Treasure of the Heart
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more! Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: If your sins are like scarlet,
will they become like snow? If they are red like crimson, will they become like wool? If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Luke 12:32-40
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night or near dawn and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Treasure of the Heart
This morning we take a look at the book of Isaiah, and we continue with Luke’s Gospel. My ongoing goal this summer is to encourage you in reading the Bible. It really is fascinating. There is so much to explore in the Bible. And the book of Isaiah provides a wealth of material. Recent 20th century archaeological discoveries have added a great deal to this richness.
My second ongoing goal in these summer sermons is to compare the views of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament and the New Testament have quite differing views, and this morning we will delve into this comparison a bit more.
Background on Isaiah.
Let’s begin with some background on the text. Isaiah is a book of poetry. It’s an extensive collection of poetry. As scholar Walter Brueggeman puts it, “Isaiah gives us chapter upon chapter of high poetic art.”[1] Not only this, but Isaiah is a meditation. It’s a poetic meditation on the “destiny of Jerusalem.”[2] This “destiny of Jerusalem” refers to Jerusalem dealing with crisis, specifically, the crisis of being conquered, taken into exile, and eventually returning to home. Jerusalem goes into the crisis of exile, and then Jerusalem comes out of the crisis of exile. This is the destiny of Jerusalem, and the book of Isaiah is concerned with this destiny.
The person Isaiah
Most scholars agree that the writing in Isaiah originates with an actual person named Isaiah, the son of Amoz, who lived in Jerusalem from about 742 to 689 BC. But while this text is “rooted in the person of Isaiah” (Brueggeman, 192) the text as we have it today is the product of generations of interpretation and editing. (192) Nevertheless, we can look to the person Isaiah for some historical context. Isaiah lived in Jerusalem during the rise of the Assyrian Empire.
So we are going way back here, long before the Roman Empire, long before Alexander the Great, before the second Babylonian Empire, to the 8th century BC. We are reminded here that Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. Jerusalem has seen empires come and go. And to put this in context, we can remember that for Jesus, the book of Isaiah is already scripture. Jesus reads from Isaiah in the temple. He studies Isaiah hundreds of years after it was written. Isaiah is an ancient text, but the ancient texts of the Old Testament had new light shone on them with recent archeological discoveries.
The discovery at Qumran
Here, I am referring to the story of Qumran. Qumran is a desert region of limestone cliffs and caves next to the Dead Sea. In Qumran, in 1947, some Bedouin shepherds were tending their sheep out in the desert. As the story goes, one shepherd got bored, and for entertainment, he decided to throw some rocks into a nearby cave. You know, it was one of those, “why not?” moments. Let me see if I can throw a rock into that cave. I wonder what will happen.
Now, there are a couple versions of this story. In another version, a shepherd goes into the cave in search of a lost sheep. Who knows? I like the “throwing rocks” version. These stories tend to evolve into legends, and you know how that goes.
The Great Isaiah Scroll
So the shepherd is throwing rocks into a cave, when he hears something shatter. Crash! And that was the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scroll. Over the next 10 years, many many scrolls were discovered, rolled up in ceramic jars and hidden in caves. One of the most famous of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the “Great Isaiah Scroll.” It’s a complete handwritten copy of Isaiah, written in Hebrew, on 17 pieces of sheepskin sewn together into a scroll 24 feet long. It’s now kept in a museum in Jerusalem. After the discovery of the scrolls, Qumran became a famous archeological site.
I have included some links to videos you can watch if you are interested in this. You can find them in the written text of this sermon posted to our church website. (Or you can just look up “Dead Sea Scrolls” and you will find ample material.) The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a fascinating story in itself. But it is truly amazing to see images of the surviving ancient manuscripts.
Here are links to two videos on the discovery at Qumran in 1947.
(Editor’s Note: You will need to copy / paste these links to view them, as they will not open from this page. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we are still learning!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPcOuBzyoDI
https://youtu.be/p-lNvLdY5OI?si=FDeNvYGbVY5zIImy
Here is a link to “The Great Isaiah Scroll.”
http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah
Isaiah’s view of Jerusalem
Our reading this morning is from the first chapter of Isaiah and it refers to the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 BC. In this chapter, Isaiah is writing to Jerusalem.
Isaiah sees Jerusalem as the center of God’s universe, the center of the world, the center of God’s reign. And this is why it so important for Jerusalem to remain holy, that is, to remain in covenant with God, to abide by the holy covenant established through Moses between God and the People. Jerusalem needs to remain holy. This is Isaiah’s message to Jerusalem.
Isaiah’s view of God
In addition to his view of Jerusalem, we get a sense of Isaiah’s view of God. For Isaiah, God is most holy and most sacred. God is set apart from all human defilement and impurity. So, once again, this means that Jerusalem is the consecrated city, the holy city, that must remain holy because it is the center of God’s dominion. Jerusalem is the central city of God’s universe.
Background on Chapter One of Isaiah
In the background of chapter one, the northern kingdom has fallen. Remember, we talked earlier this summer about the divided kingdom. In the north was Israel, and in the south was Judah. When Isaiah writes to Jerusalem in the first chapter, the Kingdom of Israel in the north has already fallen to the Assyrians, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south, too, is devastated. After conquering the northern kingdom, the Assyrian king Sennacherib invades the southern kingdom, and lays siege to Jerusalem. But the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem fails. Jerusalem is not captured at this time.
Chapter One is basically a warning to Jerusalem. Isaiah says, “Even though you were not destroyed in the siege, even though Jerusalem was spared and the Assyrians did not capture Jerusalem, let this be a warning to you. Do you remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? That will happen to you if you don’t change. You need to change your ways. You need to wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings. God does not want your blood sacrifices. God wants you to clean up your act. Specifically, “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” In other words, “Do not ignore the poor and the needy anymore. This needs to change. If you change your evil ways, you will be blessed. If you do not, you will be punished.”
So here, we have an example of Old Testament values. The ideal man, or the ideal woman, obeys God and God’s law. And this obedience is based on fear. Obey the law, keep the covenant, and all will go well with you. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. This is the ideal. This is how to live the good life, a Godly life.
Luke 12
Now let’s take a look at our Gospel reading. We continue to read from the section of Luke that describes Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, that is, the section from chapter 9 to chapter 19. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, traveling south from Galilee, and along the way to Jerusalem, he teaches and preaches the Gospel message. This summer, we have been following this journey. We have read about Jesus’ teaching on mercy and the Good Samaritan. We read about his visit to the home of Martha and Mary. We read about his teaching on prayer, and how to pray the Lord’s Prayer. And this morning, we read in Luke his teaching on generosity in the well-known verse, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
This verse, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” is found at the end of a sermon Jesus preaches to his disciples on worry. “Do not worry about your life,” Jesus says to them. Do not worry about what you will eat, or about your body, what you look like or about what you will wear. Life is more than food and clothes. Consider the lilies, how they grow. Look how beautiful they are. Even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Do not keep worrying about your own life. But organize your life so that you can help others. Do the best you can. And orient your life toward others, to help others. Don’t be so self-centered. You will be happier when you have something to give to others. This is the context for the verse, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The Gospel message is essentially a message of generosity. Develop a generous heart. And be ready.
So here, we have something quite different from the Old Testament value system. The ideal man, or the ideal woman, is a person who dies to self, as Christ died to self. This is the Christian ideal. Jesus brings this new value system to bear on the Old Testament law. More than simply obeying the law out of fear, the ideal is to empty the self, die to self, and orient one’s life to helping others. This is the central value of the New Testament.
The parable that follows, the parable of the watchful slaves, is about being ready. Be watchful. Keep your lamps lit and be dressed for action because we don’t know when the master will return. Now is the time, now is the opportunity for service, now is the time we have to help others, even while we remain vigilant looking for Christ’s return. Keep your lamps lit, be dressed and ready for action. Even this day, even today, we may see Jesus. We may see Christ in another. We may serve Christ in others. We can do our best. Do the best we can do. Be other centered.
To do this, to become other-centered, we can become aware of our treasure. What do we most treasure? What is the desire of our hearts? What do you really want? Because that is your motivation. That is what drives you. What is it that you truly want? That desire, that treasure of your hearts is what guides all your actions.
Perhaps you want power. So many people are motivated by power. Underneath the surface, the thing they want most is power. To be important. To get other people to work for them. To be popular, famous, influential, to have a lot of attention. But power, like money and all the things money can buy, the big house, the big car, whatever, all these things fade away. They do not bring lasting joy or happiness. They are self-centered ego concerns that do not last. The thief comes and steals. Moth and rust destroy.
True joy and happiness come from generosity, from giving to others, from dying to self. And so Jesus says, “Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near a no moth destroys.”
The invitation to follow this treasure of the heart.
Jesus is saying that the best treasure, the best motivation, is to be other-centered, not self-centered. Be ready. Be vigilant. Find ways to help others. And this will motivate your life. Following the example of Christ, we die to self and orient our life to helping others. And as you know, if you are following this path, the astonishing thing is that this will take you to new places, places you could never imagine you would go. Following this treasure will lead you into a whole new life. That is the invitation for us today. Discover what your true motivation is. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also. Amen? Amen.
[1] Walter Brueggeman, An Introduction to the Old Testament, 91.
[2] Ibid.