Matthew 6:19-34 NIVUK
19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 ‘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. 25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 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. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Introduction
Why is that the more you have the more it seems it’s never enough? Or you increasingly worry about not having it?
The question as to whether we are “able and willing to follow Jesus” that Simon shared so well last week, is not just a question of servanthood and humility but also it is a barometer of where our priorities truly lie. Put simply, if we are committed to something then we are more than likely to allow that whatever to, in some way other, shape our behaviour. To affect our efforts. We are, quite frankly, naive or fooling ourselves if we think they do not. We can also be in danger of masking that attitude by representing our actions as just normal or even attributing them to something else. I.E. I can’t help myself, it’s etc etc.
The reading today, although in passing, mentions mammon, which does get translated money sometimes, it is not about cold hard cash. It is about treasure, and I don’t suppose any of us has a chest or a horde of spanish doubloons hidden anywhere and a map with a cross on it marking the burial site. However I wouldn’t put it past one or two of you having a Captain Jack Sparrow costume in a wardrobe somewhere.
No, what these two readings, and this is normally what they are, two separate readings about “Treasures” and “Do not worry” ask a very important and immediate question about “Where do our hearts lie” when it comes to our relationship with the world and our faith. God and everything. Where our priorities are.
Did you suppose it was all about money?
Does that mean you may have not listened as hard as you should have given you’ve heard it all before?
Can you now breath more easily?
Please – DO NOT
Have you ever wondered if Jesus begins these verses with a command “do not” or whether it is a heartfelt plea for us to see what we are doing and change? It fits more easily with me, that Jesus’ heart goes out to His sheep as we struggle with the conflicts we have between our faith and the world.
That He asks that we might “lay up” seems a far more easier action than horde. Similar to when we say “lay your burdens”. And the song “Lay It All Down” Will Reagan “ at the feet of Jesus… it goes on to say. Is the act of “laying up”, in a way, far more of an obvious and open action, than us sneakily “hiding” as is normally the action when it comes to treasure. It is more visible, is more humble than hiding and hiding also speaks of avarice, fear, discontent and secrecy?
This is equally a plea for us not to worry, “Do not worry” as Jesus knows that worry can make our lives harder than they need be and eventually cripple our faith and witness. This worry, unless checked in the light of Christ, will break our resolve and hinder our laying up of our treasure in its rightful place.
Please “lay up in heaven and do not worry”. Jesus never forces us into any action or attitude, but with gentle love, asks us to listen to Him and respond as the Holy Spirit moves our hearts and minds to see the best that is for us. To see that we sometimes hold those things dear, that will tarnish our love, rust our witness and erode our faith.
Is the Holy Spirit showing what your treasures are?
Do you know where yours are and where you place that trust?
What do you need to ask God to do to help you now?
Decision, Direction and Destination
Here is where Jesus gives us three points for us to examine when it comes to treasure, where our hearts really are and how we may see our faith renewed and our concerns waylaid. There is always a Decision to be made. The Direction of travel is important and ultimately the Destination is paramount in how we respond.
Decision – of love
It can seem obvious that this is about a decision of love, doesn’t it? No surely I have already made that decision because I’ve accepted Jesus as my Lord and saviour and I pray, read my bible and go to church. Job done…But you know love does not work like that and there is a continuous requirement to restate that love by our actions, by our decisions.
Again, surely not you say, surely yes I say back, surely the love I have shown is enough, surely you are mad I counter. Sorry a little rude I know, but I was enjoying that. Of course there is an event in any of our lives where we get that initial rush of whatever chemical/hormone it is, the flutter in the stomach and BANG we’re in LOVE with someone. But that is never enough, it runs out, and our bodies cannot cope with all the chemistry anyway.
Surely Love is to feel, though? It’s about how I feel, not a decision of the mind. Hmmm there again relying on our emotions is tiring and not what real meaningful love is or becomes. That lovely story of the velveteen rabbit puts that so well…
We make decisions of love everyday. Example. At the moment for Claire it’s “hmm I know Jason likes those sweets a lot and I love him, a lot, and so it would be nice to get them, it will cheer him up” then “Hmm,then again, he is looking a bit tubby and has eaten a lot of sweets over the last few months, I better get him some apples instead” (This is how it sounds in my head but you can ask Claire to confirm or deny such a conversation goes on in hers). This is a conscious decision of love. I might not like that decision but it’s one made from love.
We can choose to “lay up”, again I believe not a command but a plea made in love, and so we have a choice, a decision or two to make. The first is, do we love this OBJECT, PERSON, JOB, HOBBY (you fill in as the Holy Spirit leads) more than Jesus. And out of that response the next decision is “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT”
If we review our attitude towards all kinds of things we may be surprised about how we feel about them. Whether we truly are willing to “lay them up” or not. It can also be our love for status, position, how others feel about us as well as material things. The key questions that will reveal where our treasure resides are…
What are your treasures?
Where do we get our greatest satisfaction?
What motivates us most in life?
Is our ambition for XYZ more consuming than our love for Jesus?
Your answers may well tell you a lot more about your decisions in life, than you first thought.
Direction – of travel
Along with DECISION, DIRECTION of travel is also very important when it comes to our treasure. I want to read 1 Tim 6:17-19 to highlight this.
1 Tim 6:17-19 17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Now you are probably thinking “but hang on you said it had nothing to do with money” and you are right but these verses don’t have anything to do with money either. No don’t shhh. Let me explain. These verses have more to do with ATTITUDE/AND DIRECTION than money. Which way they are facing. What the decision they made about their treasure says about their faith. Paul doesn’t say to the rich OH your money is really bad, get rid of it all and then that will show you love God.
CONCENTRIC CIRCLE Ok does anyone know what this is? You should have got a pdf via email, It’s ok if you didn’t “pause us” and then you can draw your own. So where were we, ok yes right, this is a concentric circle model (there are posher more intelligent names for it but oh hum) So if you put yourself in the middle. I’m sure you are happy about that, you are the centre of the universe, are you not ;-). We can then place names of people in the radiating circles in order of closeness, relationally, to you. So the first circle will be (I Hope) immediate family. Other half, kids, Mum/Dad, siblings. Next, I don’t know, you could have close friends (they equally can be in the first circle, that’s up to you) Next, I don’t know, cousins, Uncles/Aunts, and so on and so on. Close colleagues, passing acquaintances. It then builds up a pattern of our relationships and I their importance to us. That’s easy enough.
Now putting “Jesus” at the centre and we can use the same idea and look at the radiating circles as denoting levels of maturity in faith. Not faith itself but maturity of faith. Here we can also denote that each one of the dots also has a direction of travel. There are some in the first example but immediate family is always immediate family, naturally, flesh and blood etc. However in the second there is also a direction of travel and that is important.
Those on the periphery can be travelling with great speed towards Jesus in their love and faith. Can be maturing and coming closer and closer in His direction. Equally those in the more central circles CAN and WILL at times be moving away. Their direction is not always in the HMM right direction.
Our decisions of love and laying up our treasures will influence and shape our direction of travel. That to me is what Paul is saying in 1 Tim 6 The direction of travel for the rich, in this instance, as they make those decisions of love to do good and “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
Destination – to where
Jesus can be talked about as being the DESTINATION as well as the focal point of our DIRECTION but the importance of including the verses “Do Not Worry” gives us a bit more on where we may end up if we do not heed Christ’s concern about where our treasures lie.
When faced with the difficulty of this life of faith, there have been a couple of emotions that we will find especially difficult. One is that we may find ourselves in “Love with the world” or have a “Love of the world” The sparkly welcoming and uplifting feelings we get when we are lauded over, have more than enough and we are praised for what we do. We can’t help loving it, why wouldn’t you. It takes a strong will and faith, not to be captivated by that. But there ends our travels. There is nowhere else, no other destination to go to, that is it, for what it is worth to us the world is then the final destination. We have what we want.
The other reaction we have is we become over anxious because of the world and all that we perceive it can do to us. One Answer to that is to flee… Get out of it, to hide. That has for centuries seen men and women shut themselves away from the world as desert fathers and in convent and monastery. Now, I have a great deal of respect for the work, faith and energy that some put into serving the weak and vulnerable from these places but one thing you cannot say is they are living in the world.
But just because we do not take ourselves off to the desert or join this or that community, does not mean, we do not hide. It doesn’t mean we do not get out of the world. What we can find ourselves doing is not being involved with NON christians. Not engaging with the issues they have. Making Church all that you have and nothing else. Our destination is to overcome the world not move out of it. Live in the world, face to face with it, and yet not be controlled by and praise it. Are we called to show a meaningful life without succumbing to it. You can’t do that if you decide to live away from it.
When we do not lay up our treasures in heaven. Not give over to God the things of this world. Not release to Him everything we are and have, it can feel that we are cruising this christian life only because we haven’t overcome the world we are just avoiding it. Is that any different from being a hermit desert father or behind the walls of a religious community? Again, that then will be our destination, not a fulfilled life. One filled with regret and disappointment and unfortunately some will revert to religious observance to regulation that welcomes no one and is not our true destination..
Do we restrict our destination with our attitude to the world?
Do we feel this is all there is then?
Are we hiding from or overcoming the world?
Is there any obsessive observance of being religious in the way we view our world?
Moths, vermin destroy, and thieves.
In uniting these verses Jesus shows that, where your treasures lie does affect dramatically, how we live this life of faith and impact our worries of the world. Let’s read again v 19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. So what’s important is MOTHS VERMIN AND THIEVES and they will have an effect when it comes to your worries of and in this world. Jesus then goes on to say in v25-27
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 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. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And you know how it continues…
The word translated moths actually comes for the Hebrew word for clothes moth. Those that munch and eat away at your best bib and tucker as it sits in your wardrobes. Don’t worry about moths that will eat your clothes but lay up your treasure in heaven where they cannot get to them and do not worry about clothes because God will provide all that you need.
Equally, we do not have that much of a problem with VERMIN but for 1C palestine it was a real problem. The rats etc would eat vast amounts of grain and food but Jesus says 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. Lay up your treasure in heaven and you need not worry about what you will eat because Are you not much more valuable than they? Although we have more problems with vermin eating through our electoral wires, nonetheless we can worry about our finances and our need to feed ourselves and have all that we want.
The decisions we make about our lives can be made in the light of God’s Love for us and our living response to HIm. Hence the call to make the decisions that reflect our love and trust of him. We need to be honest and say the direction of travel of our faith is not always towards Jesus and maturity of faith but our decisions will influence that. Consciously laying up our treasure will move our direction of travel to be towards and not away from, Christ.
And surely that will be a better destination than the one the world promises.
When our treasures are stored up in the world, God cannot take the worries of the world away from you. The destination is not one of fullness of life but one that perpetuates fear, anxiety and religiosity.
Thieves are also those who take away from our faith and the word used here is also one used for false prophets and false apostles. Those who use their position and influence for their own benefit.
Oh and thieves? The greatest thief of all, is time…Time, the subtle thief of youth, but there again Jesus has an answer. In this world time will wither our bodies but we are no longer subject to that, as we have a heavenly life and new body waiting for us.
Let’s pray