WHERE IS YOUR ‘TREASURE’?
written by the Team Rector, Revd. Gary Cregeen
Paul warns those who are
financially rich to avoid becoming
arrogant as a result of personal
wealth but to remember that
money is a gift from the most
generous Giver, from God. We
might think: “I’m clever, I worked
hard for my money, so it’s mine!”
But then we need to ask ourselves:
“who gave me the intelligence or
the capacity or the desire to work
hard in the first place?” Paul also
warns the affluent not to put their
hope in wealth. While it is right and
prudent to make financial provision
for the future, i.e retirement; the
Bible also exhorts us to ‘plan’ for
eternity. Jesus said, “Do not store
up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust
destroy, and where thieves
break in and steal. But store up
for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do
not destroy, and where thieves
do not break in and steal. For
where your treasure is, there
Your heart will be also
(Matthew 6 v. 19-21)
The current economic crisis is a
stark and sobering reminder that
money is so often here today and
gone tomorrow. It is said, “Money is
a good servant and a bad master” there is a lot of truth in this saying
yet so often we allow the reverse we allow money to control us.
When Jesus exhorts us not to store
up for ourselves treasures upon
earth, the idea here is that we
guard against investing all our time
and energy in amassing things. Of
course, the reason why we spend
our lives in this endeavour is
because material things often hold
our allegiance. Somehow we
believe that if we have enough stuff
we will be happy. But does money
and social position really satisfy the
human heart? Several years ago
Christina Onassis died at the young
age of thirty-seven. Despite her
wealth, houses all over the world
and few real responsibilities, she
lacked a sense of achievement, of
purpose and happiness. Her sister
said of Christina, “She had houses
all over the world, but she never
really had a home."
Jesus knew that money would
never satisfy. That is why He