Stop worrying about things you cannot control. Focus on what you can do. Focus on how you feel and process those emotions. Focus on your actions and words. Focus on how you respond, It is that last part which draws me back to this text again and again…as Jesus disciples, we are called to focus on how we respond. It is not that Jesus is ignoring the injustices of hunger and poverty in the world. Rather, he is asking us as his disciples to think about how we will respond to those injustices. Will we buy into the larger narrative of power and greed and hoard resources? Or will we live into the values of the Beloved Community and know that there is more than enough to not only support life but to thrive?
June 29, 2025
“Treasures in Heaven”
Matthew 6: 19-34
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Matthew 6: 19-34
“Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how terrible that darkness will be! No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Treasures in Heaven Matthew 6: 19-34
I shared earlier this week that one question weighed heavy on my heart…that with everything going on in the Middle East right now, in our nation and in our world, would sharing this text this Sunday be the most tone-deaf action I could do or is it what we need to hear right now as people of faith?
I was pondering this question because, at first glance, in this text, it seems as if Jesus is offering a very naive, very innocent, and dare I say it…a very disconnected view of the world. It seems as if Jesus has lost touch with reality. I mean really…telling someone who struggled with hunger like many of the people who first heard Jesus say these words did, to tell them not to worry about food is cold and callous and frankly it is harmful theology and practice, two things which are out of character given everything Jesus taught and preached
Yet I fully admit there is something oddly comforting in this innocent and peaceful picture which Jesus shares, especially when he talks about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. This image presents a nice escape from our reality with all the hurt and hate, with all the wars and bluster of nations as they rumble and roar. This innocent and peaceful picture with the lilies of the field and the birds of the air presents a nice escape yet again…it is out of character given everything Jesus taught and preached. So if this text is not about harmful theology and practice and it is not about escaping the realities of our world, just what is this text about?
For me, this text is about the last part, the part where Jesus says “stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. In other words…Stop worrying about things we cannot control. Focus on what we can do. Focus on how we feel and process those emotions. Focus on our actions and words. As followers of Jesus Christ, focus on how we respond to the world around us.
When we look at this text, we realize that it is not that Jesus is ignoring the injustices of hunger and poverty in the world. Rather, he is asking us as his disciples to think about how we will respond to those injustices. Will we buy into the larger narrative of power and greed and hoard resources? Or will we live into the values of the Beloved Community and know that there is more than enough to not only support life but to thrive?
Or let me say it this way… Usually we hear me say from this pulpit that faith is a both/and sort of thing. And normally that is the case…except in this instance. If we look at verse 24, Jesus tells his disciples, tells us that this whole worry thing is grounded in trying to serve two masters-the world and the Beloved Community of God. Jesus wants us to know that this is an impossible task. We simply cannot do it. And if we try, when we try, the struggle will pull us apart each and every time.
Because the world always wants more-more money, more time, more stuff, more of our attention. It is never satisfied. The world will not stop until it has consumed us, consumed God’s creation and drained us of our spirits. If we choose to serve the world, we will never find rest. We will never find peace from our worry. We will only become more and more anxious.
But…But if we serve only the Beloved Community of God, we become centered on, centered in the presence of God once more. We become connected once more to our God who tells us that there is more than enough love, more than enough resources, more than enough space at the Table to welcome all of God’s children. If we center ourselves on God, a reversal of values takes place, a reversal that brings us closer to finding rest and peace for our weary worried souls.
By serving God, by keeping God as our center, no longer will we look at people or things or even God’s creation through monetary values. Instead, we will look at these things through the values of the Kingdom of God, values like love and grace, values that call us to first think about how we relate to each other, how we are connected to one another, how we are accountable to and for each other. Then and only then, will we begin to embrace a calmer vision of God’s abundance, an abundance that sustains us, that nourishes us, just like it does the birds of the air and the lilies of the fields.
In this text, Jesus is inviting us to address each day’s problems as they come, confident that our lives are in the hands of a loving God who made us, who surrounds us with grace, who is at work in this world, bringing healing and wholeness to all of God’s people. Jesus is inviting us to know deep within our bodies that love and light will always overcome, that death and destruction will not have the last word. In addressing our divided attention between what the world values and what the Beloved Community of God values, as followers of Jesus Christ, Jesus is inviting us to embrace an alternate vision which is so different from our reality that it seems impossible. Imagine people having enough food so that they don’t die from starvation?! Imagine people not worried about the basic necessities?! Imagine people having affordable, quality health care?! Imagine people not living in terror?! Imagine people being seen as Beloved Children of God and embraced as brothers and sisters?! Imagine Nations not rumbling and roaring and rattling sabers?! Why that is pure madness!
No, that’s the Beloved Community of God…
Now, I will admit that this would be a really great time for a sermon illustration, an illustration that captures just how we embrace this mindset which centers us in the Beloved Community of God. But like I have said on many occasions, I don’t have all the answers. I am still trying to figure out how to live this whole “Don’t worry” out in my life. Too many times, I find myself falling back into a pattern of saying, “Okay, God, I’ll turn things over to you, but if you would just do things my way, that would be great, and I’ll be much happier.” Usually when I make this request, all I hear is silence and yes, maybe a chuckle coming from the universe because really how many times does it take for me to learn that God is God and I am not.
So, in all humility, all I can say is that as we continue to grapple with the call of discipleship, to trust our God, all I can say is that in times such as these, times when it feels like the world is overwhelming us, in times such as these when it feels like worry and anxiety are taking over, in times such as these when we cringe at turning on the TV, answering the phone, checking our email, even cringe at looking at Facebook Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat, because of what we may read on the other end, in times such as these when it feels like fear is winning, all I can say is that there is no better time than for us to just take a breath, for us to listen to the Spirit, to listen for the Spirit’s calming and peace filled words, and then begin practicing what we preach. Don’t worry…seek first the Kingdom of God. Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Don’t worry for the God who loves us more than we can imagine is leading us and guiding us. Don’t worry for God is here, moving in among God’s people bringing healing and wholeness. Don’t worry because love and light will always have the last word. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, June 29, 2025 – Treasures in Heaven Matthew 6: 19-34.
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