Hoarding Treasure In The Bank Of Heaven

Our hearts are always fixed on where our treasures are stored. 

"Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robberies, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. The place where your treasure is, is the place you will want most to be, and end up being." 

- Luke 12:33-34 (the Message)

Some of the good folks in our neighborhood are compulsive savers, so on one of my regular walking routes down next to the railroad I marvel at their amazing arrays of old cars, vans, pickups, U-Haul style trailers, rusted lawn mowers, and multiple storage sheds, all of which appear to be packed full of all kinds of earthly treasure. One of the homes is on a double lot surrounded by an iron fence that protects nearly an acre of possessions, including a second (abandoned) house and a sad looking RV. Everything is guarded with padlocked gates and with numerous "Private Property," "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing" signs, and the area has become so overgrown with decades of underbrush and tree growth that its treasures are barely visible to passersby.

I find this both intriguing and puzzling. What drives people to extreme forms of hoarding and saving? On the plus side, they never have to mow their back yards, and as long as they aren't creating a health or safety hazard, I'm not complaining. And, after all, all of these decrepit objects were once brand new, highly prized, and of showroom quality.

All of this got me thinking about whether, from God's perspective, many of the rest of us are equally guilty of holding on to far more things than we need. Of course, we may keep our "stuff" in far better condition and better organized, but most of us are avid collectors of some kind of treasure, whether in the form of baseball cards, porcelain salt and pepper shakers, walk-in closets (bulging with enough shoes and clothes for multiple lifetimes), or ever growing stashes of investments in mutual funds.

To all of us collectors, saving "valuables" always seems necessary and desirable, regardless of how others might see it. But from a fifty-year-from now perspective, how much value will they really have? Even our retirement funds are only as good as the viability of the economy in which they are invested. There is no guarantee that any of the wealth we invest in our future security will be worth even as much as a collection of rusty lawnmowers when we need it for retirement or nursing care.

So maybe there's great wisdom in Jesus favoring our investing in the needs of the poor, including our own daily needs and those of members of our families and congregational families. Could it be true that it is only the things we give away, and don't keep for ourselves, that in the end are the treasure we get to keep and enjoy forever?

I'll never forget a Readers Digest story I read many years ago, called "Wealth Beyond Diamonds," in which a young couple decides to give up buying a diamond for their engagement and to give the money to a friend who was about to have to drop out of school because of not being able to afford the tuition. The return they saw in their investment, in the gratitude and in the remarkable future success of the person they helped, led them to a lifelong practice of giving and lending to as many worthy students as possible, resulting in a lifetime of enjoying rich rewards through the blessed lives and futures of those they supported.

Jesus once told the story of a financial manager, who when he was about to be fired for mismanaging his master's funds, immediately went about reducing the indebtedness of some who owed the estate large sums, thus gaining their friendship and their willingness to help him out after he lost his job. In the story, the owner of the estate actually praises the man, not for being dishonest, but for his shrewdness in managing his master's "mammon" in a way that was truly in his own long-term interest. In a similar way, Jesus said, we should invest our worldly wealth in ways that gain friends for ourselves, so that when our lives and our money come to an end, we'll be welcomed into "eternal dwellings." (Luke 16)

If you think about it, the only investments we make that are truly eternal are in people, who in the arms of God live on forever. Everything else we value as treasure has an expiration date.