Generosity and Harvest

Matthew 6:19–34 NRSV

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 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. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Three things - treasure, worry and the Kingdom of God.

We had only just got married and helpfully I had no job, a new flat that needed decorating, including carpets and of course we had no furniture. Sara was working in nursery and only getting paid minimum wage.

But the one verse that had stuck in our minds from day one was - Matt 6:33 “But seek first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” So do not worry....

The reality was leading up to getting married there was a lot of aniexity and concern about where would we live, how would we live, would I get a job, because a Theology degree isn’t worth much in the secular world.

All we knew is that we were meant to get married and just had to trust that God would provide. And he did!

God provided a flat through a contact of a friend of ours which was unfurnished and undecorated. God provided a decorator to help me get the place ready. God provided multiple people who often just gave us furniture - nothing matched but that wasn’t important. Finally, after three months of searching God provided me with a job working with young people who had significant barriers. God provided…

Now it is said that hindsight is a wonderful thing and it really is - where we full of faith and trust that this would happen at the time? The answer would have to be a resounding no! Some days we didn’t even have the strengeth to pray and felt like we were hanging on by the skin of our teeth. But we didn’t give up seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness which in the Greek could also refer to justice.

This morning as we think about Harvest and Generosity - I would like to suggest that Jesus is wanting to challenge our attitude towards treasure in particular money, he is also challenging what we worry about and instead trust in him for what we need because he is a generous, extravagant God.

Treasure

In verse 21 it says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where is my treasure is it in security? Is it in my job? Is it in my car? Is it in my success?

Now is Jesus saying that we shouldn’t have nice things? No what Jesus is referring to is wealth which is an abundance of material possessions in other words greed.

Therefore, not storing things up for ourselves but being generous in sharing our possessions with those in need. Because as Jesus says you cannot serve both God and wealth.

Worry

Second, worry - Jesus says: ‘do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink and what you will wear’ But instead seek the kingdom and his righteousness.

It has been proven that 85% of what we worry about never happens

However, there is a serious side to this that worry according recent research found that the proportion of adults aged 18 and over reporting a clinically significant level of psychological distress increased from 20.8% in 2019 to 29.5% in April 2020.

Mental health is a significant challenge in our nation and what Jesus isn’t saying is for those who do struggle anxiety just to get over it and trust God.

Have said this secular psychologists have found that people of faith are happier, healthier and recover better from traumas than people without a faith.

There are many reasons for this including having a community and sense of identity as well as not feeling isolated because they because belong. So there is a sense that God’s presence is there through it all and the people of God providing help, support and community.

All of us, worry to certain extent and Jesus’ challenge is not worry about our basic needs because God will provide. Much like he does for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. And we are not even Solomon was dressed like one of these.

Seek the Kingdom

So what’s the answer - seek God. Seek God with all your possessions, seek God with all your mind and seek God with all your strength.

When we seek God we find a generous God who wants to clothe us, who longs to give us all we need.

So how should we respond - in generousity.

Through giving what we can as John Wesley said ‘make all you can, save all you can and give all you can.’

First, practically food poverty is one the biggest challenges in our nation at the moment so let’s respond much like we have today by giving what we can.

Second, much like the coins we heard about in our game let’s give Jesus away to others. This starts by loving each other which leads us to caring for our community by offering them the love Christ.

Finally, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous or justice and all we need will be given to us.

So returning to our story at the beginning we as a couple were shown such genoristy this changed our lives. So when we have seen others in need we have opted to do the same.

So choose generosity today, choose the greatest treasure, choose to seek God and not worry and choose to give ourselves away to others.