{"id":1416,"date":"2016-08-07T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T15:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2019-09-24T14:28:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T18:28:39","slug":"hearts-treasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2016\/08\/07\/hearts-treasure\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart’s Treasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 12:32-40<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the meditations\u00a0only<\/a><\/p>\n

Treasure<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Last Sunday we worshipped in a Baptist Church, the Mother Church of Colgate University, in Hamilton, NY. \u00a0\u00a0The pews, windows, edifice, organ, and structures have not overly changed in fifty years. \u00a0The kindness, grace, joy, reverence, humility, and care of the congregation roundly resemble those from decades ago. \u00a0\u00a0It is a rare chance, a gift of some significant dimension, to be welcomed into a community of faith, come Sunday, particularly when such opportunities each year, given one\u2019s vocation, are limited. \u00a0The Baptists welcomed us, mere Methodists, as they have regularly in the summer in the past in the Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>It should be noted that the welcome required the welcome of six children\/grandchildren as well, who happily explored the pews, hummed the hymns, joined in the children\u2019s moment and, with some sharp exceptions, impeded not the liturgy of the day. \u00a0It takes courage to open your doors in a Baptist church, or any, come Sunday, not really knowing what sort of Methodist others might descend upon you, \u00a0a baker\u2019s dozen with their kids. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>The children are immersed in summer, with its changed schedules, alternating child-care systems, and various other forms of mayhem. \u00a0They are busy with 8 year-old things, and the things of childhood, wonderfully overheard in their jokes. \u00a0You know these, but maybe you have forgotten. \u00a0What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence? What is the biggest pencil in the world (or biggest boss or biggest ant)? \u00a0Why is six afraid of seven? \u00a0And endless \u2018your momma\u2019 jests. \u00a0See me following worship if you have forgotten these. \u00a0Those who care for children, such a noble and beautiful career and calling, deserve our salutes, particularly come summer. \u00a0Thank you. \u00a0Thank you Aunt Millie. \u00a0Thank you Uncle Fred. \u00a0Thank you in the day care. \u00a0Thank you at home child care. \u00a0Thank you Mom. \u00a0Thank you Dad. \u00a0Thank you Gramma. \u00a0And thank you for those who agree to work at summer camp, especially church camp.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>The bell tolled, as it does on the hour, every hour, in that small town. \u00a0We sang familiar hymns\u2014Crown Him, Seek Ye First, O Zion Haste. \u00a0We heard the interpretation of the Scripture from a venerable pulpit known to Harry Emerson Fosdick, Adam Clayton Powell and Colgate students beginning in 1819. (Colgate that began with \u201913 dollars, 13 men, and 13 prayers\u2019.)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>In the prayers for the day was included the Lord\u2019s Prayer, as you would expect. \u00a0Also, by tradition, the wording was slightly different therein to the venerable usage employed here at Marsh Chapel, and elsewhere. \u00a0That is, we prayed forgiveness for debts, not trespasses. \u00a0Forgive us our debts. \u00a0And following worship, we returned home, as we say, the Baptists to their debts and the Methodists to their trespasses. (\u263a) \u00a0Except that there is something truly good about hearing a familiar prayer in a different mode. \u00a0These good American Baptists use a version of our shared prayer that emphasizes the substantial, material, physical nature of what is to be forgiven. \u00a0Yes, it misses the larger, varied multiplicity of the more common translation\u2014trespasses\u2014it is more narrow, more hedgehog than fox, say\u2014but, for all that makes a strong point. \u00a0There is a treasure, a heart\u2019s treasure, a treasured physicality in the grace of the gospel. \u00a0When you have to throw yourself on the mercy of the court, it is a great gift to experience that mercy present to you in all its substantial, material, physical nature. \u00a0Speaking of which: \u00a0We are coming to the Lord\u2019s Table, to bread and cup, to thanksgiving, presence and memory, after all. \u00a0Forgive us our debts\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>A Lukan Horizon on Treasure<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Given the cultural prominence in America this year of the rhetoric of racial hatred, religious animosity, and rhetorical ugliness, the \u2018gift\u2019 to our time and culture from one particular candidate and now, sadly, too, his party of record which has disowned what can only be disowned, a grand, even an old party, we may be open to a reminder, a gentle one, about the heart\u2019s treasure, about treasure in and from, from within the heart. \u00a0Life is brief, rounded by a little sleep. \u00a0What we say lasts longer than what we do. \u00a0So, damage already done, it is a travesty and a tragedy to have a beloved culture arrested and assaulted this this year by the rhetoric of demagoguery, birtherism, demagoguery, America Firstism, demagoguery, misogyny, demagoguery, racism, demagoguery, xenophobia, demagoguery, bigotry. \u00a0\u00a0You perhaps remember that this candidate, given to vitriol, recalled demolishing his earlier adversary, saying, <\/span>yes, that was great, I really got him, with one phrase, \u2018low energy\u2019, that phrase destroyed him, that was \u2018a one day kill\u2019. \u00a0A one day kill.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0And then: <\/span>words are beautiful things<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0My, oh my. \u00a0And people seem to like it. \u00a0One wonders what the children in New Hampshire and Ohio and elsewhere will hear, remember, and make of this, and how they will think of their parents and grandparents, regarding this, in years to come. \u00a0\u2018Grandpa, what did you say, what did you do, in 2016?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>The Gospel of Luke, a multi-layered Gospel of compassion, today takes us to a moment of preparation, and to a holy call, to a holy calling, to a holy experience, to a holy readiness, <\/span>estando listo<\/span><\/i>, a word for you today, \u00a0to a quickened courage even in the face of dark death, cultural and existential. \u00a0Luke has prepared us. \u00a0You know how to live. \u00a0Fear not. \u00a0Sell and give. \u00a0Hold onto what lasts. \u00a0Foxes have holes but the Son of Man no place. \u00a0A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among thieves. \u00a0\u00a0Give us this day our daily bread. \u00a0Woe to you, if you neglect justice and the love of God. \u00a0This night your soul is required of you. \u00a0So we are not entirely surprised by today\u2019s gospel. \u00a0The way has been prepared.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Treasure is important to life. \u00a0The heart\u2019s treasure is the importance of life. \u00a0Treasure has its place in life. \u00a0The heart\u2019s treasure is the point of life. \u00a0Treasure makes a way for life. \u00a0The heart\u2019s treasure is the way of life. \u00a0Eternity gracing time\u2014here is the heart\u2019s treasure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Horizon and Shadow<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Purses that do not grow old\u2026treasure in the heavens that does not fail\u2026so you also must be ready\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>We are cleaning through, now, the papers and photographs in our mother\u2019s home, since she has been moved to assisted care. \u00a0Many of you have done the same. \u00a0Which pictures do you save? \u00a0Which documents? \u00a0Which furniture? <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>When I was 13, my mother chastised me for something I had said to our neighbor, a woman of her own age. \u00a0The infraction itself is blessedly forgotten, but not the cure. \u00a0\u2018You must go and apologize to her\u2019, she said. \u00a0I did so, reluctantly. \u00a0But I did so, at her direction. \u00a0\u2018You must tell her that you are sorry\u2019. \u00a0I did so, not happily, but in person, up the porch, to the door, knocking and speaking. \u00a0(Later she became quite a good family friend. \u00a0In meeting the couple, my parents went to dinner in their home with others. \u00a0The host was carving a turkey, having no success. \u00a0\u00a0To make light of the moment my mother said, \u2018What we need is a surgeon.\u2019 \u00a0\u00a0Silence followed all around followed by my father\u2019s laughter and honest whisper: \u00a0\u201cHe is a surgeon\u201d. \u00a0(\u263a) ) All the materials in our mother\u2019s house, letters and books and yearbooks and newspaper clippings and cards and Christmas cards and photos and photo albums, all of it, and all of them, and we are still moving through them, are as nothing compared to that word\u2014go, apologize. \u00a0Forgive us our debt. \u00a0There is a word that is substantial, material, physical. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>The heart treasures forgiveness, either given or received, because pardon comes by grace alone. \u00a0\u00a0Like the gift of life, and like the promise of eternal life, forgiveness is the gift of God\u2019s grace. \u00a0\u00a0This gift we receive again this morning in Holy Communion. \u00a0Whether the forgiven is debt or trespass, the forgiveness is lasting treasure, treasure buried in a field, the imminent and immanent presence of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Your Treasure<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. \u00a0Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. \u00a0Sometimes the forgiven is substantial, material, physical. \u00a0Even financial.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>This summer, near and far, people are giving of their time, energy, talent and money to give children a week at summer camp. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>And what a gift it is! \u00a0\u00a0To see a boy or girl learning to swim, learning the prone float for the first time; to see a girl or boy who has never held a fishing pole before, catch a fish or two or three; to see a boy or girl view the whole firmament at night for the first time; to see a group of young people across many divisions of background, race, gender, orientation, class, temperament and personality come to friendship; to hear prayers and songs and hymns and psalms lifted in young voices morning and evening\u2014what a privilege, what a gift.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>Our granddaughter spent her first week at camp, at a campground at which her great grandfather, her grandfather and her mother had worked long before her arrival. \u00a0A place, you might say, for the discovery of the heart\u2019s treasure. \u00a0It is not a small thing for a nine year old to go away for a week, to sleep away at camp. \u00a0It requires levels of trust, confidence, and assurance in multiple directions. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>She went with a friend, whose family had only recently become involved in church. \u00a0Her friends parents themselves had an experience at camp. \u00a0It happened this way. \u00a0The parents went to pay their bill. \u00a0Like many, they had paid half the tuition, but had to complete their payment. \u00a0So they stood in line in front of a desk, out on a lawn, looking on a beautiful long lake. \u00a0\u00a0In front them was a mother, alone. \u00a0Her turn came. \u00a0They watched as she went slowly to the desk, and stood, silent. \u00a0The camp worker waited. \u00a0The mother said nothing, but finally held out her hands, empty. \u00a0She had paid the first half, hoping to have enough to pay the second, but, as happens, pay check to pay check, something happened. \u00a0She couldn\u2019t pay the bill. \u00a0But she had brought her daughter, hoping. \u00a0Hoping that her daughter could go to camp like others were going. \u00a0Making the drive, taking the chance, hoping against hope, that there might be a way. \u00a0Love has a hidden strength. \u00a0Or, she might have reasoned, it is a church camp, even a Methodist camp. \u00a0When you throw yourself on the mercy of the court, you just hope there is some mercy there. \u00a0She just stood, hands out, and whispered, \u2018I\u2019m sorry\u2019. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>In a fast motion, the woman at the desk came forward, took her arm, saying, \u2018This is no problem. \u00a0Just come with me. \u00a0\u00a0Your daughter is going to camp this week. \u00a0You come with me. \u00a0What is your name? \u00a0Where are your from? \u00a0Do you have a home church? \u00a0We will take care of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>I have a lover\u2019s quarrel sometimes with my church. \u00a0But then, sometimes, sometimes in the summer, sometimes in the simple things, sometimes there is a reminder of who we hope we are, who we think we are, who we have promised to become. \u00a0\u00a0Do you know God to be a pardoning God? \u00a0Do you know God to be a pardoning God? \u00a0Do you know God to be a pardoning God?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>I know you can\u2019t run an economy on these terms. \u00a0I know people have to pay their bills. \u00a0I know you can\u2019t run a business or a school or a city, or even run a church if people don\u2019t pay their pledge. \u00a0You can\u2019t keep a campground open very long if that is the way things go. \u00a0I got it. \u00a0I know. \u00a0But you know what? \u00a0Sometimes people need a little help. \u00a0Sometimes there needs to be a space made, an opening, a little forgiveness. \u00a0I am really proud of that church camp, Camp Casowasco, where we grew up, worked, learned, and over three summers lifeguarding chose to go into the ministry, because of the ministers we met there. \u00a0\u2018Somebody let you grow up\u2019 my parents would say. \u00a0There was room, there. \u00a0There was a place, there. \u00a0There was a forgiveness, there, not just of trespasses, whatever they are, but also, sometimes, of debt. \u00a0Forgive us our debts. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>It was the story of the bursar line, by the way, the account of a passionate moment in the lineage of faith, like that in Hebrews, the moment of a mother\u2019s faith when faith is really faith which is when faith is all you have to go on, her faith that somehow her daughter would get a bunk and take the swim test and sing at campfire and be like the rest of the kids, it was that account that her friend\u2019s parents recalled and retold. \u00a0\u2018No problem. \u00a0We will take care of this. \u00a0Come with me.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong>What is going on with us in this country, anyway? \u00a0Have we forgotten who we are? \u00a0A cultural amnesia? \u00a0A Christological amnesia? \u00a0Have we forgotten the love we had at first? \u00a0Have we forgotten how to make a place for someone left out, someone somewhat different, someone \u2018other\u2019? \u00a0Have we mixed up our heart and our treasure? \u00a0What is our heart\u2019s treasure? \u00a0What do we stand for, when push comes to shove? \u00a0There is a reckoning coming for us, as people and as a people.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you leave that camp ground on Owasco Lake, and drive southeast for a while, either on the road four hours or in the mind\u2019s eye four minutes, you may come down to the Hudson River, and then right out toward the Atlantic Ocean. \u00a0There is harbor down there. \u00a0In the harbor there is a statue. \u00a0On the statue there is a statement. \u00a0It reads as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

Give me your tired, your poor<\/i><\/p>\n

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free<\/i><\/p>\n

The restless refuse of your teeming shore<\/i><\/p>\n

Send these, the lost, the tempest tossed to me<\/i><\/p>\n

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.<\/i><\/p>\n

– The Reverend Doctor, Robert Allan Hill, Dean.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service Luke 12:32-40 Click here to listen to the meditations\u00a0only Treasure Last Sunday we worshipped in a Baptist Church, the Mother Church of Colgate University, in Hamilton, NY. \u00a0\u00a0The pews, windows, edifice, organ, and structures have not overly changed in fifty years. \u00a0The kindness, grace, joy, reverence, humility, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1946,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}