“There our Hearts Will Be” Orange Congregational Church UCC, October 18, 2026, (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Today we formally begin this year’s stewardship canvass and our theme is There our Hearts Will Be. This season of the church year invites us to explore how our practices, priorities, and resources can reveal what truly claims our hearts. We are invited to re-center our lives on God’s quiet and faithful presence. We are challenged to let our giving reflect our deepest values and commitments. Because faithful stewardship is not just about finances. The spiritual practice of generosity is about placing our hearts in the loving hands of God with deep and abiding trust.
The truth is that Jesus spoke about economics, giving, money, wealth, the rich and the poor, how the rich treat the poor, the moral perils of greed a great deal. Sometimes it is an uncomfortable subject. We may have grown up with ideas that it is rude to talk about politics or about religion or about money. What we hear from Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew can give us pause, “Be careful that you don’t practice your religion in front of people to draw their attention. If you do, you will have no reward from [God] who is in heaven.”[1]
In this section of the Gospel, Jesus is talking about aspects of daily life and how people would practice their religion—charity, prayer, fasting. These spiritual practices that many religions have as part of their traditions even today. What Jesus is challenging is the motivation behind spiritual practices. Jesus is saying that when you give to the poor, do you blow your trumpet in the street so that everyone knows you are giving and can praise you? When you pray, do you love standing among people in your house of worship and go out onto street corners so that people can see you praying and admire you? When you fast, do you put on a sad face so that everyone will know you are fasting and will become amazed by the depth of your faith?
Why do we do what we do?
God knows our hearts. God knows our motivations. As Rev. Daphne Gascot Arias reflects, “Jesus speaks of ‘practicing’ our religion, and not ‘having’ a religion, as in something to possess and showcase on a shelf. Faith is something we train in, something that becomes second nature through repetition and discipline. Generosity is, in this sense, a religious practice: a way of shaping the heart to mirror the generosity of God . . . It is about joyously taking on this divine obligation to be agents of God’s will for the cosmos.”[2]
Sometimes when we end our time of corporate worship in Christian churches it is helpful to think that worship has ended, but the service now begins. Because our religion is not meant to be completely set aside until the next time we come to worship. Not if we have this idea that religion is something we train in. Religion can become second nature because of repetition and spiritual disciplines (another term for spiritual practices). We are invited to practice what we preach, to take Jesus’ message to heart so that the way we treat our neighbors is the way we would want to be treated.
It is becoming more common for people to say that they are “spiritual but not religious.” In truth, organized religion does not always get used to lift people up and there are some expressions of the Christian Church that are high demand and high control. There could be a whole different sermon to preach on the reactions strangers have had when I have been asked over the years, “What do you do for a living” and admit to being a minister. In a word, yikes!
Though a parishioner of mine once reflected that honestly, there are some days when he feels “religious but not that spiritual.” And what I think he meant by that was that it was our congregation and being part of the Body of Christ in Christian community in that particular place with those particular people that kept him going even when his personal faith was shattered at that time in his life. Because “religion” comes from the Latin word religio which means to bind. This can mean the binding of humanity and the divine. It could also mean that religion binds us, one to another. As the old hymn goes, “Blessed be the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love.”
Jesus goes on from here with more challenging words in Matthew’s Gospel. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”[3]
We can hear this morning’s scripture passage, take it to heart, and ask ourselves what’s the point. What are we supposed to be doing with our lives anyway? How do we practice our religion and not just have a religion that we store away?
We may feel a need to be successful, which too often in our society looks like accumulating more stuff. Yet Jesus is offering an alternative way of being in this world. Jesus reminds us that the worth of our lives is not determined by our possessions, even when someone is very wealthy. Jesus reminds us that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be. Where we place our time and our energy and our resources trains our hearts on what matters.
There’s this great book by author and philosophical traveler Eric Weiner called The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Weiner is an admitted pessimist and a grump (his word to describe himself). He explores the concept of happiness in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and America. It is fascinating to hear peoples’ perspectives on happiness from all around the world. Weiner observes that the Swiss are happy because they go to great lengths to not provoke envy in anyone else. Many believe that envy is the great enemy of happiness and for the Swiss the worst thing you can be is a flashy winner.
Weiner encounters a sign in Bhutan that reads, “When the last tree is cut, when the last river is emptied, when the last fish is caught, only then will man realize that he cannot eat money.” He has this hilarious experience where a leader in Bhutan gently scolds him for writing in his notebook all the time. The leader tells this educated, forthright author that he needs to experience, truly experience life. Put down your notebook and live a little! Meanwhile Eric Weiner is frantically writing every word, including you are always writing, you need to experience . . . when he looks up and sheepishly puts his notebook away and begins to have a more relaxed conversation with the person sitting right in front of him. It was a gentle admonition to be as present as we can be for one another.
Weiner relates that in Iceland there are no strangers really. The formal Icelandic greeting translates as “come happy.” When Icelanders part they say “go happy.” Happiness is wished upon one another day in and day out. And when Weiner wants to experience happiness in Great Britain he goes to a pub. While there he observes, “Even in the inebriated atmosphere of the pub, the British remain economical with their emotions. Personal information is doled out judiciously, like premium chocolate or fine wine . . . so when a Brit opens up, exposes their wounds, where it hurts, this is more valuable, more meaningful, then when an American does it.”
This is a fascinating subject—what does happiness look like all around the world? What do different cultures value? What can we learn from other nations and other religions when it comes to living the good life?
At the end of his journey, Weiner tries to sum up what he learned as he explored the geography of bliss. He summarizes by writing, “Only a fool or philosopher would make sweeping generalizations about the nature of happiness. I am no philosopher, so here goes: Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude.”[4] Here’s the thing, perhaps if we want to be relatively happy in our lives it ends up that trust and gratitude are necessary. Family and friends are really important. Envy and excessive thinking are actually toxic. And money matters, but far less than we think.
While this is not an overtly religious book it can make us wonder about the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth shared over two thousand years ago. Jesus’ teachings on showy religion and showy prayer and showy fasting and earthy and heavenly treasures can be in conversation with various philosophies and cultures throughout the world. Because sometimes we hear a word of wisdom, and we instantly know it in our hearts to be true. Jesus taught, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”[5] Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Matthew 6:1, CEB.
[2] Rev. Daphne Gascot Arias, Commentary on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, “Turning Toward the Light: Generosity, Intimacy, and Trust” from the 2026 Stewardship Theme Materials of the United Church of Christ.
[3] Matthew 6:19-21, NRSVUE.
[4] Quotes taken from Eric Weiner, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.
[5] Matthew 6:21, NRSVUE.
Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash
