Sunday, September 22, 2013

9th September Trinity 2013, Treasures of the Heart

9th August Trinity
Matthew 6; 19-24, 25-34

“Do not save up your treasures on the earth, where moths and rust eat away at them and thieves tunnel in and steal. Save up your treasures in heaven, where no moth and no rust consumes and thieves do not tunnel in and steal. Because where you have gathered a treasure, there  your heart will bear you.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is wholesome, your whole body is lighted; whereas if your eye is bad, your whole body is in darkness. So if the light inside you is dark…what great darkness!

“No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other, or he will  put up with one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and greed’s demon of riches [mammon].

“That is why I tell you, do not trouble your heart about what you will eat and drink or with what you will clothe your body. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: they do not plant, do not harvest, and do not fill barns, and your heavenly Father still feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you, by being vastly concerned, add one moment to the span of your life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Study how the lilies of the field grow: they do not work, and they do not spin cloth. But I am telling you that not even Solomon in all his glory was ever arrayed as one of these. If that is how God clothes the wild grass of the field, here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not do much more for you, o small in faith?

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we drink? What will we wear?’ It is the nations who ask for all these things, and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Ask first for God’s kingdom and its harmonious order, and these other things will be delivered to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow can worry about itself. Today’s trouble is enough for today.


9th August/September Trinity
September 22, 2013
Matthew 6: 19 – 34

Greed’s demon of riches makes slaves of us. It drives us like cattle with lashes of fear, of doubt, of envy. It drives us to be anxious and over-concerned, to worry. Christ encourages us to free ourselves from this demon, whose only real gifts to us are troubled hearts.

Christ is not saying that we should neglect to plan, or that we should not be willing to work for basic necessities. Rather He is saying that we should do what is necessary without anxiety, without fear or worry or over-concern. Worry is praying for what you don’t want.

God provides us with what we need. What we truly need may not be the same thing as what we want! Perhaps our soul needs a period of loss so that we learn how truly rich we are; perhaps we need to see and be grateful for all that we do have; much of it is non-material: the love of family and friends, a God who always knows our inmost heart.

Christ wants to strengthen our trust, our confidence.  He brings us confidence in the wisdom of divine order and harmony. He brings us trust in the superabundance of Cosmic Life.

The poet says:

Look at the birds. Even flying
is born

out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, friend, open

at either end of day.
The work of wings

was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing. [1]

As Christ says, ‘Where you have gathered a treasure, there your heart will bear you.’ [2]





[1] Li-Young Lee, ‘One Heart”, in Book of My Nights. Picture: Sermon on the Mount

[2] Matthew 6:21 

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