Bible Study - Matthew 6 (Keith Howard)

Read: Matthew 6: 19-21, 24-33

As Gail Miller suggests read the text and sit with it for a while. After you have identified some of the words and images that seem to strike a chord then you might be interested to note:

Treasure – anyone thinking “Pirates?” Once you have Johnny Depp out of your mind the word treasure implies more than just a stack of cash. It implies something that will go towards meeting a deep desire of the heart.

The Aramaic word for “mammon” doesn't simply mean cold-hard-cash or wealth, it

comes from a Hebrew word meaning "that in which we trust."  When Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24), he's unmasking the remarkable and powerful influence of something (i.e., money and wealth) that we typically see as "neutral and [something that becomes] a problem only if people  thought about it inordinately or acted to gain it immorally." (http://www.nwumf.org/images/radical_gratitude/year_a/radical_gratitude_may1908.pdf)

3. “do not worry” – really?

David Lose says:

we live in an incredibly anxious culture. The evening news certainly depends upon worries at home and abroad to attract viewers. Commercials are constantly inviting us to worry about one more thing -- usually about ourselves! -- … home security signs in their front lawns. … : everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, there are visible reminders of just how much there is to worry about.

http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=458

More about money from David Lose:

“notice that Jesus doesn't say money is evil, or even bad, just that it makes a poor master. Actually, the word in Greek is kurios, often translated "lord." The lord is the one who demands and deserves your loyalty, allegiance, and worship. (Which, by the way, explains the courageous and treasonous nature of the earliest Christian confession, "Christ is Lord" in a world where the more expected confession was, "Caesar is Lord.")

I wonder about the relation of this passage to a perspective on the world that is dominated by a deep sense of there not being enough. Scarcity creates fear, and fear creates devotion to those who will protect you. Abundance, on the other hand, produces freedom.

The world Jesus invites us into: a world of abundance, generosity, and new life. But it is also a world of fragility, trust, and vulnerability.

Once we believe that money can satisfy our deepest needs, then we suddenly discover that we never have enough. In a world of scarcity, there is simply never enough.

Questions to Ponder

• Do you have a treasure box? If you do – or wish you did – what is/would be in it? What do your treasures tell you about the deep desire of your heart"
• That in which we trust” – this can be a hard phrase because once we get past saying what we know the right answer should be we realize that, actually, we trust in very many things, depending upon circumstance. One of the gifts of disaster planning is that it can force us to think about what or who we trust to “get us through.” Perhaps a more helpful question is: with whom am I entrusting what? The answer might vary depending upon whether we are holding in our heart our children, our spouse, our health, our car.
• If you worry, what ramps up the intensity of your worrying? What calms you?
• One of the key differences between the world view of baby boomers and those of WWII and the Depression relates to their early expectations of what the world might provide. Boomers grew up with affluence and, most, in some part of their being expect life to yield this. Other generations know in their bones that circumstances can turn in a moment and so feel a deep need to protect against scarcity.  Where do you fit?