“Don’t You be Hound-dogging!”

This week we spent time thinking through Matthew 6:19-24,

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

          where             moth and rust destroy and

          where thieves            break in and steal,

²⁰        but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

          where neither moth nor rust destroys and

          where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹ For where             your           treasure is,

           there             your           heart will be also.

²²      “The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is healthy,

         your whole body will be full of light, ²³ but

      if your eye is bad,

         your whole body will be full of darkness.

      If then the light in you             is darkness,

                              how great is the darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters,

             for either he will hate                the one       and love the other,

              or           he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

       You cannot serve God and money.

“Don’t you be hound-dogging here this summer!” the folksy mechanic exhorted me. I had just turned 20 and was working on the summer staff for a large Christian conference center in the mountains of California. The staff mechanic took the opportunity early on to warn me of the pitfalls of hound-dogging. Honestly, I had no idea what he was talking about.

Squirrel Squeak Toys

“I see you young guys coming up here to serve the Lord in the camps and pretty soon you start thinking more about finding a girlfriend than about why you’re supposed to be here. You can’t chase after two things at the same time” he explained. If the “hound dog” is chasing two squirrels he can do it as long as they are going in the same direction, but when they split up he has to make a decision…which one does he want to follow more. His concern for me was that I be fully available to listen to the Lord and to do my work wholeheartedly and not allow my focus and my fervor to wander during those weeks of summer. It was really good advice that I might not have followed as carefully as he would have liked.

This week’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:19-24) is really talking about the same thing. It is filled with twos: two treasures, two storehouses, two eyes, two masters, two loves, and two destinies—all to make one point. No literally the point is “One.” We can only have one treasure so pick the kind that lasts forever. There is nothing wrong with having storehouses (Joseph built lots of them in Genesis 41) the problem is the purpose for our storehouse (See Luke 12:13-21). Is it for ourselves or a part of God’s plan to bless and preserve others?

Our two eyes only work correctly when they have a single focus. The metaphor of the good/healthy eye most likely refers not to generosity but to having one true focus or source of light so we should pick the one filled with the light of heaven to dispel the dark around us. If we are full of light that means that we not only have light within ourselves but become a source of light for others.

Jesus says that we can only serve one master, so whom will we love? One of my first jobs was working in a buffet restaurant had two managers—a father and a son—who wanted things done very differently. So whom do you please? Usually neither.

Those of us in Western Christianity are good at compartmentalizing our lives. We are addicted to multi-tasking…and we think that it makes us get more done when studies show that it doesn’t. We do the same thing when it comes to our devotion. We think we can hound-dog after the world’s values with this part of our lives while we follow after Jesus with that other part of our life that we too often put on autopilot (to mix a dangerous metaphor). Jesus talked instead about our “whole body” and how it will either be either “full” of light or darkness.

Lots of twos, to make one point. What is our treasure? To whom do we look? Who will we love and serve?

Forks in the road will force the choice if we haven’t made it already. The pressure points of alluring opportunities and of tragic circumstances will reveal what is in us as a result of that choice. It may be shocking to us when we see our devotion for what it is.

 Colossians 3:1-2 points us in the right direction,

        If then you have been raised with Christ,

               seek the things that are above,

                                                   where Christ is,

                    seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above,

                   not on things that are on earth

In Matthew 19:16-22 Jesus had an encounter with someone claiming full devotion to God, but who was holding something back. Jesus addresses the area of his life that was not surrendered.

v. 20-22 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Do we find ourselves trying to justify ourselves before the Lord and others? If so then perhaps the Spirit asks us the same question today that Jesus asked that young man on the road, “If you would be perfect…”. This “perfect” didn’t mean perfection in a divine way, or even an O/C perfectionistic kind of life, but perfect in the holistic sense of completeness, maturity, and an “all-in” kind of relational commitment. Jesus was testing his righteousness for the “greater than” that we have seen to be indicative of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20). Would he love money and what it brings, or Jesus and what he brings? He could only follow one. He “went away sorrowful.” Let us not continue to make the same mistake, but rather accept Jesus’ invitation.

When we examine ourselves as we collectively come before the Lord to partake of Holy Communion, let us consider the focus of our devotion and repent together.

“Intellectual belief is one thing, devotion is another. Love is an attitude at the core of being. To love and not be willing to sacrifice for those one loves is a contradiction in terms. Love is always a willing surrender of autonomy. As Christ observed: “Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).”[1] 

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[1] Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes, 147, emphasis mine.