MPC, 22nd June 2003.Matthew 6:19-34 - "Where's Your Treasure?"
Phil Campbell MPC, 22nd June 2003.
Economic Commentator Ross Gittins said in an article recently that Australians are the richest they've ever been. So much so, that he says we've been forced to find whole new ways to get rid of our money. Does it feel like that to you?
But before you write him off, listen to what he's saying.
First of all, allowing for inflation, average income per person has gone from $23000 a year in 1982 to $35,000 a year in 2002. Real incomes have doubled since 1967; and trebled since 1950.
So if you're my age, you're living on twice what your parents lived on. And three times your grandparents.
And yet we still, according to surveys... 62% of Australians say we still can't afford to buy everything we need.
Because the problem is, according to Ross Gittins, we spend all our time figuring out new ways to spend our money. The majority of us were comfortable back in the 1980s. Now we're 55% richer. 55% more comfortable. And complaining that we can't afford everything we need.
We're spending more money on bigger houses. Which have almost doubled in floor area since 1955 from 115 square metres to 221. And we've got less people per house. So we've gone from 30 square metres of space per person to close to 70.
And of course, when interest rates go down, instead of paying off their loans faster, the average Australian upsizes their home. Bigger house. Better suburb. And Ross Gittins says because we all try to do it at once, it automatically bids up the price of real estate.
He says a third of all households have more than two cars. Far more often these days, imported European cars.
He says, everything these days is air conditioned. He says more and more average Australians are choosing to pay for private education. He says we're paying for entertainment systems in our homes with wide screen TVs and surround sound that in the 80s people could only dream about. Now we need them.
He says we're spending billions of dollars on fast food that makes us fatter.
And billions of dollars on electronic treadmills and designer sportswear to make us slimmer.
Ross Gittins says, we're pouring all our extra income into stuff we don't really need that doesn't do us any good. And yet we think we're doing poorly. Because, he says, we Australians are hooked on the false promise of materialism - that the next dollar we spend will be the one that finally makes us happy.
Now I wonder how many people reading the finance pages last week expected an article like that one.
You don't have to stop and think for long to see that it's true, do you?
True of the average Australian.
Maybe even true for me. And true for you. In a way that should make us stop and think. Because as members of the kingdom of God, our values are meant to be fundamentally different from the world around us.
I wonder if they are.
Because you see as Jesus addresses these enthusiastic Israelites on the side of the hill, he's addressing a crowd that would call themselves the people of God. Who are looking for the national blessing of the great God of creation. As his own, treasured people. Whose values have always been meant to be different to the rest of the world. But aren't different at all.
Which is why right from the start, Jesus has said they need to repent.
Because they've become just exactly like everyone else. Jesus says it in verse 31 and 32. For Israel, you'd expect to see different values and different passions and a different sense of what's really important... but they're not different at all. They're chasing after food and drink and designer label clothes just like everybody else. Read what he says. "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them."
He says, You're chasing the same things the pagans are chasing. You're hungry and thirsty for all the wrong things. You're being consumed by your consumerism.
And here's what it looks like.
It shows in what these Israelites really want to treasure. Funny, where Australians have more or less got a reputation for being easy going and the French have got a reputation for romance... even today, the Jews have a reputation for business sense.
I was talking to a friend the other day who'd been to Israel. Said he met a Rabbi who'd given up being a Rabbi to go into business. His business had gone well. Made millions. To the point where he was a top ranked speaker on the seminar circuit.
And he said it's funny how much easier it was to draw a crowd. And hold people's rapt attention. Talking about business. Than talking about God... when he used to be a Rabbi.
Talk about getting rich. Or talk about getting righteous. Which one's going to draw the big audience? It's all a question of what you value. Which is what Jesus is getting at if you read from verse 19.
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
The fact is, Jesus is looking for an Israel that's going to treasure the kingdom of heaven more than they treasure the kingdom of earth. Which is a big mind-shift, isn't it?
The article by Ross Gittins I was talking about... he finished with the words, "We're hooked on the false promise of materialism - the next dollar we spend will be the one that finally makes us happy."
And we somehow don't learn from experience that it doesn't work that way. Because no matter what you buy, no matter what you treasure, it's either obsolete or out of fashion or else falling apart five minutes after you buy it.
Whatever it is. Moths will eat the latest Collette Dinnigan fashions just as happily as they'll eat anything else. Pick whatever treasure you like... Jesus says, it's temporary. And the reality is, the pleasure of it is even more temporary. Because the next dollar you spend is never going to be the dollar that makes you happy.
So where's your treasure? Where's your heart? Jesus says, set your heart on heavenly things. That really do last. Things that moths and rust can't destroy, that thieves can't steal. Set your heart on righteousness. Hunger for that instead.
And don't be double minded.
Now it's actually hard to figure out how verse 22 and 23 fit the context of what Jesus is saying. The eye is the lamp of the body. Seems to come a bit out of the blue. And different commentators have had a stab at what he's meaning.
But it seems to me the best guess comes from the fact that if you've got an eye problem, more often than not you'll have double vision. Which is very much what Jesus is talking about by the time you hit verse 24.
And I wonder if when you read verse 22 he's putting it this way. The eye is the lamp of the body. Important they're working right if you want to see where you're heading. Close your eyes, you're in the dark.
Now the word he uses next is I think the key to it. The word haplos. Which our bibles translate as good. But the old King James version puts it more literally. It says, "if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
See, it's a problem with eyes if one's pointing one way and one the other. Bad eyes. A bad case of strabismus. Which means you don't know where you're heading.
If your eyes are single, says Jesus, if you've got things properly aligned and focused, then your whole body will be full of light.
But if they're bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
So be focused. Because, he says in verse 24, you can't serve two masters. Have you tried that? I used to work in a fruit shop as a kid with a couple called Barry and Thelma. And if Barry was out the back Thelma would say, pack those potatotes. And then Barry would come in and say what are you doing packing potatoes?
Jesus says, it's like that when it comes to treasure. Because in the end, you'll be serving what your heart is set on. And if you've got a double focus, if you're trying to serve two masters, it's just not going to work.
Read his words. "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
And yet somehow, we think you can.
Because we don't realise or we don't admit or we don't acknowledge that one master pulls us one way, and the other master wants to take us somewhere else completely. Having treasure in heaven is going to lead us to generosity and self sacrifice. Treasure on earth is about hoarding and self centredness. I mean, of course, we dress it up as if we're doing it for the kids. But it's not, is it?
The neat thing, of course, is you don't have to look far to find Christians and churches these days that tell you that you can serve two masters after all. Maybe you watched the story on Hillsong a couple of weeks back on SBS. The Sydney church with 14,000 members. Their pastor Brian Houston has written a book called You Need More Money. The subtitle is "Discovering God's Amazing Financial Plan for Your Life."
Pastor Brian says, "It is time to relax and become comfortable around money. You need to stretch yourself and position yourself right out of your comfort zone." So put on your best clothes, and go order coffee in a fancy restaurant or hotel lobby.
Jesus says, here's God's Amazing Financial Plan for Your Life. It's very simple. You can't serve two masters. So be single minded, and serve the lord your God with all your heart. Chase righteousness instead of chasing riches.
To which of course you say, well it's easy for Jesus to say. Because he didn't have a mortgage. Or a car to pay off. Or school fees.
And you say, how much is too much? And how can I know... if I'm serving money? Or if money's serving me? Which I guess is what the crowd on the mountainside was thinking as well. The answer lies, of course, in where your heart is. Which is what everything in the Sermon on the Mount is about.
And one way of measuring where your heart is, is to ask where your worries are. Because that's a measure of what you really love, isn't it? We talked in our growth group last Wednesday night about the things we worry about. If you're the parent of a teenage kid and you're lying awake at 2am waiting for them to come home, you're worrying. And the reason you're worrying, is that in spite of the fact your kids a teenager, you love that kid far more than they ever realise. And you're worried for exactly that reason.
So if you're consumed by concern about eating the best food and drinking the best wine and wearing the latest designed clothes, Jesus points out very clearly that there's a problem. And it's not just a modern problem by any means. Except that we've refined it a bit.
See, I don't think in verse 25 to 32 Jesus is talking to Israelites in poverty who are worried what they'll eat and drink and wear. I think he's talking to Israelites who are doing quite nicely. It's about the desire for splendour. The ambition to impress. It's about the pursuit of the Solomon lifestyle. Which every one of us exceeded years ago. I mean, Solomon had lots of gold and silver. But he didn't come close to the stuff we enjoy every day.
So here are these Israelites listening to Jesus on the hillside, and they're pretty much like everyone else. What are we going to have for dinner when the boss comes over. Is the Grange Hermitage 1982 better than the 1983? And how can I go out in public if I'm not wearing a designer clothes label.
To which Jesus says, verse 25,
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
See, who would have thought it? Israel, the people of God... behaving just like the pagans. Running after all the same things the world runs after. Hungry for caviar and champagne; but not hungry for the Kingdom of God. Hungry for Reeboks and the Rolex watch. But not hungry for righteousness.
It's all about what they're looking for. And in verse 33, Jesus spells out again what it should be. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness... and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
If Israel wants to enjoy God's restored blessing... then they need hearts that are hungry for the kingdom of God. And instead of that... they're just like the pagans. No different at all.
Now as we close, I guess enough's been said already. Except that I wonder about myself, and so I wonder it about the rest of you... whether we're any different from the world around us. Whether our values are just like the pagans as well. Whether in the statistics I quoted at the start there'd be even the slightest hundredth of a percent difference in the size of the house and the size of the mortgage and the size of the worldy ambitions... between us Christians. And the pagans. Because there should be. As those who say we follow Jesus. As those who say were really are hungry for righteousness. More than we're hungry for riches. I wonder even if we started doing little things like avoiding the urge to upsize... if when interest rates go down, some of us decided to sponsor a kid with Compassion instead of buying a bigger house... or putting in some time leading a Sunday School class, instead of putting in the extra hours in the office. But somehow, for so many Christians, if it gets in the road of enhancing the lifestyle, it's not on. Because you don't have time. Because you're so busy converting time into money.
Jesus on the mountainside was putting out the call for an Israel that was going to be serious about being different. And says those very clear but confronting words, "you can't serve two masters." Words that still sit there on the page looking at us all... in a very awkward way.