark really is an “eating
machine.”
But it’s an utterly indiscriminate
eating machine. The shark was consuming everything
in sight—whether it was good for it or not.
Someone said that the
story of the shark is a parable of modern society. We consume indiscriminately. We have deep, vast hungers. We try to satisfy them in different
ways. But often we consume and collect
much that we don’t need…and that isn’t good for us.
And so, for a while I’ve been wondering if part of our
calling in the church today isn’t to find out what people want and then give it
to them, to try to satisfy all their hungers-- but rather to give people food
that’s worth having and to school people in how to be hungry in the right ways.
The gospel lesson we heard is from a collection Jesus’
teachings on assorted matters in the Sermon on the Mount. There’s a theme in this section: the urgency
of seeking the kingdom of heaven above all earthly distractions.[1]
In this passage, we hear Jesus warning against the human
tendency to collect things and treasure them and to judge peoples’ status by what they have. In some cultures, one is judged by one’s livestock,
in others, by the possession of precious metals and rare gems. In some societies, a woman’s dowry might have
been treasured clothing or jewelry.
In a money economy, those who aspire to a higher status
work to acquire monetary wealth. Then, when someone has enough money, they can
show their wealth with luxury cars, large and elegant homes, fine artwork or
valuable jewelry--to name a few of our treasures.
The problem with investing our sense of worth and safety
in money and possessions is that it is never truly safe. Cash can be lost or stolen. Expensive cars can rust…and clothing
can be damaged by insects. Homes and
other treasured possessions can be destroyed in wildfires or floods. Deadbolt locks, safety deposit boxes, bank
accounts--none of these can protect what we desire most deeply in our hearts.
I think Tom Long is
right when he says what our hearts truly desire is “to count--to count for
something and to count to someone. To come to the end of a day--or the end of a
life--with the satisfaction of having stood for what is good, with the joy of
having been loved and having loved well in return, with the memory of having
shown mercy, and with the peace of having walked with God--these are the true treasures,
the treasures of the kingdom, a fortune no thief can plunder.”[2]
The call to store up
treasures in heaven is radical call to be oriented toward God’s way of love and
abundance and justice in how we see the world.
If we see life as a gift from God, a bountiful outpouring of God’s
providing, then we can be free to hold possessions with a light grasp and to be
generous toward others. In contrast, if we see things through spiritual eyes
that are “unhealthy,” we’ll see life as a competition between winners and
losers over scarce resources. In the wise words of Proverbs, “Do not wear
yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. When your eyes light upon
it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes wings to itself, flying like an eagle
toward heaven.”[3]
If we see the world in terms of scarcity, we
won’t be freed from fear and selfishness. But if we have a healthy vision of
life, we can trust in God’s goodness and abundance, and we will be free to be generous.
“No one can serve two masters,” Jesus
teaches. “You cannot serve God and mammon--or wealth.” “Mammon” is an Aramaic word that means
“money” or “possessions.”
Many of us like to
believe we have chosen to serve God-- not mammon. But in our daily life it is
often mammon that sets our priorities. Of course, we’d like to share more
toward the poor, but it’s too hard, because we need so much for ourselves. We
hope to be more charitable in the future, but at the moment we have too many
obligations. We’re afraid we won’t have enough.
We live in such a
materialistic society that it’s hard for us to look critically at how much
power money and possessions have over how we see things and make choices.
Ultimately, whether we
serve God or wealth depends upon trust-- trusting God to provide what we really
need.
Jesus continues, and
the “therefore” in verse 25 tells us that this is all connected. “Therefore, I
tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and
the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor
reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour
to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown
into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith?
“Therefore, do not worry,
saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’…. indeed,
your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for
the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given
to you as well.
“So, do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough
for today.”
In the original Greek,
the verbs translated as “look” and “consider” are strong verbs that suggest
more than a casual glance. They invite us to study, to really look, at a world
that God has created and has pronounced “good,” a world where God provides
abundantly, a world where we don’t need to be imprisoned by worry or anxiety.
Jesus invites us to imagine living in such a world of goodness and abundance.
Yes, the rent or
mortgage and insurance and taxes still have to be paid, and we still need to
buy groceries, and the checkbook still has to be balanced. But we have seen
this other world-- the world of God’s gracious, faithful care and
abundance.
During stewardship season, we are
challenged to hold our relationship with money up to the light of our Christian
faith. Our faith challenges us to strive
to overcome our tendency to live out of fear, guarding whatever wealth we have
left-- and instead open our lives more
fully to the truth we hear in First Timothy:
“They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to
share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the
future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”
What is the life that really is
life? It is the life that focuses on the
only true security that human beings have in this world, the completely
reliable love of God. “Take hold of the
eternal life, to which you were called and for which you were made,” writes the
author of 1 Timothy. “It is God alone
who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever
seen or can see; to God be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”
It is one of the many paradoxes of
faith that-- at the very times when we feel most anxious about our own sufficiency-- the act of sharing and generosity is the act
that can give us the greatest joy and sense of peace. It changes the lenses through which we see
our own situation.
It is an act of liberation to be
generous, an act that frees us from the bondage of anxiety, disappointment, and
resentment over the loss of the false security.
It is an act of freedom that can replace false security with the real
security of God, “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” It is an act of faith to commit ourselves
to giving God the first fruits of our lives.
“There is great gain in godliness
combined with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, so that we
can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content
with these.”
The “life that really is life” is a
life of contentment. The “life that
really is life” is a life of trust in God’s gracious providing for what we
really need, rather than endless desire and striving for more.
So-- let us strive first for the
kingdom of God and God’s righteousness…and store up treasures in heaven. Let us open ourselves to the riches of the
“life that really is life!”
May it be so!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
October 22, 2017
[1]
Thomas G. Long, Matthew. (Westminster
John Knox Press, 1997), p. 73.
[2]
Thomas G. Long, Matthew, p. 74.
[3]
Proverbs 23:6.
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