After spending half the night worried about my job, my home value, my IRA, my last checkup – finally I opened the Bible to this Sunday’s Gospel reading and got some relief! “Do not be afraid,” Jesus says. And I feel like I’ve been heard – l am not alone in this thing, God cares for me! What’s more Jesus comes right out and tells me what God’s will is: it’s to have it all, “for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God doesn’t want me in pain, suffering or want – it’s not all a test – it’s about God loving me and taking care of me better than I can ever imagine taking care of my own child.

So I’ve ordered the cake and the ice cream and I’m blowing up the balloons when it dawns on me: What do I do now that I’ve inherited this kingdom? Jesus is speaking here to his disciples – of which I am one – so what are disciples supposed to do? This leads me to the next line in the reading – which takes all the air out of my balloons: “Sell your possessions and give alms.”

Are you kidding me? If you want me to stop worrying then pay off my mortgage and credit cards, get me a new car, and fully fund my IRA! How could you possibly ask me to cash out when what I really need is cash in?

All summer HBO is running a documentary called ‘Lucky.’ It’s a compendium of stories about various people who win the lottery. Some live the life they’ve always dreamed of. Some give it all away. Some spend it as quickly as they got it and end up with nothing. One of the winners sums it all up when he says this, “Winning the lottery is like throwing Miracle Gro on your character – everything is magnified.”

This passage is about changing our character. If we can’t balance a budget on $50,000 a year, we won’t be able to balance a budget on $500,0000 a year. If we are not generous on $30,000 per year we won’t be generous with $3 million per year. What keeps us from being generous and kind is not what’s in our bank account, it’s what’s in our hearts, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Jesus’ call to discipleship is to drop all the worry about what we’ll eat, where we’ll live and what we’ll do for work. God is on that. God has it covered. What Jesus wants is to get our eyes off of the idols that clutter our lives and realize that we’ve already got what we’re most actively striving for. Accumulating things is dangerous – it’s not that we have the possession, but that the possession can always have us. We're asked to make our treasure the pursuit of God and set our hearts upon that for this is the best strategy against the worries that keep us up at night.

Reading:
Changing the Conversation – Anthony Robinson
The Appeal – John Grisham
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides