Where Will You Find Your Heart?

Charles F. Gattis, Jr., Sr. Minister

Trinity United Methodist Church, Huntsville, Alabama

December 4, 2005

Text: Genesis 28:10-22

And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:17).

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21).

The singer and song writer John Michael Talbot has paraphrased on of Jesus' teachings in a catchy little refrain. It goes like this, "So seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the wealth of his righteousness. For wherever your treasure is, there will you find your heart."

It leads us to an important question. Where do you find your heart? If you were to go in search of it, where do you think it would be located? Now, Jesus is not talking about the physical heart; that muscular organ located in the center of the chest that circulates the blood throughout your body. Jesus is speaking of the heart as the center of our feelings and emotions. If you looked within this heart you would find there the conscience, the deep passions, the ultimate values, and the basic attitudes toward life that drive you and make you the person that you are. The Bible teaches us that wisdom comes from the heart, and it is this wisdom springing up from within that governs how we make use of our intellectual capacities. A heart can be pure as the driven snow, meaning that the person's conscience is also pure, but likewise the heart of the person can be fowl and dirty, meaning that the conscience of that individual is of no use to providing virtue for that person. Whenever a person says to me, "I did what my conscience told me," I always wonder about the condition of that person's conscience; for I have known people with a conscience foul enough to make them capable of almost anything. That's why the Psalmist says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). It is the request for a pure conscience, one that provides the spiritual power enabling the person to lead a righteous life.

Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will you find your heart." Therefore, my question to you, the question I must continually ask of myself, is where will you find your heart? "Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me," the Psalmist prays. When God searches you, where does he find your heart? What does God discover within it?

The Heart of Jacob

What would you say about Jacob? Where would he find his heart? Treasure was certainly Jacobs treasure; real treasure, not righteous treasure. Jacob loved things; he sought after them. Of all the early Biblical characters from Adam on down through Isaac, Jacob was the most material minded. He wanted things, and he was willing to do almost anything to get them. In that sense, we might say that he was most up to date; thoroughly modern Jacob. Of all the early biblical characters, he was most like us. For we live in a society of Jacobs, people trying in every way possible to get ahead.

Jacob's heart was caught up in acquiring things. Actually, that's what got him in a lot of trouble. At the point we find him in the story he is literally caught between a rock and a hard place; the rock being his uncle, Laban, and the hard place being his brother, Esau. He has already turned Esau against him. The younger and least robust of the two twins, Jacob conspired with his mother to steal the family birthright from his older, hardier brother, Esau. At one point, Esau came home famished from hunting, and Jacob longing for the birthright already bargained with him. "I'll give you some of this soup I have prepared if you will give to me the birthright."

Later, when old Isaac was going to give the birthright to his favorite son, Esau, his conniving wife and her less than virtuous son tricked him into giving the blessing to Jacob. While Esau is out hunting for his father's favorite food, Jacob dresses up like Esau and came into his father pretending to be Esau. Isaac, somewhat confused, laid hands on Jacob and gave him the blessing. Along with the father's blessing came the birthright and the possession of the family treasures. Once the blessing was given it could not be reversed, even though it was given under false pretenses. As you might imagine, Esau became enraged and vowed to kill his brother at the very first opportunity.

Jacob had to get out of Dodge. And so his mother sent him to her brother Laban in the hopes that he would also find a wife there in the old country among their people. The story of Jacobs's relationship with his uncle Laban became another tale of treachery and deceit, two expert tricksters squaring off against each other for the next fourteen years, like boxers in a ring. Jacob, obviously the most devious of them all, wins in the end as he sneaks away from his uncle like a thief in the night, taking with him all of his property and his possessions. As the story enfolds, we are never really sure if the possessions have actually become Jacobs or if he simply takes them when he leaves.

Our story lies between these two other stories. Jacob has just left Esau and is going to Laban. He has deceived one and set him against him, and now he goes to deceive the other. Where would Jacob find his heart? It lies hidden in his desire for possessions and for position within the family. He has stolen them from Esau, yet has to leave them behind because of his treachery. Now he goes to take it from his uncle, yet in between, God enters into Jacob's heart and begins some monumental work there.

It is within the heart that we human beings meet God. The heart is the true battle ground between the forces of good and evil. It is within the heart of every human being, that the Word of God with all its power takes the field and struggles with all its might to convert the sinner. On his way to Haran, Jacob spent the night at a place called Luz. During the night, God entered his heart and began to soften it. Jacob saw a ladder going up to heaven with angels ascending and descending. God stood beside him in the dream and said to him, "Look at the land as far as you can see. I will give this land to you and to your offspring for ever."

When Jacob woke up the next morning, there was a feeling of awe and wonder that surrounded him. "How awesome is this place," he said. "This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven." And then he made a vow to God. "Lord if you will truly be with me, I will give to you a tenth of all that I have."

His conversion began in that place. Jacob met God. God entered into the heart of Jacob, and his conversion, though it would not be complete until much later, began with two promises, one made by God and other made by Jacob. Jacob's heart was on the move, transferring its residence from the house of materialism to the house of God.

The Heart of Zacchaeus

Our old friend Zacchaeus was also attracted to wealth. If you went searching for the heart of Zacchaeus, you would also find it in the house of materialism, though you might need to look in a different room. For Jacob, it was the value of the possessions themselves that mattered. He loved the wealth acquired from the flocks and the servants. Zacchaeus, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the power that wealth and position brought him. Though he was not well liked by his people, he was nevertheless respected by them. He was a chief tax collector and none of the Jews would have anything to do with him, but all of them feared him.

Who could imagine the kind of childhood that created such an individual, one who didn't mind, perhaps enjoyed being ostracized from his people, yet who wanted to have the power of wealth and prosperity, even life and death over them? We know that he was short and the fact is revealed to us as if it had a particular significance for his character. Perhaps he was also small as child; the perfect foil for bullies and the brunt of much cruelty in the schools he attended. Did his teachers abuse him? Did they treat him maliciously? He would learn not only from them the lessons of faith, but he would also gain from them the knowledge required to become a good and faithful member of the Jewish community. They were the prime representatives of his religion and of his culture. Did they do something that caused him to hate and reject both his religion and his society? Something happened, for by the time we meet him atop that sycamore tree in Jericho, Zacchaeus has gone to war against his culture, his religion, and his people.

They have labeled him a sinner. His people hate him, and I would imagine he regards them with equal disdain. They say that Herod Agrippa, when he became the ruler of the Galilee, built the city of Tiberias over an old cemetery because he had become weary of dealing with the Jewish Rabbis. Jews in those days would not come near a cemetery and even though Tiberias was a very large city located on the Sea of Galilee, not far for Capernaum, we seldom hear of it in the Gospels. Though Herod himself was Jewish, apparently he wanted nothing to do with his people. Zacchaeus seemed to be of the same opinion, disliking his own people yet wanting enough power over them to prevent them from doing any harm to him. And so, if you went searching for the heart of Zacchaeus, you would find that worn and bitterly hateful object in the house of materialism having made its bed in the room of power.

The story of his encounter with Jesus is one of the most popular tales in all of the Gospels. Haven't we all seen bathrobe clad ten year olds portraying Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree in numerous vacation Bible school dramas? Our chief tax collector, curious as he is, simply wants to see Jesus; only he finds himself taking Jesus to lunch.

I wish someone had written down the conversation that took place over lunch that day. It must have been a world altering exchange. At the end, Zacchaeus stands to make the most extraordinary announcement. "Behold, I give half of everything I own to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone, I will give it back four fold." What could have happened that day? What did Jesus do to have such an affect on this man?

All we know is this. Jesus entered his home and Zacchaeus was converted, changed in a dramatic way. Like Jacob, Zacchaeus' heart began the journey from the house of materialism to the house of God. As I said earlier, real conversion occurs whenever the word of God enters the heart of an individual. As Jesus entered into Zacchaeus house that day, the Word of God entered also into his heart, and Zacchaeus was given a pure heart and a new conscience.

As we read in 1^st Timothy, "Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains" (1 Timothy 6:6-10. And so I ask you, where will you find your heart?

The Heart of Zelig

Zelig was a man who possessed a burning desire; or perhaps you might say that the desire possessed him. He longed to go back to Russia. All he could think about was returning to the little village where he was born. He was so afraid that he would die and not be buried in its soil, the sacred land of his ancestors.

He and his wife had made the difficult journey to America when they discovered that their only child, a widower and father of their eleven year old grandson, had become extremely ill. In those days, the length of the journey required that they sell all their possessions, leave everything that they had known since childhood, sail across a vast expanse of water, learn new and foreign ways of making a living, settle into a new community where almost no one spoke their language, and set-up housekeeping in a dwelling unlike any they had ever seen before. Zelig and his wife were simple peasants, rural people who would have felt more comfortable in sixteenth century Russia than they ever would in twentieth century America.

Zelig as a tall man with huge slumping shoulders. His hair was long and grey, his face like chiseled stone, and his gaze penetrating. "As strong as a ox, and maybe a little crazy" his neighbors cautioned one another. They all feared him, though they laughed about him behind his back. The day he arrived in America was the day he began saving for his trip back to Russia. He spent nothing. They lived with the barest necessities. In the middle of the night, he would wake up and count the bank notes he had carefully tucked away in the stuffing of his bed. Even when his son lay at the point of death from the fever, Zelig refused to call the doctor, saying, "I can't afford it! I haven't the money!"

Eventually, the son died, and Zelig and his wife were left with the care of their only grandchild, now grown to be a bright teen wanting to go to college. Over and over again the boy asked his grandfather to give him the money for school, and each time Zelig refused growing more angry with each encounter. His wife reduced to tears most days, Zelig continued to hoard his money longing for the day when he would have enough to return to his home village until finally one evening the family argument almost became violent. When his grandson pleaded with him again for the money to go to school, Zelig became so angry that he drew back as if to hit the boy. It was the look of fear and hatred in the boys face that stopped him and perhaps also awakened him from the trance.

That night, instead of counting his money, he went to the boys room. "You hate to look at grandpa, he is your enemy, he?" The old man's voice shook, and sounded like that of a child awakening in the night. The boy made no answer; but the old man noticed how the frail body shook, how the tears rolled, washing the sunken cheeks.

For some moments he stood mute, then his form literally shrank to that of a child's as he bent over the ear of the boy and whispered hoarsely: "You are weeping, eh? Granpa is your enemy? Tomorrow I will give you the money for the college."[1]

Love had conquered his heart. Love had softened it so that greater love could move in. Old Zelig's heart became a kind of holy place. That night were you to go searching for his heart you would have discovered that it no longer resided in the house of his passionate desire. It had found its way to the house of God, the true dwelling place for all hearts.

Today, I ask you where do you find your heart? Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the wealth of his righteousness-for wherever your treasure is, there will you find your heart?" Where do you find your heart?

You have received two cards: one is for your annual commitment to the ministries fund and the building fund, the other is for your three year commitment to Trinity Unbound. I ask that you take just a moment for prayer and fill out those cards if you have not done so already. Then bring them forward and place them on the chancel rail. And I before you come, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for all the support you give to the work of the Gospel here at Trinity and for the many sacrifices you are making so that we can continue to be obedient to the call of Christ upon our lives.

[1] John Updike & Katrina Kenison, ed., The Best American Short Stories of the Century (New York & Boston: Hughton Mifflin Company, 1999), pp. 1-6.

This has been edited on January 30, 2008