Don't Put Off 'Til Tomorrow
8 Aug 2004
[647w]
Hebrews 11:1-16Luke 12:32-40
............
There is an uncomfortable message that appears again and again in the Bible, including the passages we've just heard. Time and again we're told to get rid of our wealth, and concentrate on the things of the spirit. "Sell your possessions and give to the poor". "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." It's not surprising that atheists mock the Christian life by saying it's about pie in the sky when you die.
But there is one thing we should never forget: we are God's children and God loves us. And he loves us in the small ways as well as the big ways. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" Jesus asks in the Sermon on the Mount. "If you … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!".
The challenging Bible passages we've read this morning are not about pie in the sky when we die. They're about living in the kingdom of heaven here and now in Fulbourn in the year 2004.
It's a truism, but none the less true, that nobody on his deathbed ever regretted not spending enough time in the office. When Jesus tells us to provide purses for ourselves that will never wear out, I don't think he's saying - in the simplistic caricature - "suffer now and have a nice time when you die and go to heaven". He's not telling us to buy future contentment with present suffering. If anything his message is the opposite of this kind of caution. What he's saying is, don't postpone real happiness. The things that really make us happy, God's love, our friends and families and the pleasure of being creative and making ourselves useful to others: grab them right now.
And there are two reasons to do this. The first is that God wants good things for us. If you get to the beach on a hot day, it would be a waste not to get straight into the sea – unpack later. The simple, lasting pleasures are so good it's a shame to wait. But perhaps more important, if one does postpone them they grow harder to enjoy. "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" is not theology so much as practical psychology. The more we concentrate our emotions on things that don't make us happy, the more our ability to enjoy the things that do make us happy withers away. We forget how. And then we're stuck.
When I worked in the City of London I sometimes met millionaires. And they all seemed terribly unhappy. It was as though they'd thought "if I get a new sportscar I'll be happy", and then they got a sportscar and, surprise surprise, they were still unhappy so they thought, "ah, what I really need is a helicopter". And by the time they had five cars and a helicopter and a yacht and a jet, they were still unhappy, but now they were so far down the path of trying to make themselves happy by buying things that they didn't know how to get back to the crossroads and start again trying to find happiness in God, their friends and family, the beauty of creation and kindness to others.
One piece of advice I take from this passage of the Gospel is this: live a fulfilling simple and immediate life now, or maybe we'll lose the ability to live it later.
We Christians don't shirk suffering when it comes our way, of course. But the Christian life is not about pointless misery. As Jesus says in John's Gospel "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full".
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