Matthew
6:19-21
Where’s
Your Heart (It’ll Be with Your Treasure)
Today’s message is about stewardship, money mostly. You might be wondering, “Why would Pastor
Glenn make one of his last two sermons here be about money, of all
things?” There are at least two ways of
answering that question.
On the one hand, the stewardship program we’ve been
following, Cycles of Discipleship, calls for periodic sermons about
stewardship, and one was put on the calendar for today long before we knew this
would be my next-to-last Sunday. It’s
just by chance, in other words.
But on the other hand, if you count up the verses in the
gospels, Jesus talked about money more than anything else, with the exception
of the
I’m going to talk about stewardship and money this morning
in two different ways. The second way
will be an actual sermon—a reflection on scripture, a look at our lives in
light of the gospel. But first, I’m
going to talk about more institutional concerns. By institutional concerns, I mean how to
maintain the church as institution—how to pay the bills. And while that might not rise to the level of
scripture and theology, it’s pretty important and we care about it deeply.
First of all, nothing I am going to say can take away from
how grateful I am for the tremendous generosity you have shown over the
years. You’ve given to the budget,
you’ve given to apportionments, you’ve given to missions and hymnals and the
capital campaign. And I pause right now
to say, “Thank you. In the name of Jesus
Christ—thank you for your generosity.”
Soon after I was appointed to
“Oh?” I said, nervously.
“How far behind?”
“About $17,000,” he told me.
My heart sank. But he went on, “We’ll
be working on that and hope to have a lot of it made up by the time you get
here.” A few weeks later he called again
and said, “You know that deficit I told you about? We put out an appeal, and it’s all been made
up.”
When I met with Pastor Patty soon after her appointment here,
we met and I welcomed her and we talked about a few things going on here. “Oh,” I said, “you should know that we’re
running behind on the budget.”
“Oh?” she said nervously.
“How far behind?”
“Well,” I said, “at the beginning of the year it was about
$30,000. Now it looks more like it’ll be
$15,000 to $20,000.
She’s still waiting for her follow-up call. Who will help me be able to make that call?
Andy says that if everything keeps going the way it’s been
going, we’ll end this year $15,000 to $20,000 in the red. There are two ways of looking at a budget
deficit that large. On the one hand,
it’s huge. If it’s not made up, it will require some
very unpleasant budgets cuts for next year.
To save that much money would require letting go to two of our three lay
staff people. Or it would require
leaving this building and sharing cheap space somewhere else. Or it could mean having only a half-time
pastor. Such changes might be possible,
but they certainly aren’t desirable.
On the other hand, $20,000 isn’t really all that much money
if everyone steps up a bit. For example,
over a year’s time, if forty families would give just $10 more per week, it
would amount to $20,000. For the price
of forty families eating out once a week, for the price of 40 people making
their daily coffee at home instead of going to Starbucks, we can overcome that entire
deficit.
Now, I know that some people don’t have $10 a week to
spare—they’re barely putting food on the table as it is. I know that.
If you don’t have it, don’t give it.
Don’t apologize. But I also know
that some people could easily give two or three times that much and never
really miss it. The question isn’t can we do it; the question is will we do it? I know, that’s easy for me to say--I won’t be
here. But I have given too much of my
own blood, sweat and tears to watch this church go down for lack of $10 more a
week from forty families. I don’t know
what approach the Stewardship and Finance Team will take. But, please, whatever they do, get behind it
so
That, then, is the institutional part of today’s
message.
What remains is the sermon.
Here these words from Matthew 6:19-21-- "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.”
For me, the central insight in that scripture is this: our hearts follow our treasure. For years, the church has been trying to get
people to give their hearts to Jesus, assuming that their treasure would naturally
follow, and we’ve generally been pretty disappointed at the results. The problem is, that’s just the opposite of
what Jesus taught. He didn’t say,
“Wherever you put your hearts, that’s where your treasure will be.” What he said was, “Wherever you put your
treasure, that’s where your heart will be.”
Instead of asking people to give their hearts to Jesus, we should be
asking them to give their treasure to him—their time, their money, whatever’s
precious to them. If they gave all that
to Jesus, don’t you suppose their hearts would come along for the ride?
When I was in youth group, our leader was really concerned
to prevent any inappropriate hanky-panky among the youth. So every so often she’d yell, “Hand
check!” And we were all supposed to put
both hands in the air, so she could tell we didn’t have them where they weren’t
supposed to be.
Well, this morning we might call out, “Heart check!” Where’s your heart, friend? Here’s a hint: it’ll be with your treasure, wherever that
is.
Kathleen Norris reminds us that at its Greek root the word
“to believe” means “to give one’s heart to.”
Thus, she says, if we can determine what it is we give our heart to, we
will know what we believe (Amazing Grace,
p. 62). That’s helpful, but in light of
today’s gospel, it doesn’t go far enough.
The truth is, if we can determine where we have laid up our treasure,
then we’ll know what we’ve give our heart to, and only then will we know what
we believe. So if I show you my
checkbook and my calendar, you’ll be able to tell me what I really believe, no
matter what I say I believe. I’m afraid
it would reveal that I really believe in Giant Eagle and those Law & Order
shows. Heart check! Where’s your heart, Pastor? It’ll be with my treasure, of course.
I wonder if the disciples didn’t have second thoughts about
following Jesus. He was always getting
into trouble, and he didn’t meet their expectations about driving the Romans
out. I wonder, when he started talking
about laying down his life, if they might have thought about giving up on him
altogether. Except that, well, following
Jesus was all they’d done for three years.
They’d given everything else up; they’d put all their eggs in his
basket. They had laid up so much of
their treasure in Jesus, they didn’t have much choice but to keep giving their
hearts to him as well.
I think people instinctively know this principle, and it’s
one reason we’re reluctant to start
giving ourselves to Jesus. People aren’t
necessarily afraid to give a hundred dollars a month to the church, or even two
or three. But people realize that
however much we give to the cause of Christ, it’s never really enough, and once
you get started giving, how do you know when to stop? And once you give generously to the church
budget, how can you say ‘no’ to NSI, and apportionments, and missions, and on
it goes? Why, pretty soon so much of
your treasure is laid up in your church, there’s not much left for the moths
and the rust. And with all the money you’ve
given to the church, how could you withhold your heart? Heart check!
Where’s your heart, friend? It’ll
be with your treasure.
What Jesus was talking about, finally, was how to define
“the good life.” If someone asks you,
“Are you living ‘the good life?’” you know they mean. They mean do you have a new car, bigger than
your last one? Do you have a nice house,
with as many bathrooms as people and newly remodeled? Do you eat at fine restaurants and take trips
to the South of France? But if someone
asks you, “Are you living ‘the good life?’” here’s what you could say: Why, yes I am! I gave money to help my church cover its
budget deficit. I took a vacation to help
at the Fair. I tutor a child at Summer
Youth Program. And I serve breakfast to homeless friends at
As I thought and prayed about laying up treasures in heaven,
several people came to my mind. I
thought of Tom Dabe, who died last year.
Tom didn’t store up much treasure on earth—moths and rust couldn’t do
much to Tom. In fact, Sherry probably wished
Tom would store up just a little more treasure on earth! But Tom had treasure in heaven galore. He helped anyone who asked him. He was kind to even the most unkind of
people. He was a solid rock for a
troubled family. Where’s Tom’s
heart? It’s up there with his treasure.
A week ago, I stood in the rain for Doug’s dad’s funeral, and
I looked at all the Maynard friends who had taken the day off and driven all
the way to Washington Court House to be there for him. No earthly treasure for them that day. Why did they do it? Well, in part because he would do it for them,
work day or not. We would do it for each
other. You don’t have to wait till you
die to have treasure in heaven. It’s
right here, all around us, all the time.
Heart check! Where’s
your heart, my friend? It’ll be with
your treasure, wherever that is.