Treasure Hunt

Luke 12:22-34
November 24, 2017
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry


In the twelfth chapter of Luke,
Jesus has been warning his disciples of the traps and seductions of wealth;
he also makes it a point to teach them not to fear persecution, or death,
but to only fear the outcome of a Godless life.

Just before today’s text, he tells the parable of the rich fool.
A successful farmer has such a bumper crop that his barn won’t hold it.
The man’s solution to this problem is to build bigger barns, to store it all.
But, Jesus says, God said to him, ‘You fool!
This very night your life is being demanded of you.
And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves
but are not rich toward God.”

Then Jesus gives a discourse on what we ought to value,
and where we should direct our devotion.
Let’s listen for God’s gracious word to us in Luke 12:22-34

He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.
For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap,
they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
Of how much more value are you than the birds! 

And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that,
why do you worry about the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow:
they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory
was not clothed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

And do not keep striving for what you are to eat
and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.
For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things,
and your Father knows that you need them.
Instead, strive for his kingdom,
and these things will be given to you as well.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessions, and give alms.
Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out,
an unfailing treasure in heaven,
where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.


Do you worry about money?
I confess that sometimes, I do.

Everybody here sees how much I make every year,
and you can see that I’m by no means rich.
I’m not poor, either, and don’t really have anything to worry about.
But I do.

I worry about my future – whether I’ll have enough to retire comfortably.
I sometimes worry about debt and spending,
though neither are problems for me.

On my more faithful days, when I’m really paying attention to God,
I worry that I don’t give enough to the church in my pledge.
We try to increase our pledge every year, as a spiritual practice,
but sometimes I worry whether I’m doing enough.
Other times I think about how nice it would be
to put that monthly pledge check into our retirement savings.

It has been a long time since I worried about having enough food to eat.
I’ve never had to worry about having clothes to wear.
Few of us have ever been in that situation for very long,
and if you are currently in that situation, ignore me for ten more minutes.
Because I’m speaking to those who don’t have to worry about basic needs.

And I’m not preaching this sermon in order to coax you into giving;
instead I’m preaching stewardship, as I always do,
to call you into deeper discipleship.
And I want us to think deeply today about where our treasure is. 

Hear that?

Not where your heart is, but where your treasure is.
Thinking about your treasure, what you value,
will generally get you thinking not just about faith and family,
but about your money and possessions.
And thinking about that might make you feel a bit anxious.

In his book Money and Possessions,
Walter Brueggemann points out that
“the dominant economy is grounded in fear. . .
The mantra of scarcity tells us that we do not yet have enough.
We have not yet done enough.
We are not yet enough!
Television ads remind us that we do not yet have the product
that will make us secure and happy . . . not yet. “
And so, we are anxious.
We worry about money and possessions.
But just look around you, Jesus says.
Look at the birds, the flowers, the grass.
See how they grow and thrive and live without worry!
If God cares for them, won’t God care for you?
Of course God will care for you.

We can imagine that the disciples and the crowd around them
perhaps were thinking, “Yeah, sure.”
And we might think that, too.
After all, this scripture just says, “don’t worry! be happy?”
And it isn’t that easy.

It is not.

It is not, because our culture and society have set up a rival God,
a golden idol for us to worship, a golden calf of affluence,
a religion of consumerism in which wealth equals success.
The American novelist Scott Fitzgerald is supposed to have said once to Ernest Hemingway, 

‘You know, the rich are different from you and me.’ 

Hemingway replied, ‘Yes. They've got more money.’[1]

When we look around, we may overlook the birds of the air
and we may not notice the lilies of the field.
But we see the wealthy – on television, in movies, magazines, online…
We see them and we imagine that they are happy.

But they’re not.

They are not happy. They are not satisfied.
“Michael Norton… says that research
regularly points to two central questions
that people ask themselves when determining whether they’re satisfied
with something in their life:
Am I doing better than I was before? and
Am I doing better than other people?
This applies to wealth, but also to attractiveness, height,
and other things that people fret about.
‘But the problem is,’ Norton says, ‘a lot of the things
that really matter in life are hard to measure.
So if you wanted to be a good parent,
it’s a little hard to know if you’re being a better parent now
than you were a year ago,
and it’s also hard to know if you’re a better parent than the neighbors.
So people turn to dimensions of comparison that can be quantified.
‘Money is a terrific one,’ Norton says.
‘If I need to know if I’m doing better than I was, the easy thing to ask is,

 Am I making more money? or Does my house have more square feet? 

or Do I have more houses than I used to?”[2]

The rich really ARE different.
The measure of what would make them feel happy,
or how much would make them feel successful,
was always two or three times more than they already had.

That’s the lie of the world around us:
Everyone who matters is gaining, climbing, succeeding,
doing better, making more, moving up.
If the goal is making money, the measure of success is making more.
And no matter how much more you make, it isn’t enough.

Brueggemann says, “The antidote to such drivenness
is to disengage from such an ideology.
Sell your possessions and give alms.
The accent is on giving.”[3]

In other words, the antidote is to step out of that game
and step into deeper discipleship.
The antidote is to fix your attention elsewhere – not on money,
but on the beauty of what is already around you.
Seeking God’s kingdom, instead of seeking more, more, more,
will change how you see everything.

And here’s the thing about what Jesus said.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In other words, you don’t wait for your heart to change, and then give.
You give, and it will change your heart.

I’m going to say that again:
you don’t wait for your heart to change, and then give.
You give, and it will change your heart.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
Your heart will follow your treasure.

One preacher likens it to those old movie scenes
where someone is chasing after a train, carrying a bag of money.
They need to get on the train, but they aren’t leaving the bag behind.
What do they do?
They throw the bag onto the train, then jump on after it.[4]

The heart follows the treasure.

It might take a little time – it certainly did for me.
But the practice of giving: regular, generous, giving,
giving enough that it makes you a little bit uncomfortable,
will result in a change of heart.

That change will be glorious and beautiful and deeply satisfying,
more than anything you own or desire.
You’ll get excited when you can do more and give more –
even if it seems like a small increase, even a few dollars,
will give you such a sense of satisfaction.

And your heart will follow your treasure.
Your heart and your home will be firmly located in the kingdom.
You’ll end the treasure hunt,
because you have found what you have always wanted.

Amen.







[1] https://academic.oup.com/ereh/article-abstract/12/2/138/429963


[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/rich-people-happy-money/577231/


[3] Brueggemann, Money and Possessions, Kindle edition, pp 193-94


[4] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2019/08/throwing-bag-train-heart-follows-treasure/


[5] David Lose. “Preaching Stewardship, Confessions of a Convert.” http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=1480