Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

The Queen of Hearts
Miki de Goodaboom

 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where is your treasure?
What is your treasure?

If we think about what we really value in our lives,
we quickly start to see that it is not a physical object or a thing that we really value.

That is not the treasure at all.
Often it will be a memory attached to it, or who it was who gave it to us.

I recently received a gift in the mail from a very dear friend.
It was something he knew I would love.
It was something that we both love,
and have spoken about for twenty or so years.
A bond we have in common, shared in this physical object.
I put the item on my shelf.
It sits there, a beautiful thing in itself.
But it itself is not the treasure.
The treasure is the fact that my friend thought to send it to me.
I look at it  and I see the item, but I feel my friend.
It makes me happy, not because of itself,
but rather because of the friendship and love it shows.
I look at it and I feel twenty or so years of friendship.
That is the treasure.
The item could be destroyed or lost,
but the fact that my friend sent it to me does not get destroyed or lost.
The treasure is in here, not in the item.

This is kind of what Jesus is getting at.
But he takes it to a much more cosmic scale.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Maybe if we look at this another way.

For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.

Our heart is the inner core of our being.

It is the part of us that really determines who we are.
Our actions, attitudes, and behaviours all come from our heart,
or as we heard last week from the Rich Fool, he addressed his own soul.
Our attitudes towards others, our actions in dealing with those we love, or those we find difficult to love, come from our very being.

Now if our heart is one with God, is anchored in Him, then all our attitudes, actions and behaviours will reflect Him.
Moreover, if we are secure in our relationship with God,
if we know of his great love for us, we are free.
We are free to share the treasures of our hearts with all we come in contact with.
We become free to share the Kingdom with all.

We are free to give.
When we give of ourselves and of our goods we are free.
Giving to those who need is good for those who receive.
But it is also good for the giver.
By giving, the heart is freed from holding onto goods.
You see, we can’t buy Kingdom of heaven with money or possessions.
But our attitudes toward our possessions can keep the Kingdom distant from us.
By giving to those in need, freely, what could become a hindrance actually becomes a help.
By giving, we help those in need,
and we help ourselves to free of attachment to our goods.

By being attached to physical items we allow them to become like thieves.
By being attached to them, we allow them to rob us of the treasures in our heart.
Jesus said The Kingdom of God is within you.
What he meant was that it is in our hearts.
It is in our very being.

The treasures of heart, the treasures of heaven what St Paul refers to as the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Those are the qualities of the Kingdom. And if you look, at them, they are the way God is with us. That is the way we are to be with others.

You’ll notice that all these treasures are ones which involve someone else. They are gems that shine and glimmer only when presented to someone else.

Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The treasure of hearts is the same as the unfailing treasure in heaven. Items can be stolen or destroyed, but the memory attached to them, the feelings attached to them cannot be.

For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.

In our hearts is where the fruits of the Spirit live and come from:(love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). These are the treasures that we store up in heaven.
We say they are stored up in heaven, because when they are part of our being, we are drawn heavenward.

The Kingdom of heaven is within you.