Where is your heart?
Ordinary Sunday 19: 12th August, 2007
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom". (Lk 12:32)
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". (Lk 12:34)
Today's gospel comes immediately after that wonderful passage dealing with anxiety. Consider the lilies of the field, the birds of the air — they are provided for and they don't have the capacity to do much to change their situation. God cares for them, even more God cares for us. To those who do keep worrying about all those things that life throws up at us to worry about, Jesus says try placing all of this into that context where God is at the centre of things, rather than having the specific problem at the centre. There is a gift of relationship in faith, in the community of faith that is freely on offer.
The language used is 'kingdom' language. That is a space, a place, of hope and promise. It is a space where dreams are fulfilled, where God's grace is in abundant evidence, where all the connections are made, all the potentials realised. So this is very likely to be more in the 'not yet' category than in the 'right now'. But we get glimpses and foretastes as we take this spiritual journey, and constant reminders that things can be better than they are. I suppose some of the best examples of 'kingdom' understanding came from the music and songs of the slaves of the Old South; haunting, wistful, coming out of a hard and painful place and yet ultimately hopeful.
The gospel according to St Luke is not all attractive chocolate box top religion. There are times when the teaching and the insights he has put together are blunt and tough. He was offering to a largely Gentile, non-Jewish audience, a gospel that was not afraid to confront big issues. The Jesus he presents was not just there as chaplain to the comfortable. Neither on the other hand was Jesus one who was unconcerned for the fundamental injustice that the poor or the damaged faced every day of their lives. But his teaching to both these groups was the same: place themselves squarely in the God context: relationship, belief, trust, hope — living the life that has been given and restored, with thanksgiving.
Today's gospel has some advice about money and property — or more about the spiritual situation if money and property is all there is to say about you. If that is the case, Jesus says on a number of occasions, then give it all away. It will be ruling you and stopping you from loving God and loving neighbour. Earlier in this same chapter we heard of the rich man with all those extra barns full to the brim of every thing he valued most and nothing of any use at all on the journey that death was taking him on that very night. There is an edge then to what Luke is presenting here — perhaps more of what we might expect in Advent rather than in the middle of the Church year. But part of this edge is the need to respond to the challenges and the call of God; the need to respond now in the middle of things, where we are. And to not be afraid.
What might we be afraid of? Is this a different question to 'What are we anxious about?' This may be the difference between long term and short-term concerns. Jesus says those who were with him, do not be afraid or anxious. So that can cover everything from what you might decide to wear today, right through to being confronted by a serious health issue or the loss of a partner. Either way, fear or anxiety can be so debilitating, so distracting, so crippling, that we lose sight and perspective on those things that we really value and cherish.
So it is worth reflecting carefully on this one. Using the image from this gospel, where is your heart? What is of basic importance to you — that you just cannot do without? Is it a person, or perhaps the security of home or job or health? Is it a set of relationships and associations, is it a quality of life, a community of faith, or is it a skill or an ability? As we go through life, our answers to such questions are going to change. The answer of someone who is 20 is not going to be the same as that from someone who is 80. Some streamlining goes on, generally whether we like it or not.
One of the things you notice when someone of any age is forced to confront issues of life and death is a fairly drastic reduction in, as it were, the luggage being carried along. It can get much simpler than it was. It is good to travel light. Jesus is saying: the spiritual path towards the discernment of that which you truly treasure and value and which you come to discern quite basically is shaping you for good, also happens to be the path towards a richer and sustaining relationship with our God, 'whose good pleasure is to give us the kingdom'.
To put it another way, what if we were the screenwriters for one of those end of the world science fiction movies. Shall we set the scene? The asteroid is on its way and it is arriving tomorrow. All of your characters have to decide what they are going to do on their last day. Would everyone want to be rostered on to be in the sanctuary for High Mass that day? Would there be worrying about menus? Would they really have to have all the family there? Or perhaps there could be a big game at the G? Or a quiet walk with someone loved on the beach? What would be just ridiculous and what would ring true? What would be unrepeatably important?
Today's gospel is pointing us gently onwards in that direction for ourselves. It is saying once again: the spiritual life, the religious journey, is a way that is always encouraging us to go towards that which is of lasting value, rather than passing pleasure, pleasant though that is. We travel in community, helped and supported. Fear and anxiety, like shortcomings and limitations, are to be placed once again in a context that finds God lovingly here with us.
Our whole lives can be spent trying to find out what that might mean. Some of that sorting we have to do ourselves. But the richest parts are there for the asking, when we finally get around to seeing them. Week by week, day by day, may we grow in this discernment.
The Lord be with you.
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