Where Your Heart Is

Scriptures: I Peter 1:22 – 2:10 (New English Bible), Luke 12:22-34

There is an old saying that if you look at a person’s check book stubs you will know what is truly important in their life.  Even Billy Graham put it this way:

“A checkbook is a theological document, it will tell you who and what you worship.”  Of course, with so many of us doing on-line banking these days, there may not be much in the way of check book stubs for any of you to look through.  Nevertheless, it is true that what we choose to spend our money on is indicative of where our hearts are.  And to anticipate the end of this sermon a bit, here’s a related sentiment:  “a Christian is one who does not have to consult their bank book to see how wealthy he or she really is.”

Now, I know, as do you, that there are necessities in life – food, shelter, clothing – that dictate where some of that spending has to be done.  But we might be surprised when we really looked at it closely how little of what’s in that check book goes for what could truly be called necessities.  (Although perhaps I should try to make the case that what you pledge to the church ought to fall under this category.)  But, for the most part, we make choices when it comes to spending what comes in.

In many ways this is a sermon that really pretty much writes itself.  You know the direction I’m going to go and what I’m going to say well before I get there.  And if the intention here is to get you to change (that is, upgrade) the pledge you’ve put on your pledge card, you’ve most likely already brought that with you filled out, so that’s not very likely to happen (although you could always pull it out and delete the amount written thereon and insert another one).  So, let’s see if we can go in a somewhat different direction.

The intention here – and I hope it will be obvious to you – is not to lay a guilt trip on anyone about the amount of the pledge they are making.  Rather, I would like us to spend a few moments this morning thinking about what Jesus means when he says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I’ve chosen the scripture text from Luke that contains what is called the shorter version of the Sermon on the Mount, rather than the more familiar one from Matthew.  However, this key passage is exactly the same in both versions:  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  But the way that Luke arrives at this ultimate line has a resonance to it that I want to explore with you.

Luke has Jesus setting the context for this line in terms of not being anxious:  “do not worry about your life,” he says at the outset.  This admonition comes right after he has told them the Parable of the Rich Fool, which has as its closing line:  “So it is for those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”  Worry, anxiousness, concern about the future – none of these can provide us with what we need.

Now, of course we need to be concerned about how we are going to provide for ourselves and our families, and in this economy with unemployment as high as it is (and I know full well how it has affected members of this congregation) not to have some concern would be foolish and naïve.  (I saw a cartoon that related to the economy which said, “Pastor Bill found out how bad the economy was when his annual raise was vouchers for the church’s food pantry.”  Hmmmm.  Maybe I’d better not be giving you any ideas.)

Nowhere in the New Testament does it say that members of the fledgling churches gave away all that they had and lived completely on the largess of others, even though Jesus did exhort the rich young man to “go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”  But what Jesus is trying to get the disciples to see here is the importance of not fixating on the concerns of life.  (That’s the message in the encounter with the rich young man, too, by the way:  Jesus saw in his heart that he would reject this proposition and go away sad, “for he had many possessions” [Matthew 19:21-22] – it was the fixation on the possessions that was Jesus’ concern — but that’s a whole other sermon.)  The root word for “anxiety” literally means “being of two minds”.  An anxious person is divided, “tossed to and fro”, and often paralyzed by indecision.  And when that happens both our bodies and our minds – to say nothing of our spirits – get in trouble.

What is the number one mental disorder in America?  According to the Mayo Clinic 80-85% of its total caseload is due directly to worry and anxiety.  Many experts say that coping with stress is the #1 health priority of our day.  One leading physician has stated that, in his opinion, 70% of all medical patients could cure themselves if only they got rid of their worries and fears.  We know that medical science has closely tied worry to heart trouble, blood pressure problems, ulcers, thyroid malfunction, migraine headaches, a host of stomach disorders, amongst others.  For example 25 million Americans have high blood pressure due to stress/anxiety; 1 million more develop high blood pressure each year; 8 million have stomach ulcers every week; 112 million people take medication for stress related symptoms.

Those are pretty daunting statistics, and not something we would really want to dwell on.  Jesus was on to something that was pretty profound from a medical perspective when he was advising his disciples to abandon their worry and anxiety.  Now, admittedly, it’s not all that easy to do.  One sermon title I saw reflecting on anxiety called it “The World’s Most Acceptable Sin.”  It can seem to be hopelessly naïve to adopt a “Don’t worry; be happy” attitude toward life – in fact that could certainly be seen as a shirking of our responsibilities.

What Jesus is getting at here is not trying to get us to forget about the basic responsibilities we have to ourselves and to one another but rather to understand these in the context of our relationship with God.  When he goes to the example of the ravens – how they “neither reap nor sow, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them” – he is illustrating the ways in which creatures are taken care of by their Creator.  In like manner, at the deepest levels, even if we are hungry, even if we are homeless, even if we are scared about what the future holds, God is there.  The Creator of the universe loves us and knows what we need.  God promises to care for us in the midst of all our needs.  But it is important for us to distinguish between real needs and desires.  God finds value in us, Jesus is saying; more value even than the ravens.  With such an illustration he is saying, “Re-focus”.  Your focus is not to be on what you possess but rather on who possesses you.  Do you place your security in what you possess or in God who possesses you as God’s beloved son or daughter?

Since we are in Las Vegas, an obvious example to use here – almost too obvious – is that of Howard Hughes.  He devoted his entire life to the acquisition of goods and wealth.  He succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.  He died as the world’s richest man.  However, in his pursuit for wealth he abandoned everything else:  love, family, friendship, culture, religion, beauty, and even reason.  Towards the end of his life he lived alone in a penthouse suite.  Because he had an irrational fear of germs he avoided and refused all human contact. This meant he died as one of the world’s most lonely and empty men.

Sure, this is an extreme example of worry and anxiety consuming a person’s life.  And it probably wouldn’t have helped Howard Hughes if a Jesus had come along asking him to “Re-focus”.  But even in its extremity this kind of an example can demonstrate how anxiety can come to dominate our lives and our attention in such a way that God is finally shoved out.

Now, you may be thinking by this point that I’ve wandered rather far afield from a stewardship sermon.  But what this emphasis on re-focusing is all about is leading us, as Jesus led his disciples, to a clearer understanding of what it means to be possessed by God instead of by our possessions.  We are a people possessed by God – not in a Linda Blair “The Exorcist” sense, but in the sense of being owned by God just as we like to think we own our possessions.  We who have been baptized in Christ’s name and have come into the fellowship of this local church have accepted Christ’s claim upon us and in so doing have recognized our possession by God.  But look at the nature of this claim.  Despite the fact that we are owned by God, we are free to disregard the fact of being possessed by God – and, in fact, often we do disregard it.  There has never been a master-servant relationship as unusual as this.

In the letter of I Peter the author offers several titles for what it means to be Christians: (using the New English Bible translation):  “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, and a people claimed by God for God’s own.”  This last phrase, if translated literally from the Greek, means “a people for God’s possession.”  The King James Version uses this phrase here:  “a peculiar people”, and interestingly enough the modern J.B. Phillips version comes back to these words – “peculiar” being meant here in the sense of unique, unusual, set apart by God for God’s purposes.  The NRSV (the version we usually use) simply says, “God’s own people”.

We become a part of God’s peculiar people when we accept our relationship to God as that totally unique servant who is fed by our Creator’s love and uplifted by our Redeemer’s grace.  To become one of God’s “peculiar” people is no small thing.  It can mean seeming indeed peculiar – in the sense of odd – in the eyes of the world, which is not able to understand how we could use our money and our resources in order to enhance mission and ministry.  And it also means becoming indeed peculiar in the sense of being uniquely endowed with the power of a love that has never before been exhibited in human history from a master to a servant.

To be a people claimed by God for God’s possession causes us to understand our stewardship in two ways.  There is, of course, the pledge card that you have brought here today to fill out, sign, and lovingly place in the offering plate.  But second, there are then decisions that we, as the church, make about the stewardship of God’s gifts given through the church.  A people claimed by God for God’s possession are not just isolated individuals; rather, they have gathered themselves – we have gathered ourselves – into this community which is the church.

With this understanding of the context for our community – that we are a people called to be possessed by God and that we therefore have no need for undue worry or excess anxiety – let’s go back to Jesus sitting there with the disciples, struggling to get them to see how it is that they can be anxiety-free.  Having talked about the ravens and how God values them he now turns to the lilies of the field which adorn our lives and give us such pleasure simply by looking at them.  And so, Jesus concludes, “even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”  Again, when we seek to strut our stuff with a lot of possessions like beautiful and fancy clothes, this is not what God is looking at.

Remember the 1963 movie Lilies of the Field which won an Oscar for Sidney Poitier?  As Homer Smith, an itinerant workman, Poitier builds a chapel for a group of East German nuns who believe that he has been sent by God to do this work for them.  At first reluctant, Smith becomes immersed in the project, even to the point of making sure that the local merchants provide only the best materials.  It becomes a true labor of love.  Smith is offering something only he can give, and gradually the somewhat hard-hearted Mother Superior comes to recognize the nature of the gift, and she is able to thank Smith as well as God for having sent him.  At the end after taking one last look at the chapel he built, Smith slips out of the house and drives quietly off into the night.  While this was a treasure built upon the earth, it was a gift that was given out of grace and thus became a treasure in heaven.  In her diary Anne Frank perhaps said it best and most simply:  “No one has ever become poor by giving.”

This is what stewardship is all about — where we focus our thoughts and longings and prayers.  The gifts that we give come out of that focus.  As the Rev. LeeAnn Inman asks, “We are created to give, but we are tempted to keep.  How can we live generously without fear?”  This is what Jesus means when he says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” – to live generously and without fear, without anxiety about what tomorrow will bring.  In so doing we become God’s peculiar people, God’s own people, sharing abundantly out of all that we have been given.

Amen

Dave Pomeroy