Teasures in Heaven

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
March 4, 2012
Communion Sunday Meditation
Second Sunday in Lent
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Mark 8:31-38; Matthew 6:19-21
“Treasures in Heaven?”

Some of you might remember the story of Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with little hope of survival. What made him famous was the last lecture he gave which was later published as a book called, The Last Lecture. It is a book full of amazing lessons on living written by someone who understood the power of his own mortality. One such story was about the importance of people over things.

This particular story has the professor going to pick up his niece and nephew in his brand new convertible. The children’s mother, his sister –standing with his back to Randy begins to lecture her children about the importance of not making a mess in their uncle’s new car. As she is talking the children start giggling. Their mother turns around to see her brother – Randy – pouring a can of Pepsi in the back seat of the car. He was making it clear that it was just stuff. – He understood the importance of people over things. It is a powerful lesson on what truly is important in life.
Last week I had the privilege of being with over 600 teaching and ruling elders from Presbyterian churches across the country. The gathering at First Presbyterian Church in Dallas was focused on what will come next for our denomination. The conference, called Next, is about opening us up to what is essential to the life of the church, what matters most and what will we be willing to pour Pepsi on, with a smile. The good news is that folks know things are not going to look like we have always known and we can trust that God is not finished with us yet. The hard part will be the process of giving up our preconceived notions of how church is supposed to work and what is more important.

Churches across this country are faced with the same issue. In the 1970’s there was the belief that only liberal churches were going to be faced with decline. The thinking was that we just didn’t love Jesus enough or believe the bible. But guess what? We were just the canary in the coal mine. The Baptist churches – even the southern Baptist -- and the Catholic Church are all facing a crisis of leadership and membership that is simply walking out the door.

The churches which have come to grips with this great sea change realize that church is not about bringing people in to serve on committees. The churches which are thriving in this new era have one thing in common and it is not theology. They know who they are, they engage people in meaningful mission, they are engaged in ongoing learning and the membership has a deep ownership of the ministry. In other words, they understand about treasure in heaven.

These churches understand the role and purpose of being part of the body of Christ. So what does that mean? What is the calling of the church? Are we our buildings – our administrative structures – Roberts rules of order – our endowments – our theology – our movements for social justice – our history – our worship style – our cultural incarnations of doing church? The answer to all of those is no. To find out that those things are just stuff in the life of faith may bring joy or it may bring fear and sadness. But the truth is that it doesn’t ultimately matter – none of it ultimately matters.

The church is people who are witnesses to the transforming power of the gospel. That is it. That is all we should focus on. This is all we should get wound up about and it is all that we should spend our energy on. But what about our need to fill this committee space? Does it help do what is essential, if not, let it go. What about session membership or our favorite hymn or expectations for our church? If they led us in being transformed witnesses then great, if not, we have to let it go. And our calling in community is to help us remember this. So that when we forget what is essential and begin to grumble and murmur we have to look one another in the face and ask - is that the most important thing in the life of faith? Is that why Jesus died on a cross? The treasure is the gospel and when we stay focused on that – the other stuff will be in its proper place.

This is what focusing on treasure is all about. Picking up our cross, giving up something will be costly. But the church in every age has had to deal with change and the loss of our favorite certainty. Picking up our cross is going to cost us. It will cost us our favorite way of doing things. It will challenge our favorite prejudices and ignorance. It will cost us comfort and the little treasures in our lives that have become the foundation of our certainties. The good news is that when we finally open ourselves up to this truth we will open ourselves up to so much more life has to offer. When we are willing to pour Pepsi on our favorite treasure, we may just find new relationships and new life waiting on the other side. Amen? Amen!