Year C Proper 14 11 August 2013
Isaiah 1: 1, 10-20 Psalm 50: 1-8, 22-23 Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16 Luke 12: 32-40
Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
When I read that sentence from this week’s Gospel reading I wonder what my treasure is and what it is that I treasure. There are many things that I treasure and I wonder if other people can tell even more clearly than I, where my treasure lies.
This previous weekend I was somewhat upset with myself. I was working on Friday night and so I had to pass on my job of helping at the kids club to someone else. Admittedly, I had prepared the story and on my way to my work gig, I set up the data projector with the story loaded and ready to go, but I felt a bit like I was putting my gig in front of my responsibility to God.
The weekend progressed and I worked again on Saturday night, which meant that I didn’t get to church. It also meant that I wasn’t able to provide the music for the Saturday night service and I was grieved because it seems that I will be missing most Saturday nights this month and I feel I’m letting the church and God down.
But wait…there is more… After two late nights I slept in. When I woke and realized that I’d already missed church I went back to sleep again…. I did have a lot of sleep to catch up and had been fighting off that flu that kept threatening me. I planned to visit another church that night, but I wasn’t feeling well and had a basketball game in the afternoon, which was pushing me physically and emotionally over the edge. I just went home and felt sorry for myself and guilty.
What was really bothering me was that I have always had a strong commitment to church and lately it seemed that maybe my treasure was simply selfish me.
I remember hearing people say, “you have to have time for yourself”… “a little “Me” time”! It’s a bit of a catch phrase and an indication of a couple of things; one, that we have pretty hectic lives, and two – really I think in this modern day our only treasure is ourselves. I hear from nurses how sad it is that many sick people don’t have families to care for them – they are all too busy with their own lives and caring for someone else that they claim to love is not possible – and I’m not talking about long term sick elderly people, I’m talking about those who’ve had an operation and need support just until they recover.
If we look to our Old Testament readings we find that God seems to be confusing, because after prescribing the various intricacies of the sacrifices he then seems to not want them.
Isaiah 1:13-17 “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
What can we discern that the ancient Israelites were treasuring?
It outwardly would seem that God was their treasure.
There were outward signs, which other nations could easily see, and a visitor to the area would also say the same, “Oh how these Israelites love God! Just look at how particular they are about making sacrifices to the Lord.” When there was a new moon they made it a holy festival to the Lord and they were fastidious about the Sabbaths. They were a very religious nation.
Sometimes we need to be careful about how we judge from outward appearances, because God saw big trouble in the hearts of these very dedicated and religious people. Yes they kept the Sabbaths, but they neglected to understand the heart of God. They failed to understand that if any of God’s people were hurting then God couldn’t care less about the Sabbath. He cared about wiping the tears of the one in trouble.
The people just didn’t get it. And I fear that neither do we.
I hate that I missed church this weekend, but I know that it is really “no skin off God’s nose”. He is not a God who needs me to be at church…. I am a person who needs the nourishment that I get from church. Can you see the difference and the implications? This is why Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for mankind and not mankind for the Sabbath. It was never meant to be a religious requirement to appease a wrathful God, but a gift to enable mankind to refresh and maintain proper perspective about things like caring for one another.
Now there is another very important aspect that I must discuss. The Israelites were fastidious in keeping God’s law because they knew that in keeping his law they would be blessed…. And they sure did want His blessing. So I ask you again, where do you think their treasure was?
Very much like us when we neglect God’s ways because we need a little “me” time, the Israelites were their own treasure. They treasured themselves and if keeping the Sabbath and the festivals meant that God would bless them than that is what they would do. They kept the Sabbath because they thought that keeping the Sabbath would give them supernatural blessing. And God was exhausted with them.
It is a pretty natural and human thing to bargain with God. That is what the Israelites were doing. Basically they were saying, “If I do this for God, then he will bless me”. I remember bargaining with God once. I probably have done it in various ways at various times but certainly the most striking example is when I was expecting my first child and was bleeding. I did so much bargaining with God. All to no avail and I eventually miscarried and probably learnt a valuable lesson. God is God and he is merciful and wants to bless us, but his blessing is not dependant on our good works, but his blessings are simply dependant on his love and sovereignty.
Christianity is not like any other religion, unless we miss the point. When we miss the point we do what the ancient Israelites did and turn the Good News into religion. In every religion there is a list of dos and don’ts and Christianity can easily fall into this same way. But that isn’t the way that God wants it to be. The reason that we have the Holy Spirit is so that we can understand that we have no set of rules, but instead we have a relationship with the God who created us. With His Holy Spirit in us we have his law in our heart, and his is a law of love and care and concern.
I have a job which means that I’m going to be working often on weekends. Shift workers are the same, doctors and ambulance men and nurses, just to name a few. While it should be obvious to others that our treasure is God, it should be obvious to them because of our Christ-like heart and not because of our business in religious activity.
Luke 12: 35,36 ““Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”
The service that we need to be doing might be very different from what you’ve previously thought. If you have thought, “I don’t need to be in Church to be a Christian and I do lots of caring for others, so I’m fine by God”; you have missed the point. And on the flip side if you are very active in Church activities and functions but don’t reach out to others around you, who may need no more than your friendship, you’ve also missed the point. Our life in Church and our interactions with those outside of church go hand in hand.
Our New Testament reading from Hebrews gives us examples of people who were commended for their faith. These are people who were in communion with God and when God told them to leave their comfort zone they did. More than that, when these people left that comfort zone, they didn’t see the blessing. Yes, you read correctly… they DIDN’T see the blessing. They obeyed God, but for years and years they could not see the fruit of God’s blessing.
Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
My eldest daughter has left to live in Cairns. She is working and going to University there. I sent her a little gift a couple of weeks ago and sent her another little one this week.
We are called to be the children of God and our treasure is that city that he has prepared for us, but in his mercy he does bless us along the way, but it isn’t because of our Good Works. It is because of his great love and his RELATIONSHIP with us.
I would hope that my daughter is old enough that she won’t treasure the silly little gifts I send her, but instead she will realize that the gifts are a sign of my love and my commitment to be in a relationship with her. And I assume that it is the relationship that she will treasure.
In the same way, it is our RELATIONSHIP with God that we are to treasure above all…. Not the doing of things for him so that we can feel justified, or the keeping of God’s law so that we can treasure his blessings.
I remember having friends who, when rumours were going around about me, I thought they would know better and never believe such craziness. I assumed that because of our relationship they would understand what was really going on – but they didn’t and it seemed that what I thought was a real relationship, was actually only a superficial one - what a disappointment!
Just like you do a close friend, a parent or child, with whom you really do understand and treasure, we need to realize that God’s greatest desire is for us to understand his heart and have a real relationship with him. Understanding His heart will mean that we will act with compassion in areas we may not have thought about previously, or cry out for justice in other areas, or stand up for the greater good somewhere else. And so, with this in mind, where is your treasure? Is it in your relationship with God?
