Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:19-21

God’s love and favor always act to moderate, and never exacerbate, the inequitable distribution of wealth, power, privilege and prestige. Faithful discipleship requires us to spend these assets – to the extent that they are granted to us – freely and generously to lift up those who are overlooked, marginalized, abused or excluded.

This section begins with a reminder not to be ostentatious and public in prayer or good works and includes the prayer Jesus taught his disciples (as it appears in the CEB translation of Matt)

Our Father in heaven,

    may your name be revered as holy.

    May your kingdom come.

    May your will be done

        on earth as it is in heaven.

    Give us today our daily bread.

    And forgive us our debts,

        as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    And do not bring us to the time of trial,

        but rescue us from the evil one.

This translation highlights ‘debtors’ and forgiveness as economic. A radical trust in having enough one day at a time. This is a prayer that places trust (and treasure) both in God and in community.

This is a kind of trust that should come naturally to the citizens of the Reign of God is very difficult for citizens of the world and maybe especially difficult for citizens of the United States.

Fifty years ago, when Martin Luther King began (with the help of Mennonite Vincent Harding) to speak out boldly against the war in Vietnam, he clearly linked the colonial militarism of the United States to its capitalist and materialist and consumerist tendencies. He said:

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. 

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. [Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1967]

America’s policy was and has always been accumulation of wealth. Whether in the form of land, extraction of minerals and oil, human capital through exploitation of enslaved people or off-shore manufacturing, relentless economic growth at the expense of the earth and human relationships. It does feel, as King noted, like a machine.

Jesus may not have known much about machines, but he did know about heaven and the human heart. “Collect treasures for yourself in heaven…” he said. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

“In Jewish writings, treasure in heaven is frequently associated with keeping the law or charitable deeds and Matthew could have this association in mind. The point of the saying, however, is not that we should accumulate points in heaven, but that the thing we treasure most should be God rather than possessions. As Robert Guelich puts it: ‘to have one’s treasure in heaven means to submit oneself to that which is in heaven – God’s sovereign rule.‘” [Believers’ Church Bible Commentary]

God’s Sovereign Rule! We’re brought back again back to God’s Reign! To live under the reign of God is to hold our relationship with wealth lightly and our relationship with humanity and earth close.

Anabaptists do have a history of this that we can be proud of. One of the things that our forebears resisted within the established church of the day was the accumulation of wealth in the church. As the Mennonite church became more established itself, mutual aid within community was an expression of faith. 

I am a child of the More with Less generation. In the 1980s when wealth and status and capitalism were having a moment, Mennonites were embracing the simplicity of healthful, home-cooked meals, whole grains and reduced meat, recipes from around the globe. It’s cover said, “Suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world’s limited resources.” Using fewer resources, sharing with others and reducing the impact of our diet and consumption on the planet.

When I was reminiscing about how important that book was to my family, my mom reminded me that it’s the 50th anniversary of the cookbook this year! But it seems like in the age of Amazon we’ve forgotten somewhat, what made that cookbook so important to our community!

As a child, sometimes I just wanted an Orie, rather than a home-made oatmeal cookie with added wheat bran, but I am very grateful that my parents were all-in on the living more with less movement. So much so that my photo appears in Living More with Less (the book). I am a toddler playing with a home-made, denim toybox that’s covered with all kinds of manipulatable and textured items, captioned by my DIY mom with a description of this homemade item. 

I have absolutely inherited that love of DIY and creative re-use and the value of simplicity and anti-materialism from my family, rooted in their Mennonite values. But I can also see in the church – our overall very wealthy church – an insularity and self-protection that contrasts with the value of non-accumulation.

In addition to this emphasis on simplicity, my ancestors also kept wealth within limited communities. As my ancestors traveled from Western Europe to the Ukraine and then to Canada, the US or South America, they created colonies, or at least tightly-woven communities, accumulated wealth through farming formerly indigenous land, and that wealth stayed within those communities. 

We no longer live in colonies, but I think Mennonites are still a little bit like that. This is anecdotal but I have found it easier to rally organizing or giving or participation with things that have a Mennonite label or connection and more questions or suspicion or resistance to participation or organizing or giving to other events or people or orgs in our communities.

White European Mennonites still have a lot of wealth and I was so delighted and my heart was warmed that we opted to release some of ours in our congregational meeting on Sunday. We were acting on, and I pray we will continue to act on, that call of discipleship to (as the resolution says, “spend these assets – to the extent that they are granted to us – freely and generously to lift up those who are overlooked, marginalized, abused or excluded.”

It is a failure of our political systems that people need to fundraise for medical expenses, for unexpected emergencies, for food to eat or most recently legal aid and basic support because of deportations or fear of arrest or detention. But we have already talked about putting our allegiance not in the kingdoms of the world, knowing that regardless of political party, government will not be the worlds’ salvation. 

Moving some treasure from our treasure chest into the hands of our neighbors is one way of actively demonstrating our allegiance in God’s Kingdom. It is a way of not just loving but trusting our neighbors and creating a greater equity among all of God’s children. Investing in relationship, with God and with people, putting our treasure in those places will make us poorer. But we will be living more fully. Actually living more with less. Practicing simplicity and redistributing our treasure where “moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them.”  

May God bless our discernment as we continue to follow Jesus in a spirit of generous discipleship.

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