What we treasure reveals where our heart really is…
This month, the Church will mark the feast of St Laurence. If my calculations are correct, there are seven churches dedicated to St Laurence/Lawrence in our Diocese of Bath & Wells, so happy patronal festival to all of them!
We don’t know a lot about Laurence, but what we do know is impressive. He was a deacon martyred by the Romans in a particularly violent way, during a time of brutal persecution of Christians.
It’s said that the Emperor ordered him to hand over all the treasure of the Church. He refused. But not in the way you might think. When he was asked to gather and display all the treasure of the Church, he called together the poor of the city to pray. And when the soldiers came to collect the treasure, and found only the poorest of the poor, Laurence declared, “These are the treasures of the Church.” For that defiance in the face of tyranny, he was killed.
Laurence’s worldview was in complete contrast to that of the ruling powers. Where they saw the poor as worthless and to be despised, he saw them as precious. He valued people above possessions in a way the authorities found baffling, maybe even threatening.
Jesus famously taught that what we treasure reveals where our heart really is.
In our society there are so many competing demands for our hearts and minds. It can be hard to work out where to place our loyalty. If you were asked to gather all your treasure, I wonder what you’d bring, and what that would reveal? If we analysed how we spend our money as individuals, PCCs, and a Diocesan Board of Finance -the body that manages the assets and finances of our diocese – what would that show about our priorities?
Those are provocative questions to ask, and tricky to answer. But in an area where St Laurence is so honoured, maybe we should try.
Fiona Gibson, Bishop of Taunton