The reading
Matthew 6:19-34
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
consumes 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. So, if
your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye
is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in
you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 "No one can serve two masters; for a slave
will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25 "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? 26 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? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 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? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 "So do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for
today."
The message
This summer, our Sunday worship readings have
centered on a few series. We have completed 4 weeks on the 10 commandments, where we heard
the spiritual and social importance of the law, how God’s laws expose sin and
drive people to God’s grace. We had 3
weeks on 1st John, where we hear Jesus being the word made flesh and
dwelling amongst us defended against false teachers. We had 4 weeks with the
book of Ruth, an ancient and inspiring story of perseverance, commitment and
promise keeping. Now, we complete Summer
2018 with 3 weeks on Stewardship.
For a lot of people the word Stewardship is a
conversation we would rather avoid. It has come to mean me, or another pastor /
church leader asking you, church members, to give more money. This is not exactly what people want to hear
(and most of the time, not what pastors want to talk about). This is not fun. This is putting that awkward
conflict between our faith and our possessions front and center. It’s a
familiar theme in many churches as they struggle to pay the bills and keep
their doors open (not too much here, honestly, we are making good use of the
property and resources entrusted to us).
I remember a weekend during my internship in
CT. I was traveling with the youth group
to a Friday – Sunday event. That Sunday
worship, I missed a special speaker from the Bishop’s office there to talk
about Stewardship. When I returned, I
was curious and asked a few of the members, How did it go? One of their answers stayed with me for over
10 years. A member said, well the guy made me want to open my wallet and throw
in another 5 or 10 dollars but that’s about all. I hope to do better than that.
I also remember a much
more recent conversation about church giving, one where I gave a really bad
answer. One of the guys working at the church asked me a quick question “how
much do people usually give to church, where does the money go”. He went on to say that he and his wife were
Roman Catholic and, when they go to church, throw in 20 dollars or so, he
wanted to know it that was what people usually do. I was in the middle of doing a few different
things and I was not really focused. I
shared a very business-like answer, explaining that in general about 20 percent
of church members make up 80 percent of the giving, (a statistic I heard a
while ago and never really fact checked but seems accurate), that people give
what they can, that the offering goes to pay bills, insurance, property,
priests and staff, fund missions, support a wider church organization,
etc. As soon as he was finished and
left, I thought, oh that was a lost opportunity and a really poor answer. I was
tempted to call him back or restart the conversation next time he was here but
that just felt odd and hard to do. Over the next 3 weeks, I hope to give a
better answer.
My response was right
but missing the inquiry “why do you ask that question”, a conversation about why people give (a response
to God’s grace) and the spiritual foundation and benefits of sharing generously
(a reminder to us and others that God is generous). Over the next few weeks we
will look at how we use the resources God has entrusted to us. Each of our readings will come from one of
the Gospels and look at how Jesus teaches us to use faith to confront anxiety
or worry, grief and fear. They help us
see the real comfort of the gospel, how good the good news of Jesus birth,
death and resurrection really is.
Today’s reading comes from the Sermon on the Mount.
Right after Jesus talks to the great crowd about Justice, care for the poor,
the power and importance of prayer and the value of fasting, Jesus goes on to
the conversation we just heard about faith or religion vs possessions, what is what
matters, what is temporary and what is forever.
Jesus starts this conversation by talking about some
things we all know about our possessions, nothing lasts forever. He looks at clothing (an important sign of
status) and rust (which can destroy metal coin money and everything people have
built). Jesus reminds the crowds that moths will eat your precious clothing.
Clothing was not cheap back then. The style, cut, color, fabric of your
garments were an important sign of wealth and status. The destruction of
clothing means the destruction of status, things that separate us. I did a little research about moths (I always
knew they ate clothing and you could scare them off with moth balls, those
terrible smelling things my grandmother always used, that scare people away
from you too). Apparently Moths do not
really eat clothing, it is their babies or larve that eat any natural fiber,
wool, cotton, cashmere, fur, skins, carpets, rugs. A female moth can lay 40 to 50 eggs over a
few short weeks. Most of the damage they
do is under collars, sleeves and unseen places.
By the time you know they are there, its usually too late.
Jesus also reminds the crowds of something we are
learning very quickly today, Rust destroys. Today, we have that problem. Reinforced concrete (concrete with steel
rebar inside to make it stronger) rusts really easily. A lot of our modern world is made of it. Any crack lets in air, which rusts the rebar,
which damages the concrete, which weakens the structure and if not addressed
immediately, bridges, damns, buildings or highways will collapse. (that’s why we see those red /orange stains
everywhere and workers constantly sealing cracks and repairing concrete). Recently, there was a documentary about what
would happen to the world without humans in it.
All signs of us, expect a few ruins here and there, would be gone in the
matter of a few thousand years.
Jesus also reminds the crowds that “You can’t take
it with you when you die”. The ancient Egyptians thought you could, people were
buried with items they would need in the afterlife, pharaohs and very wealthy
people were even buried with their servants and pets (both of which would be
killed for this purpose). Jesus reminds
the crowd, you are not a servant forever, you are not rich forever, you are not
poor forever, the place Jesus has prepared for us, heaven is not just a neater,
cleaner, safer, better version of our world.
In contrast to the stuff that rusts, falls apart or
gets eaten by baby bugs, Jesus invites people to store up treasure in heaven
(doing things to serve God because you know you are loved by God) It’s a zero sum game in many ways, we only
have so many hours and so many things we can think about at one time. Over worrying about possessions, about money,
about work, can mess with faith. Fighting the inevitable will occupy a lot of
life. The lament of many pastors, we are
so distracted, busy dealing with buildings, issues, family, budgets, declines
and challenges, we lose time to pray and share the Gospel. For Jesus, this
conflict between stuff and faith is balanced by “So do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough
for today." (yeah I know, easier said than done). The
lament by many people of faith, we are so distracted, busy dealing with
buildings, issues, family, budgets, declines and challenges, we lose time to
pray and share the Gospel. . For Jesus, this conflict between
stuff and faith is again balanced by “So do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will bring worries of its own
I end with 2 comments,
Don’t let faith be like all those other possessions,
Baptism can rust if you don’t live it our, if you don’t start and end your days
“remember you are Baptized, claimed by God as a child of God”, faith can have
holes eaten in it, if you just let it sit around. You have to use it. Our attention can be stolen, we can get
absorbed by things that do not really matter.
Also: Don’t try this at home. You have to trust God,
a lot, to get through the sermon on the mount, to say and teach these things.
We have things to worry about. We need church and community, let’s do it
together.
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