Pirates for Jesus (aka Treasure Hunting)

Remember the verse that Jesus spoke in the New Testament- “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?”

I guess what breaks my heart is that the church has construed this verse to mean that you should tithe and give the church your money. And the truth is, we should bring the tithe into the house of the Lord-but this verse doesn’t tell us that. In Luke, it may suggest something much different. It talks about seeking the kingdom of God and selling our possessions and giving them to the poor. So let me ask you this. What if we looked at Jesus’ actions to shed light on His teachings? Jesus was a homeless man without a job during his ministry. If he didn’t have any money, then what was his treasure?

The modern preacher uses the illustration, “Show me your checkbook, and I’ll be able to see your priorities in life.” i.e. where your treasure is. But this is all with the basic premise of a materialistic society that thinks treasure is monetary wealth. In Mozambique, in the dumps outside of the city where children go through trash to find food and shelter, with no jobs or money, where is their treasure? Since they have no money, is that teaching of Christ not applicable to them? They don't have a monthly budget or a checkbook, so if you believe that preacher’s illustration, it wouldn't even apply to the poor. But let me ask you again in another way….

What does God consider His treasures? And what would happen if we treasured what God treasures and lived our life in a way that our priorities reflected that?

Here's what I'm suggesting: I believe that God’s treasure is His people, and since the beginning of Time, God’s heart has been with His people. His entire plan was to redeem and reconcile with His treasure. Where His treasure was, there His heart was also.

People were the crowning jewel of the creation. The world was not yet complete until God placed man and woman in it. God created man to have a relationship with….man is the only piece of His creation with a free will and an eternal spirit. The loss of that relationship through sin is why God sent His own Son to die. Would God send Christ to die for something that didn’t really matter, or someone He didn’t treasure? Probably not.

For God to plan to take the form of a man and live a life in order to die for His people….this act of God declares that people are His treasure. Men and women are incredibly valuable in His eyes. Nothing else matters to God….He even gave man the power of dominion over the rest of creation!

What if the church today treated people as their treasure? What would be the byproduct? I have a few ideas…..I don’t think that for churches, buildings and programs would be a top priority. I don’t think fundraising for those same buildings and programs would be the focus. I don’t think the church could truly allow the “least of these” to remain poor and hurting in their city. It doesn’t seem that it could happen if God’s treasure was also ours.

And if God’s treasure was also ours, would we wait inside our Sunday School classes, or on our church property hoping the lost and hurting would come to us and ask for help? Or would we follow the example of Christ who left heaven to go to the hurting….. even when Christ was here, we see His example of going out-feeding the poor and healing the sick WHILE He was still preaching and teaching and discipling. (See previous blog on “Magnets or Viruses”)

I’m afraid that we have compartmentalized and departmentalized church to the point that we think we are only supposed to follow one aspect of Christ and that someone else is supposed to pick up the rest of the slack. We think if we do the preaching, others should do the discipling, others should be worshiping God, or others should be feeding the poor. I’m not sure where it came from, but this idea of only having to do one thing for God, or just live for one scripture doesn’t seem to be biblical.

All of our lives are to be sacrificed for God for the purpose of redeeming His treasure. If we laid up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and we truly believed that treasures weren’t good works, but lives touched for the kingdom (see Isaiah 58), I believe it would revolutionize the way we do what we do in the body of Christ. Don’t you?

Sacrifice

Disclaimer: I have been rocked to the core lately after reading "This Beautiful Mess" by Rick McKinley and "Irresistable Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. This has led to some pretty strong stuff coming to the surface. I'm still wrestling with it and working through it. So you'll find some of that "edge" in my next few blogs....don't worry. When I say "we" I really mean me. So here goes.....

I was talking with a good friend a while back about sacrifice. Mostly it was about how I lie to myself and think that by giving a couple bucks to a homeless guy is some sort of sacrifice on my part. But that's a whole different blog…..

His response was poignant-sacrifice only happens when the byproduct of you doing the action is that it prevents you from getting or accomplishing something you wanted to do yourself. For example, it doesn't really cost me anything to give a homeless guy a few dollars-when I go to a restaurant and spend $20 on myself without blinking. But I will rationalize and think more about the 5 I give him than I will about the 20 I spend on me. Why? Because true sacrifice only happens when we are required to be unselfish and set aside our own interests for the good of the many. Let me give you a few comparisons…..

Who sacrifices more: The person who supports the war in Iraq, or the mother whose son is a soldier fighting there right now?
Who sacrifices more: The person who claims global warming is an epidemic while flying private jets and driving SUV's and living in 10,000 square foot houses; or the person who believes that it's a problem, so they sell their truck to buy a smaller car?

It doesn't seem like a sacrifice unless something is on the line-unless something has to change. It costs the war supporter nothing-it could cost the mother her son. It costs the celebrity or savvy politician nothing to claim global warming is a problem; it costs the other person a "standard of living."

I guess one of the reasons I'm bothered is because we live in a society that thinks that we can solve problems by throwing money at them. And we don't ever think that we have to sacrifice to change the world around us. Which is easier? To drop 5 bucks in the salvation army bucket at Christmas time, or to get in our car and go to the Salvation Army downtown and build a relationship with someone in need? One takes sacrifice, the other doesn't.

For too long I have been a Christian that doesn't sacrifice, which to be honest with you, is quite hypocritical. Self-denial and loving others more than myself are the central elements of my faith, but you can't tell sometimes by my actions or by my checkbook. Even tithing isn't sacrificial. Sacrificial is selling my goods and giving it to the poor-the Acts type of sacrifice. Writing a check once a month to support a kid in Africa for most of us isn't a sacrifice. But not eating out for a month and sending that one hundred dollars (or more) to feed his whole family for a month? We might even call that a sacrifice, even though we still wouldn't miss a meal. But we know there are homeless going hungry in the streets, so do we pray for our brothers and sisters in the streets while fasting because of their plight? I think that's more along the lines of what Christ intended….for our hearts to be actively involved in the poor and the hurting.

At some point in our faith, we (read: I) as Christians need to step up and sacrifice. We need to put feet to our faith. I fear that the impotence of Western Christianity lies in the fact that we are practicing a form of godliness but denying the power. We say that we are Christ-followers without doing our part to fulfill that one part of the Lord's Prayer, remember? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth (just as it's done in heaven). We are called to bring His kingdom and love to the earth-at least to the parts we touch each day.

We probably wouldn't need to ask Christians to hand out tracts on the street corners of our country if the millions of people who claim to follow Christ were constantly living examples of sacrifice. People don't see us living or loving like Christ, so our faith is no longer attractive to them. When the rest of the world sees a Christian nation living in houses that look like mansions and driving cars that cost more than they make in a decade, do you think they admire us? Do they want to follow Christ too? Or do they see a materialistic culture that is caught up in pleasing themselves?

Jesus said that the world would know that we are His disciples by our love for one another. Love demands a sacrifice. Love IS sacrifice. That's how we know Jesus loved us-because He laid down His life for our sins. How are we really doing at "loving one another?" And by one another, let's assume that we aren't talking about loving other Christians. Let's assume that it's "the least of these." Jesus' own words in Matthew 25. Do we love? Do we sacrifice?

I fear that I haven't loved or sacrificed like Christ, and now I need to change.