Friday, 19th June 2020

Collect

Holy God, Lord of the harvest, you send your labourers to spread the gospel: call us to this work, equip us by your Spirit and send us to proclaim your good news; through Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Amen.

Eucharist Readings:

2 Kings 11:1-4,9-20           Psalm 132:10-18          Matthew 6: 19-23

This discourse one of the five in this Gospel, and this specific text is part of the first discourse about discipleship. Jesus busy with his public ministry in and around Galilea. Here Jesus calls his disciples to put God first, both by giving priority to eternal issues and trusting our heavenly Father to meet our material needs here on earth, but sometimes we allow  the  concern for  materialism  to occupy our attention .

Verses 19-21 focuses on our sense of priorities and points out to be primarily concerned with material possessions, not only shows a wrong perspective but is also foolish, since such possessions cannot last. Jesus is warning his disciples against the pleasures which will wear out like an old suit of clothes .The finest garment in the world, moths or no moths, will in the end crumble and that person is foolish who finds his/her pleasure in things which are bound to offer diminishing returns. Also, Jesus warns against the pleasures which can be damaging. The grain store is the inevitable prey of the rats and mice who nibble away the grain. There are certain pleasures which inevitably lose their attraction as a person grows older, so we should not invest in things which can be taken away. Jesus also warns against the pleasures which can be stolen away. All material things are like that, not one is secure and if we build our happiness on them, we are building on a most insecure basis. We should build our happiness not on possessions but on things we cannot loose, things which are independent of the chances and changes of this life.

The only thing people can take out of this world into the world beyond, are themselves and the finer the self they bring, the greater their treasure in heaven will be. If, in our lives our eyes are fixed on eternity, then we will evaluate lightly the things of the world. If everything we count valuable is on earth, then we will leave this world reluctantly but if our thoughts are in the world beyond, we will leave this earth with gladness because at last we are going to God.

Jesus never said that this world is not important , but he said and implied over and over again that its importance is not in itself, but in that to which it leads , this world is only a detour to our destination which is with our father in heaven. Our eyes should be forever be fixed on the goal beyond.

Verse 22-23 may seem out of place here, but it is a metaphor for stinginess and jealousy. These verses, therefore, also attack preoccupation with selfish materialism and call for wholehearted devotion to God. The idea also behind this passage is one of childlike simplicity. The eye is regarded as the window by which the light gets into the whole body. Depending on the state of the window determines what light gets into the room. If the window is dirty the light will be hindered, and the room will not be lit. So, then, says Jesus , the light which gets into a person’s heart and soul depends on the spiritual state of the eye through which it has to pass, for the eye is the window of the whole body, but it all depend on the kind of eye we have because there are certain things which can blind our eyes and distort our vision specifically ,prejudice, jealousy and self-conceit.

But here Jesus also speaks of one special virtue which fills the eye with light(generosity) and one special fault which fills the eye with darkness (grudging).Jesus is saying that there is nothing like generosity for giving you a clear and undistorted view of life and people; and there is nothing like the grudging and ungenerous spirit for distorting your view of life and people. It is characteristic of human nature to think the worst. Every day in life the reputations of innocent people are murdered over the teacups by gossiping groups whose judgements are dipped in poison. The world would be saved a great deal of heartbreak, if we would put the best, and not the worst, construction on the actions of other people. So, we must be generous in our judgement of others and our actions.

There are three great evils of the ungenerous spirit of the grudging eye. It makes it impossible to live with ourselves, when we are envying another person their success, jealous of their happiness, these then grow into bitterness and resentment which rob ourselves from happiness and steals the peace. impossible to live with others, however bad the generous person may be there are those who will love them and however good the mean person may be, people will detest them. it makes it impossible to live with God, there is no one so generous as God. There can be no fellowship between the God whose heart is passionate with love and the person whose heart is frozen with meanness.

The grudging(darkness) eye distorts our vision; the generous(light) eye alone sees clearly, for it alone sees as God sees.