“Where Your Treasure Is…”

An sermon based upon Matthew 6: 19-24

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 16th, 2020

Recently, the effects of walking through a park were studied by the University of Vermont. That study suggested that the feelings we get when we walk in the park or stroll in the country side are similar to the euphoria we felt, as children, at Christmas.https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/walks-park-mood-happiness-christmas-survey-a9071351.html .

Doesn't that make you want to go for a good, long walk this afternoon? 

In today’s Bible text, Jesus reminds us of some things to look for.   He depicts some very familiar country images.  Long before the rise of psychological science, in this part of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus revealed his concern about the mental and emotional health of his disciples. 

With our own more obvious needs to think more about mental health these days, especially with the increase of gun and hate violence, the things Jesus says about worry and anxiety are even more important for us to understand. 

DO NOT WORRY…

So, let’s get right into it.  What makes you worry?  We all worry about something, and there is a ‘fine line’ between what is bad worry and what is good, natural, necessary concern.   The kind of worry Jesus is speaking about is excessive, life-paralyzing, debilitating worry---worry that keeps us from doing the kinds of things we need to do in life.  

You can worry so much about having a wreck, that you never learn to drive.  You can worry so much about failing, that you never try anything new.  Or you can worry so much about what somebody else thinks, that you never say or do anything challenging.   

Worry that robs us of growing and developing, and living life in its fullness and freshness, this is the kind of worry Jesus is talking about.

In a pleasant stroll across the natural landscape Jesus says, “Look at the birds….”    “Consider the lilies of the field…”   What he means is: Birds don’t worry about finding food, they just go after it and they find it.  Flowers also don’t worry how they will survive, they pick up all the nutrients they need, they in the sunlight and they grow and glow in their beauty.  Birds and flowers don’t have worry nor anxiety.  They just exist.  They trust.  They just live.  In their short, brief, and constantly endangered lives, they still don’t worry.  So, learn from them, Jesus says.  Live.  Learn.  Love.  But don’t worry.

Jesus was a pragmatist.  He certainly wasn’t a scientist.  And Jesus was also being overly simplistic for the sake of making his point.  Yet, he still makes a valid, most practical, and needed point.  Even modern people, people who think they know or have all the answers, still need to gain the wisdom it takes to apply all that knowledge.  

And just because we know and have so much, doesn’t mean we don’t also have fears, worries or anxieties.   In fact, the more we know, the more likely we will have increased anxieties about what we know.  Don’t we know people who don’t want to hear the news or read the paper, because they fear that what they learn will depress them even more?  Don't we also know people who don’t want to go to the doctor or have a medical examination because they fear they might learn they have some disease?   

The eye doctor told me recently that I needed to be tested for Glaucoma---an eye disease due too having much pressure in the eye.  She said my eye was a little enlarged.  While the pressure in my eye was as low as it could be, she said a few people might have Glaucoma from having too low of pressure, rather than having pressure that is too high.  It’s rare, but she still wanted to rule it out.  I already had it ruled out, and there was something in me that didn’t want to know, but needed to know whether I wanted to or not.  I suggested that since the office had a new piece of examination equipment, they had to find ways to pay for it.  At least I was helping.  I was nervously joking too.

Knowledge can be a wonderful gift, but we still have to know ‘how’ to use and handle that knowledge we have to face in life.  Remember ‘the knowledge of the tree of good and evil’ in the garden of Eden?  Scientists used to think that our brains are like computers, as they are programmed from birth.  Recently, they have come to understand that our brains are 'deep learners'.  Instead of already being programmed, our brains learn through the good and bad experiences of life.    We acquire knowledge, and quickly learn from it, but even with such astounding speed and ability to learn, we also have to develop the emotional strength we need to deal with all that knowledge.   And we gain emotional strength, not through how much we know, but by experiencing and living in loving, happy and healthy ways, rather than unhealthy ones.  

Even with all the knowledge and skills we might acquire, what do we really gain, unless we also learn to trust, to love, to care, and to hope, no matter what happens.   And this is exactly the direction Jesus going with these beautiful, peaceful pictures.  Jesus observed and learned about life from life.   Through these ‘life’ pictures, Jesus points us to the simple realities that give us trust and faith in life, because God is life's creator and sustainer.   And just as God gives the birds and flowers what they need, God will also sustain us, and give us what we need.  Trust God, and then get on with the work of life, and these things will take care of themselves.  This is the simple message Jesus gives.

Of course, life’s not always that simple.  And we should never make Jesus’ words more or less than what Jesus meant.  Jesus would never have looked at the demoniac who was cutting himself and said too simply: Don’t worry!   Jesus had to first challenge the demon that was living in him.  Jesus also didn’t tell Martha and Mary ‘not to worry’ when their brother Lazarus died.  The Bible says “Jesus wept”.  Jesus wept because dealing with life and death can be painful and difficult, but there is still hope.   Jesus also told people who would consider following him, ‘to count the cost’, and to ‘take up their cross’.  Life can be challenging, complicated, and there are no ‘easy buttons to push our way through life.   Thus, Jesus’ encouraging words are not meant to be simple fixes for life’s most complicated issues.  But they are words that point us toward trust, toward having confidence, and toward having faith that God is for us, not against us.

But we also need to understand that some worries in human life can be more easily overcome than others.  Sometimes people have worry, not because of bad choices, but because of emotional, psychological, spiritual, and mental issues that are not simple, and must be faced in multiple ways.  They will need medicines, treatments, counseling, and to learn new ways to cope.   Again, Jesus is not giving a simple ‘mind over matter’ or ‘faith solves everything’ prescriptions for every single human problem.  But Jesus is trying to give his disciples the most basic encouragement in facing what happens in life.  He wants them to know that learning faith, and living faith, begins with trust.  And learning to trust God, is the most basic 'first' choice we make for the sake of our own mental, emotional, and spiritual health. 

LAY UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN…

Trust!  Don’t worry!  Jesus is asking his disciples to make a choice.  And Jesus is not giving a command to exert control or power over us, but Jesus is putting the power we need to overcome worry back into our lives—he is giving us the power of choice.   

Do you understand what this means?  No matter what we face in life, whether we go to the doctor or not, to the counselor or not, or whether we go to church or not, we still have choices to make in our minds and hearts.  We still have to choose to have ‘faith’ and ‘to trust’ when difficult situations arise.   And the choices we make, like when we ‘look at the birds’ or when we ‘consider the flowers’ are examples of the ‘power’ God has given to us, to choose, the walk, to decide to take a path toward trust and hope, rather than a path that continues on the road to despondency and despair.

One of the most important paths toward hope is to learn what is ‘hopeful’ and what isn’t---what gives us life or what robs us of it, what promotes wellness, and what causes disease, what promotes contentment or what produces anxiety. There are, of course, things in life that we can choose to do in life that will lead to greater burdens or to dead ends of trust and hope, and there are things that we can choose that will lead to fuller, more hopeful, and more confident living.  

It is some of these ‘hopeful’ and ‘healing’ ways of living Jesus meant when, in the previous verse, he spoke of evaluating our ‘treasures.”   Here, it is important to understand how the passages, the one about ‘treasures’ and the one about debilitating ‘worries’ can be related.  Of course, they can stand alone, but I believe they are better understood when we see how they are related.   For you see, too much of the unnecessary, destructive, and excessive worries of our lives, can come from having our focus on the wrong kind of treasures.   With both these passages, Jesus is reminding them and us, that we can overload our lives with the kinds of ‘treasures’ that bring more stress, lay on us unnecessary burdens and give too little of what life is supposed to be about.

An example what we might ‘treasure’ is given in a story about Coach Shug Jordan at Auburn University.  Once the Coach asked his former Linebacker Mike Kollin, then playing for the Miami Dolphins, if he would help his alma mater do some recruiting.

Mike said, "Sure, coach. What kind of player are you looking for?" The coach said, "Well Mike, you know there's that fellow, you knock him down, he just stays down?" Mike said, "We don't want him, do we, coach?"

"No, that's right. Then there's that fellow, you knock him down and he gets up, you knock him down again and he stays down." Mike said, "We don't want him either do we coach?"

Coach said, "No, but Mike, there's a fellow, you knock him down, he gets up. Knock him down, he gets up. Knock him down, he gets up. Knock him down, he gets up."

Mike said, "That's the guy we want isn't it, coach?" The coach answered, "No, Mike, we don't want him either. I want you to find the guy who's knocking everybody else down. That's the guy we want."

Most of us ‘treasure’ this kind of guy, don’t we?   We treasure this kind of life too.  It’s a is a very natural and normal thing, isn’t it?   We want to be a winner.  We want to come out on top.  We ‘treasure’ being the person who gets to the top and stays on top, knocking everybody else down and getting the things we want in life.  That’s what all the TV commercials say.  That’s what all the billboards and salesmen say.  Buy this.  Get this.  Do this and you’ll have what you want in life.   The problem with only having these kinds of goals, dreams or ‘treasures’ is that they are fleeting.  And when you don’t reach them, maintain them, or one day you can’t keep them going, your life begins to flood with worry, stress, and anxiety about what might happen next.

But Jesus says, as an alternative, that we should put our ‘focus’ and make our ‘treasure’ the kinds of ‘heavenly’ things that aren’t fleeting, temporary, or limited.   Interestingly, when Jesus speaks of ‘storing up treasures in heaven’, he’s really not talking about taking stuff with us into heaven, but he’s talking about living for, treasuring, and learning to cherish the kinds of ‘earthly’ things matter, that give us peace, and give us hope, not just now, but for the world to come.

In another football story, at the beginning of Football Season last year,  the star quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, Andrew Luck, shocked his fans and the football world by announcing his retirement at 29.  Fans booed him as he left the field, but in spite it walking away from his 500 million-dollar contract, he said there was no joy left for him in playing the game in pain.  For the past 4 years, the attempts to stay in top form and be one of the best players, caused him injury after injury, surgery after surgery, pain on top of pain.  Then he said something I thought was really amazing: “I’ve got to get on with some things I want to do with my life.”    Andrew Luck’s was making a better choice for his life.

But another football story, even greater than this comes from a star center Jason Brown, a North Carolina native, who played football at Carolina, was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens, and had a 35 million dollar contract to play center for the LA Rams.  One day, Brown says, God told him to leave football and to raise food.  He listened.  He left a 37 million dollar contract and spent all his money on buying a farm in Louisburg, N.C.   Brown said he’d never been a farmer before.  But God told him to do it.  Now, he’s learning how by watching Youtube Videos, just like the watch Football videos to study his opponents.   Brown went on to explain, on a PBS television show, “Growing a Greener World” that he named his farm “First Fruits” because he would give the poor the ‘first fruits’, the first 10 percent of everything he grew.  And Brown didn’t even have a good working tractor for his 1,000 Sweet Potato Farm, but he does now, thanks a neighbor farmer who was willing to buy him one. 

What do you treasure?  Do you treasure the right kind of things?  That’s what Andrew Luck was learning through his injuries, suffering and pain.  That’s what Jason Brown learned too, as he made the decision to answer the call of God in his life, and seriously and compassionately raise ‘food’ instead of going through the rest of his life playing football.  

YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND WEALTH…

We all have choices to make, and one of the biggest choices is to discover what matters most in this very short life.  For, if we understand anything Jesus is saying here, it’s this: “You can’t have everything!” 

Isn’t this exactly what Jesus meant when he told his disciples, in conclusion, that you can’t ‘serve two masters’.    Now, Jesus gets to the core of most human worry and stress:  money, wealth, stuff.   You have to choose which master you’re going to serve, Jesus said.  You can’t love the both.  You’re going to serve one of these.  You’ll love one and you’ll hate the other.   The question, is however, not simply which one will you love, but the real question Jesus implies, is which one of these ‘masters’ will love you back? 

Isn’t that what Andrew Luck learned the hard way.   He loved ‘Football’, but Football didn’t love him back.   Jason Brown learned that too.   Once he loved Football, but when he realized there was something in life that was an even greater love, Jason Brown turned toward the greatest treasure of all---living his life, not just for himself, but living his life for his family, his community, and most of all for God.  

What is your life about?  Are you just focused on the stuff you can have, the things you can do for yourself?  No wonder your life is filled with distrust, anxiety and worry!   If you are being overcome with worry, why don’t you try focusing on treasuring something else.   Why don’t you treasure something that gives you something in return?  Now, this isn’t a different kind of selfishness, because the ‘treasures’ in life that give you and me something in return, which Jesus calls ‘rewards in heaven’, are the kinds of things we can’t ‘store’ for ourselves on earth. They are ‘eternal’ kinds of things we must give away, if we want to have them.  If we want love, we have to give it away to someone.  If we want to have compassion show to us, we have to show it someone.  If we want to feel less worry, less anxiety, and less stress in life, we have to not only find ‘peace within ourselves’, but we also have to share that peace and show that peace with those around us. 

For if we want to have a life that really counts for something, we have to learn how count like God counts, and how to give like God gives.  For unless we do, we will only have worries and fears that will never go away, because, in our hearts, we know that without God, and without God’s goodness, we will eventually have nothing to show for our lives at all.  

Bill Bouknight retells a familiar a man who, while walking on a beach, found a used magic lamp.  He rubbed the lamp and the genie appeared, inviting him to make a wish. The man pondered for a moment and then had a great idea. He requested a copy of the stock page from the local newspaper, dated exactly one year into the future. With a puff of smoke, the genie disappeared and in his place was a copy of the stock page, dated exactly one year into the future.

Gleefully, the man sat down to inspect his trophy.  Now he could invest with certainty, knowing which stocks would rise. But then he happened to glance at what was on the back of the stock page. It was the obituary column. And guess whose name was at the top of the list. It was his own!   Suddenly all those stock market gains seemed less important. Why? Because for the first time, this man had to look at life from an eternal perspective.  This was when he learned what really mattered, but it was too late.

The reason Jesus told us to choose the right ‘master’ is because we all have choices to make in life.  We can choose to have ‘treasures’ that are consumed by time, or we can have ‘treasures’ that transcend time.   Since we are mortal, and because there are always ‘powers’ that threaten to destroy our lives, even prematurely, if you want to choose a ‘master’ who gives you hope, confidence, and trust---and helps you overcome the anxieties and worries of life, choose this God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Father of Our Lord Jesus.  Why choose him?  Because he is the only ‘master’ who promises to give back, what you give to him.  Even if your life is unfairly taken from you, you can still trust him.   For not only can you ‘cast all your cares upon him’, you can know something even greater: ‘that he cares for you’.  Amen.