8th Sunday after Epiphany - Year A (Matthew 6:24-34)

God instructed the Israelites not to save manna from one day for the next. In the Lord’s Prayer we are taught to pray for today’s bread. One of the saddest of the many sad reality shows on television is, I believe called Hoarders. I have run into it while channel surfing from time to time but have never had the stomach to see it through. The show is about individuals who for whatever psycho-spiritual reasons have a compulsion to hoard “stuff” of all kinds, everything from possibly useful canned goods to totally useless magazines and newspapers. Eventually these hoarders literally become prisoners of their stuff.
Most of us, fortunately, are not hoarders. But I suspect that many of us are collectors, and I’m not talking about coins, stamps or fine art. I know that I am. In our house we collect, among other things, used file folders, paper clips, and those plastic wrapped sets of eating utensils that sometimes come with takeout. There are boxes of old photographs, old letters and old travel souvenirs. It is comforting and perhaps even helpful to suggest that the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to free us to let go of all the “stuff” in our lives.

For better or worse, however, it’s not possible to look honestly at this text without talking about money. American’s are apparently not much good at saving. Press reports indicate low savings rates as compared to other national groups. Yet, many of us do manage to put a little bit away for a rainy day and those of us fortunate enough to have jobs with decent benefits might even have something stashed in a 401K for a rainy day. Francis of Assisi took Jesus at his word, considered the lilies of the field, stripped off his clothing in the Cathedral piazza and became the Poverello, the little poor man. In ever century since this sermon was first preached, others have done the same. Most of us have not. I’m not prepared to cash in my retirement savings and deliver it to the homeless shelter. I doubt that you are either. The best most of us can hope for is to love and serve only one master, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and to live each day on its own terms. As for the rest, we must depend on God’s grace and mercy.