Those who gathered for worship this Ash Wednesday likely
heard these words from the Gospel of Matthew:
For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
On this Valentine’s Day, where is your treasure? On this day
of the 14th school shooting in 2018 (we are only in February!), what
do we treasure as a nation?
Some will say this is not the acceptable time to ask what we
treasure, to work toward policies that refocus our values. It is time for
weeping, for consolation. But if not now, then when? How many shootings, both those
that draw media attention and those that happen day in and day out, until we
say this is not the people we want to be?
The noise gets louder, the Facebook posts get nastier. And
yet, here we are. Children are dying from gun violence at a rate of seven per
day. If this was a disease, we’d be wearing ribbons and raising money with
charity runs. Yet we say we are powerless. A woman with an ashen cross is
photographed weeping outside the most recent school shooting site. What sins do
we confess along with our “thoughts and prayers?”
It might not be moths and rust as described in Matthew’s
gospel, but we are consumed by our storing up. The sheer number of guns in our
country is not keeping us safer. We think storing guns in our home to
prevent the thieves coming in and stealing will keep us safer, but statistics
prove otherwise.
What can we do instead of storing up, of acquiring more in
the illusion that we will be safer?
“From fruitless fear unfurl our lives,” sings one hymn.
Can we treasure the future of our children above our party
lines?
My six-year-old daughter tells me about the safety checks in
her school. “We have to go to the corner and sit criss cross applesauce. We
have to be super quiet and not say a word.” Is this the future we want? For us?
For them?
Unfurl us from our fears. They bring no fruit, only death
and decay.
Before we know it, the fears cause a rot from the inside
out.
This Lent and beyond, can we treasure our children enough to
change our hearts?
In the words of an ancient prophet, let us be repairers of
the breach.
Let us treasure a
love that calls for swords being beaten into plowshares.
Now is the
acceptable time.
For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
