A Treasure In Out Hearts

“A Treasure in our Hearts” 
Reflection for Sunday June 2, 2024 
Churchill and Gilford United Churches 
Krista M. Moore 

Scripture Sentences:  
From Paul’s 2d Letter to the Corinthians 4:5-12 Treasure in Clay Jars 

For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our  hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus  Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this  extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
 
From the Gospel of Mark 2:23-3:6 Jesus Heals on the Sabbath 

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they  might accuse him. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their  hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out,  and his hand was restored. 

Introduction to the Scriptures 
1. PAUL: Paul is writing his letter to the Corinthians. But they just don’t  seem to get it.  

They accuse me.  
They do not understand that it is not me who heals them.  
It is not me who teaches them.  
It is the power of Christ, who lives in me and them.  
We are just the vessel, like broken clay jars.  
Jesus is the treasure. Living in our hearts.  
Blind people!  
If only they would see and listen 
And find the Light inside them.  

2. JESUS is in the temple healing a man on the Sabbath.  
They accuse me.  
They do not understand Who I Am. 
Their hearts are blinded, they cannot see what is in front of them.  Healing on the Sabbath?  
God created the Sabbath to heal them.  
And now I am here to show them God’s mercy, God’s love.  
What will I do with this generation?  
They have a treasure inside of them,  
and bury it so no one can find it.  
When will they realize God gave me everything,  
and now I give it all to them 
If only they would receive it.  

THE SCRIPTURES ARE READ.
 
Reflection 

The Story of the Tadpole  
When I was in grade 4 or 5, my friends and I would go down to the “Creek”  near my friend Elaine’s house. It was a semi-new subdivision in Kitchener, with  our school in the middle; but right in the back of the school property was a big hill,  like a mountain, and then down the hill came a valley just at the back of the  houses, and along it ran a creek, with clay mud and stream running through it. It  was great fun to crouch down and get our hands dirty and feel the cool water.  

One summer, I brought down a glass jar and I bent down and scooped up  some creek water, teaming with life – in the water was a few little black squiggly  things called “tadpoles.” (There was also a giant salamander, but I wouldn’t dare go  near that!) The tadpoles moved around so quickly it was hard to catch them, and  I’m sure we splashed around and laughed trying to capture a few.  So I took my glass jar with the tadpoles home. 
 
And within one week, I saw an incredible thing happen.  
Those little black dots grew arms and legs!  
I can still smell the water it smelled a bit swampy like the creek, but I was  elated! I jumped around in the kitchen exclaiming, “It grew legs!” I had never seen  this happen before.  
WHAT A TREASURE!! 

I was told probably by a teacher, that you need to put a little raft of some kind  on top of the water. So I got a little piece of wood, and it floated on top. And I  waited and waited.  

Then one day, in the morning before school, I saw this little guy, this tiny little  frog sitting on top of the raft.  

I was FLABBERGASTED!  

I saw life come into being in that jar, and there he was! A little froggy friend.  I’m not sure if there were one or two, I can’t remember.  

But, I had to go to school, so I left the jar open of course so the little guy could  breathe.  

After school, I ran home to see him, and when I investigated the jar and the raft,  he was gone!  

But I’ll never forget that tiny treasure that came to into being in my little glass  jar down by the creek. 
 
Scripture: How Paul’s “ Treasure in Clay Pots” relates to the Tadpole
In our scriptures today, Paul is talking about the same thing.  
He says, “We have this treasure in clay pots.”  

What does he mean?  

Well, the clay pots are us. We’re just human beings.  
But Jesus gave him a special gift, he calls the Spirit, to dwell inside him, so that  he would be able to teach and heal people in the name of Jesus. It wasn’t him doing it – it was Jesus inside of him.
 
The power, the Spirit, the treasure wasn’t just for him, it was meant to be  shared.  

For example, when I captured the running creek water and the tadpoles, I  caught a tiny treasure of life. I took it home and tried to keep it.  But I couldn’t hang on to the treasure, I had to let it out into the world.  That’s the same with what God gives us.  

Jesus is the treasure (the tadpole if you will, sorry Jesus!).  
He’s the power of GOD who dwells in us and flows through us.  We might want to keep it for ourselves. (I pray, that’s enough.)  Eventually, you realize, you can’t contain it – like the frog.  
It’s going to leap out.  
The Spirit needs to breathe and get out there into the world, 
and move things around!  
Make things happen!  
Heal people!  
Share love! 
If you try to hang onto it without letting it out, the jar will burst  or the frog will die.  
In the same way, the Spirit must grow within us,  
expand our hearts and  
share that love with others… 
or our hearts will become HARD. 

SCRIPTURE: Jesus Heals on the Sabbath / Paul Teaches and Heals
Jesus tried to heal on the Sabbath and the Pharisees tried to stop him. They  thought they were following the letter of the law handed down to Moses; they  thought they were following God.  

Jesus was angry because their hearts were hard.  

They didn’t have the Spirit flowing in them.  
They didn’t recognize the treasure. 

Jesus was standing right in front of them, giving them the secret meaning of the scriptures, to love one another. He tried to heal their hearts, like he healed the  man with the withered hand, but they wouldn’t listen.  

Paul has been using this power to heal people and teach them.  
But they don’t understand it.  
They thought he was bragging that it’s his power.  
But Paul is saying NO, its GOD’s power, not mine; it’s Jesus who lives in  me. And in you.  
He wasn’t boasting. He was saying,  
I’m just the vessel. The clay pot. We’re all broken, we’re all human.  We all need love, and spiritual life to truly live.  
Jesus is that life.  
The Spirit dwells in our hearts and makes life worth living.  

ANOTHER EXAMPLE: HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Who here has ever built a house, or moved into a new house?
A house when it is first built is empty. It has no life in it.  

But slowly we bring little bits and pieces of our life into that place, and soon  it is teaming with life – all kinds of things we treasure. 

Little treasures, and big treasurers! Some things get forgotten in the  basement, and those become lost to time… 
UNTIL we move!  
Or someone else comes to take them away and dust it all out.  
A house is a shell without its inhabitants, without its treasure. 

Story: Our Move to the Manse 
When Steve and I put our house up for sale in Scarborough, it was filled  with memories from our 22 years there, and beyond. Tiny treasurers of my  children’s childhood, my dog, my garden, so many memories with family and  neighbours in the backyard. These were my treasures. And now I had to leave it all  behind.
 
But I didn’t.  

As we moved into the manse, we brought those memories with us, and those  tiny treasures (and a lot of other unnecessary STUFF we’re still sorting through!).  Then we started to put the rooms together, and now when we sit out in the  backroom and look outside at the beautiful landscape, we can’t believe how lucky  we are to live here. How blessed. It feels like home.  

That treasure, that part of us that loves, and feels sadness, and joy, came  with us. That LOVE gets expressed by the people that make it a home. 

The shell of the Victorian manse was just a shell. It had history. But it is really  bricks and mortar.  

The true treasure is in all the inhabitants, the animals, the gardens, the farm,  and the old and new memories that will be made here.  

That is why they say, HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.  

Scriptures: WHERE YOU TREASURE IS, THERE YOUR HEART IS ALSO Jesus once said, in Matthew 6:21,  
“for where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  

It’s the TREASURE that’s important.
 
In today’s scripture, the treasure is not about material things, possessions.  It’s about what what’s inside us. What gives us joy, hope and love.  For we Christians, our treasure is in the love that we share with God and  each other.  

LOVE is the treasure.  

So, What is your treasure?  
• Maybe you think of children, or grandchildren…  
• your animals, or your garden,  
• or maybe you have a passion for helping others  
• being active in your community or church.  

Where does the Treasure come From? 
That treasure of love, joy, purpose and power doesn’t come from us…  We’re just the clay pots. We’re just the vessel waiting for the treasure to  come and flow through us.  
That treasure of life comes from GOD.  

God is in us, Jesus says, and lives within us. By the Spirit.  
It’s a mystery! 

JESUS Will Be In Us, as He is in the Father: Prayer for all Believers  (John 17:23): 
Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus prayed to God that God would dwell  in us, just as God dwelt in him. He prayed:  

“22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be  one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely  one.” 

That means God’s LOVE dwells within us and binds us together as ONE.  We become sisters and brothers in Christ. 
Jesus is our Treasure.  
Jesus is the LOVE we have for God and each other.  
Our TREASURE is LOVE. 
And it is eternal.  

SCRIPTURE: Paul’s Meaning: Death and Resurrection  
Paul said we are like clay pots – which also means our bodies are temporary. They will not last.  
He referred to Jesus’s death on the cross; and that Paul too was facing death.  He knew his body was just a temporary dwelling place for the Spirit. Soon his time would come, just like Jesus.  
He was also saying, we had to let the physical Jesus go.  
He died for us, so we would live. In the Spirit with him.  
He sent the Spirit at Pentecost to live inside of us,  
Which carries the promise of eternal life.  
The real TREASURE.  
But while we’re here, we’re still in clay pots.  
We have the Spirit, but we may feel broken at times.  
We make mistakes. We mourn.  
We grow weary.  
We die.  

What Happens to Our Treasure When We Die? 
We may wonder, what happens to our treasure when we die? When our clay  jars fall apart or are broken, or return to the earth? Where does the treasure go?  Like my tiny tadpole in the glass jar, it could not stay there forever.  Once it grew arms and legs, and became a full frog, it had to leap out and  discover a whole new world.  

Paul also believed in the resurrection.  
That Jesus rose from the dead.  
Jesus appeared to many including him, after his resurrection.  
And then he ascended into heaven.  
He literally leapt out of his clay pot (or glass jar). 
You couldn’t keep him down! 

But Jesus’s disciples were worried. What would happen to them now that  their treasure was gone? Jesus’s body was no longer visible to them.  Just like when I had to let my little frog go and empty out all that water onto  the ground. As a kid, my little frog, my treasure, was gone. I was happy for it, but  sad for myself.  

Jesus told his disciples while he was leaving: 
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also  in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If there were not, would I have  told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  
And if I go prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself,  so that where I am you also may be.” (John 14:6). 

Once our clay jars are broken and return to the earth, Jesus prepares a  permanent place for us beyond this world, where our bodies no longer ache or feel  pain.  
Where our bodies, or houses, don’t need constant repair, and we don’t have  to keep moving from one temporary dwelling to another.  
Finally our hearts will find their eternal home.  
A storehouse full of true treasures.  
Love, happy memories, joy, healing and wholeness. 
HOME. 

Isn’t that a comforting thought? 
But here’s the hidden lesson:  
Don’t wait until you die to let your treasure out. Empty your clay pots, or  your glass jars before that day. Give it all away. Give all the love and joy you can,  (and get rid of all that extra STUFF too!). Let everything go – pride, hurt, anger,  fear – until only LOVE remains. That is the only thing you can bring with you.
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And remember, that the ones you loved are not the clay pots either. Their  treasure, their Spirit, their LOVE, lives forever, and is with that eternal Spirit  waiting for your clay pot to break! But don’t go there too soon. 

ONE LAST STORY: THE SPARK OF THE FIREFLY 
Last night I was sitting on the deck, and the landscape grew dark.  It was a beautiful night, but I could no longer see anything.  
I was about to go in, when suddenly I saw this little spark of light floating in  the distance.  
It sparked on and off, bouncing from one end of the yard to the other.  Suddenly I realized, it’s a FIREFLY! Or a Light-Bug!  
I hadn’t seen one in so many years in Scarborough.  
But because we moved, I could now see them!  
God bless the country.  
A tiny little treasure of nature. 

What’s interesting is that it’s not just an average bug. Its body doesn’t seem  like anything special. But some mysterious force allows it to “LIGHT UP” at night  to find its way.1 

That little FIREFLY is like us – when it gets dark, we can remember the  LIGHT is inside us –we have a tiny treasure– the LIGHT of God, the LOVE of  Jesus. We just need to recognize it and share it with the world.  

CLOSING 
Jesus is our treasure.  
His LOVE dwells in our hearts.  
LOVE is our treasure.  
It comes from God.  
Let’s not be afraid of it, or try to hang on to it;  
Let’s share it, and to grow it  
Until there is nothing left in our clay jars 
And we have shared our treasure with the world. 

1 GOOGLE: The light of a firefly is a chemical reaction caused by an organic compound  – luciferin – in their abdomens. As air rushes into a firefly’s abdomen, it reacts with the luciferin.  Consequently, it causes a chemical reaction that gives off the firefly’s familiar glow.

Amen.