“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. […] No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
—Matthew 6:19-20, 24 (NASB)
It often seems like we spend much of our lives searching for some kind of treasure. Whether it’s monetary/material wealth, security, comfort, or certainty, we have been trained in our society to pursue that treasure no matter what the cost.
But what if those treasures are really meaningless? What if certainty, comfort, or even wealth not only miss the point wildly, but actually take us further away from what’s really valuable in life?
This week at New Wineskins we’ll take another step in our stroll through the Sermon on the Mount with a discussion of what it means to “store up treasures in heaven” and how understanding Jesus’ context reveals a broader agenda for human flourishing.
This week’s discussion video from The Work of the People features Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO, talking about the contrast between Jesus’ view of what should be treasured versus what the church often pursues instead.
Please join us this Sunday, Feb. 9, in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom as we talk about the treasures we pursue and how we can re-center human dignity and worth as our highest value.
6:00pm ET: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm ET: Presentation & conversation begin
Check out this week’s discussion video
Click here to view this week’s discussion video on The Work of the People (email address required, no subscription necessary)
Bonus content
Click here to read New Wineskins founder Joe Webb’s 2020 blog post about this section of the Sermon on the Mount.
Drawing from the inspiration of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, we’re starting 2025 with a dive into the Sermon on the Mount and its implications for today’s world. You may wish to subscribe to the CAC’s Daily Meditation email as a daily guide for our journey during this series.
Join us Feb. 16 for special guest Josh Scott!
Our good friend Josh Scott, pastor of Grace Point Church in Nashville, TN, and author of Bible Stories for Grown-Ups, Context, and Parables, will join us Sunday, Feb. 16, to talk about how we can faithfully view the Sermon on the Mount within its first century context as an address to the marginalized and colonized people of Galilee. You won’t want to miss this special conversation, so mark your calendars now & plan to attend!
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