“The Good Treasure”
Proper 22 C (18 Pent C) –
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Grace and Peace to you from the Triune God: Father Son, and Holy Spirit.
It’s good to be back. These past eight weeks of sabbatical were such a blessing. A blessing for which I thank God and Rolf, the staff, and the congregation who made it possible. I return refreshed, re-energized, relaxed, yet with a sense of urgency, a readiness and a need to share what I have done and learned with all of you.
As I was trying to figure out what to say after two months away, it struck me that there were no better words than these opening verses of this second letter to Timothy are very close to what is in my heart as I return to Christ Lutheran. Tender and heartfelt, filled with memories and emotion, Paul writes: “I am grateful to God when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.” I know he means.
But there’s more than gratitude and joy. There is faith. So the letter continues: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Lois and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you . . . a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” I know what he means there, too.
One of the reasons I love this letter is because I knew Lois and Eunice. Not Timothy’s grandmother and mother. No, the Lois and Eunice I knew were Eunice Glover, my elderly kindergarten teacher and Lois Baker, my much younger first grade teacher. Of course to me they were Mrs. Glover and Miss Baker.
Along with my parents, Eunice (still sounds not right to call her that) taught me my ABCs, and Lois taught me how to read. But more than that, they shared their love of letters and words and books and libraries. When my first children’s book was published, you can guess who got copies.
And like their namesakes in the first century A.D., these two women shared the gifts that God had given them with power and love and self-discipline. And in so doing kindled something in me. A flame whose light revealed something beyond Monterey Avenue or the village of Morningside or the state of Minnesota.
In the ability to read and more important, the love of reading, I received access to the good treasure, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: the revelation of God and his gracious gift of faith. All this was handed down and through the generations of family, teachers, and the community of faith in our church.
From my parents and the church I grew up in, I learned not only how to read the gospel, to decipher the letters and words, but to carry a great and good treasure within me, in my heart and mind and body. By the example of these people who made up the body of Christ, I saw modeled before my growing eyes, what to do with that treasure.
As I’m sure you’ve figured our, that treasure Paul talks about is the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the gospel is a very special kind of treasure. It is not meant to be hoarded in a vault. This treasure is not for piling up beneath a castle or a mountain to be guarded by a dragon so no one can touch it. That would be like coming back from sabbatical and not sharing or using the results of that gift.
The good treasure of faith and life in Jesus Christ is guarded by giving it away, by making it available to all. Even at the cost of suffering and humiliation to the guardians. To have life, you must lose it. To guard the good treasure, you have to share it. Risk it. Broadcast it. Scatter it as farmers used to plant certain crops. Trusting in the creator to feed and water it and make it grow.
This treasure must be carried through the streets and highways, across continents, for all to see and receive. Because the good treasure is a living treasure. And like the risen Christ, the gospel is alive. And so Jesus has given us his Holy Spirit,
And living things, if they are really alive, always have a sense of urgency about them. Now by urgency I don’t mean that kind of ants-in-the-pants nervous energy, nor do I mean a clock-driven sense of urgency, like hurrying when you are late for an appointment.
No the urgency I am talking about comes from within. It’s like when you hear a really funny joke and you can’t wait to tell someone else. Or when you get really good news and you’re going to blow a gasket unless you get to share it with someone.
For the sake of the good treasure, you have been appointed a parent or child, a teacher or a student, a neighbor or a friend the list is endless, fill in the blanks for yourself. And of course, over the course of your lifetime, you may any or all of these things. But you will always be a guardian of the good treasure because of your baptism.
Likewise, we as a congregation are called together to be guardians of the good treasure. We are called to be the living body of Christ, to proclaim bear witness to the gospel by our daily actions. Being alive however, means, as Paul reminds us today, suffering for the sake of the gospel.
Later in the letter, Paul reminds Timothy of the people, people he loved and trusted as part of the community of believers who have deserted him, or who, like Alexander the coppersmith, have done him great harm. “ . . . no one came to my support; all deserted me,” Paul says. So it is today for congregations.
Guarding the good treasure is often painful. There is suffering and hardship. But Paul reminds us that the good treasure is worthy of our sacrifice -- individually and as a congregation. I may not care for your point of view on a building project. I may be too tired to “revision”. Perhaps I wish we had different music. The tension and conflict that result from feeling are what happen when you put several hundred people of different upbringings, tastes, and understandings of church under one roof.
But when we, as God’s people remember the good treasure we have and guard it by sharing it, proclaiming it, living it, believing it, we receive a hope that gathers up our differences and transforms them and us into the people, the church, God has called us to be.
Paul is writing to us today, urging us to remember why we are here to be begin with -- “To guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Spirit Living in you.” Urging. This word today is an explicit call to action.
Douglas Smith, a former hospice chaplain and administrator who now teaches on grief and loss issues closes many of his seminars with the final chapter of this second letter to Timothy. So bear with me if I sort of jump from the beginning to the end of the letter -- it’s often how we read letters anyway?.
So : “I solemnly urge you : proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience . . . As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time for my departure [or death] has come. Do your best to come to me soon . . . At my first defense no one came to my support but all deserted me . . . Do your best to come before winter.”
Doug Smith uses this passage to urge people connect with loved ones who are dying -- “whether the time is favorable or unfavorable” --, to reconcile, take care of “unfinished business”, to make peace among friends and family.
I suggest that we take this word to heart. Let it energize us. There are needs and people all around us who need what we have to give them. You are part of a congregation who needs the gifts God has given and needs them now so that together we can be the body of Christ. You’ve been entrusted with the treasure. They are waiting for it.
Together, let us go soon; let us go before winter. “ . . . for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a Spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
It’s good to be back. Praise God.
Amen.
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