Chris Taylor’s Sermon – 10/28/07
Spiritual
Ecclesiastes 5:10-17
Matthew 6:19-25
The Steelers are playing Cincinnati this afternoon, and for many of us this match-up immediately brings to mind the season-ending hit on their quarterback a couple of years ago. The Steelers might have forgotten it, but it is a pretty good bet that Carson Palmer and the Bengals haven’t. Like Arizona and Denver, they can be expected to bring a certain intensity to this game. We can only hope the Steelers will match it this time around.
Of course it is not just the players who get passionate about this sport. A couple of weeks ago I heard about a Steelers’ fan who liked to amuse himself by scaring any Browns’ fan he encountered. Whenever he would see a tell-tale orange and brown jersey on the sidewalk he would swerve his van as if to hit them. Only at the very last second would he steer away.
One day, he was over on the North Side and saw a priest walking along the street. He pulled over, “Where are you going, Father.”
“I'm on my way to St. John’s,” the priest replied. “Climb on in,” the guy said. And so the priest climbed into the passenger seat. They had gone just a few blocks when the driver spotted a Brown’s jersey out of the corner of his eye. Instinctively and forgetting about the priest, he swerved towards the fan. At the last moment he swerved back but heard a loud THUD.
Not knowing where the noise came from, he glanced in his mirrors. He didn't see anything. Then he remembered the priest by his side. “Sorry, Father, I almost hit that Brown’s fan.”
“That’s okay,” replied the priest, “I got him with the door.”
We get pretty excited about our Steelers. And the truth is some people find a great sense of significance in rooting for their home teams. There are other things, of course, in which people find significance (success, or families, or wealth) but the truth is wherever we look for that meaning it is going to have an impact on our lives. It is going to affect our priorities and our goals. It is going to affect the way we use our time and resources. A look at a person’s checkbook and calendar is one of the best and surest ways to find out what really matters most to them.
Our text this morning is about that search. It is no surprise that Jesus would tell us that our goals make a difference. What is surprising is just how strongly he chooses to put it. There are three things this text tells us. First, it speaks of who we are. Second, it tells us where we find our home. And third, it shows us how to get there.
Let’s take a look at that first element: at who we are.
“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…”
Jesus is making a couple of assumption here. The first is obvious, that we are creatures of this earth, “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” The second assumption, however, is a lot less obvious and one that a lot of people don’t know or ignore or tend to forget. We aren’t just creatures of this earth. We are also creatures of heaven. Jesus is assuming here that there is this other realm of existence – a realm that by definition is not of this earth – and that you and I are citizens of it. Why else would we even consider storing up treasures in heaven?
But we don’t usually think in those terms. Most of the time, most of us are pretty focused right here. We think in terms of this earth. What we can do here. What is available to us here. We think of our years upon this earth and don’t give a great deal of thought to anything that might lie beyond.
But Jesus is saying that we aren’t just physical creatures. We aren’t just this mass of flesh and bone, glands and organs that fills a space and bumps into things and goes to sleep at night. Jesus is saying there is more to us. A lot more.
At some level there is a part of us that already knows that. We are aware of that self which looks through these eyes and experiences these bodies but somehow exists apart from them. We look at our hand, for example, and we know that our hand is part of us, but we also know that we are not our hand. In fact, we can lose our hand but the “I” remains.
We can lose the capacity for movement, we can lose the capacity to speak, we can lose sight itself, but even then our deepest self – our truest self – is still intact. Our various capacities are a part of us, but they don’t define us. We are something more, something that lies beyond all those merely physical characteristics and capacities.
The great therapist Victor Frankl discovered that in his experience as a prisoner in the Nazi death camps sixty years ago. Amid the beatings, torture, deprivations and humiliation he found that part of himself that the guards couldn’t touch; that part which abided at a deeper level, that part which would always be free.
We aren’t our circumstances or our environment. No matter what happens to us we still have the capacity to choose; to choose our attitude, and to choose the course that we will follow. Certainly, there were those among his fellow prisoners who gave up their humanity in the bitter struggle for self-preservation. They chose to become no more than animals.
But there were others among those prisoners who chose a very different course. They experienced the same circumstances, the same hardships and deprivations. But instead of scrambling to draw to themselves everything they possibly could, they would walk through the huts offering comfort where they could, and giving up their last piece of bread. Amid the dehumanizing and debilitating they chose a path of dignity and compassion.
This is the last freedom; the freedom that can’t be taken from us. It is the freedom to choose who we will be, the freedom to determine what course we will follow. We have it because we are spiritual beings. We can make those choices because there is that part of us, that essence, which stands beyond the merely physical.
First, then, we are spiritual beings. We are citizens not just of this earth, but citizens of a spiritual realm, as well. Because we are spiritual, our true home is in the spiritual realm, as well. This is our second point this morning.
Here on earth we tend to think of our lives as existing between the two poles of birth and death. When we think of our lives, our existence, that is what we think of: these years between the poles. If we think of eternity at all, we think of it as existing out beyond the poles; pushing out to either.
At first glance, Jesus seems to be reinforcing that perspective. Don’t invest your treasures here between the poles, he seems to be saying, because that part is so brief, so short. Think about the eternity to either side. Think about that life which follows.
But Jesus isn’t just talking about what happens after we die. He is talking about a kind of life that is available right now; the eternal kind of life that we can know through him.
What did Jesus proclaim? Go back to chapter 4, verse 17. Jesus has just come out of the wilderness. His ministry is just beginning. What is he teaching? “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Skip down to verse 23: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”
Jesus was proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was breaking into this world. The miracles that he was performing were about that Kingdom. They were the visible confirmation of what he was teaching.
What is the Kingdom of God? It is heaven – the same heaven where we are supposed to be investing our treasures. It is that space where God abides and where God’s will is done. It is that realm where the power of God is moving and changing people’s lives. It is all eternity, and you and I can experience it here and now.
This is our home. This is where we belong. This is that space where we are nourished and refreshed. There is a sense of rightness here. A sense of peace and quiet joy. Taste even a little bit of it, and we will never want to leave.
It is the way Harry Potter feels when he is back at Hogwarts, or hanging out with the Weasleys. He doesn’t belong at number 4 Privet Drive. He hates Privet Drive. The Dursleys don’t get him. They do everything they can to constrain and belittle him. They are constantly beating him down. What are they doing? They are denying Harry’s true identity.
Harry doesn’t belong there. He belongs with his friends. He belongs with other wizards and in the world of magic. That’s home. That is where his truest and deepest self is free to emerge.
Our real home isn’t here in this world. Our home is with God. It is in God’s image that we were created. It is for God that you and I exist. Our home, then, is in the Kingdom – that Kingdom, Jesus tells us, which is right here…that home that we can begin to know and experience right now.
So first, we are spiritual beings. Second, our real home is with God in that realm where God abides and where God’s will is done. Our real home is in the Kingdom. And now third, we open our lives to that home through where we choose to focus. It is where our treasure is. It is where our eyes are turned. It is in that one we choose as master.
We usually think of this word “treasure” in economic terms. But “treasure” here can be bigger than simply the accumulation of wealth. Our treasure is actually wherever we look for significance and meaning in this life.
Certainly, for some, it may be the accumulation of wealth. But for someone else it might be success in business; in being the very best. For an artist it could be critical acclaim. For a college professor the recognition of her peers. For a politician the amount of power and influence.
Jesus is saying that as long as our treasure is here, we are going to miss it. We are going to miss our one true home. We are going to miss that one place that alone can truly satisfy the deepest longings of our soul.
Do you know anyone who has become a better person because of their wealth? Anyone who is a happier person because of their success? The things of this world can be a great blessing – they were intended to be a blessing – but them our goal, make them the source of our significance and what we will find is that they are lousy gods.
We are spiritual beings. We need a spiritual God. How do we open our lives to the Kingdom of God? It is the spiritual disciplines that help us to shift our focus. It is daily practices such as prayer, study and service that help us break the hold this world has upon us.
You see, saying the right things about God isn’t enough. We can say all the right things and still be focused on the things of this world; still think in the back of our minds that it is really this world that matters most.
No, it is putting what we say into practice that is going to make the difference. That’s when you and I begin to find our way back home.
Jesus is saying we need to choose God. We can make that choice each day in a tangible way through the various disciplines of our faith. It is through those disciplines that we shift our focus. Through the disciplines that we open our lives to the Kingdom. Through the disciplines that you and I begin to experience God doing in us what we could never do for ourselves.
Focus is everything. Recognize that we are spiritual beings, recognize that our true home lies with God, and like Harry Potter back to Hogwarts, we can begin to find our way back home. It is there in the Kingdom that we find the things of this world falling into their proper place. It is there that a sense of rightness with this world begins to emerge, and that God’s own peace begins to settle upon us.