Sunday, February 3, 2019

A Closer Look at Teachings of Jesus: Where Is Our Treasure?: Matthew 6:7-21



The Lord’s Prayer is widely known by Christians the world over. Most of us here today are probably familiar with it in at least two different English translations, perhaps more. Some may of have memorized it as small children in the KJV, and then when you were older, learned it again in the NIV. And those of us in this congregation, we pray this prayer at the end of our prayer time each week in the NLT. To say that it is well known would be somewhat of an understatement.
This prayer is a part of a greater body of Jesus’ teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount which begins with the passage Mike covered in his sermon last week on the Beatitudes and goes through chapter 7, so this passage comes at about the middle of a group of teachings. But we are not looking at the Lord’s Prayer on its own the morning, we are looking at it in context. The prayer moves almost seamlessly into teachings on forgiveness, and fasting and ends with, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay 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 will your heart be also.” Jesus ends here because the rest of this passage can be seen through the lens of our treasure.
When Jesus speaks about our treasure, he is not merely talking about the objects in our lives, our TVs our computers, our diamonds and electronics, all the things with which we fill our homes, nor or Jesus simply speaking about the money with which we fill our bank accounts. These are the actual things that thieves can break in and steal but we, as humans, are more complicated than that when it come to our treasures, that is what we hold dear, what we are willing to guard and protect. But the things we value are not always actual objects, but are often things that are not always tangle treasures such as our wide screen TV. The things we hold dear, the things we put in the center of our lives, and hold onto most securely and have sway over what we do, how we spend our time and yes, even our money, are the things that we truly treasure.
So let’s take some time and think about this.  What do we value, what in our lives has worth? What are the things in our lives on which we focus the most? What fills the space in our lives? Not simply, what fills the physical space in our lives, but also what fills our time, and consumes our energy, as well what fills our heads, our minds, our thoughts. What truly are the treasures in our lives?
Jesus tells us what these things are, shows us where our heart is. What we value, what we hold dear, tells us about where our focus is, or center of our lives is, depends on what we determine to have worth.
As we think about what we hold dear, sometimes it is hard to be honest with ourselves; sometimes it is hard to see ourselves and our own lives with discerning eyes. But when we think about our treasure in context of the teachings of Jesus we have read this morning, it becomes a little easier to pin point. Jesus speaks to us about fasting, “And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
This is a passage I usually preach on right before Lent. And although Lent is a time of communal fasting, a time when we give up things in our lives whether that be certain kinds of food, or entertainment, a particular meal each day or on a certain day of the week during the 40 or so days prior Easter, when we celebrate the resurrection to help prepare us spiritually for this holy time in the life of the Church by saying “no” to earthly things that have value to us, so that we can say, “yes” to God and the things of God.
Fasting is spiritual practice that can and should be practiced throughout the year, in our individual spiritual lives as well as a part of the communal spiritual life of the Church. Jesus speaks to the manner in which we fast, about whether are working to draw attention ourselves when fasting but how we fast, the manner in which we fast, as well as what we fast say things about our treasure.
What are the things we give up when we fast? Do those things have value to us? When it comes time to fast, are there things we are unwilling to give up even for a short period of time, to help us focus on God and engage better in spiritual practices? Are you unable to give up social media? Can you not even think about giving up your evening sitcoms or your morning news?  Are you unable to disconnect from your phone for a day or even for a designated period of time. How you fast, and what you are unwilling to give up, to give in to God, says something about what your treasure is and where you heart ultimately lies.
Jesus also talks about forgiveness. Now forgiving someone is not about “letting them get away with what they did,” nor is about someone not bearing the consequences of their actions, even if those consequences have long reaching affects such as losing relationship with the person they harmed. Forgiveness may result in restored relationship with someone but that is not always a sign of forgiveness, especially if the harm done was particularly awful.
Forgiving is about not allowing someone else’s harm to you to take root in your life and continue to shape and form you long after the person “trespassed” against you, to us the Biblical phrase. Forgiveness is letting go of the anger the rage, the emotions that allow someone’s action to hold sway in your life? Forgiveness allows us to begin the process healing, which depending on how deep the harm, can be lifelong.
So when we are thinking about our treasure, what we take the time to guard and protect when it comes to forgivness, there are several questions we can ask ourselves. Who are you willing to forgive? What are you willing to forgive? Are there people you are simply unable to forgive? Do you allow that hurt to control you and your life? Does that person suck up your energy because you are continually angry or even enraged over what they have done to you? Does it fill your thoughts and your mind? Do you find yourself dwelling on it at all times of the day or even the night? Are you allowing past harm to shape who are today and who you are able to become future? Is the way you hold on to that harm inhibiting God from transforming you into the person God is calling to be? If so, then you probably have not forgiven.
When we set up a situation in which we refuse to forgive someone, that says something about what we treasure, what we value, what we are willing to put in the center of our lives and allow to be the center of our focus and in many ways control us. Forgiveness is about not allowing that harm that has been done to you to become a treasure, that you build a fortress around and protect at all costs. When we say, “I will not forgive.” We are making that harm as valuable to us as a chest of gold. It becomes the center and the focus of our thoughts and our energy.
Finally we come to praying. The prayer Jesus gives us here is an example of prayer which reveals our spiritual lives and our relationship with the Lord are to be the treasures in our lives. When the things of God, are what is valued, then our prayers begin by being centered around God, who God is and giving God glory and praise for God has done and is doing in this world. It is prayer that declares that God is our Father and is holy. It is a prayer that desires for the ways of God to rule on this earth in the same way they rule in heaven. It is a prayer that seeks the coming of God’s kingdom in our lives, and through us.
But it is also a prayer that asks God for what we need. It is asking for the miracle of manna and quail in our lives, which is to ask for provision for TODAY and no more.  It is asking for no more than what is required and not expecting God to be the great fairy wish giver in the sky.  And it is a prayer the boldly asks God to forgive in the same way we are willing to forgive others.
It is a prayer focused on God and the things of God. How we pray speaks volumes about where our treasure is. What do we spend the most of our time in prayer praying for? Do we spend time giving glory to God, thanking God for all God has done for us, allowing the goodness, the greatness, the truly awesomeness of God to wash over us and give voice to these truths in prayer? Do we seek God’s will above all things? Do the words of our prayers seek God’s kingdom to come into this world and transform in the ways only God’s kingdom can? Do we want to be forgiven and do we want to forgive? All this reveals to us what we value and where our treasure actually resides.
Finally the manner in which we pray and fast says something about our treasure. When we feel that prayer requires special words, and flowery phrases, when we fill our prayers with aphorisms, when we pray in order “to be spiritual,” to be regarded as “spiritual,” or in such a way as to look pious, or when we make big deal about exactly how much we have given up when we are fasting, how hungry we are, how hard it is to go without, when we come back after having given up a lunch to spend time in prayer and then let those around us know how hungry we, either with words, our actions or the way we look. That says something about what we value. Our treasure is found in appearing to be Godly, our focus is on what others think about the spiritual things we are doing and saying, instead of actually residing in the God to whom we praying or seeking after by fasting.
Our spiritual practices, how we pray, how we forgive and how we fast, reveal to us what and where our treasures lie. When we think about these things do we find that our focus is on ourselves? Do we find that our words reveal that we value how others perceive us over and above finding solace in God? Are we allowing the ways other people have harmed us to form and shape us over and above allowing the will of God and the kingdom of God to transform us?  Do we find that we are unable to fast, or unwilling to fast because we are not able to give up even the most mundane things in our lives in order to purposely seek after God? Are we unwilling to say “no”, to certain things in our lives, in order to give us space or to say, “Yes,” to the things of God? Where is our treasure? What do we value? Do we hold our treasure in the things in our lives, in the hurts that we nurse, in the appearance of piety and what other people think of us?
These are not the things the people of God value. People who are seeking after Jesus and desire to live our lives in the same manner in which Jesus lived, hold treasure in spiritual things, in giving God honor and praise, they find value in seeking the kingdom of God and bringing God’s will to earth. Christians find that drawing close to God has more value than gold or silver.
Where our treasure is there our heart is also. Let us all seek after God in all things, desiring the things of God, guarding them and protecting with the same vigor we do the precious objects and things of this world. Let us find our hearts in God because our treasures are found there as well.

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