Do Not Store Up Treasure

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 6:19-21:

I was having a conversation with a member of a United Methodist Church that was going through the disaffiliation process, which means they were talking about leaving the United Methodist Church, and he supported that movement. And he said that he was doing so because he took the Bible seriously and followed every injunction. And since he was then trying to imply that I therefore didn’t take the Bible seriously and didn’t know what I was talking about, I decided to challenge him a little bit. And so, I asked if he gave to everyone who asked for him for money, to which he said no, and then wanted to make a statement about “those” people.  But I told him that Jesus explicitly says that we are to give to anyone who begs of us (Luke 6:30) And then I asked him if he wore clothing that had mixed fibers, which he did. He also had a tattoo, which is forbidden in Leviticus. He also had fruit trees, and he didn’t leave some of the fruit for people to glean from his trees. And I, of course, could have gone on and one about the things that he apparently didn’t take very seriously, largely I think because they applied directly to him, rather than only applying to others, and as conversation was deteriorating, I decided to leave it there. And yes, I will totally admit to my culpability in this, especially since we just talked about last week that we should put away anger and malice and that our words should build up and convey God’s grace. But all of that leads us up to what is Rev. Adam Hamilton, who is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the country, often counters this same issue by asking the other person, often to clergy, if they have a retirement plan and are contributing to it. And when they invariably say yes. He then says, to quote today’s passage, “so what part of do not store up treasure’s in heaven do you not understand?”

And so that’s where we find ourselves today in our series on the nots of Jesus, the things that Jesus tells us not to do. So far, we have looked at the injunctions not to doubt, fear, judge, worry, sin, stop children from coming, and complain, and now do not store up for yourself treasure here on earth. And just a funny aside, Julie pointed out that in the preparation for this service that I had written do not store up for yourselves treasurers, which we actually want to do, and to thank Kim for her service as our treasurer, and this has nothing to do with her. So, there are several things here. First is that this isn’t all about treasure being bad. There is a place where Jesus specifically says that we are to store up treasure, and where is that? In heaven, where, we are told, moth and rust and thieves won’t be able to get to it. But the problem is, Jesus does not tell us here how to do that, although in my research those who wanted to try and tackle this seemingly were arguing for a sense of works righteousness. that is do good things in the world in order to build up this treasure in your account for when the judgment comes. I don’t know that those who were arguing would necessarily see it that way, but that’s how I interpreted what they were saying. And so, this is a reminder that we are saved by faith alone, and one of the reasons, as Paul tells us, is because otherwise we would brag about it and what we had done, and there is definitely some of that that plays in role as we think about our treasurers. And so, when it comes to that, I have some good news and some bad news.

And so, we’ll start with the good news. If you’ve been here for each of the nots we have covered you should have noticed that for each of them I’ve given caveats so that these rules are not absolutes. That doubt can actually help build your faith, and we should be afraid of spiders, and there are troubles that happen that we should worry about, and there are times in which complaining is appropriate. And if you missed those reasons, and they are specific and limited, I would encourage you to go back and watch or listen to those messages. But the same is true here, there are also times in which storing up treasure is appropriate, even with the threat of moth and rust and thieves. Probably the best example of this is in the story of Joseph, who calls for the Egyptians to store up grain from the seven years of bounty in order to be able to survive the seven years of famine. Colloquially now we talk about saving up for a rainy day. And there is other scriptural witness for this as well, especially in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs says, amongst other things, that wisdom should be sought for, like searching for a hidden treasure. That while a foolish person spends all they have, a wise person builds up a treasure, and the righteous person also accumulates a treasure. But Proverbs also warns against gathering this treasure through deceitful means, or by lying and cheating others. And so, while there are cautions in the Hebrew Bible around treasure, which also includes the treasure held by the Temple and by kings, treasure has a more positive connotation and understanding than it often takes in the New Testament. Proverbs, and others, will also warn not to trust in the treasure because it can disappear either through theft, war or even unwise moves on the part of the owner. And that comes from the understanding that a treasure is something that is stored up, or hoarded, and therefore treasure can be much more than just gold or silver, and we’ll come back to that idea, but for the moment let’s stick with treasure as being riches or wealth, because that plays such a crucial role in how it is understood in Jesus’ teachings.

And so here is the bad news. While money is neither good nor bad, it’s a neutral thing, it can be a problem. and we can know that because of how we talk about it. So, for example, Jesus says that is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to get into heaven. Stacey Simpson, a Baptist minister from Georgia, recalls encountering this scripture for the first time while reading in bed when she was seven years old. She says that she became so alarmed that she slammed the Bible shut, jumped out of bed and ran down the hall to her parents’ room, where she awakened her mother out of a sound sleep. “Mom,” she whispered urgently, “Jesus says that rich people don’t go to heaven!” Her mother’s response was brief and to the point: “We are not rich. Go back to bed.” And I think that’s how we too often hear these injunctions. We might say, well Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, their rich, they have treasure stored up, but that’s not me, and so these rules don’t apply to me because while we might do more than just get by, we are not rich.  But, more bad news, by any standards we want to apply, unless it’s comparing ourselves to billionaires, we are all rich. Just under 10 percent of the world population live on less than $2.15 a day, and 50% of the earth’s population live on less than $6.85 a day, and for those not good at quick math, that works out to $2,500 a year. And the huge news, which we should celebrate is that 30 years ago,  70% of the world’s population lived on less than $6, including 40% who lived on less than $2. That’s a massive change, and a large portion of that is because of the anti-poverty work of the church. But when we see those numbers then we have to understand that we are rich, and when we try to dismiss these instruction as only applying to someone else then we miss their guidance and warning at our own risk. We are all rich and we all store up treasure, and that includes me. I put money away every paycheck into my retirement account, and one the good reasons I encouraged Linda to take her new job with Linda was to get back into the state education retirement fund. And we also have money set aside in our savings account not only for emergencies, but also to fund future expenses, and I encourage everyone to do the same. So, does that mean I’m a hypocrite then in preaching on this, or that I don’t take these teachings seriously? I don’t think so because we should also understand context and the reasons why we are doing things.

I think I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite bands, Huey Lewis and the News, says “if money is the root of all evil, I’d like to be a bad, bad man.” But of course, the passage from 1 Timothy is that it is the love of money that’s the problem, not money itself. And to return back to our prior point, treasure can take many forms. It can, of course, be money, but it can also be possessions, or anything that we can horde, but it can even include things like family or even perhaps beliefs and ideals; and so, it’s things we can store up physically, mentally or spiritually. And the problem that resides in these things is that they come to be how we identify ourselves, and where we begin to place our allegiance and loyalty. That is why Jesus will say just a few verses later than what we heard this morning that you cannot serve both God and mammon, or wealth, or anything else, because you will hate the one and love the other. So why do we have the things that we are storing up? Are they a means to an end? And then what is that end, and does it further the Kingdom of God? Or have they become ends in and of themselves? If they are an end, then they are likely to be problematic. Especially, again, if they are leading us away from God, or our trust in God. And that’s at the crux of this, trust in God, as well as an understanding of where blessings come from and where do they go?

Think of the parable of the rich fool, who is doing so well he has to build bigger barns to store it all, and then he tells himself to take his ease and to eat, drink and be merry because he has stored up for himself goods to last him for many years. But what happens to him that night? He dies. He thought that he was doing all the work to get this treasure, ignoring all of the people who assisted him, as well as thinking that having lots of things could bring him prosperity and a good life, but they didn’t, and he found out that he was not, in fact, self-sufficient. And I would also guess that he had fear of losing what he had and what that would mean for him. and I think that is probably at the heart of what this treasure on earth is about, is the fear of losing it for whatever reason, which is often a sense of identity that it gives us, as well as that sense of assurance and security and confidence, without realizing that it is all fleeting. That not only can moth and rust and thieves steal it, but we can be dead tomorrow and it won’t get us anywhere. And so that takes us back to storing up treasure in heaven.

And for me, and I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and will admit that I might be off a little, it’s about that sense of identity. Who says who we are, God or our stuff? From where do we get our sense of worth, God or our stuff? Where do we get our purpose and meaning, God or our stuff? What makes us understand our distinctiveness, God or our stuff? What gives us a sense of belonging, God or our stuff? What gives us a sense of home, God or our stuff? If we answer God first, and I don’t mean answering simply because we know enough to know that’s the right answer, but genuinely being able to answer that we get all of those things from God first, then our treasurers shouldn’t be a problem because our treasures won’t become our God. They will be resources that we instead know can and should be used for the work of God in the world, and we give generously and appreciatively to the work of God knowing that we are mere stewards of those resources. They don’t belong to us, they ultimately belong to God, and when we hold onto them too tight, or fear losing them, then they become a stumbling block in our faith.

And please note that this does not have anything to do with the size of our treasure. You can be a hoarder with a penny and you can be a hoarder with a million dollars, the same as you can be generous with a million dollars and you can be generous with a penny. It’s about where our heart is, for where our treasure is is where our heart will be. So, may we indeed put our heart in God, to love the Lord our God with all that we are and all that we have, and love our neighbor as ourselves, so that our identity and purpose and meaning and everything else are found in that relationship, then we are indeed storing up for ourselves treasure in heaven and we can then use our treasure here to further the Kingdom of God. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.