A thread of connection between the four texts is showing up in the scriptures for this week as the recurring theme of fear and reassurance of hope and steadfast love. The passage in Luke 12 starts off with “Do not be afraid, little flock” and Genesis 15 begins with “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield”. As a source of hope and steadfast love, the verses selected from Psalm 33 remind God’s people of God’s presence with us: that the Lord looks down and sees us, fashions our hearts, and observes our deeds. Psalm 33 also offers the reassurance of hope and steadfast love that God is our help and shield, we trust God’s holy name, and God’s steadfast love is with us. Hebrews 11 starts us off with the reassurance that our faith is grounded in hope for things unseen with trust that God continues to show up for us in the ways that God has always shown up in this world.
On this theme of fear and hope, each scripture approaches them very differently. Genesis 15:1-6 is the story of the vision that Abram received from God that he is to be the father of many nations, and as many descendants as there are stars in heaven. For a man who had yet to father a child, this vision likely seemed impossible - at least by a human understanding of this world Abram, a father of none, would have an uncountable number of descendants. But Abram trusted in the Lord’s promises, making him צְדָקָה (tsdaqah) - the Hebrew word that means both righteous and just, that is, in right relationship with God and with neighbor. This story of Abram’s vision and God’s promise of innumerable descendants is a foreshadowing of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in God’s promises. It’s a testament to God’s creative work in the world, of working in ways unimaginable to our human conceptions of life.
The author of Luke writes do not fear in a very different context. In Luke 12 we have Jesus’ response following the Parable of the Rich Fool who has an abundant harvest and decides to store up that harvest by building bigger barns and enjoying his life off of his stores of harvest for years to come. In Jesus' response he says “Do not be afraid!” Do not be afraid, following a parable about storing up a harvest for your own merriment. The parable can tease out themes of abundance and scarcity, of hunger injustices and food distribution systems, of wealth inequalities, and living in right and just relationship with one’s neighbor. Jesus instructs the disciples, “Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” (Lk. 12:33) And this instruction follows with the teaching, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Lk. 12:34) Similar to a budget teaching that if you look where your spending goes, you will see where your personal or your church’s values are.
In a recent turn of life events, I find God has called me into a season of having more time and less money, which has placed my reflection on stuff. The stuff we accumulate, the stuff we buy, the stuff we throw away, the stuff that sticks in the back corners of our junk drawers and downstairs closets, the excess that we have because we decided at some point that we wanted each of the little things that have added up. As I look at the stuff for my young children, I see cheap plastic toy after cheap plastic toy, all very inexpensive and all made to fall apart quickly. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
All of this stuff. That we have, that we buy, that is available to us. And the marketing pressure and business strategy to keep us buying more, to keep up with the newest, to make obsolete, to create a system of demand that encourages yet even more production of replaceable and disposable (not recyclable) stuff for us to continue to spend more and more money on, and to accumulate more and more. In this time in which our Climate is in Crisis and God’s creation is groaning in labor pains, where our treasure is, there your heart will be stands out so powerfully.
We as individuals, as the Body of Christ, as a society, and as a world, where are we storing up our treasures? Where are our hearts going to be? It certainly seems that in this world of consumerism culture, that our treasure is in stores of cheap goods being produced and bought for the sake of driving profits and capitalism, but at the sacrifice of the wellbeing of our climate and the future of God’s creation. As a whole, we have placed our treasures in the production, sale, and purchase of more and more stuff. Stuff that may serve a purpose in our lives, but how do we as Christians and as a people sharing a planet discern how we can produce the stuff we need in ways and forms that also protect our climate.
Luke 12 continues in verse 35 with words of action. To dress for action, to sit alert waiting for the master’s return, and when the master comes, he will serve those alert and ready for action. Be ready, because the hour of the Son of Man’s return is unexpected. Is this our call? Our call as disciples to dress for action and be alert to the desperation of our climate screaming out in pain through massive floods, superstorms, increasingly large forest fires spreading smoke across continents, and growing water levels moving people out of their homes and threatening islands?
Our hope and trust remains in God the Creator. Our hope and trust stays true in times of crisis. Our psalmist for this day reminds us through his words:
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
Even in the midst of climate crisis, our hope is in the Lord’s steadfast love and trust to be our help and shield.
And alluding to Hebrews 11, we trust in Christ to hold us in care and for redemption of this world because through our faith we know God’s presence in our lives and in our world as the one who created all things and cares for all things. As Hebrews 11 continues at verse 8, it lifts up Abraham as a faithful man and obedient to God's call. Abraham and his descendants are lifted up in Hebrews as examples of faithfully living as ones who worked to build a better world, "a heavenly one", a world that lived reflecting God's desire for the world.
May you be dressed for action. May you sit alert, hearing the cries of Creation. May you place your treasures where your heart should be. May you trust the abundance of God’s promises for today and all our descendants. May you live each day building the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Rev. Beth Pottratz
EcoFaith Communication Coordinator
Motley, MN
Rev. Beth Pottratz lives in Motley, MN with her husband and 4 children, 3 dogs, and more than two dozen chickens. A graduate of Luther Seminary in 2016, ordained the same year, Pastor Beth has serves as a called pastor, contracted pastor, pulpit supply, and as a hospice and hospital chaplain. She is currently a stay-at-home mom and the EcoFaith Network Communication Coordinator for the Northeastern MN and St. Paul Area synods care of creation teams. Before her call to ministry and seminary, Beth was a Spanish teacher in the inner-city of Minneapolis at a charter high school. Since January 2025, as the EcoFaith Communication Coordinator, Beth has first-hand experience at living out Creation Justice and Care of Creation at the congregational, synodical and regional levels.
Beth, I appreciate the work you put into this. As I think about my own life in "refirement" I am reminded of these words you wrote: "May you place your treasures where your heart should be." I've found great joy not in accumulating more (I can afford it, but my soul can't) but in giving away more to all sorts of causes, ministries, and people. It fills my heart with joy in ways that more stuff jammed into my closet never could. Thanks!
Well said Pastor Beth! The accumulation of "stuff" simply feeds the economy that is choking our planet. As a farm boy born in 1950, we learned to flourish with few commercial toys of the day. We made our toys from imagining how to use what was available -- e.g. sticks, rocks, discarded lumber, etc. Our parents could not afford store bought toys. To this day, I find that focusing on buying what are truly necessities for living conservatively is far more satisfying. The biggest lesson learned from my farming days (9 years) was that every possession brings with it responsibility.