I’m not sure you’d get a good hearing these days if you told
people to consider birds and wild flowers as financial indicators. But when
Jesus talks about economics in the Kingdom of heaven that is exactly what he
does. He tells his disciples to consider the birds and the lilies of the field
and that they will teach us about where to find financial security. The kind of
security we need to put God’s kingdom first in our lives. It’s something that
we desperately need to hear a fresh today.
“The restoration of the church” says Deitrich
Bonhoeffer ,“ will surely come from a new kind of community, which will have nothing in common with the old but a
life of uncompromising adherence to the Sermon on the Mount in imitation of
Christ. I believe the time has come to rally people together for this.”
Nowhere is that more relevant for the church and Christians
in western culture than Jesus teaching on economic priorities in the second
half of Matthew chapter 6.. Martin Luther sums up very well the challenge that
we face, he said that where ever the gospel is preached two plagues arise
against it, false teaching, that assaults right thinking and sir greed that
assails right living. 
There is a new urgency also to re-examine Jesus teaching on
economics as we face the ever growing reality of the global village we live in.
“The world’s population is mushrooming’ says John Stott,” and the economic
problems of the nation’s become more complex, the rich are still getting richer,
the poor poorer,’ a situation that God’s spirit will no longer allow us to turn
a blind eye to.” These problems are not
just across the world anymore, they are part of our city and our neighbourhoods
here and now. There is also the realisation that how we live is no longer sustainable
ecologically.
At an even more basic level Jesus calls his followers to
live differently than the world around them. When it came to spirituality it
was to be different than the Pharisees that spiritual disciplines were about
intimate trust not public performance. When it came to finances Jesus contrasts
his way to that of the gentiles whose
focus was on their material goods and needs. When it comes to economics we live
with that prevailing gentile worldview today. Our identity is primarily that of
a consumer, we live in a consumer society… we are tutored says Rodney Clapp
that people basically consist of unmet needs that can be appeased by
commodified goods and experiences.’ That the consumer should think first and
foremost about meeting their own needs.
Jesus uses the metaphor of treasure, vision and slavery to call
us to choose a different way to live.
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It needs noting Jesus is not challenging us
about providing for ourselves and family, he teaches us to pray ‘give us today
our daily bread’. The scriptures affirm good stewardship and hard work. Nor is
he denying that the world is full of good things to enjoy. But the question is
where are the important things for us, what is our priority, what are investing
our resources, time and energy into. What are we accumulating?
When it
comes to accumulating treasure, why says Jesus would you spend all your time
and money on things that will rust and rot and get stolen? We’ve been burgled
four times in the four years we’ve lived where are now. I can attest to the
fact that stuff gets taken.
Rather says Jesus invest in heavenly things.
Things of eternal value, that can’t get taken away, that won’t rot that won’t
rust or tarnish. There of course has been some debate on what Jesus means
here. What are treasures in heaven?
Firstly heaven is where God lives and reigns
now. It is not the idea of putting aside stuff for our ultimate retirement to
glory, or so we can buy a better room in Our fathers house.
Secondly, It is not the idea of the church
in the middle ages that there was an economy of merit, that the good things we
did earned us brownie points for God that we could earn our salvation, or at
least buy ourselves and our loved ones relief from purgatory. Jesus has already
shown us that the Kingdom of God is a grace economy. Our suffering our merit doesn’t
buy us in.
The clues to what this means comes from the
Lord’s prayer, where we are invited to pray first and foremost, hallowed be thy
name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That we
invest in those things, we work on developing a godly character, we invest in
relationships, we deal with the blot on the name of God that poverty and
injustice is in this world, we get alongside the poor hungry and thirsty physically
and spiritually and let them know and experience the good news of God’s grace. That
we simplify our lives and lifestyle, to care for our neighbour. We realise we
have what we have to share it with those in need.
Jesus
then talks about our vision. I remember
hitching back from a friends place one night in the Waitakere rangers and I got
picked up by an old guy in a Citroen DS21. As we drove through the dark windy
scenic drive I began to wonder if I was going crazy. The headlights didn’t keep
pointing straight ahead they swivelled and pointed where the steering wheel was
turning. It was I discovered Citroën’s directional headlights. It’s a great illustration of what
Jesus is getting at when he talks about our bodies and lives going where we fix
our eyes on, just as the headlights gave the impression of pointing the way the
car was to go.
There is that phrase people often use when
it comes to shopping.. “I’ve had my eye on that for quite a while’. Right
(whose said that) Adverts are made to be eye-catching. They bombard our senses
with what we should buy. I was in a doctors waiting room and I found a magazine
which had he byline ‘all about the good life’ the whole thing was about the most
prestigious car to own the best jewellery to buy, the best fashion to wear the
best luxury holiday destination. It was
full of ads that imagined the good life as being about these consumer goods. I
found myself fascinated, fixated. Jesus reiterates his teaching on treasure by
saying that our lives will go where our focus is. That can be on the things of
this world or as the book of Hebrews encourage us running the race with our
eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ. When focused
on that light can we really settle for the dark emptiness of things.
Then Jesus turns to say you can’t serve God
and mammon (or wealth). Ronald Sine says that this generation of young people
at University now are going the first generation since the second world war who
will not have a better standard of living than their parents. They will not be
able to afford to live in the kind of homes that they were brought up in.’ He
goes on to say if they decide that that is their goal, it will consume all
their time and energy simply to achieve it.’ They will have nothing left for
anything else. Even the good Christian folk. That’s a good definition of
serving the master of mammon. We are seeing that at the moment in our
neighbourhoods, in many homes the need for both partners to work full time to
service a mortgage, while paying off student loans. house prices spiralling
upward. Sine suggests that the time has come for Churches to point to a new
model for housing. Living simply, living communally. Sadly I fear that the
church is unable to do that because we have for years been trying to prove
Jesus wrong trying to serve both God and
money.
This is going to be contentious, but church
buildings can be a good example of that. Winston Churchill said that you spend
time shaping a building then you spend the rest of your life being shaped by
the building. It’s easy for a community of faith to be caught in the dilemma of
servicing a building or serving Christ. Buildings can be a great help to
mission and equally a hindrance. Like with all matters of economics we need to
keep asking what is our priority where is our treasure, who is the master we
serve?
Now Jesus moves to show us a different way
to live, the right place to invest and to find financial security.
He invites his followers to consider the
sparrows that do not sow or reap but rather trust their heavenly father to feed
them. It was great as I was wrestling with this passage this week to look out
my window and see birds coming and getting a drink and having a bath in the
bird bath in the garden outside my window. They show us says Jesus that we can
trust our heavenly father who knows our needs even before we ask him. We are
more important than sparrows to God and we can rap and sow, so we should not
worry about those things. And says Jesus can anyone actually add another day to
their lives by such worrying. In fact modern medical science tells us that
anxiety and worry can do just the opposite.
Likewise says Jesus don’t worry about what
you will wear, I mean consider the lillies and flowers in the field, they are
here today and gone tomorrow but not even king Solomon looked so wonderful as
they do. Trusting God enables us to have financial security that God cares and
God provides. Yes Christians have responsibilities and need to work and will
have troubles, Jesus tells his disciples that today has enough worries of it
own, but by being prepared to trust God for our daily needs we have the freedom
to focus on the god stuff; The important stuff, the eternal kingdom of God
stuff. It enables us to focus on justice rather than just us, the concerns of
others rather than our own comfort. To make decisions about what we need and
what is really an unnecessary luxury.
Some people like St Francis of Assisi have
taken Jesus literally in this and turned their backs on the society of his
time, stripping off even the clothes of his rich merchant family to trust God
and walking off naked to follow Jesus. We might think that radical and crazy
but Francis ignited one of the most amazing revivals in church history.
Thousands of people have followed him and committed their life to following
Jesus and living a simple life caring for the poor, Franciscans can be seen in
every nation round the world today serving Jesus.
Living simply and communally is growing
round the world, there is a new monasticism people take that trust and priority
in the kingdom of God to downsize and go and live in the harder neighbourhoods
to be light and salt there. Others simply live simply so they can give sponsor
children, develop a compassion budget and share what they have with other
people.
Jesus is short on nuts and bolts on this
passage. The call is for us to take
Jesus seriously when he challenges about our priorities. Economics is where the
rubber hits the road. In Luke’s gospel discipleship is measured by how deep it impacts
on our pockets. More than anywhere else how we differentiate ourselves from our
materialistic consumer society shows that we are not just living that lifestyle
that Shane Claiborne calls , the western dream with Jesus sprinkles.
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