Treasure Hunt
By Julie Yarborough
November 7, 2004
Matthew 6: 19-21 and Proverbs 11: 24-25
me with me on a treasure hunt! Together, let's discover what is near and dear to us. What is it that we treasure? What is it that we value in our lives?
A few weeks ago I attended a
program led by a woman who is a life-coach. She spoke about leading a life in balance and invited us to participate
in an exercise in which we prioritized a list of daily activities based on how
we spend our time. Next, she asked us
to choose the top ten items that we hold dear from a list of values. She then asked us to link the activities
that we spend the most time on each day with the values that we prioritized, in
order to see how our time reflects that which we value. I found this to be a wonderfully affirming
exercise. As the mother of young
children, I often feel like I am never getting anything done at home, yet put
into this perspective, I was reminded that getting the laundry done or sweeping
the kitchen floor has little to do with what I most value in my life. When I really think about it, I devote a lot
of time, energy and resources to the people that matter most to me, and I spend
time, energy and resources nourishing my own creative and spiritual sides as
well. Housecleaning is a low priority
at this time in my life, and that's okay.
Jesus said, where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also. In other
words, where you invest your time and energy and financial resources is where you
will find your heart's passion.
Where do you invest your time and
energy and your financial resources? Do
those places fall in line with your values, with what you treasure in
life? Are you invested in the areas
where your heart lies?
It is possible for our money to be
in line with our values, no matter how much we make. Laurie Rufolo recently
recommended a book to me that literally has changed my life by challenging me
to re-think my attitudes about money. It's
called The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and
Life. The author, Lynne Twist,
a fundraiser for The Hunger Project for over twenty years, has devoted her life
to connecting the “resource poor” with the “resource wealthy,” enriching
everyone's lives in the process. She
argues that everyone can make a difference in
the world by allocating financial
resources, whether “dollar heirs” or millionaires.[1]
Twist writes:
In the many years I've worked with
and interacted with people in the world of fund-raising, whether they are
people we would call wealthy or people we would call middle class or of lesser
economic means, the experience of fulfillment and sufficiency becomes
accessible to them when they take the resources they have, at whatever level
those may be, and choose to make a difference with them. When they use what they have to support
their highest ideals and commitments, and express their deepest values, their
experience of their own true wealth expands.[2]
In The Soul of Money,
Twist encourages living out of the mind-set of sufficiency instead of the
mind-set of scarcity. She describes the
three toxic myths of scarcity that are deeply embedded in our cultural
understanding of money and all that it entails. The first myth is that there
is not enough to go around. Like a
game of musical chairs in which someone is going to be left out, we scramble to
take care of our own, even if it means doing so at the expense of someone else.[3] The second myth of scarcity is that more
is better.[4] No matter how much we have, it's not enough
and we need more. In our consumer-oriented culture, we are constantly being
bombarded with the message that what we have is not enough, and that we need
more in order to be fulfilled. Yet,
material wealth will never satisfy the hunger of the soul. The third myth of scarcity is that's just
the way it is.[5] Nothing will ever change about this world
that we live in. It's always been this
way and will always be this way, and we are powerless to change it, so we might
as well play along.
When we approach life from a model
of scarcity, we live in fear that we will not have what we need when we need
it. This worry can cause us to stay in
life-draining jobs, it can cause us to act in ways that lead to hoarding and
greed, it can cause pain and division in families when a loved one dies and
leaves an inheritance. Globally, it can
lead to violence and war, famine and hunger, corruption and exploitation of the
earth and its natural resources.
The model of sufficiency, on the
other hand, is a model of faith that there is enough to go around. Paradoxically,
when we share what we have with others, our lives will be richer. As Anne read earlier today, “One person
gives generously, yet grows even wealthier, another is stingy, yet only grows
poorer. The generous person will flourish, and the one who refreshes others
will be refreshed.” (Proverbs 11:24-25)
In the movie, Pirates of the
Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl, Geoffrey Rush stars as Captain
Barbossa, leader of a band of pirates who have committed mutiny against their
Captain, Jack Sparrow (played marvelously by the talented Johnny Depp.) After leaving Jack Sparrow on an island to
die, the crew of the ship, the Black Pearl steals an ancient treasure chest of
Aztec gold pieces, said to have belonged to the explorer Cortez himself.
Ecstatic with their new-found wealth, the pirates don't realize that the gold
has a curse upon it, and that anyone who steals it will be sentenced forever to
roam the world in a state between life and death. Barbossa and his men are caught in the land of the undead, never
to die, yet never able to experience any pleasures of the flesh. Forever hungry and thirsty, they can never
be satiated. Their greed has sentenced them to an infinite term of imprisonment
in their own bodies, not able to feel pain or even to die, yet separated from
that which offers any joy in life. As
Barbossa explains, “Compelled by greed we were, now we are consumed by it.”[6]
Their greed has cost them their souls.
Jesus understood that our souls are
deeply connected to our attitudes about money. Did you know that one of the topics he talked most about in the gospels,
second only to the Kingdom of God, was money? In the Gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus tells the parables of the
unforgiving servant, the laborers in the vineyard, the wicked tenants, and the
parable of the talents to name just a few. Jesus calls the religious leaders hypocrites for their greed and
self-indulgence, he addresses the topic of taxes, and he challenges the rich
young man to give all that he has to the poor, and follow him.
Throughout the Bible several models
can be found for faithful giving. The
first model, illustrated in Jesus' challenge to the rich young man, calls for
giving away 100% of one's riches. A
second model calls for giving away 50% of one's wealth. John the Baptist told his followers if they
had two coats to give one to the poor. Zacchaeus tells Jesus that he will give
half of what he owns away (Incidentally, he also tells Jesus that if he has
cheated anyone out of money, he will repay them four times what he took!) Perhaps the most familiar model for giving
found in the bible is that of tithing – giving away 10% of one's earnings.
Chuck talked about tithing last
week, and mentioned that it might have been a popular idea at one point, but he
hasn't seen it since he came to Christ Church. (Just for the record, I happen
to know that there are people who
tithe ten percent of their earnings in this congregation!)
All that aside, there is another
biblical model for giving that I'd like to lift up this morning called “first
fruits.” The idea, found in Genesis,
and expounded upon in the book of Deuteronomy, is that we give back to God the
first fruits of the harvest. Amazingly, the bible tells us that when we do so,
we will never be wanting. In Proverbs
3:9-10, we read, “Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits
of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats
will be bursting with wine.” Giving to
God first, before we spend money on anything else, is operating from the
perspective of sufficiency. It's
operating from the perspective of faith. It's operating from the understanding that everything we have and all
that we are comes from God, and is never really ours in the first place. When
we give first to God, we will always have what we need.
This morning I challenge you to put
your money where your heart is. Take your resources, at
whatever level they may be, and choose to make a
difference with them. If your faith life is
important to you, if Christ Church feeds your soul, prioritize it in your
charitable giving. As Chuck said last week, “Spiritually, your whole life
actually operates on how you invest yourself, what you invest in, and why you
do it. . . Whatever you give [to Christ Church], it should be reflective of
your soul investment.”[7]
When we invest our lives – our
time, our talents, our financial resources –
in that which feeds our souls, we
discover that our lives fall into balance.
When we give first to that which matters most, we will find that all
the rest falls into place, and our treasure will be where our heart
really lies.
Amen
[1] Lynne Twist,
The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life,
(New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003), p.19.
[2] Ibid., p.89
[3] Ibid., p.49
[4] Ibid., p.50.
[5] Ibid., p.53
[6] Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the
Black Pearl, Walt Disney Pictures, DVD distributed by Buena Vista Home
Entertainment, Inc., Burbank, CA, 2003 release.
[7] Chuck Rush,
“Building a Sturdy Tradition,” sermon preached at Christ Church, October 31,
2004.
© 2004
Julie Yarborough.
All rights reserved.
