The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
August 8, 2004 

For where your treasure is
Luke 12:34

This week, I got a glimpse of the depth and breadth that obsession can take. It began Monday with a brief news item about Disney’s #1 fan, who I will get to in just a moment. That article got me wondering about obsessed fans of all kinds.  

Here is an example of the sort of obsession I am talking about. It is from a deleted scene from the movie “Best in Show” which is itself about people obsessed with having their dogs take tops honors in a dog show. 

[Show one-minute clip of Christopher Guest” as Harlan
showing off his Beach Ball collection.] 

So I naturally went to Google and typed in “obsessed fan,” and later “ultimate collector” and followed the links to find varying degrees of obsession on the Internet.  

There were the scary stories that didn’t interest me too much. It is well known that Ronald Reagan was shot by a fan of Jody Foster looking to impress the young actress. I certainly found links to stories of movie stars taking legal action to protect themselves and their families from the attentions of a fanatical admirer. There were the websites of people proudly proclaiming themselves to be an obsessed fans of the TV shows Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed, the singer Brittany Spears, the rock group Aerosmith and on and on.  

Then I found the more mundane obsessions. These are the collectors who doggedly pursue a Charlies Angels lunchbox, or stay up late into the night crawling through E-bay looking for a coffee mug in the shape of an M&M or a PEZ dispenser with the head of Elvis. There was the Lego collector with more than 200,000 legos who is working on building a Lego house with changeable furniture. There were the Star Wars collectors with a dizzying array of movie-related merchandise.  

There were the groups that seem even more odd for the non-obsessed. One that stood out to me was the convention for people who collect juicers. I was not all that surprised that someone may collect juicers, I just didn’t know they would have a national association and an annual convention. 

But none of what I saw topped that first news item about George Reiger, who bills himself as Disney’s #1 fan. If you want to argue his claim, you better check out the Top Ten List of Reasons Why George Reiger is Disney’s #1 Fan, which is found at his website disneytattooguy.com. Some of the reasons include: 

He is the only person in the world with over 1,600 exact Disney tattoos covering 85% of his body and costing well over $100,000.

After paying living expenses, every cent is spent on Disney, from trips to every day items—In a normal year, up to $50,000 is spent on Disney trips. 

As you no doubt wonder, Reiger works for the Postal Service and in his off time as a magician. 

He has already spent well over $900,000 on his Disney love, from memorabilia to his Disney home over the past 30 years. 

He goes on to say that he has taken 6 Disney honeymoons and one special Walt Disney World wedding. The self proclaimed number one fan says his, “First five wives got tired of the mouse, but Susan (#6) is just starting out with Disney and it seems that she loves it.” 

This is good because Reiger also says that he is the, “Only person known to kiss the ground of each Disney property on each of his many visits. It’s holy ground to him!” And that’s a lot of kissing the ground with 317 visits to Walt Disney World, 131 visits to Disneyland California, 48 visits to Disneyland Paris, and 13 visits to Tokyo Disney in Japan.  

I Know by now it must seem that I am poking fun at George Reiger. I’m not. It is very clear that Mr. Reiger understands in some deeper way what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel this morning. Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Reiger wants his heart to be fully and completely devoted to Disney and so he deposits all of his available time, energy and money in a Mickey Mouse eared account so to speak. 

The Disney Tattoo Guy describes it like this at his website. He “has devoted his life to Disney since childhood, and to this day considers Disney, Walt, and Mickey his way of life and his religion.” In a news article at his website he also says, “It’s my life, my religion. I don’t go nowhere but Disney, I don’t do nothing but Disney.” 

One dictionary definition of religion is “Something one believes in and follows devotedly.” For Reiger this is clearly Disney. His treasure is at Disney and so is his heart also.  

Before Jesus spoke the words we find in today’s Gospel, there was a common Jewish saying that spoke of “laying up (as treasures) fulfillments of the Law or good works.”[1] A similar saying went “All that Israel lays up in the form of fulfillments of the Law and good works, it lays up for its Father in heaven.” 

So there was this idea within Judaism that one way to build up treasure in heaven was to fulfill the Law of Moses and to do good works. Each time one did what God had commanded, or did some good work for someone, they made a deposit in a celestial account. 

Jesus expands this idea observing that we are also making deposits in other accounts. There are lots of ways in which we spend our time, energy and money and not all of them are in fulfilling God’s commandment or doing good works. Jesus warns that your treasure, your resources of time, energy and money, will go somewhere. And wherever you make the most deposits, it is in that account where you will find your heart’s desire. 

It would have been simpler if Jesus said, “For where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” Then whatever it is that we hold as a value, we would live out in our lives. But it is very possible to feel that you want to make your relationship with God a priority in your life and then look up and find that very little of the ways in which you live your life have anything to do with that relationship. 

In the artwork projected on our walls this morning, Jesus is shown during his passion, but most of the people walk by paying no attention. Their treasure is elsewhere and they go on, except for one horrified woman, seeming not to notice Jesus Christ in their midst. 

We’ve seen some extreme examples of ways to spend your time, energy and money. But its really more basic than all this. I remember a Bible study in which a woman told of a life-changing conversation. She was very involved in the life of the country club. On Sundays, as soon as church was over, her family would be at the club. Everyone would eat and then change clothes. The men would golf, the women and children would lounge by the pool.

One Sunday morning, a friend confided that this would be her last Sunday at the club. The dues had recently been raised and she could not afford to pay those dues and also increase her giving to the church so that she would offer the church more than the country club. It was a line this second woman could not cross. She could not give more to the country club than to church. For the woman who related this story, it was a revelation. She had never seen the two as related in anyway. She gave the church a bit of her time and money as if doing God a favor. The rest she spent on the country club and her family.  

The poolside encounter caused her to question where she was storing up her treasure. She did not change her giving patterns for some time, but she began to study scripture, to spend more time at the church. She began to invest in her relationship with God. 

Where are you investing your time, energy and money? I have heard it put this way before, “Don’t tell me what you believe. Show me your checkbook and your calendar and I will tell you what you believe.” 

George Reiger knows that he is storing up his treasure at Disney. He is very intentional about they way he spends his life. What about you? Where are your investments? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  

Amen.