email devotion reformation sunday
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:20-21)
As a kid I can remember the small wooden box with the flip-top lid. It has a cutout near the back of the box, with a small bent nail in it. I think there was once a cross that was attached at that place. But for the vast majority of years that I used it, the cross was gone. It was the place I stored my earthly financial treasures, from pennies to quarters … mostly pennies. The crown jewel of the coin box was a Peace Silver Dollar, that was given to me by my dad. I suppose there were times that I removed coins for spending on whatever a small child might have spent money on – gumball machines, or maybe a very occasional comic book. The silver dollar was never spent. I still have it.
As we kicked off our Fall Stewardship emphasis yesterday at church, I found myself thinking about treasures and where we store them. Banks … stock portfolios … property investments … and for some, possibly investment in tangible items like antiques, or coins, or collections of items that are perceived to have lasting value. As I thought about these tangible treasures, because of the calling to preach on stewardship themes yesterday, I also found myself thinking out to my next sermon this coming Sunday, for All Saints’ Day … and a different kind of treasure … the treasure of those who have brought value to my life because of the way they lived their lives. I thought about family members … and a few persons that I would consider close friends. I thought about many parishioners here at St. Peter’s and the ways that they enriched my life, through their Christian walks through life. I even thought about a few people who had been public icons, whose writing or living served to motivate me in my life.
These latter treasures are stored in my heart … in my spirit … and in my memory, of course. These are the places of “storage” in my life where no thief can break in and no moth can consume. I recognize that there will always be material treasures which can only be stored somewhere in this earth, and some of those treasures will be significant enough to merit that careful care and attention. But the real treasures of life lie elsewhere for me. Have you thought recently about the treasures that have been part of your personal history? What kinds of things or experiences are stored in the most secure vaults in your life? As the old phrase goes … when you meet your Savior some day, can you take these treasures with you? How does that knowledge shape the variety of treasures that you “store” in the boxes of your life? Maybe these reflections can be part of your prayer life this coming week. The fall spirit of harvest and gleaning seem to invite it.
