Where Moth and Rust Destroy

 [Note: This was printed in my local paper, the Antigo Daily Journal, July 16, 2021.  Local clergy rotate in submitting articles on themes of their choice.]

    Some years ago I pulled out a favorite tie only to discover part of it destroyed by moths.  It was a special gift from a friend’s trip to Ireland, a tie from the clan tartan of my Macauley descendants.  That was the first time I really had something valuable to me affected by this tiny, destructive insect.  As I get older I realize so much that I held to be important is not at all permanent.  Every winter I watch part of my van eaten away by rust.  Not all of the car, just one wheel well.  But it bothers me.  A process I can’t stop.  Time claims all things.  Nothing really lasts.  Moths and rust – nature’s tools to break down and reclaim. 

Jesus reminded us of this in His Sermon on the Mount.  He told us to be careful about what we accumulate as important.  What we consider our “treasures.”  He told us not to treasure things where “moths and rust destroy” (Matt. 6:19).  Recently I walked through a massive antique mall in a nearby city.  Stall after stall of aging things people once held important, but now wish to sell.  They have value.  But not as much to the original owners.  Time removed some of that value.  Even some of these items show the wear and tear of use, the ravages of rust. 

http://shur-wayautobody.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/How-to-Prevent-Rust-From-Destroying-Your-Aging-Car-.jpgAll of us “lay up for ourselves” a lot of “treasure” that is vulnerable not only to the corrosive appetite of the elements, but also to the evil of others – thieves – who Jesus says “break in and steal” our treasures.  Nothing is 100% secure.  Now even our unseen digital information is at risk from hackers half way around the world.  Yet we continue to put our trust in these transient treasures.  We labor long hours for them. We extend ourselves in credit for them. We fret when they break and worry when they weaken.  We build our world around them, stockpiling them in bigger and bigger piles, some of it forgotten in the dark recesses of our closets and attics.

And when we die, what of it then?  Read Ecclesiastes when you get a chance. Written by Solomon in his older years it possesses a rare wisdom for our materialistic times.  He repeatedly used the word “vanity,” or “useless” - literally “mere breath” - to describe the many things we treasure.  Those who have no faith in God live only for today, and therefore have no sense of the eternal.  So, they treasure what is easily destroyed and stollen and waste so much energy and emotions on its loss. It is where “their heart is,” as Jesus says. They are invested. It consumes their life and their relationships and sometimes their very peace of mind. But Jesus tells us that rather than treasure these temporary things we should instead “lay up for [ourselves] treasures in heaven.”  A life awaits us after this world is gone, a life free of pain, disease and death.  Jesus promised it to all who believe in Him.  As the “resurrection and the life” He said that all who believe in Him will live even though they die (John 11:25).

As I get older, having not so long ago turned 60, I am increasingly aware of the temporary nature of all these things in which I have invested so much of myself. I look around and see so much accumulated in my closets and basement and garage and wonder: why?  Why do I hang on to all this? It’s not wrong to enjoy the material blessings God so graciously gives.  He even placed a commandment in the second table of the Decalogue to protect our earthly possessions.  But we should use them and enjoy them within the wider perspective of time and eternity.

This morning on the news I heard about the horrible wild fires out west.  In some cases people had mere seconds to flee before the wall of fire overtook them and their houses.  Everything they owned and treasured destroyed.  Forever.  All that they worked for and saved up to purchase.  Irreplaceable family heirlooms. Pictures of loved ones.  Gone.  A grief sets in. It’s like a death. But it brings Jesus’ words back to us again.  Is our “heart” in these things? Do we lay up as treasures only that which moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal? Or is our “treasure” in heaven? Is it in Christ, from whom all good comes, in whom we have true life and that abundantly and eternally?  Questions worth asking for all of us.  Nothing lasts.  Accept God and His eternal kingdom.

 

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