Heavenly Treasure (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)

 It was a spring evening in 2017, nine years ago. I had just parked my car about a half mile from Disneyland (because I was too cheap to pay to park in the parking lot), and was walking to the park for a special event that I somehow got tickets to.

My cellphone rang. It was my associate regional minister. I answered it.

He said: “Hey, we’re planning a summer trip for youth to go to Hawaii, learn about the culture, and take part in service projects. We’ve got some great young adults going as chaperones… but, we need someone (like you) with a little more experience to go and oversee things. Most of the planning has already been done, we just need you to go and be present, if you are willing.”

Heck ya!

A few months later, I was in Hawaii, a place I had only dreamed about. And along with the youth and young adults on that trip, I learned so many things about Hawaiian history and culture that I never knew before.

***** One of the places we visited was Iolani Palace, a place that made such an impression on me that I made sure to take my own family there when we visited a few years later.

King Kalākaua, also known as the “merrie monarch,” built Iolani Palace in 1882. It was the home of Hawaii's last reigning monarchs and served as the official royal residence and the center of the Kingdom’s political and social life until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893.

After that, it was taken over by occupying forces from the United States. Queen Liliʻuokalani—King Kalākaua’s sister and the last Hawaiian monarch—ended up imprisoned in one of the rooms of the palace for eight months.

In 1962, Iolani Palace was designated a National Historic Landmark. It was restored, and today is the only official royal residence in the United States.

***** What I didn’t know about Iolani Palace until just recently is the role Abigail Kawāna.nakoa played in preserving and maintaining the palace.

Because the palace contains many important artifacts, the air conditioning needs to run 24 hours a day, and costs about $15,000 a month. Abigail Kawānanakoa paid this bill, quietly and secretly for many years. 

Hawaiians call her the last princess. Her grandfather was Prince David Kawānanakoa. She also had a great-grandfather named James Campbell, whose sugar fortune was one of the largest estates in Hawaii. This meant that Abigail Kawānanakoa inherited the bloodline of a kingdom and the money of the plantation era that replaced it.

In addition to paying the palace’s electric bill, she also funded scholarships, paid medical bills, and helped cover funeral costs. All in secret.

Eventually, though, the secret got out. After she died in 2022 at the age of 96, 

Abigail Kawānanakoa was carried into the Throne Room of Iolani Palace in a casket carved from a single 165 year-old koa tree. More than 1,600 people waited hours in line to walk past her. No royal had lain in state there in over a century. And her wife Veronica stood beside the casket for all six hours.

Abigail Kawānanakoa never got to rule anything, since the monarchy ended 33 years before she was born. Yet she spent 96 years taking care of its people. Quietly. Secretly. 

We have a lot of people in our church like Abigail Kawānanakoa. People who do so much, and who give so much, with no expectation of reward or acknowledgment. I sometimes feel that a big part of my job as pastor is (or should be) expressing gratitude to those who give so much to make our ministry happen. 

But that would be impossible. 

One, it would be impossible to express all the gratitude that is due, and two, I don’t even know who gives what, because most of what is given, at least in terms of monetary gifts, is given in secret.

**** And one reason that we give in secret is because of what our scripture today teaches.

“Whenever you give, do not sound a trumpet before you… but when you give, give in secret.”

…Giving was assumed. Jesus doesn’t say “IF you give.” He says “when you give.” A faithful person gives. 

I’m struck by the fact that Jesus said this, even though he had his own disagreements with the temple authorities. Heck, some of those who taught in the temple wanted Jesus arrested! 

But the temple is more than just those in charge. The temple is more than those who exercise their authority or power.

At First Christian Church, power and authority are shared. I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that this church is more than those who lead it: its pastors (past and present), its elders and board members. 

Because none of us is God. None of us is infallible. And I know I’m not going to get things right every time. I try, but it’s just not going to happen.

So thank God that this church is bigger than any one person. 

And thank God that, no matter how good or bad the sermon is, we still get invited—every single one of us—to gather at the Lord’s table, to commune with God, through Jesus Christ—and receive again the love and the life that is pure goodness and grace.

That’s why we give to the church.

And when you give (Jesus says), give in secret.

That may be a challenge for some. We’re not used to being asked to give in secret.

At the very least, we expect a free tote bag in exchange for our pledge! Am I right?

And maybe get our name listed in the annual report, along with all the other donors… with those who gave the largest gifts listed first, in an easy-to-read size font, and those who gave smaller amounts still listed, but in smaller print…

But we don’t do that. No one knows how much you give, not even me; only our financial secretary knows, so that you can receive a statement that you can include when you file your taxes.

We do, however, know some general demographic data.

***** We know that, generally speaking, most of those who pledge to the church are older. The older you are, the more likely you are to pledge.

Currently, we have no pledges at all from anyone under the age of 40. That doesn’t mean people under 40 don’t give; but it does mean that they haven’t made a commitment to give that they plan to honor throughout the year.

Perhaps some of the blame for that can be placed upon me and the other leaders of the congregation.

We don’t like to talk about money. We don’t like to ask for money. And so we do very little in the way of educating people about money.

And yet, in one way or another, Jesus talks more about money than anything else except the kingdom of heaven.

The two are, in fact, related. Jesus often talks about money, and the kingdom of heaven, in one breath.

It’s NOT because you can buy your way into heaven. 

But what you spend your money on does speak to what you value in your heart. 

So if you say your heart is set on God and on the kingdom of heaven, yet you spend your money on things that are not aligned with God’s kingdom, then there’s a discrepancy there. Your actions aren’t matching what you say you value. Which means you lack integrity. Which means your life is split; broken; fragmented. 

And you’re left feeling less than whole.

***** If we had kept reading in the 6th chapter of Matthew, we would have come upon Jesus teaching his disciples to pray; and that prayer he taught them, which we pray every Sunday, talks about debts and debtors, and about the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven… [6.9-12]

***** And further still in this chapter, we then come to Jesus’ instruction that we seek first the kingdom of God—and all these things (all the things we need on this earth to survive, to thrive, to prosper) will be given to us as well. [6:33]

***** And in the middle of it all, still in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [6:19-21]

Let your life be in alignment with your heart.

***** So yes, we are asking you to make a pledge for 2027. 

And we are inviting you to give in secret. To pledge in secret. That way, it is a decision of your heart, motivated not by any thought of earthly reward, but by the things you value most.

That way, your soul can feel the integrity of your life, and you can experience wholeness in your being. 

The fragmentation and brokenness we feel when our heart values one thing but our lifestyles don’t match… will be overcome.

Do you value love? Joy? Peace? Kindness? Goodness? These fruits of the Spirit are what we hope the Spirit will work in us and through us, for our sake and the sake of our neighbors near and far.

Do you value justice? Hope? Freedom and liberation? Do you value the right of every person to know that God loves and affirms them, just as God created them? 

Do you value the good news of Jesus, the news that brings life to those who have only had life sucked out of them by this often cruel world?

These are the things this church stands for. And if these are the things you value in your heart… then please make a pledge… because where your heart is, there your treasure will be as well.

And if you’ve never made a pledge to the church, then I especially encourage you to do so. 

Now, maybe you can’t afford to give much, and that’s why you’ve never pledged. Maybe you have a hard time affording necessities, like food, or gas.

But I bet you can pledge something. Five dollars a week? One dollar a week?

If ten people who have never pledged before give one dollar a week, that’s 52 dollars a year from each of them, or 520 dollars total from all ten of them. And yeah, that’s not much when compared to our church budget…

But being able to say that we have ten new pledges… among other things, it will let those who can afford to give more, and who do give more, know that they aren’t in this alone, that you join with them in supporting the ministry of this church, despite your limited finances. Even if you can’t give much, making a pledge is a sign that this is where your heart is.

We’re inviting you to give from the heart. Make a pledge that your heart will be proud of. Make a pledge that reflects the things you value in this world.

Make a pledge, so that the values you hold deep in your heart are reflected by how you live, and what you spend your money on.

Make a pledge not in order to receive the grace and goodness of God, but because you have already received the grace and goodness of God, and you want others to know that God’s grace and goodness is for them as well.

There are so many ways that we share God’s love, that we let people know that they are loved, that they are not alone, that no matter how difficult things are right now, that someone is there with them, beside them, walking with them on that journey.

We do that when we pray for one another, and when we stock our Helping Shelf, and when we run our youth program, and when we partner with other local organizations to bring wholeness in so many ways to our community and beyond.

Isn’t that something your heart wants to be a part of? 

Listen to your heart. Listen to what God is saying to you in this Stewardship season. And let your life reflect the things you hold most dear

Send Me (Isaiah 6:1-8)

 One of the things that frustrates me most is when people use scripture to justify their own actions or behavior, without understanding what the scripture really means. 

Now, we all do this to some extent. I don’t think one can not do this, at least a little. We all come to scripture with our own prejudice and biases, which influence how we understand scripture and how we apply it to our lives.

But some do it so flagrantly… They take a scripture that means one thing, and use it to justify some behavior that is really just the opposite—the complete opposite—of what the scripture is saying. 

In fact, the behavior that they are using the scripture to support is, actually, exactly what the scripture is condemning!

We’re not talking about just a little nuance. We’re talking about turning the meaning completely on its head. 

This is the exact behavior that Jesus condemns in the gospels! In fact, it’s almost the only behavior that Jesus ever condemns, or at least, the one behavior that he condemns so passionately.

People who should have known better—religious leaders, chief priests, scribes, Pharisees—the authority figures, the leaders of the people…

They often turned scripture into a tool or a weapon, to get people to conform to a pattern of behavior that those leaders wanted from them, rather than the behavior that scripture actually teaches.

Those leaders used scripture as a way to control people. They demanded that certain rituals be performed, and certain protocols strictly observed, while they ignored the real needs of the people… especially those who were poor and vulnerable. 

And these leaders often made those who were already vulnerable and oppressed feel even more vulnerable and oppressed. Jesus said that they tied up heavy burdens that were hard to bear, and placed them on the shoulders of the people, making life even harder for them. 

Scripture is meant to liberate and heal. Scripture is meant to help people recover from the trauma and oppression and injustice in their lives, not inflict more trauma and oppression and injustice on them.

And when leaders—religious leaders, political leaders—use scripture to do just that—to inflict trauma, to control people, to bend people to their will—they have so perverted the message of the gospel that they suffer the wrath and condemnation of Jesus.

There are leaders today who do this. 

I don’t often call them out, because, as a Disciple, I’m so committed to Christian unity, that I don’t want to speak negatively in any way of others within the body of Christ. 

The founders of our movement declared that “Christian unity is our polar star.” That is an important value to me. 

I don’t want to create divisions between different churches with different theological understandings. 

But over the years, I have had more and more people come to me, to share with me the trauma and the abuse inflicted upon them by those who use scripture as a weapon, or as a tool, to control and manipulate, that I can’t stay silent… not when so many are victimized and made to suffer, because of the damaging and dangerous ways that the gospel is sometimes preached.

***** I heard church historian Diana Butler Bass talk about this on a recent podcast. 

Diana Butler Bass is a remarkable scholar whose books I’ve read and who has been a keynoter at several different conferences I’ve been to. 

In the podcast I heard this week, she talked about how some leaders intentionally create trauma or inflict trauma on people as a way to control them. 

Some evangelical religious leaders in particular do this, she said; and some of our leaders in government do this. They’ve even been caught on tape, admitting and even boasting that it’s their goal is to inflict trauma on people, so that they can then control them.

And that explains the actions and behavior of a good number of our leaders today, doesn’t it?

And they will often use scripture to justify their behavior and the actions they take, because they know that scripture is a tool they can use to control and manipulate people.

That’s why I decided to preach on Isaiah 6 this morning, even though it’s not part of the lectionary.

Because in the past few weeks, I’ve heard Isaiah 6 misused in order to control and manipulate. It has been twisted, so that the way it’s being used makes it sound like it’s about one thing, which is really just the opposite of what this scripture is really all about. 

***** So. To understand this scripture from Isaiah 6, one needs to understand the context…

Isaiah 6 begins at a time of political instability. King Uzziah, who had reigned over Judah for over 50 years, had just died. 

This means that it was a pivotal moment in history, a chance for the nation, with a new king, to either follow the same path that had been followed, or to chart a new path.

That path that had been followed under King Uzziah was a path that led to a growth in wealth and power for the nation’s ruling elite. The nation was stronger politically, and the royal treasury was full.

But the people of the nation, most of whom were poor, were not benefitting from all this. In fact, the prosperity of the nation was, to a large degree, the result of their exploitation. It was their labor, and their suffering, even, that made it possible for those at the top to prosper.

In God’s eyes, this is evil. God has a preferential option for the poor, as the Latin American liberation theologians teach us. We see God’s particular concern for the least of these… and anytime they are mistreated, God demands justice.

What’s worse, is that the rulers and leaders in Isaiah’s time were using religion to justify the way they showed contempt to the poor. 

They put on a show of performing the rituals and leading worship services; yet as soon as those rituals and services were over, they went right back to oppressing the people.

They were taking the words of scripture, and twisting them to justify their own behavior, and so that they could control and manipulate the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

This, by the way, is exactly what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain. It is to take the teachings of God and twist them to justify your own actions, even though your own actions are contrary to the actual will of God. 

Taking the Lord’s name in vain is to say that God is in favor of one thing, when in fact, God is not. It is to say that God is on your side even though you oppress the poor and withhold from them compassion. That is misrepresenting who God is and what God cares about. That is what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain.

***** So. God needed a prophet to call the nation and its leaders to repentance. God needed a prophet to speak to those in power, to point out their hypocrisy, to expose the ways they manipulate scripture to justify their evil ways. 

And God chose… Isaiah.

We don’t know a whole lot about Isaiah, the person. He may have been a priest.

What is clear is that he attacks social justice in the same way as Amos, Hosea, Micah, and other prophets whom God called. 

And we know that, for Isaiah, it all began… with a vision.

…A vision of the Lord sitting on his throne, surrounded by six-winged seraphs, singing “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

And Isaiah’s first response is to say: “Woe is me!”

Isaiah recognizes (knows) that God is so much bigger than he is, that God is not something to be controlled or manipulated. 

Isaiah humbles himself before God. Isaiah admits that he himself is less than perfect… 

A prophet always demonstrates humility before God. A prophet knows that God alone is worthy, God alone is good. 

God then assures Isaiah that, though he is only a mortal, that God can use him, and that, with God’s power, Isaiah can speak words that are true and holy and good. 

As a sign of this, the seraph touches Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal, and declares that Isaiah’s guilt has departed and his sin has been erased. 

I am struck by how Isaiah’s humility compares with the arrogance and certainty of kings and rulers. Kings and rulers can do no wrong, at least in their own eyes. In fact, they think they are above such categorizations. 

The temptation for kings and rulers is to put themselves above God’s laws. They decide what is right and what is wrong, because they sit on the throne.No matter what they do, it is considered right, because they are the king.

But God called Isaiah… and the other prophets… to declare that no person, not even a king, is above God’s laws. And even a king must follow God’s teachings.

A king must remember the poor, and have compassion on them. A king must not exploit the poor and make them suffer… and a king must not twist and manipulate the teachings of God to make it appear that God supports the injustice that the king commits.

And a prophet who is bold enough to declare such things is what God is looking for: someone to hold kings and rulers accountable; to declare to them God’s displeasure at the way they use religion to defend the evil they commit, and to demand that they return to carrying out the justice God demands.

So God says to Isaiah: “Whom shall I send?”

***** And Isaiah says: “Here am I; send me!”

And when Isaiah says that, he commits himself to the task. He commits himself to holding the nation’s rulers accountable. He commits himself to demanding that they act with justice toward the poor; that they act with compassion; that they defend the rights of those who are most vulnerable. 

Which means that anyone today who seeks to follow in Isaiah’s path… anyone today who dares to respond as Isaiah responded, by saying: “Here am I; send me”...

Likewise commits themself to holding leaders accountable for how they mistreat the poor.

Anyone who says “Here I am; send me” likewise commits to calling out injustice and oppression.

Anyone who says “Here I am; send me” commits to defending the rights of the vulnerable, which today includes immigrants; and LGBTQ folks; and our siblings from other, non-Christian religions; and people of color; and disabled folks…

Anyone who says “Here I am; send me” commits to being faithful to the true meaning of scripture as well as the teachings and commands of God; not misusing and abusing those teachings and commands to justify and support their own agenda.

In Matthew 13, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6, referring to how he himself would be rejected by those who fail to understand, teach, and practice all that God commands.

Jesus himself would be rejected, and crucified by rulers in his own time who failed to understand and practice the ways of God. 

Yet through his crucifixion, God would continue the work of reconciliation, using it to unite all people with him and his way of peace. 

And God continues to hold before us the opportunity to choose love over hate; to choose hope over despair; to choose compassion over disdain; to choose peace over violence; to choose justice over injustice; to choose life over death.