Don't be afraid, my cherished flock…Treasure hunt! There's just nothing like a treasure hunt! A treasure hunt is what you get to do on your birthday when a beloved someone has taken the time to set up a wonderful adventure for you and your friends, designed to make you think hard and creatively, to squeal with anticipation and giggle with delight along the way, and, of course, to find what's been promised: the treasure! A treasure hunt is what you get to do when you've got some rich readings set before you that many Christians around the world this very morning are also digging into along with you… (a worldwide treasure hunt!) to find the gold doubloons of our heart's desire, the precious Word of God that will make… us… RICH! I love that word, "rich," despite the assumed financial overtones because it's so – well—rich in meaning, full of flavor and nuance… Rich… like a Monet painting whose colors swirl with different implications with each ponderous step forward and back again… or a dish prepared by Emeril whose lusciously complex ingredients come to life in your mind as if you were there in the TV studio when he says, "Mmmm"... Rich… like the highly recommended novel you picked up for your summer reading whose words are so heavy with multi-layered meaning and hints of fore-shadowed treasure, you can't wait to go back and savor the words a second time… or like a piano piece that passionately dances through our worship space as the musician and composer together carry us deeper into the fullness of God's presence and the desire of God's heart. Rich… Blessed in ways too great to capture in words alone… We have the riches of faith, and we the faithful gather, to hold those riches up to the light, that we might together recognize the depth and nuance… as we share the stories of the treasure hunts that are our everyday lives… I've just returned from a treasure hunt of my own, my family's journey to Alberta for a first-ever family reunion on my dad's side. We toured the mountains and glaciers, prairies and farmlands of this beautifully diverse province, showing my two children the wonders of this land I came to to visit my grandparents so often in my childhood years. It felt to me like I was giving Gabe and Bethany my very heart, or at least a treasured piece of it. Then as we made our way to the reunion site, the farm of my dad's cousin, our treasure hunt changed course; The treasures were hidden not in the landscape but the people, as we renewed ties with many special relatives, to be sure, but even more so as we heard the stories of many more we hadn't known before, especially as we pieced together the difficult journeys of my great-grandparents, Emil and Mathilde, and their 7 children, from whom most of the 150plus attendees had descended. Their life in the "old country" was one of being pushed around from Germany to Poland to Siberia and back again, never secure for long, never knowing what army would come to steal their farmlands or try to conscript their older sons. So Mathilde and Emil set out to find a new way of life hoping in the promise that if Mathilde's brother, Sam, could find opportunity in Alberta, then they could give it a try, too. Their journey involved… having their family of 9 split up onto different ships and the terrible weeks of seasick travel, wondering if the others would make it and if they'd ever be reunited. Then came the unbearably long train ride across Canada… and the agony of standing at the train station with all their belongings as they waited and waited and waited for the ride from Mathilde's brother, the one who would help them get started… if he ever came. I imagined them asking: How much more can we take, God? When will you come through for us? When will we begin to see your promises come to life? These were the questions of Abraham and Sarah, weren't they, as they journeyed with God toward the land of promise, waiting for a sign of the treasure they most wanted: a child... a family… Don’t be afraid, Abraham hears God say, I am your shield, and your treasure is on it's way. Abraham has no trouble being honest with God: What treasure? When's it coming, God? God returns Abraham's honesty with a powerful gift, a visible sign, taking him outside where the night sky is clear and bright, asking him to count the stars and know in his heart that that's how big his family would be. It wouldn't happen in his lifetime, but it would happen. And in that moment of star-gazing, Abraham receives the promise as if it had already come to him in full. Abraham believed, the text says, and God reckoned it to him as righteousness. God promised… and Abraham believed… and that put them in a good and right relationship. God promised and Abraham received the promise as if he could see it all, and the power of that promise was his to hold. Like the child hunting for the promised treasure is receiving the promise in the very searching for the treasure, so did Abraham receive God's goodness long before the evidence was in. How hard it is for us to believe when we must wait! And how much we have to learn, how much faith we surely can gain, by looking to those ancestors of faith that we have! The writer of our second reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, has this beautifully rich line after reviewing the faith histories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob: All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. I love that image! Can you see the four of them, standing outside their tents, looking out into the distance, straining their eyes… they're not sure what they see, but they know it looks promising, that is, they see the promises coming, and they greet them! Hello, promises! We see you coming! Hello… over here! Do you know what it is they're seeing? who it is that they're seeing? Well, I think… it's… us… We're some of those descendents that God numbered with the stars. We're the people of promise to carry on the heritage of Sarah and Abraham, to live out the richness of faith that was planted in their hearts. Even as we wait for the things we hope for, even as we strain our eyes to identify what is still unseen, we must know this: the treasure is already ours… for we are that treasured family! We are the treasured flock who have no need to fear, Jesus says, for it's the utter delight of God to give us the kingdom: to draw us into that growing body of the faithful who are led by Jesus. If you have any doubts about what is your true treasure, strip away your stuff, your false treasure, and find your true treasure in what's left: your relationship to God, the very treasure that will not wear out, the treasure which will only get richer as we hold it up to the light, and live it, and share it, and cherish it. Now I hate to leave those relatives of mine (in the story I told you) standing there at the train station… so here's some more of their story… You see, Mathilde's brother, Sam, did intend to pick them up, but he didn't have much idea at all of when they were coming and he was completely wrong about which station they would be coming to. I imagine my family of strangers to this new land did strain their eyes to see what was coming, as they waited and waited. From a distance they saw something coming into view… someone was coming… but it wasn't Sam… it wasn't anyone they knew at all… But it was a kind someone, someone who said, "Hop into the back of the truck! I know where Sam's place is! I'll take you there!" And so did their new life in Alberta begin, with a gift, and the promise of a new life. Our stories as well begin with a gift, the gift of Jesus' promised life moving us forward, drawing us to God's own heart, that we might not be afraid when the waiting gets too long, and the promise we are straining to see continues to elude us. We feel the gift of Jesus' life ever more tangibly as we share that gift with others straining to see, others here in this community and many more yet to find community. And as together we receive those promises, sometimes greeting them from a distance, sometimes knowing they are as close as our own hearts, the richness of faith comes alive in us for all the world to see… and—with God's help— to believe. Don't be afraid, my cherished flock… |
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