All Saints Lutheran Church
Pastor Tim Johnson
October 5, 2003

A man on vacation was strolling along outside his hotel in Acapulco, enjoying the sunny Mexican weather. Suddenly, his attention was attracted to the screams of a woman kneeling in front of a child.

The man knew enough Spanish to determine that the child had swallowed a coin. Seizing the child by the heels, the man held him up, gave him a few shakes, and an American quarter dropped to the sidewalk.

At this the mother was greatly overjoyed. "Thank you, sir. Thank you," she cried. And she hugged him and she cried and she hugged the child and she cried.

After she regained her composure she turned to the man and said, "You seemed to know just how to get it out of him. Are you a doctor?"

The man smiled and said, "No ma'am. I'm with the IRS."

I guess the moral is that if you love money like IRS you'll look almost anywhere to find it. (I hope we don't have any agents here today!)

One day Jesus made a profound statement about the relationship between love and money. Actually he put it in terms of our heart and our treasure. He said,

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. " Matthew 6:21

The reason that's such a profound statement is because most of us like to separate those two things in our minds. We like to believe it's what's in the heart that's really important, even if it's not backed up by a concrete commitment of treasure in some form or another. Have you ever heard someone say, "I'd like to spend more time on whatever, but I'm giving quality time, so it's OK. It's the heart thing that matters." One I've heard over the years is "If I win the lottery, I'm going to give a lot of money to the church."

We want to believe that the heart's in the right place even if the treasure is not. But according to Jesus, the two are intimately linked. They can't be separated. To paraphrase his statement ... "the location of the treasure is the location of the heart." Regardless of what a person might say, if you find the treasure in a person's life, you'll find their heart. Look at the investments the person makes and you'll discover what they really love. You'll discover who or what has their heart.

And that's the question this morning.: who/what has your heart? That's a really important question because if what we say we love is not what we really love, we've got a problem. We're deceiving ourselves and probably hurting other people in the process. So, this morning I want us to do a little self-examination by applying this principle of the heart and the treasure.

Personal Investment Capital

To do that we, first of all, to understand what treasures we have available to us. As I thought about it this week I realized that each of us have six resources that form our "personal investment capital." You could probably think of some others, but these are the significant ones.

1. Obviously, the first one on the list would be our financial resources.

That's a pretty literal interpretation of "treasure." In fact, when you look at the context of the statement Jesus made, that's the issue.

[Jesus said,] "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19­21NIV

According to Jesus, you can invest in yourself - "storing up treasures on earth"- or you can invest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Finances are an obvious part of our personal investment capital.

It's been said that if we want to know what's really important to us in life, all we need to do is to look in our checkbook, and that will reveal our true priorities. It will declare whether we live for ourselves or for God and others.

2. Another part of our personal capital is our time and attention.

I think this is huge for us. For too many, life is lived in a constant frenzy of activity, with virtually no Sabbath time set aside to connect with God, and consequently no chance to listen in on what's really important to our hearts. And, too often we also then don't really attend to the people around us.

3. Our natural talents and learned skills.

Let me give you an example of how this treasure can be invested.

Two young medical students at the University of Michigan had just finished their classes one day in the spring of 1883. In a few weeks they would receive their medical degrees. As they relaxed in their room their thoughts naturally moved to what they would do with their lives.

"Come on, Will," the first one said, "come to New York with me. We'll make a great team. There a lot of wealthy people back East - we'll be rich in no time at all. What do you say?"

It was obvious that their conversations was a continuation of discussion that had been going on for several month.

"I'm sorry, Ben," Will said, "but the more I think about it ... well, I'd like to practice with you, but ..."

"Will, you're a fool. The Midwest is a cheap place to study medicine, but no place to practice it - nothing but small towns and farmers. You'll never make a dime out here. Come East with me. We'll travel in Europe, hobnob with the greats, meet beautiful rich young women. With our talent we can't miss."

Will was silent for moment. "It's a tempting picture you paint, Ben, but what about these people here? They need good doctors, too - even if they can't always pay."

A few weeks later they parted - Ben to New York with his dream of getting rich, and Will headed for Minnesota where he would help his father, a general practitioner, ministering to the sick in the small towns in and around Rochester.

In the years that followed, nothing much was heard of the doctor in New York. As for Will, eventually he did treat the wealthy and powerful from the east like his college friend wanted. But he did not go to New York. Instead, they came to Rochester where Will Mayo and his younger brother Charles had founded the Mayo Clinic.

You and I may not be world-class surgeons but we have talents and abilities that can be invested in something. I wonder if we wouldn't do well to encourage our youth to focus more on listening to their hearts as they determine what to do with their lives, and less on what's lucrative or prestigious. What a gift that conversation would be with your kids. Where's your heart? How can I help you to follow it?

4. The spiritual and emotional energy required to care.

Someone has said there are at least four things you can do with your hands. You can wring them in despair; you can fold them in idleness; you can clench them in anger; or you can use them to help someone.

A nurse found herself one day attempting to console a grief stricken mother who had just lost her only child. The woman was sitting in stunned silence, gazing blindly into space as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Mrs. Norris," the nurse asked her, "have you noticed that little boy sitting in the hall next to your daughter's room?" Mrs. Norris had not.

"There," said the nurse, "is a case" She pointed out that the little boy's mother had been brought to the hospital in an ambulance about a week earlier from a shabby one-room apartment where she and the boy had lived since their arrival in this country from Europe. The nurse had learned that the mother and son had no family. They only had each other. Every day, the nurse explained, the boy kept a vigil at his mother's side, hoping she would come out of her coma. "She never will," the nurse said to Mrs. Norris. "Death has taken her along with your daughter."

"Now it is my duty," said the nurse, "to go out and tell that little boy that, at age seven, he is all alone in the world." She paused, then said, "I don't suppose that ... you ... could go out and tell him for me?"

Mrs. Norris stood up, dried her tears, walked out into the hall and put her arms around the boy. She had found someone in need and did something about it. Not long after, she brought the homeless boy to her childless home.

5. Words that express approval and encouragement.

The French Philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote, "Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them. Bitter words make them bitter and wrathful words make them wrathful. But kind words also produce their image on men's souls - and what a beautiful image it is."

I wonder what words of encouragement God may be calling you to share with someone in your life.

6."Grace" that personally absorbs the impact of imperfection.

Everyone of us suffers pain that we don't deserve at the hands of others. People sin against us, sometimes intentionally, a lot of times unintentionally. And we have a choice. We can choose to strike back, which is the natural response - or, we can decide to absorb the impact of the other person's imperfection. That's an investment of grace in that person.

The greatest example of this type of investment is what God himself did for each one of us through Jesus Christ on the cross.

[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. 2 Timothy 1:9NIV

Investment Decisions

Finances, time and attention, talents and skills, spiritual and emotional energy, encouraging words, grace - those resources form the personal investment capital that each one of us has at our disposal. Obviously, some people have more than other people, but no one is bankrupt. And each of us chooses where we're going to put these treasures and that choice reveals what we really love.

•  Will Mayo invested his talents and skills in a small clinic in Rochester, MN. What did he really love? People - not money.

•  The mother who lost her daughter gave what little spiritual and emotional energy she had left to that little orphan boy. Why? He had her heart.

•  The choices you and I make in where we invest our time truly reflects where our loyalties lie, and may or may not reflect the callings of our hearts.

Where your treasure is, their your heart will be also. Where you invest indicates who or what you love and who or what has your heart.

Let's apply this to us. Who or what do you really love? Who or what truly has your heart?

I invite you this month to take an inventory of your own Personal Investment Capital. What are you doing with your treasures? What do your treasures truly say about your heart?

And, please know that we are excited to boldly ask each and every member of All Saints to generously pledge to the ministry of Christ's church as we reach out together with his love to truly make a difference in the world.