Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Luke 12:32-34 – “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.”  (NRSV)

Sometimes it feels like Jesus knows us just a little too well, doesn’t it?  He pokes just a little too close to the thing we’d prefer to pretend isn’t hiding inside our soul, and reminds us that we’re still in need of healing.  In this instance, Jesus is making clear that he knows what we’re likely to do if we feel afraid.  Or sad.  Or stressed.  Do you suppose there was a phrase for “retail therapy” in first-century Palestine?

Why is it that having more stuff – whether it’s just more money or the stuff money can buy – helps us feel more secure?  For those who have actually lived without enough – going to bed with a rumbling tummy, repeatedly being embarrassed by not having what your friends had at school – it’s a trauma response, and something to be taken seriously.  But those of us who’ve mostly always had enough have this same response much of the time, with no good reason for it, other than the programming we receive from our commodified culture that is constantly telling us we’re not enough.

Can you imagine selling everything you own and giving the money away to the poor?  “Jesus can’t really mean that, can he?” we protest.  If I sold it all and gave the proceeds away, I would be poor!  We’ve been taught all our lives to avoid ever becoming a burden on anyone else; the idea of having to depend on charity makes us shudder.

And yet, we’ve all had experiences when our stuff failed to provide the security we crave.  Neither money, nor stuff can protect us from illness or death, or from broken relationships, or the consequences of our own bad choices.  Even the stuff itself can fail us, as Jesus points out by invoking thieves and moths.  By implying we should give our things away to the point we become poor, Jesus is reminding us that our only true security is in God.  He’s reminding us to consider where our treasure really is, what it is we actually value, who we turn to when things get really bad.

It’s not that God wants us to be poor; God wants us to be God’s.  If we want to join the realm of heaven, we have to stop pretending we are kings.