In last week’s gospel reading, Jesus answered a question from someone in the crowd around him. He cautioned against all kinds of greed, asserting that a person’s life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. He made a distinction between those who store up treasure for themselves and those who are rich towards God.
This week, Jesus is still answering the question, but in the meantime he has turned from the crowd to his disciples. He has been telling them not to be anxious or obsessed about food or drink or clothing, because their heavenly Father knows that they need these things. They should rather have the kingdom of God as their primary concern.
In the gospel reading from two weeks ago, the disciples had witnessed Jesus at prayer. Perhaps something of his intimacy with his heavenly Father prompted them to ask him to teach them to pray. He responded with the prayer formula that has become established in the Church as the Our Father, and then went on to assure them that that same Father knows how to give good gifts to his children – in particular, the gift of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to live the life of the kingdom of God.
This week, we hear Jesus telling his disciples not to be afraid, something he insists on over and over again in the gospels. And then he says something more, something quite wonderful. He says that their heavenly Father is delighted to give them the gift of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of love and truth, the kingdom of justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This eagerness on God’s part to share the kingdom, to invite all people to enter it, is the basis of relationship with God.
The simple happiness of knowing God is echoed in the appointed Psalm 33, which reminds us that God made our hearts and understands our ways, even when we don’t. The hearts of those who put their trust in the loving-kindness of God are set free to rejoice in who God is.
There is a lovely intimacy with God illustrated in the story of Abraham. God greets him with those same words of Jesus to his disciples: Do not be afraid. God then promises Abraham a great reward. Abraham is confident enough in the relationship that he is free to argue with God about that promise. God responds by drawing his attention to the night sky crammed full of stars and telling him that it is an image of his descendants to come.
We are told in Genesis that Abraham believed God, who credited that belief to him as righteousness. The reading from Hebrews elaborates on this by telling us that Abraham not only believed what God said, but knew who God is, that God is faithful and trustworthy.
There is a sense of waiting in all of the readings today. Abraham waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled. The psalmist waiting for help from a loving God. Jesus telling his disciples to be like servants waiting eagerly for their good and kind master to return. Waiting can be difficult.
This waiting is not passive though. The disciples are to prepares themselves for action, ready to respond whenever their master appears. Jesus will go on to say that they are to be attending faithfully to the responsibilities they have been given in the meantime. Among the most important of those responsibilities is to represent the master well in faithful attentiveness towards those around them and in compassionate kindness towards those in need.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be, Jesus tells his disciples. Where is our treasure and where are our hearts? What is our primary concern in life?
Life is difficult and uncertain. It is easy to feel alone and insecure, to become preoccupied with taking care of ourselves and ensuring our own needs and wants are supplied. Jesus invites us to live beyond that as we take our place in the kingdom of God, to reach out and support one another towards becoming free from anxiety even in the midst of a world that can be quite disturbing, to remind one another of the goodness of God even as we ask the Spirit of God within us to express that goodness through us so that others may experience it too.