Treasure--The Verb

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday December 30, 2012, the 1st Sunday after Christmas, the day of the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi.

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Psalm 148

Colossians 3:12-17

Luke 2:41-52

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

Over the last several weeks when we have been talking about stewardship, one of the words I used is “treasure.” In that context I had been talking about financial treasure, the asset side of the balance sheet. More often than not treasure means something liquid like cash and coin, although there are other kinds of assets like life insurance, stocks and bonds, and real estate. But this introduction to accounting is not our focus today. We’re not talking about treasure as a noun, but as a verb. The New Testament only uses the word treasure as a verb twice, both in Luke’s gospel, and both with the way Mary thinks about her family’s life.

The first time is found early in the second chapter of Luke. The shepherd boys have just heard the blessing of the angel announcing “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” They were so excited and motivated by this message and by the chorus of the heavenly host singing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” that they took their leave from the fields to go to Bethlehem and see what has happened, this thing which the Lord has told them about. Luke tells us Mary treasured up all these things.

The other time is in our reading from today. You’ve just heard the story so I won’t rehash the whole thing, but here are some highlights: Jesus went with the family to Jerusalem for the Passover. When it was time to go, Mary and Joseph and the family caravan journeyed a day before they said to one another, “I thought he was with you.” It took a day of travel to get back and then three more days before Mary found her son in the temple. For five days the twelve year old Jesus was on his own in the big city and not only was he holding up better than McCauley Culkin in “Home Alone,” but the people who heard him teach were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

The family reunited at the temple and Jesus wondered why it took three days of wandering around the city before finding him in the only place he would be. It was then when they returned to Nazareth that Mary had time to reflect on all that had happened and she treasured all these things in her heart.

Believe it or not, there are two different Greek words to show how Mary treasured, two different verbs. The root of these words means to preserve or protect. To guard is also a definition of the root.[1] It’s the prefixes that make the difference.

The first, the one we read on Christmas Eve, means treasure, but it also means to preserve against harm, to protect, and to defend along with hold and treasure up.[2] Another source[3] says this word means to keep in the way one would keep a memory. It’s like thinking about someone and caring for them. On Christmas Eve it would seem that it would be way too soon for Mary to treasure the memories of her son, not in the way the word is defined here. It’s more likely Mary treasured the memory of the events of the evening. “Scrapbooking of the mind” might be one way to put it.

The version we have today means to keep something mentally with implication of duration, to keep in mind forever.[4] Compared to the Christmas Eve translation of “treasure,” this version is a more careful and permanent storing in memory. This is locking something deep, deep into memory. In this case, in today’s reading, Mary locks this memory deep, deep into her heart.

There is also the implication that this way to treasure something allows a deeper look into the memory. Where the first is like a picture image, this treasuring allows us to think back in time and forward to the implications of what is being treasured. Luke’s gospel tells us that to Mary it’s one thing to have a bunch of rag-tag kids coming to see your son, it’s another when a bunch of Rabbis hang on his every word. That is the treasuring Mary is doing today.

Today we will share a memory worth making. Today we celebrate the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. It should be a joyful memory locked into each of our hearts, especially Patrick and Chrystal. I bet there will be some proud grandparents too. What a moment this will be! There will be water, lots of water. There will be water from the font and there will be plenty of tears too. But let me ask you a question, what’s the most important thing about our baptism? Is it the water or is it something else? Friends, it’s something else.

The water is a symbol. Mr. Al gave us all the perfect example of a Christmas symbol in today’s children’s message, the candy cane. It’s not the hard white candy with the red stripes that’s important; it’s what the symbols represent. It’s the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus. It’s the solid rock, the foundation of the Church and the firmness of the promises of God. It’s the name of Jesus and the staff of the “Good Shepherd.” It’s the blood of Christ from being scourged and from the cross, the blood of eternal life.[5] It’s not the thing, it’s what it represents.

In our baptism, water is a symbol of cleaning. It’s a symbol of birth and the womb. It’s a symbol of death and the tomb, both womb and tomb. Water is a sign of chaos in the creation story and in the gospels. It’s also a symbol of refreshing life. The water in the font is as we say a symbol of the living water of Jesus Christ.

There’s nothing overly special about this water. It was taken from the tap in the fellowship hall, a place where we break bread. It is where we have celebrated fellowship dinners, wedding receptions, and bereavement meals. It is where we, this part of the body of Christ shares many stages of life together. The water will be poured from a Marshall Pottery jug. Is there anything that says more about our community than pouring the tap water from a Marshall Pottery jug? This is a symbol; this is how we celebrate baptisms here.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, these are our two sacraments. They are the outward signs of God’s inward grace. They aren’t magical. They’re intentional. Our Lord Jesus participated in both sacraments. Jesus was baptized by John and he instituted the Supper. They don’t beckon supernatural blessings. They don’t cause salvation. What they do is remind us of what Jesus has done and continues to do. Friends, with everything else our sacraments accomplish, they must give us memories to treasure.

So, what do we treasure? Let’s treasure today as we celebrate the sacrament of the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. In a couple of weeks when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we should treasure the gift of the meal that satisfies our soul and our palate. When we meet together, let us treasure not the things, but what the things represent.

Over the past two weeks it has been difficult, for me and especially for Georgia. What has been difficult is taking the phone calls from people trying to pick the still warm bones of this part of the Body of Christ.

Last week a woman came to see her Sunday School room which hasn’t existed since the education wing renovation of the 1950’s. A woman who was once a member was here last Sunday suggesting we get into the wedding business because that’s where the money is. I have heard more requests for the family pew than I care to recall. Shreveport TV stations have called to get the scoop. Friends offer comfort in one moment and ask “what happened” in the next, not a move of pastoral care as much as it is a try to get the latest gossip.

What’s sad to me is people wanting the stuff, not what it represents. Some people treasure the things, not what they stand for. What our sacraments stand for is the relationship our Lord seeks with his people, with all creation. Mathieu and Chelsi’s baptism isn’t about the water and the words spoken over them, but the relationships we forged as the body of Christ; relationships that transform time and space, even this time and space.

We will make covenant with these children to be good Christians and good role models and good teachers of the faith we have received. We will promise to support and encourage. We will promise to guide and nurture by word and deed with love and prayer; encouraging these children to know and follow Christ and to be faithful members of God’s holy church. This is what we must remember, this is what we must hold close to our hearts, this is what we must treasure; not the water, but the promises we make over the water.

Mary treasures all of these things in her heart. She treasures the shepherds. She treasures the looks of the people in the temple. Above all she treasures her son who is of her body and not of this world. What do we rejoice? Friends, we must treasure our relationships more than we treasure the treasures of this place and time.

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are things which over time are used and used up. It is the relationship with our Lord and with one another which fade only if we let them. Like Mary, let us treasure these things in our hearts.

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[1] thre,w, Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. VIII, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1972, page 142.

[2] sunthre,w, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Christian Literature, Third Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, electronic entry.

[3] Ibid Kittel, page 151.

[4] diathre,w, Ibid Greek English Lexicon.

[5] The Candy Cane Story, http://www.kidtokid.org/candycanestory.html, retrieved December 29, 2012

Symbols of the Faith

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday June 19, 2011, Trinity Sunday.

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Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Psalm 8

2Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Marie and I went to the Christian store in Longview last week to get Lea and Jerry’s wedding present. While there, I found a couple of neat things at the cash register. Ah, the joys of retail, put it near the cash register and let the impulse buying begin.

What I found were these things, they are a color coded ways to explain the Christian faith. They explain the faith using several concepts with a different color for each. This is the “God’s Plan for Salvation: Bookmark.” On it, sin is represented by the color black; the blood of Christ is red; faith is blue; forgiveness is white; life is green; and heaven is gold.  With each of these colors and concepts there is a scriptural verse.

The other one is called “Colors of THE WORD, A Wordless Book.” On it, sin and the blood are still black and red, but after that it gets different. With this one, white stands for purity and blue stands for baptism. The green and yellow are almost the same. Where green stands for life on the bookmark, on the Wordless Book it stands for new life in the other. Where the yellow means heaven on the one, on the other it represents living forever. I guess if you want to say that there’s no real difference between the green and the yellow I wouldn’t disagree with you. But it makes me wonder whether their respective designers would agree that it’s just splitting hairs.

These tools are given to the people of God as symbols of the faith. These are two ways to tell the story of God, the story of salvation, using colors instead of words.

Symbols are used extensively to help us understand and explain the faith. Our most common symbol is the cross. You’ll notice that in Protestant churches the cross is empty. The body remains on the symbol we call a crucifix. Neither the crucifix nor the cross can be a witness to Christian faith without the other, but the differences between these symbols point to the differences between the Roman, Orthodox, and Reformed churches.

The importance of these symbols to these faiths is tremendous. The crucifix points to the ultimate sacrifice of the Passion of the Christ. The empty cross’ distinction is that it certainly points to the death of the Christ, and even more it points to the resurrection and that death cannot contain God. Artistically it’s one small distinction, theologically it’s tremendous. The difference lands us on different sides of Good Friday, Easter, and the Reformation.

It’s like the two different color coded gospel things; they’re quite similar, but the differences make them distinctive.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) symbol is a cross with its own distinctive elements. Of course it is a cross that points toward the death and resurrection, but on either side of this cross are flames which represent the Pentecost. When you look at the stylized elements of the cross you can find a bird sweeping down from above toward the crossbar which represents the Holy Spirit and the Baptism of the Lord. Below the bird itself is a pulpit that represents worship and the Word of God proclaimed in the church. The crossbar itself is a book that represents Holy Scripture.

Within the dove is a fish, the symbol of God’s plenty from the feeding of the multitudes. The fish was also the earliest symbol of the Church as a worshiping body. In the middle of the pulpit to the spine of the book is a cup representing the Lord’s Supper. Finally, the weakest of the symbols in the PC (U.S.A.) seal is the invisible lines that form a triangle from the tip of the bird’s beak to either side of the flames connecting along the base of the symbol. This three sided shape represents the Trinity.

Of course it might be appropriate that symbol of the Trinity, arguably the most cryptic symbol of basic theology, is the weakest and least obviously definable piece of the denomination’s seal.

I always have trouble getting a handle on Trinity Sunday, especially since our gospel reading, the Great Commission, is perhaps the most evangelistic reading in the Gospel. Celebrating Trinity Sunday with Father’s Day adds its own quirks. So on this Trinity Sunday, what do we say about the Trinity? On this Father’s Day, what do we say about the Father?

Let’s begin here; the word “Trinity” is not found in scripture. It’s a theological term. It’s a way people describe God based on the witness of scripture. One of my theological dictionaries calls the Trinity “The coexistence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the unity of the Godhead. While not a biblical term, ‘trinity’ represents the crystallization of New Testament teaching.”[1] That’s as good as any place to start.

The trinitarian formula used most frequently in worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is found in scripture. It was in today’s readings from 2Corinthians and Matthew. In 2Corinthians it is a blessing, a benediction to benefit the recipient. As we prepare to leave the sanctuary, I use this same benediction. In Matthew, it is used to describe the one God in three Persons we worship as we welcome new members into the community in the waters of baptism.

Of course, this formula is not without its critics. As humanity has explored the diverse possibilities for trinitarian images, there is a temptation to try to bring the mystery of God under our control.[2]

Some say it is gender specific; too male, not enough female.  Even though in the Westminster Confession we declare the First Person of the Trinity is a most pure spirit without body, parts, or passions;[3] people get touchy about the maleness or femaleness of God. The quantity of masculine words to identify God in scripture only adds to the controversy.

Others note that people whose fathers weren’t present or were abusive have difficulty seeing God as the figure of a good Father, father with a capital “F.”  On Father’s Day, this is particularly poignant. I can’t disagree with this, after all, earthly fathers are a sin-soaked people; just like everyone else.  But unfortunately, our earthly perceptions of fathers infect our perception of God the Father who we confess is infinite in being and perfection.[4]

Another issue with the history and theology of the Trinity is that some considered Jesus the Christ and the Holy Spirit to be secondary deities, subordinate to the First Person of the Trinity.  But the church affirms that Jesus and the Spirit are not some lackey or servant gods to a supposedly supreme God when in truth all three persons of God are equal to one another.

Additionally, some have renamed the persons of the Trinity based on what we think are their usual roles.  The most common of these is “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.”  This isn’t good because it tries to cubby-hole the works of God into a specific person of God.  This is not the nature of the Triune God.   For example, our Genesis passage this morning speaks directly to the Spirit’s role in creation as the wind that swept across the face of the waters.  Our Psalm sings of God the Great I AM as the one who protects and sustains us. 

All three persons of God create, redeem, sustain, and so much more.  We need to remember that naming the Triune God by roles hides the truth of the scriptural witness and the nature of the fullness of God. 

Our human efforts to tame the names of God have helped humanity homogenize God into compartments based on our perceptions of what God does.  It has helped us put God into a hierarchy that would make a business tycoon proud.  It has helped us infect the glory of God by our individual perceptions.  By speaking of the Three Persons of God in these ways, in a very human way, we limit God.  But the Triune God is not contained by human frailty. 

Five years ago, the General Assembly voted to accept a report on this issue called “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.”[5] It included this great truth: “Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are, together with God the Father, fully and eternally God.  As the Nicene Creed affirms, Jesus Christ is ‘God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,’ and the Holy Spirit is to be worshiped and glorified as ‘the Lord, the giver of life.’”[6]

All three persons of the Triune God are eternal and equal.  As the Triune God, the three persons cannot be separated from one another yet they are distinct from one another. 

Now, if you think this is beginning to sound more like three Gods than one God in three persons, I can’t blame you.  Perhaps one of the most important things we can say about the Trinity is that the concept of “Trinity” is a model, a way of explaining the mystery of God. 

The PC (U.S.A.) Trinity Report puts it this way, “The mystery of the Trinity is an open and radiant mystery.  It is the mystery of the truth that God is holy, abundant, overflowing love both in relationship with us and in all eternity.  We meet God’s threefold love in astonishing faithfulness of the Holy One of Israel, in the costly grace given to us in Jesus Christ our Savior, and in the new life in communion with God and others that has come to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit.”[7]

The best way I have found of describing how to imagine the Trinity comes from the Swiss theologian Karl Barth who said “in [the Trinity] we are speaking not of three divine I’s, but thrice of the one divine I.”[8]  There is one divine presence who has been shown to us in three distinct persons, shown to us in scripture, and still being shown to us today by grace.  God in three persons is diverse, and in one, the Triune God is united.

The question becomes “What do we do with this knowledge?” The answer is found in our gospel reading, we follow the Great Commission.

The Great Commission tells the church to, go and make disciples. It even tells us how to go and make disciples, by baptizing and teaching. But what shall we teach? I’m pretty sure none of us want to teach people the symbols of the faith using this Trinity-weekend-seminar-jammed-into-seven-minutes I’ve just given you. But there are other symbols.

Today’s Children’s sermon is a great example, by connecting Father’s Day and our Heavenly Father, Al taught the children about who God is. Honestly, because of time restraints and trying to teach kids and youth from Pre-Kindergarten through Junior High; Children sermons are great examples of what and how we should teach.

We have a symbol of the faith we share in the simplest of crosses. We teach that the instrument of the most degrading death the Roman Empire could inflict on another person is the empty threat death has on our lives. The cross is empty; God in Christ has defeated death.

We even have the symbol of the creation story from Genesis 1 that we read today. This story is rich in symbols and symmetry. This story, never meant to be a scientific description of creation, still contains more truth than facts can ever portray. It’s a story that links the creation of our cosmos with the creation of life, all under the gaze of the ever watchful Spirit of God.

The love of the Triune God overflows from the relationship of the three persons.  We were created to share in that love, that glory, that joy.  We can’t repay God for the love we are shown; so what we must do, all we can do, is love in return and share God’s love.  Love God and love one another in word and in deed. This is what we can surely teach. In sharing God’s overflowing love we baptize not with water, but with the love of the Triune God.

This is a daunting command, but with this command we are given the assurance that Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, will be with us to the end of the age.  Rely on this and rely on the overflowing love in the fullness of the Triune God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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[1] “Trinity,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible

[2] Office of Theology and Worship, PC(USA), “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.”  PC(USA): Louisville, KY, 2004,, lines 354-355

[3] Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter II, Paragraph 1. In the PC(USA) Book of Confessions this is found at 6.011.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Note that I wrote “accepted” and not “approved.”  Because of the controversial nature of this report the General Assembly of the PC(USA) did not approve this report but instead voted to accept it.

[6] Ibid, Office of Theology and Worship, lines 217-220.

[7] Ibid. lines 245-249.

[8] Barth, Karl, “Church Dogmatics.”  Volume I.1.Edinburgh: T & & Clark, 1975, page 351