SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008

THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

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Dear Friends in Our Lord Jesus:

Erma Bombeck once came up with a great line about how she protected her valuables. She simply put them in a place that was safe and secure -- a place where no one would think to look.

Here is what she wrote: “I used to spend hours hiding things I valued so the kids couldn’t find them, and then using up precious time trying to find them myself. Now I simply put anything I don’t want to be discovered under the dish towel. In 28 years, no one has ever touched it but me.”

Do we know WHERE our valuables are? Or, more to the point, do we know WHAT our valuables are? The Lord Jesus was explicit when He warned that if we focus our hearts exclusively on earthly things, we will eventually lose the things that are heavenly. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” He said (Matthew 6:21).

St. James explained the issue of valuables in a similar manner (James 3:16-18: “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.”

It is a powerful lesson to realize that the most important “valuables” in life -- the types of intangible things that the world cannot comprehend or destroy -- are those priceless gifts that come directly from the Lord. As the beautiful collect on page 234 of the Book of Common Prayer says: “Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure.”

-- The Very Rev. Dr. Steve Sellers +