11th Sunday After Pentecost: The Treasure of the Heart

Luke 12:32-40 (NRSV)

Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

 I remember when I used to be part of the Evangelical and more conservative side of Christianity.  I was a student at Eastern Nazarene College for six years. Almost every major sermon given in Chapel by the nationally known evangelists contained the plea for students to "give their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ and make him your Lord and Savior."   From the time that I had my own conversion experience while at the Advent Christian Church in the Pines in W. Wareham, Ma all through till my Junior year of college, I had thought that was suppose to be the theme of my existence as a Christian.   One does not need to profess a Creed or believe in the basics of the Christian Faith, if one knew in their hearts and mind that Jesus died for our sins and said the sinner's prayer, Jesus was the "treasure" of the heart.  It was our solemn duty to preach the Gospel through our lives so that others would be saved.  It was like a resounding broken record.

I am very thankful for my many years in the Evangelical movement.  It did teach me a love of the Bible, hymnody.  Through the good professors at ENC I learned to play the organ well and was able to look towards a future.  As I hinted in the last paragraph, much of that started to change during my Junior year of College.  After seeing quite a bit of political corruption in a few evangelistic style churches I worked in and how damaging the Pastor was, I began to think very carefully about what the whole "Evangelical" thing really meant.  It was not until my Senior year when I took my Church History that it finally started coming to light for me.  The Evangelical message is really not the priority of all that the Christian Church is about.  It is an important part, but it is not the whole of what is imperative.  When the Christian Church fails to live out it's mission as the Community of the Holy Spirit, all of the Evangelistic preaching and sinners prayers are just hollering speeches. Among the other things I realized is that the Evangelistic message in a College atmosphere had become a coercion of young College students to personal and spiritual practices that in and of themselves can be very damaging.   Self esteem among students in that College were often very low.  There were at least six suicide attempts, one of them was sadly successful.  At one of the memorial services for the one student who committed suicide, the Chaplain actually said; "He must have been really disappointed when he saw the Lord's face."  It is very interesting to me, how some preachers think they know the heart of God better than God does. After that Memorial Service, there was one very disturbed girl who not long after made an attempt to take her own life.  Thank God, her life was spared. 

Today's Gospel is about where our treasure is, there also is our hearts.  The Christian Church is suppose to be about sharing the treasure that is the love of God in Jesus Christ.  The treasure of the Church is suppose to be shared through radical hospitality and participating in the ministry of reconciliation.  Not only reconciliation with God, but also with other parts of humankind. 

The Christian Church is about the mission of hospitality and reconciliation.  Many church communities do demonstrate hospitality and the desire to be about the work of reconciliation.  Sometimes though the Church needs to be reminded by Jesus that "no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25)  The Church continues to be divided in the depth of it's heart over the full inclusion of all individuals regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, nationality, cultural background, religion, ability/challenge, and the like.  The treasure of the Church has yet to find it's fulfillment in being a totally open and inclusive community of the Holy Spirit, and welcoming Jesus Christ in whatever way he comes to us. 

Abraham Lincoln gave his incredible House Divided Speech on June 16, 1858.  In that speech he said:

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

 

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

 

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

The United States as well as the Church even today remains "a house divided against itself."  We are a nation that tolerates racial violence, rhetoric and race based political and social oppression.  Arizona's "Paper's please" immigration law is  just such an example. Now we have Republican members of the House and Senate who want to amend the 14th Amendment of our Constitution to exclude the children of citizens who were born outside our Nation, making their children ineligible for citizenship in the USA.  The United States is engaged in a war that we still today really are not winning, yet, we are still sacrificing so many of our soldiers in uniform.  While we are fighting a war in Afghanistan and the protection of our own homeland remains in question, we are still kicking out of the United States Military, open LGBT women and men through Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  In our efforts to repeal this unjust and highly prejudicial policy, the best we are able to accomplish is a "compromise" based on a study with questions that are phrased to sound as if LGBT individuals are not even human beings.  You might as well be asking the soldiers to bunk and shower with rodents or even pigs, because that is how the questions in the Military's "survey" sound.  We have yet to pass an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). 


When all is said and done, the issues and the people those issues affect are not even that important.  What matters most is a President or, US Representative or Senators political party.  Our nation needs to have a serious conversation about where the issue of racism, sexism, heterosexism, class discrimination is.  However, as long as what goes on in our Government is mostly about politics and satisfying the lobbyists and corporate interests, the discrimination and prejudice that is destroying the heart of America will continue it's relentless destruction.  People and what we need most will continue to be at the bottom of the priority list.

In the Church we are still debating the issue of whether being LGBT is a choice or it is innate.  I can speak as someone who is gay and fought myself for years over my attraction to men, even to the point of being part of an ex-gay ministry for seventeen months, that it is far from successful.  The old Evangelical and Catholic bias against homosexuality lived in me for many years.  The more I attempted to suppress it, the worse I became.  Ex-gay ministries do not change a person's sexual orientation.  The only thing ex-gay ministries succeed at is creating shame, guilt and interior hell for the person who is LGBTQ.  When that happens to someone who is LGBTQ, the worst thing happens. The individuals "treasure" becomes the LGBTQ person's despair thinking that God will never love the individual so long as one is LGBTQ or part of a loving, committed relationship.  If an individual is suppressing the deepest part of oneself to the point where despair becomes one's "treasure" because one cannot get past it, the consequences are very serious.  When the Church supports ministries that cause an individual to do that much violence to oneself, we have to ask, where is the heart and treasure of the Church? 

Over the past week since the victorious Prop 8 decision by Judge Walker in California, the violent anti-gay rhetoric coming from the Directors of Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and the National Organization for marriage, has been nothing short of violent and cruel.   "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."   Is the hatred for LGBTQ people so bad, that violent rhetoric towards LGBTQ people who want marriage equality, has become the treasure of where the heart of Christianity is?  


When an individual who is questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression finally comes out, and in our relationship to God is honest and seeks God's help to be healed and find healthy and affirming relationships, then God the Holy Spirit actually has the opportunity to become the treasure of an LGBTQ Christian's heart.  When a questioning individual is all locked up, afraid of their family, friends, and church communities, that person is not free to find the treasure of their heart.  When the Church encourages self perpetuated violence towards an individual who is questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, the Church is driving an individual away from their treasure, where their heart can also be.  In that way, the Church is definitely not participating in the ministry of reconciliation.


There are a lot of people in this world including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people who so very badly want to know that there is a God.  However, so many LGBTQ people have been discouraged to pursue a relationship with God because of how erroneously many Evangelical Christians have used the Bible to suggest that an LGBTQ person is not loved by God, unless they change their orientation or expression/identity.  And when so many LGBTQ individuals, especially youth get the message that they are just not right with God unless they become a list of acceptable criteria, it can lead to a lot of self destruction.   Again, it leads to a place where there is no treasure, and a lonely and fragile heart, cannot find it's way to God and becomes lost in despair.


The Good News is that God loves every person, including the LGBTQ person.   All honest, loving and committed relationships are honored and celebrated by God, whether the relationships are between people of the same sex or opposite sex.  When an individual finds true freedom to know themselves as LGBTQ and knows that they are loved by God, then God the Holy Spirit really does become that treasure where the heart is.  It is a place where there is no self violence or self destruction.  It is also a place where there is no prejudice towards ourselves and where prejudice towards others becomes unacceptable.  It is a place that longs to live with God forever, to thank God for the wonderful gift of being able to love in the way we were created.  It is the place where we understand that we are "God's Beloved" in whom God is well-pleased.  It is a treasure that no one can take the heart away from.  The individual will work hard so that when the Master finally comes, God will find us loving one another as the Community of the Spirit that God intended us to be.   The Paschal Mystery that we share in when we attend Mass, becomes the living reality it is meant to be.  And that is a treasure where the heart also wants to be.

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 14, Book of Common Prayer, Page 232).

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, Page 816).

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, Page 815).