“When I was a 10th grader, I suddenly, out of the blue, was diagnosed with cancer. My high school German teacher came to see me after my amputation. He gave me a wallet with German marks and notes in every pocket, an encouragement to go on the class trip to Germany. I was not going to go, but my class rallied around me, and I went,” begins Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. That wallet will wear out eventually, but the love of my German teacher will not. We’re familiar with the phrase from today’s passage in Luke 12:32-40, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jacobson challenges us to think of this idea in a different way. “Where you send your treasure, your heart will go also…You have some control over where you spend your budget,” he says. What about purses? Jacobson frames it in terms of relationships. We grow these purses/relationships through giving non-monetary things: time, talent, and love. Rolf reminds us when this becomes difficult to remember, “[The] gift, the love of a father who gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” Build up your treasure. Give of yourself, not just your money.
No manuscript available