Sorry about that! You’ll just have to show off your intense religiosity in some other way: Easter bonnet, white gloves, fancy robe…
But don’t worry, Jesus, as always has you covered.
Instead of tooting your own horn when you give and when you pray, you could just look miserable when you are suffering.
Yep! Jesus says if instead of giving and praying you instead decide to fast or maybe do all those things and fast, you may not act all righteously crabby!!
You hear that you God loving fuss budgets! No crabby Jesus freaks allowed!
Fasting, of course is the idea of giving up eating so that you can devote yourself to prayer.
It is not so much the denial, as some people seem to think, but much more about dedication.
The idea was to carve out time from a busy schedule to dedicate oneself to prayer by not spending all the energy to shopping, preparing, cooking, eating and cleaning up from a meal.
Jesus reminds us that the idea is not to be miserable, but to be joyous as you chose to spend your precious time with God, satisfying your hearts needs, rather than spending your time satisfying your bodies needs.
Now Jesus also said, that we should ask for our daily bread in the Lord’s prayer from last week, reminding us that God is very concerned about us having what we need to eat. God created these wonderful bodies and knows we need to eat, but sometimes, prayer is more important, at least for a time, and so, we stop eating and pray.
But if you are looking miserable every time you make a sacrifice for God, whether it be fasting, or giving up time, energy, talents, and money, you have once again missed the point!
This is not about you! This is not about you getting a big “hurrah” from the crowd because you are so wonderfully holy.
This is all about us being God’s delightful and delighted people.
You understand, you are one of God’s delighted and delightful children!
Look in the pews around you, and if you see a delighted and delightful child of God, tell them so! Give them a high five! Remind them that what they are doing, they are doing to delight’s God’s heart!
Because where your time, energy, talents, and money are, there is your heart.
And that’s what Jesus says next. If you want a big heart, and if you want God’s heart to be burst with delight in you, you need to be storing up your treasures in heaven!
Have you ever seen that picture of a hearse going down the street with a trailer hitched to the back? It’s captioned, “It turns out you really can take it all with you!”
And we all laugh, because we know it isn’t true. You heard the saying “He who has the most toys wins”. Not true.
It turns out that she or he with the biggest heart wins! Always and forever!
So, Jesus suggests you invest in what matters; in the Kingdom of God, in bringing joy and peace and love to the world you live in now, so that in the world to come, you will be welcomed home by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who sees in you his Spirit, his presence, his heart.
So, where are your riches, whatever they may be?
Are they invested in sending folks to North Carolina to rehab houses? Or in helping CWS buy flood buckets to send to the Midwest?
Are they invested in getting houses built for struggling families in Newburgh by sponsoring a walker in the Walk for Housing in April, or actually walking or running in the Deacon’s 5K for the Ronald MacDonald house or being a sponsor?
Or are you into gardening.
Kelly Dolson is home from Namibia and our delightful sister Rachel has an idea. The girl is a whirlwind!
It turns out her village there in Namibia used to have a vegetable garden 60’ x 60’, but it got ruined when the goats pushed through the fence and ate vegetables and it didn’t have enough water either because, well, the village is in a desert, and it has a water tank, and the tank pump guy…
It’s a long story!
In any case, she wants to build a better garden, with real fencing, because you also have to keep the wild elephants out by planting chilies I think, and a steady supply of drip irrigation water.
Where are your riches invested?
And are they bringing a smile to God’s face?
Here’s your opportunity to join the faithful and put away the trumpets, get those gloomy looks off our faces, and together do what we can to make a difference…
Because Kingdom people do just that…
Make a Difference. To the joy and glory of our Heavenly Father.
Amen.
But don’t worry, Jesus, as always has you covered.
Instead of tooting your own horn when you give and when you pray, you could just look miserable when you are suffering.
Yep! Jesus says if instead of giving and praying you instead decide to fast or maybe do all those things and fast, you may not act all righteously crabby!!
You hear that you God loving fuss budgets! No crabby Jesus freaks allowed!
Fasting, of course is the idea of giving up eating so that you can devote yourself to prayer.
It is not so much the denial, as some people seem to think, but much more about dedication.
The idea was to carve out time from a busy schedule to dedicate oneself to prayer by not spending all the energy to shopping, preparing, cooking, eating and cleaning up from a meal.
Jesus reminds us that the idea is not to be miserable, but to be joyous as you chose to spend your precious time with God, satisfying your hearts needs, rather than spending your time satisfying your bodies needs.
Now Jesus also said, that we should ask for our daily bread in the Lord’s prayer from last week, reminding us that God is very concerned about us having what we need to eat. God created these wonderful bodies and knows we need to eat, but sometimes, prayer is more important, at least for a time, and so, we stop eating and pray.
But if you are looking miserable every time you make a sacrifice for God, whether it be fasting, or giving up time, energy, talents, and money, you have once again missed the point!
This is not about you! This is not about you getting a big “hurrah” from the crowd because you are so wonderfully holy.
This is all about us being God’s delightful and delighted people.
You understand, you are one of God’s delighted and delightful children!
Look in the pews around you, and if you see a delighted and delightful child of God, tell them so! Give them a high five! Remind them that what they are doing, they are doing to delight’s God’s heart!
Because where your time, energy, talents, and money are, there is your heart.
And that’s what Jesus says next. If you want a big heart, and if you want God’s heart to be burst with delight in you, you need to be storing up your treasures in heaven!
Have you ever seen that picture of a hearse going down the street with a trailer hitched to the back? It’s captioned, “It turns out you really can take it all with you!”
And we all laugh, because we know it isn’t true. You heard the saying “He who has the most toys wins”. Not true.
It turns out that she or he with the biggest heart wins! Always and forever!
So, Jesus suggests you invest in what matters; in the Kingdom of God, in bringing joy and peace and love to the world you live in now, so that in the world to come, you will be welcomed home by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who sees in you his Spirit, his presence, his heart.
So, where are your riches, whatever they may be?
Are they invested in sending folks to North Carolina to rehab houses? Or in helping CWS buy flood buckets to send to the Midwest?
Are they invested in getting houses built for struggling families in Newburgh by sponsoring a walker in the Walk for Housing in April, or actually walking or running in the Deacon’s 5K for the Ronald MacDonald house or being a sponsor?
Or are you into gardening.
Kelly Dolson is home from Namibia and our delightful sister Rachel has an idea. The girl is a whirlwind!
It turns out her village there in Namibia used to have a vegetable garden 60’ x 60’, but it got ruined when the goats pushed through the fence and ate vegetables and it didn’t have enough water either because, well, the village is in a desert, and it has a water tank, and the tank pump guy…
It’s a long story!
In any case, she wants to build a better garden, with real fencing, because you also have to keep the wild elephants out by planting chilies I think, and a steady supply of drip irrigation water.
Where are your riches invested?
And are they bringing a smile to God’s face?
Here’s your opportunity to join the faithful and put away the trumpets, get those gloomy looks off our faces, and together do what we can to make a difference…
Because Kingdom people do just that…
Make a Difference. To the joy and glory of our Heavenly Father.
Amen.
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