The Lutheran Hour
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"Picking Your Priorities"
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Text: Luke 12:33-34
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! As He came to those at the empty tomb on that first resurrection Sunday, the Savior comes to us. By Spirit-given faith, He comes to us and takes center stage in our hearts. Today, we give thanks for a living Lord who is, and always shall be, our greatest Treasure. Amen.
There is a television commercial which asks, “What is in your wallet?” When that ad airs, I normally reply, “No much, thank you very much.” This morning, I’m not asking what’s in your wallet, instead I’m asking “What’s in your heart?” The question is based on a statement the Savior made when He was talking about people’s priorities. He said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Jesus wanted people to take an honest look at what was in their hearts. He knew, sometimes what we find there can be most surprising.
Years ago I read of a teacher. This Christian lady was a good teacher with a student who wasn’t… good, that is. It’s not that the boy was bad; he just seemed to be a cut below the rest. The boy never caused problems, but he never seemed to care for class, either. At recess he stood alone; when called on, his answers were single words; when other children took turns helping her, he preferred to be passed by. The teacher took considerable pride in her work and said she loved her children all alike, but when she looked deep down in her heart, she was compelled to confess she didn’t love him the same.
Things began to change the day the teacher looked at the boy’s records. His 1st grade teacher commented he had a good work ethic, but a poor home environment. The 2nd grade instructor said he was a fine little fellow, but he should be applying himself more. In 3rd grade the teacher had recorded the boy had, with the illness of his mother, grown very serous. That year someone else, other than his teacher, had added a short, scribbled note: “His mother died this spring.” The teacher felt her heart soften when she read that.
The school year progressed, and as it always does, Christmas came. At their school, Christmas vacation was called the “Winter Break,” and the children brought their teacher “Winter Break” presents. There were coffee cups, refrigerator magnets, scented candles, and bubble bath. The boy brought his gift in a bow-less brown bag which had been decorated with crayon colorings. When teacher opened his gift she found a bottle of inexpensive perfume. The class snickered because, even at a distance they could see the bottle was half empty.
As I said, this lady was a good woman, a good teacher. She did what any good woman and teacher would do. She held up the boy’s gift, complimented the beauty of the bottle and dabbed some of the perfume on herself. When recess came the boy, for the first time, came up and spoke to her. He said, “You smell nice. You smell like my mom.” At the teacher’s school, they weren’t allowed to pray much, but that day the teacher prayed. She asked God to take away her apathetic and angry feelings. He did, and filled her heart with love.
When the teacher came to school the next day, she looked the same to her students. She looked the same, but she wasn’t. She was different. She had always been a good teacher and a good woman, but now she was a very special servant of the Savior. The love that the Lord had put into her heart lasted. It lasted through the day, the week, the rest of the school year. And as the teacher changed so did the boy. His heart, so terribly wounded by the illness of his mother and the sorrow of his father, began to open up. His mind, which had been so clouded by dark thoughts of death, saw the love of the Savior being reflected in a new and special way by his teacher. His grades improved, his friends increased, and once in a while; not often, but once in a while, he smiled. The possibility of being loved and loving others had been placed in his heart.
Which leads me to ask, “What is in your heart?” Understand, I’m not talking about that fist-sized muscle in your chest which goes lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub. I’m not talking about that miraculous, God-given mechanism which beats approximately 109,000,000 times and pumps more than 36 million gallons of blood in a 70-year lifespan. No, I’m asking what is in the spiritual center of your being; I’m asking, “When you pick your priorities what is near and dear to your soul? What are you willing to live for and die for? What is the treasure which is at the center of your heart? When you pick your priorities, what do you find?”
Hearing Jesus ask those questions, you might readily reply: “What’s in my heart? Take a look; I’ve got nothing to hide.” Indeed, that question doesn’t cause much difficulty for those of us who think ourselves to be pretty good people; solid, upstanding souls. With considerable confidence, many of The Lutheran Hour listeners will courageously confess: “My family is my treasure. There is nothing more important to me in life than my spouse and my children.”
Even so, the Savior wants you to know there is danger in placing family on the highest pedestal of your life. Jesus Himself said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). I hope you understand Jesus’ words. He was not saying father and mother, son or daughter, shouldn’t be loved. He was saying they shouldn’t be loved more than God is loved.
What is your treasure? What is at the center of your heart? Is it your country? There is much to be said for being a loyal citizen of an honorable country, of investing your life in the service of the public good. While the profession of the politician has almost always come under considerable scrutiny, and his work and words are regarded with a serious measure of skepticism, the praiseworthy and principled statesman should still be respected. I have stood on the battlefields and the burial grounds of places where men and women have given all they could so their country, and other lands, strange and foreign lands, might be free from the terror of tyranny and villainy might be checked. Even as this message is being written, I have been told that a Lutheran lad, the son of a St. Louis pastor, who has been fighting as a soldier in Iraq, has been wounded by a roadside bomb. He is being evacuated out of that torn and war-ravaged land. Those who have made a great sacrifice, who face a life of physical agony and mental anguish are to be much admired that civic and humanitarian duty has not been set aside and replaced by a spirit of criticism and cowardice. But if your country is at the center of your heart and your nation is your greatest treasure, you are to be pitied. As Germany and Japan found out in World War II, countries can be wrong, causes can be corrupt, and leaders can be losers and liars.
What is at the center of your heart? What is your greatest treasure? Is it looking and feeling young? Is it is it maintaining your body in a healthy balance? Is it keeping yourself physically fit? No one will question the fact that good nutrition, suitable exercise, looking good, and feeling good are worthwhile endeavors. But should these be our treasure? Scripture answers. In the book of Psalms (103:15-16) it speaks of life’s reality when it says: “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; but the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” If you find that too depressing and discouraging, Saint Paul was a little more mild when he wrote, “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).
What is at the center of your heart? What is your greatest treasure? Is there any listener who would foolishly reply: “Fame and fortune are my great goals in life.” Have we not seen great wealth does not mean great happiness; a famous name cannot promise contentment. Is there anyone who has not seen that the rich, while better fed, better doctored, and better supplied than the poor, are not in other things, better off. It doesn’t make any difference if your are poor trying to get rich or if you are rich trying to get richer, wealth is not the ultimate and most desirable goal of life. No matter what you have, the day will come when you will have it no more. No matter how famous you are, the moment will arrive when God’s opinion of you is the only opinion which will matter.
What is at the center of your heart? No, let me rightly rephrase and reiterate that statement. “Who is at the center of your heart? Who is your greatest Treasure?”
Let me give you a clue as to which answer is not right. Some years ago, on a Sunday morning a father gave his young son two dimes. The boy was told one of the dimes was to be put into the Sunday school collection plate, and the other dime was his to buy an ice cream cone when they came home from church. The fact that the boy could buy an ice cream cone for a dime is how I know this story is an old one. At any rate, as the boy ran out to the car for the trip to Sunday school and church, he tripped. As he fell, one of those dimes slipped out of his sweating hands and rolled out onto the street and into the storm sewer. The boy looked up to heaven and with a great sigh said: “Well God, there goes Your dime.” The boy didn’t have the right answer in his heart.
The truth is the Savior should be at our center; the Lord should be our Treasure, the recipient of our love. Now while my Christian friends are nodding in agreement, let me speak to those of you who are shaking your head in doubt and denial. You’re saying to yourself, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, Pastor, you know, and I know that you get paid to say religious stuff like that.” You’re thinking, “Pastor, it all sounds good and well, but you don’t know what my life is really like. You don’t understand the problems which surround me.” You’re saying: “Reverend, why? Tell me just why God should be first. Why should He be foremost in my life? I mean, what has He done for me lately?
Let me try to give you an answer. God should be the center of your life because He deserves that spot. The heavenly fellow who has made you; who has watched over you, who keeps you, who loves you has said you should keep Him first. You know, God has been watching over you, keeping you from pains, problems, accidents, and difficulties you never even knew existed. Remember that heart of yours which we talked about a few minutes ago? What keeps that thing beating and pumping? Who do you imagine thought up that thing; and keeps the rhythm right in that thing, and does so without oil changes, battery replacements, and tune ups? That was God. It was God who gave you lungs that breathe, and eyes that see, and ears that hear. And if your lungs don’t work so good, and if your eyes don’t see so good, and if your ears don’t hear so good, don’t blame Him. All of those gifts would have been perfect if sin hadn’t entered this world, and He’s not responsible for that.
If God hadn’t done anything else other than make and preserve you, it would be right to count Him as your greatest Treasure, your most faithful supporter, your dearest friend. But God has done a bit more for you than that. Just a moment ago I mentioned sin. If you’ve ever been sick… your sickness was caused by sin. If you’ve ever had an accident with your car; arguments at home; problems at work; that was sin, too. Have you stood helpless and watched someone you loved die? You can blame God for that if you want, but you would be making a mistake. God wanted you to be safe; He wanted your loved one to live forever. It was sin that short-circuited that plan of our Lord.
In the New Testament epistle of James (1:17) it says: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James wrote those words so the entire world might know that if you’ve ever experienced something good, it is because you have a God who loves you and will always give you what is best. And that, my friend, is the point where you’re going to throw down a challenge and say, “Then how come bad stuff happens to me all the time? Pastor, until you can answer that question, God’s not going to be at the center of my heart, and He’s not going to be my Treasure.”
OK, I’ll give you an answer. God doesn’t want those things to be part of your life, and He’s made it so they don’t have to be. That’s right, He’s done something to stop the negative. So you might be saved from all the tragedies, terrors, and terrible things which sin produces, all the things which I have listed, and all the things I haven’t; your heavenly Father, in love, sent His Son into this world. That’s right, God’s Son left heaven and became one of us… a real person like us. He came into this world to take our place. So we might be forgiven He took our place and said “no” to the devil’s temptations. So we might be forgiven, He fulfilled all of God’s commandments which we had sinfully broken. So we might be saved, He allowed Himself to be sacrificed. That’s right, so you could have it good for all eternity, Jesus was arrested, unfairly tried, and condemned to die on a cross. He died the death that sin and Satan said we had coming so we could live forever in a place where sin, never again, could touch us.
Do you want to know what God has done for you lately? Look to Jesus’ cross and know that Jesus was crucified so you could be forgiven, saved, and spend an eternity in heaven. Do you want to know what Jesus has done which makes Him your greatest Treasure, worthy to be at the center of your heart? He rose from the dead and, appearing to His disciples, said, “Here, look at the nail holes in My hands and feet; put your hand in the hole in My side. These are the marks of My death and proof which gives you eternal life.” That’s what Jesus has done for you. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the wonderful gift of God which your Christian friends consider to be so precious. With a risen Redeemer in the center of your heart, your life is changed, in this world and the next. And if you doubt me, let me finish that story which began our message today. You do remember that teacher, who, when she was forgiven by the Savior, became a different person? That kind of thing happens all the time. Which is why I’d like to tell you the rest of her story.
The teacher didn’t hear from her student for a number of years. Then, one day she got a letter which read: “Dear Instructor, I wanted you to be the first to know. I am going to be graduating second in my class. Love, your student.” Four years later, she got another note. This one said, “Dear Teacher, They just told me I am graduating first in my class. University was not easy, but I liked it.” The next letter said, “Dear teacher, as of today you can call me doctor. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mom would sit if she were alive. Since dad died last year, you are the only family I have.”
Wearing the last drops of fragrance taken from an old, cheap bottle of perfume, the teacher went to the wedding and celebrated the love Christ had given her for a student, the love he had for her, and above all the love they both had for the Savior who was the center of their hearts, their greatest Treasure. Jesus is the Treasure we are proud to share with you, today. If you need such a Treasure in your life, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 12, 2007
ANNOUNCER: Does a popular book reveal universal insights or spiritual dangers? I’m Mark Eischer, and we’re talking about The Secret by author Rhonda Byrne. My guest is professor David Lewis, assistant professor of exegetical theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Well, what is “the secret” that Rhonda Byrne brings out in her book?
LEWIS: The secret that she brings out can be boiled down to one line: the law of attraction. Now what Rhonda Byrne does is she borrows language from quantum physics and she actually tries to steer away from any religious talk in this book. She makes it sound very scientific, and so the law of attraction is the law that states that whatever any one individual thinks, the universe will return back to them. In other words, your thoughts create thought waves that leave you, go to the universe; and then the universe will, in turn, bring back upon you whatever you’re thinking, whether good or bad. An example would be, if you want to be rich, then you need to be confident that you will be rich and you’ll be rich. But if you’re always worried about having enough money to make ends meet, that’s a negative thought. If you’re always worried about whether you’re going to get that raise, that very negativity is going to ensure that you have economic hardship.
ANNOUNCER: And is this a new idea or does it have any historical precedents?
LEWIS: That’s a good question. Rhonda Byrne herself says that she discovered the secret when her daughter gave her a book written in 1906 by a man named William Walker Atkinson. This book is the book Thought Vibration, or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World.
ANNOUNCER: However, as you were reading the book, what sort of concerns did you have about how well it lines up with the real Christian message?
LEWIS: The first big issue would be the issue of the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” And what is god, in Rhonda Byrne’s scheme? Well, Martin Luther, in the Large Catechism, when he writes on the First Commandment, he defines God, very simply, as “God is that from which you expect to receive all good.” And what Rhonda Byrne has done, is she is taking God out of the center of the universe and she’s put the universe as that from which I receive all good things. However, in the end, that’s not really the god here, either, because you as an individual create your reality, and the universe is your servant, bound to give you whatever you think, whether good or bad. And so in the end, you yourself become the center of the universe, the individual himself becomes god. This is very similar to the temptation in the Garden of Eden: you will be as gods, knowers of good and evil. A similar thought is expressed in The Secret, that you are god, creating your reality. To which the Christian must say no, I am not god. There is the one true God, who is the Creator and I am dependent upon Him, not upon myself in the end. And so, is this compatible with Christianity? And I would argue on various levels: no, it is not.
ANNOUNCER: So, in Rhonda Byrne’s view, I’ve heard it said the universe becomes either the servant of the individual, or it becomes a cosmic mail-order catalog that you can use to acquire whatever it is that you think you want.
LEWIS: Yes, this is how she defines our relationship with the universe, with the law of attraction. She argues that you think a positive thought of what you want and this is like placing an order, a catalog order. And once you do this, if you place an order today, you don’t order the same thing again tomorrow. You trust that it’s going to come. And the way you said it is very true. The universe is my slave, according to The Secret. You replace universe with God and now suddenly God becomes my slave. And this again would be another violation of the First Commandment.
ANNOUNCER: We’ve been talking with professor David Lewis, assistant professor of exegetical theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“If You Will Trust the Lord” by Kenneth Kosche. From Christ Be With Me by the Kammerchor (© 1998 Concordia University-Wisconsin) MorningStar Music Publishers/SESAC
“Precious Lord, Take My Hand” arranged by Henry Gerike & David Cherwien. Used by permission
“Praeludium in D” by Dietrich Buxtehude. From Richard Heschke at the Hradetzky in Red Bank by Richard Heschke (© 1993 Arkay Records, San Jose)
“Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, BWV 658” by J.S. Bach. From Cramer & Resch at Kramer Chapel by Craig Cramer and Richard Resch (© 2001 Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne)