Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Matthew 6:19-20; Acts 16:16-34

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
=================================================

Our text from the book of Acts tells a wonderful story about the Apostle Paul and his willingness to live faithfully even in the midst of uncertain and changing times. It starts out one day as Paul is on the way to worship. He encounters a slave girl who is inhabited by an evil spirit. Now it also happens that it is this evil spirit which enables her to predict the future, and therefore to make a lot of money for her owners because of her fortune telling ability.

With a strange sort of fascination, she begins to follow Paul around, shouting "These men are servants of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!" Will Willimon, in his commentary on Acts, describes what happens next this way: "Paul has enough of the young woman's raving and in the name of Christ cures her. Thank God, she is free! Yet no, she is not free. She is a slave, someone who is not a person but a piece of property. ‘When her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the rulers'...

"Here is a young woman, chained her whole life to the hell of demon possession, and now she is free; there ought to be rejoicing. But no, her owners are not free enough to do that. It was fine to give a small donation to a charitable cause, but this is another matter. Religion has somehow gotten mixed up with economics here, and so her owners do what the vested interests always do when their interests are threatened."

Paul and Silas are whipped and thrown into jail. That ought to be the end of the story, but it isn't. From the point of view of the slave owners, these meddlers have been taught a lesson, but Paul and Silas have not learned a lesson - they do not feel chastised or subdued, because they know that God will have the last word.

We're told that about midnight as they were praying and singing hymns to God, and as the other prisoners were listening, suddenly there was a violent earthquake, all the doors of the prison were sprung open, and the chains fell off all of the prisoners. The jailer assumed that all of the prisoners had escaped and was about to kill himself in response, when Paul calls out to him: "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" (Can you imagine all the prisoners still being there in a prison today if all the doors were suddenly opened?)

The jailor and his family are converted to Christianity. Through Paul and Silas God has used the unexpected to reach out and touch more lives. The ups and downs of life, expectations that were not met - in the midst of all of these, God still had the last word.

That's the same message that Jesus brings in our text from Matthew. This passage is but one small part of what we have come to call "The Sermon on the Mount". In this text, Jesus very simply reminds us that riches that we store up here on earth do not last. The expectations that we set up for our lives will not last. The riches that the slave girls owners counted on from her ability to foretell the future did not last. We live in a society where you cannot count on working for the same company your whole working career - the riches of that job may not last. Even if we accumulate great wealth here on earth, one day each of us will die, and as that old saying goes - you can't take it with you. The riches stored up here on earth will not last!

But this passage is talking about more than money, when it talks about storing up riches here on earth, it also challenges us to ask, where is the real source of our security? Who or what gives meaning to our lives in a way that makes us feel safe even in the midst of the turbulence?

It's easy to think that an accident or sickness or death will never happen to us - always to someone else, but then tragedy strikes close to us and we are reminded that it could have been you or me. Our lives as we know them are not secure, no matter how hard we try to pretend that they are. There is no certainty that you or I will live to be 80 or 90 or 100 years old. Life doesn't come with that kind of guarantee.

Our secure assumptions about life are questioned and in the midst of our uncertainty, Jesus reminds us - "do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth"; for ultimately the tragedies and trials of this life are not the last word. If they are all that we look to, all that we believe in, then our lives will be empty and shallow. We will miss the most important part, the part that gives meaning and brings security to all the rest. For ultimately, the meaning and purpose of life is not set by us. God's intentions for life are not shattered by tragedy, rather tragedy seems to be a challenge for us to live faithfully in response. Look at how Paul and Silas responded to being beaten and thrown into jail - they were singing hymns and praying when the earthquake came. Every occurrence of life was an opportunity for them to live faithfully and to share that faith.

While tragedies are painful reminders of our vulnerability, we are reminded that our real treasure is not so vulnerable. Our real treasure does not rest in a bank or lie in our homes or even our jobs. Our real treasure does not come from the attachments of this life. Our real treasure is not something that we find on our own or achieve by our efforts, rather it is given to us as a free gift.

We are pointed beyond ourselves to a greater purpose, to a place where moth and rust do not consume, where thieves cannot break in and terrorists cannot destroy. We are pointed to a place where God's rule is unchallenged...

This does not mean that we ignore the events of this world as unimportant or ignore the pain of tragedy when it occurs. What it does mean is that there is always hope, for a better way, a better life lies ahead. There is hope because we are not in charge, and God is able to take everything - the good, the bad - even the tragedies and the pains of life God is able to make new by touching them with the gifts of life and hope. God is the only source of true security. It is God who we rely upon, and with God, all things are indeed possible.

Amen.