Treasure in Heaven

Homily for August 10, 2025
The Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
Luke 12:32-40

This morning’s Gospel lesson is a story of two thieves.  The first steals and like a moth is bent on destruction:  “Make purses for yourselves that do not where out,” Jesus says, “an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”  Conversely, the second thief is “the Son of Man:”  “But know this,” Jesus said, “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 unexpected hour.”  Within this story of two thieves, Jesus delivers a strong teaching about stewardship:  “Sell you possessions and give alms,” he says,“for where you treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  

To better understand this story of two thieves and Jesus’ teaching about stewardship, I want to turn to Broadway and the musical “Hadestown,” which is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  “Hadestown,” too, is a story of two thieves, and it raises pointed questions about stewardship.

Let me refresh our memories about the myth of Orpheus and Eurdydice. Orpheus, the greatest of poets and musicians, marries Eurydice, who dies on their wedding day after being bitten by a snake – Hades “thieves” her down to the underworld.  Orpheus descends to the land of the dead to retrieve her – to “thieve” her back – where he charms the underworld with his singing and where Hades is willing to cut him a deal:  You, Orpheus, can leave with Eurydice but under one condition – you must walk ahead of her and not look back.  If you do, Eurydice will be gone forever.  Spoiler alert:  supposedly the loudest gasp in musical theatre is that of the audience gasping along with Eurydice when in “Hadestown” Orpheus looks back.

In the Broadway version, Hades gives the shades a “vocation” – really a false vocation – in building a wall.  Perhaps you’ve heard the song, “Why We Build the Wall”?  The wall keeps them “free,” Hades has convinced them, from the enemy of poverty, “free” by protecting them who have from those who have not.  And “What do we have that they should want?” Hades asks.  “We have a wall to work upon,” they chant.  “We have work, and they have none.”   To which Hades adds:  “And our work is never done… and our war is never won.”   Imprisoned forever with this false vocation, the shades no longer know who they are; Hades has “thieved” not only their lives, but also their names and everything about their identities.

The shades’ false fear of losing what they have (or what they think they have) is the antithesis of what Jesus tells his disciples in this morning’s Gospel lesson:  “Jesus said… ‘Do not be afraid, little flock,for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  “Do not be afraid,” but…

Sell your possession and give alms.  Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

In regards to our possessions Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid.  Give alms.  Share what you have.”  Further, Jesus suggests that almsgiving is formative, “For where your treasure is, there is your heart also.”  If we become attached to our money and goods such that we cannot share, our hearts will be directed towards them, our treasures, and sooner or later these treasures will fail.  But if we “give alms” and make “purses for ourselves that do not wear out,” our hearts will expand and grow.  Jesus begs the question, “What kind of heart do we wish to have?”

There are powers in this world who would “thieve” us of our lives and identity.  These powers try to entrap us in “false vocations,” perhaps the most imprisoning of which is the accumulation of “treasure.”   Granted, we need a certain amount of “treasure” to “sustain life fittingly and with dignity” [Quadregesimoanno, 50).  But to seek to accumulate more tends to have the effect of building walls.  When we pursue this false vocation of accumulating treasure, we risk becoming insensate to what our souls really need.  Unaware of what we ourselves truly need, we become unable to perceive others and what they need.  Thus forgetting who we are and forgetting our responsibilities to our fellow human beings, we gradually fade into shades of the persons God created us to be.  

Though Orpheus did not succeed in bringing Eurydice back to life, by the power of his resurrection, Jesus brings us back to life.  Jesus releases us from false vocations and helps us to remember who we are.  Jesus comes to us in those places in which our lives have become shadows of the persons God created us to be –  those places in which we (for example) might put our trust in money or things, or in which we do not love our neighbors as ourselves, or in which we are blind to human need and suffering – [Jesus comes to us in these places in which we are “dead”] and steals us away from such “false vocations.”  Jesus urges us away from building walls, and he invites us to build bridges.  For as Paul writes in Ephesians:  “He is our peace… In his flesh he has made us…into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (Eph 2:14).  

I suspect we fall prey to false vocations and to building walls around us because we want to keep ourselves from knowing God’s love for us. Within each of us still is an Adam or an Eve that wants to hide from God.  We can’t see – or we refuse to see –  how much God loves us.  

A sure way to interrupt the false vocation of accumulating wealth and  to take down the walls we build around ourselves is by “giving alms.”  “Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out,” said Jesus, “an unfailing treasure in heaven.”  Generosity helps to keep us from placing our trust in money or things. Generosity helps us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Generosity helps to open our eyes to human need and suffering.  If greed destroys us,generosity blesses us.  Generosity keeps us from becoming a “shade” and helps us to be the fully human persons God created us to be.  

Lest you think that by my homily I’m trying to shake us all down for a full offering plate, I say, “Just be generous,” it doesn’t matter to whom.

I’ve heard it said that gratitude is the oil that frees the frozen gears of our prayer.  Generosity, gratitude’s close cousin, gets that inner life truly humming.  For when we “make purses for ourselves” by giving alms, we do indeed have an “unfailing treasure in heaven.”  Our hearts will be where they were intended to be.  And when the Son of Man comes at an unexpected hour, we will be ready to receive him and to let him love us with the fullness of his love.