Matthew 6:19-30
The passage we have just heard from the Gospel of St Matthew is full of opposites and full of choices. We are used to having to make choices in our lives. Where will we live? What job will we apply for? What subjects will we study at school or university? Who will we marry? What will we call our children? All of these can have a substantial and lasting effect on our lives. But we make smaller choices each day of our lives. What will we wear? What will be cook for tea tonight? What TV programme will we watch? Our lives are filled with choices. Some we take without thinking. Others overwhelm us with anxiety and uncertainty for days and weeks.
Our spiritual lives require the same decisions and choices. Many of the ordinary choices we make are entirely spiritual. The TV programmes we choose to watch will affect us for good or for bad. Even the foods we choose to eat, especially during a season of fasting, will either incline us to spiritual things, or make us sluggish and lethargic. But it is not only what we choose, but how we choose which is important for every faithful Christian, and this passage from the Gospel describes the choices we are required to make.
The Gospel message encourages and invites us to make choices about the direction and basis of our whole lives. These things which are described by the Lord Jesus are attitudes of our heart which affect everything we do. For instance, we see the choice is between laying up treasure in heaven or laying up treasure on earth. We are all of us doing one or the other, or a mixture of both. Everything we do have both a value to us, and an eternal value before God. We cannot help valuing some things more than others, and the way we live our lives illustrates to us where our heart is set.
If we are concerned with the things we have and own more than with seeking after God, then we are laying up treasure on earth. If we are more concerned about a career and personal advancement in the world than in seeking after God, then we are laying up treasure on earth. If we are more concerned with being popular and liked by all, rather than seeking after God, then we are laying up treasure on earth. If these are the things which we value most, and which drive us and inspire us, then our hearts are set on earthly things.
All of these things which can easily absorb us will pass away, and sooner than we think. And what will be left? When I stand at the great judgement seat of Christ He will not ask me what car I drive, nor how big a house I own. He will not be interested in the jobs I have had, or the qualifications I have gained. All of these things will disappear in the presence of Christ and will be seen to have no lasting value at all.
What will remain? It will be those spiritual qualities which are the fruits of the Spirit, and all those generous, humble and self-less deeds which were not done with any thought of personal gain. What then should the wise and faithful Christian do? Surely, as our Lord instructs us, we should seek to lay up spiritual treasure through concentrating on spiritual things, and even when engaged in the entirely necessary business of living the human life, of working and being part of families and friendships, we should not forget to seek the spiritual value in all of these circumstances rather than the earthly. Most things do not matter in the light of the eternal. It does not matter that the last cake is eaten by someone else. It does not matter that someone cuts us up on the motorway. It does not matter usually that we have to wait a few minutes to find a parking space when shopping. But it also does not matter in the light of eternity that we are passed over for a promotion. It does not matter that the person we lent a favourite book to has not returned it. What matters is always our spiritual response to the situations we face, and with this in mind even our earthly difficulties can and will be turned to spiritual and eternal enrichment.
How then do we deal with the stresses of daily life, the trials and tribulations we all face? If we cannot trust in our own strength and ability, or in the abundance of wealth, what can we do? Our Lord sums up this whole passage on choices by making it all clear for us.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Our Lord knows what we need, more than we do ourselves. And He will not fail us if we seek above all things His authority in our lives and over our lives, and the holiness and spiritual purity which is what it is to be truly human. When we seek after God before all other things they gain their proper place, whether they are situations we find ourselves in, whether they are the various human and natural aspects of our lives, whether they are the influences we allow into our lives. They all gain their proper value in the light of the Kingdom of God.
To seek the Kingdom of God is to seek an infinite and unfailing source of eternal riches. Every other choice must be made in the light of seeking God in our lives and only then will we be able to find that the mundane and ordinary becomes something which bears an eternal value which will be preserved into the life to come.
May we all seek this Kingdom, this rule and presence of God in our lives so that all we do has true value and worth. May we cast all our cares upon Him and trust Him even as we seek Him. To the glory of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.