Henrietta United
Rev.
David Inglis Matthew
6:19-24
September 28, 2008
“Searching for
Treasure”
Has anybody else’s stomach been going up and down
along with the stock and prospects for a bailout? I think this financial crisis
is touching all of us. So this sermon is
for all of us.
Now let me first say that being concerned about how
to manage our money isn’t unspiritual or unfaithful. Even Jesus’ little enterprise had
income. We know this because the Bible
mentions that some of his women followers supported him financially. And we
know that Judas managed the money. There weren’t any government regulatory
commissions overseeing Jesus’ treasury, so Judas traded insider information
with a special interest group in the temple for
30 pieces of silver, and Jesus paid with his life. But Jesus didn’t
regard money as evil. It was the love
of money that he said was the root of all evil.
We can certainly see how the love of money above all
concern for the common good and common sense has created the mess our economic
system is in now. The love of money has
also caused wars to protect our economic interests, is seriously damaging the
environment, and robs poor people around the world of the means of production
and self sustenance.
But there’s another evil in the love of money besides
social evils. The love of money also
lures us personally into investing our life in things that have poor returns,
rapid depreciation of value, and short shelf lives--fancy cars, the latest
fashions, fleeting entertainment, the newest electronic gadgets, and flashy
bling. Some of us who don’t have much
money for a lot of that stuff derive some satisfaction from looking down on
people whose lives are caught up in pursuing those superficial things we can’t
afford (but secretly wish we had). So
for us, the love of money is easier to hide.
I find it sneaking into my life as the thought that I could be happier,
more secure, freer, more generous and more fulfilled if I had more money to
work with. And when things get shaky
financially, we become afraid that we’re going to lose something crucial in our
lives.
When Jesus tells us to store up treasures in heaven
instead of on earth, he’s not saying to forget about this world and just rack
up Brownie points for the sweet by-and-by.
He’s encouraging us to invest in the things in our lives whose value is
genuine, enduring, and timeless, because those are the things that don’t
deteriorate, rust, depreciate, or get taken from us, even when we die.
So I’d like to take us on a little treasure hunt for
those things. If our heart is invested in those treasures, our stomachs
won’t turn along with the financial tides, and we can be happy and fulfilled
even if we’re living on meager means.
I’ll start with a story Eckhart Tolle told about a
man he met with who was going through bankruptcy. The man
was filled with guilt, shame, and plenty of anxiety. His
world looked mighty bleak. As I
recall, the conversation went something like this:
After the man told Eckhart how his life was going
down the tubes, Eckhart told the man, “Listen carefully, and tell me what you
hear going on right now.”
“Well, I hear a bird singing outside. It sounds like a robin.”
“Look out the window and tell me what you notice,”
“Well, I see trees, and lots of grass. I see a sunny blue sky. It’s quite a nice day, actually,” he
observed.
“Check in with your body. Are you cold?
Hungry? In pain?”
“No, I’m feeling okay.”
“So right now, in this moment, you’re okay.”
“Yes, in this moment, I guess I am.”
“The problems and fears are thoughts in your mind,
but they’re not what’s really happening to you right here and right now. But when your mind puts all of the ‘what
if’s’ and ‘how am I going to’s’
together, that’s when it feels overwhelming.”
“I guess that’s true,” he said.
“Do you think it’s possible that if part of your
awareness stayed tuned into what’s happening in this moment, moment by
moment, you might find a way to deal with your financial situation productively
and peacefully step by step, without being overwhelmed by shame and worry?”
His face brightened with hope. “If I approach it that way, I think maybe I
can.”
Eckhart Tolle was teaching this man how to tap into
“the power of now,” which was the title of Tolle’s first book. The power of now is another way of talking
about the power of the force of life, which is God’s miraculous gift to us in
every moment.
I recently
opened the Bible to find a passage to meditate on, and it fell open to the
first chapter of John: “In the beginning
was the Word”--the Logos, the creative, ordering, renewing, and redeeming power
of God. “And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God....All things came into being through him”--including you.
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of
all people” (John 1:1-4). John then goes
on to show how this life giving Word became embodied in the life of Jesus.
One of the great insights in this passage is that
life isn’t just a biological process; it’s a spiritual creation. In Jesus we behold Life--not just respiration
and a pulse, but Life in all its fullness and power when it’s liberated from
fear, guilt, doubt pride, judgment, and selfishness. In Jesus we see Life that looks up and hopes,
looks out and connects, looks within and finds peace. When people were touched by this Life, they
were healed, forgiven, freed and empowered.
This Life is in you too--it’s the Life of your
spirit. This is the most important
treasure that Jesus wants us to find and invest in. Without this Life of the spirit, our life in
the body is meaningless, empty and terminal–no matter how much money we have.
If we are coursing with spiritual Life, our life in the body is charged with
purpose, power and joy, no matter how little money we have.
This past week I heard about the power of this Life
bursting out in an unlikely place.
Brenda Tremblay of WXXI Radio visited Albion Prison for women, where
many inmates face the hard realities of harassment, disease, and depression on
a daily basis. But there is a chapel
choir at Albion that has tapped into the power of Life whose “light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
As the women sing, they focus on the Live-giving
presence of God and on Jesus’ forgiving love for them. The Chaplain, Pearl Snell, told Brenda, “As
they sing worship songs and they sing powerful affirmations to God, they are
speaking powerful affirmations to themselves as well. I’ve seen many times that the lives of
the women change for the positive. There
was a time when the anointing was so powerful and women were changing so
rapidly and so dramatically that it was hard to keep good choir members. They were just going home, I mean miracles
were just happening--they were making their merit boards, their sentences were
being overturned, and they would end up back home ministering in their
communities. And that’s what it’s all
about.”
One choir member said, “It’s like Jesus has touched
my heart, has opened me up to be still and have peace in my heart. It’s a wonderful thing to have that, that
feeling. Ohhh.”
Another said, “The only thing holding me is the
gates. Beyond the fence I am free, I am
free in my mind, I am free in my spirit.
I may be here physically, but my spirit is free.”1
No matter how meager our life in the body might be,
there is a spiritual treasure that’s available to any and all of us--Life
abundant, Life eternal, Life flowing from God through us, no matter where we
are or what we’re doing.
How do you find that treasure? Jesus pointed to it in today’s scripture
lesson. “The eye is the lamp of the body.
So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if
your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
What’s Jesus talking about? If you perceive the world through the open
eyes of faith, gratitude and trust, your whole spiritual body will be full of
light. If you perceive the world through
the squinty eyes of fear, greed, and suspicion, your spiritual body will
atrophy and your life will be full of darkness.
The treasure is waiting for each of us at every moment. We just have to open our spirits to it and
invest our hearts in it.
And we have to share it. This treasure quickly loses its value if we
keep it to ourselves.
I got an email this week from someone I know who
lives in Pennsylvania. I’ll call him
Fred. Fred was abused and then abandoned
as a child. He struggled with issues of
poor self worth, which led to years of addiction and depression. His recovery process has required him to turn
to his Higher Power and trust in a wisdom beyond his own, and he has learned so
much about how to manage his life and his affairs in a healthy way.
Fred has been doing some computer consulting with a
man who has a small business out of his home.
His business was in disarray because his own life was in disarray. Fred saw the big picture much more clearly
than his client, and began giving him suggestions of how to prioritize,
organize, and deal with some problems before they blew up in his face. Fred met with him this past week and then
wrote me this account:
What started out as simply as heartfelt thank you
turned into a personal life coaching session. It’s something he needed a long
time ago, and he really was open, listening, and incredibly grateful. I actually saw his burdens lifting off his
shoulders as we talked. I saw what it must be like to be you on a day when
things really, really work, and you feel like a true instrument of God. Totally
humbling, peaceful, it flows, full of incredible joy when someone is freed,
when the light shines in. It was
probably the best moment of my life.
Isn’t it interesting that the best moment of Fred’s
life came, not from getting something, but from sharing his gifts with someone
else? That’s the magic of this
treasure. We experience our wisdom,
love, creativity, and talents only as we use them, by letting them flow through
us and out into the world. Unlike our earthly treasures, our spiritual treasure
grows in us the more we draw on it and share it. The only way to wipe out our supply of
spiritual treasure is to keep it inside and not use it.
Jesus said “You cannot serve both God and
money.” If the financial crisis has you
worried, maybe it’s time to transfer more of your investment into something
whose value never depreciates, that has never ending dividends, and that’s
worthy of your spirit.
We can do that right now. I invite you to closer your eyes, and as you
breathe, become aware of the gift of your life.
God created your eternal spirit, and God gave you a body to enable you
experience this world. God knows you
inside and out, and lovingly watches over you at every moment. Think of all the blessings of this life–your
family and friends; your ability to see and touch and hear and taste the world around
you; your amazing mind that has come to know so much. Think of your spirit–your capacity to love,
and to touch and be touched by the people around you; your capacity for awe and
wonder; your ability to grow in wisdom, even as you encounter obstacles,
setbacks and loss; your ability to envision, to create, to be an agent of hope,
peace and truth. Think of the gifts of
time, energy, abilities, and material things God has given you to share, and
think of the deep satisfaction that comes from enriching the lives of others
and making the world a better place when you offer them. These are all the treasures that God is
freely giving you all the time. “Where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Let us invest our lives in these
treasures. These are the treasures that
will truly enrich our lives and keep our hearts growing our whole lives long,
and beyond.