what is the true treasure

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What is the True Treasure?

May 30, 1999 ~ Pickering Standard Church

Psalm 130:1-8 - Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

We were watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon on Friday, the one called "24 Carrot Hare," in which something comes over Bugs each time he walks over buried gold. Now I know that cartoons such as these were never intended to be taken seriously or be used as a means of philosophic introspection and certainly not as the basis of a Sunday morning sermon but this one raises a couple of interesting points that bear on the way that people live their lives. In this particular cartoon Bugs Bunny is shown as involuntarily performing flips and strange gyrations each time he passes over buried gold and subsequently, because he knows "there's gold in them there hills," digging for the treasure beneath him. The question that came to me is this: How did he know that there something underneath him worth digging for? The first time that this ever happened how did he know to dig? Why would he not have simply attributed his body's odd behaviour to a bad carrot or too much adventuring, what made him jump to the conclusion that there was something of value for which he ought to dig?

Now before you laugh too long and loud at the way in which this message has been introduced I would like to ask each of you to contemplate what thing there may be in your lives which you would consider to be of great value and of which you are completely ignorant? You have absolutely no idea of its existence. For example: We walk upon this earth always looking forward and never considering what lies beneath our feet. It boggles my mind when I stop to think that human history encompasses several thousand years in most of the places which I am likely to travel and for the most part there is no evidence of it at all. Lives have begun, been lived, and ended, time and time again on this very spot and we are unaware of the history, the events, that have happened right hear before any of us ever came along. We walk over a hill and never stop to think that there may be the buried ruins of ancient villages beneath us, that other people have walked this world before us and have left there mark. There is an entire aspect of our world which is beyond our comprehension simply because we know nothing about it.

Let's take this beyond the physical world which we inhabit. This is, after all, a Sunday morning sermon and we came here expecting something worthy of taking home with us. You and I are aware of much more than the average human. The very fact that you are hear this morning indicates that you at least believe that there is more to life than working, eating, playing, and resting. Now think of all those you know who do believe that working, eating, playing, and resting are the entire purpose of life. Think of those who simply have no idea that there is a God oriented aspect to life. They are like all those who have walked over the ground before Bugs Bunny and never suspected the immense treasure that was theirs for the taking if they had only known about it.

We can see by comparison that our own lives are made the more enjoyable, and in some cases endurable, because of our relationship with our God. Imagine your life without God. Better still, imagine your death without God.

Some would ask why is the God oriented aspect of our lives so valuable. While some of us may have difficulty putting an answer in words I believe that each of us has both an understanding of its value and an understanding of why it has value. If we did not we would most likely not be seen here Sunday after Sunday. The words of our Scripture reading today have something to say about the value of the God oriented aspect of our lives:

From a strictly pragmatic viewpoint this part of our lives is important because it works. Pragmatism is that philosophy which operates on the principle that the value of a thing is found in its effectiveness. A pen is a pragmatic device because it writes when you need to write and fulfills that purpose admirably. So from the pragmatic view God is valuable because He is the ever present help in times of trouble, and the object of praise in all our times of joy. He works when most we need Him to.

There is more to this psalm, however, than pure selfishness. There is contained within these few lines the fact that the writer longs for God as a watchman waits for the morning, or as we would wait for the weekend. The writer needed God in his life in the sense that a life without God would have been worthless. Elsewhere the psalmist makes this point even more emphatically:

Psalm 42:1-5 - As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

This writer was a Bugs Bunny of life. He knew of something of infinite value that lay beyond the understanding of many people and he pursued it. He longed for fellowship with God as we would for a glass of cold water after a day of hot, hard work. We have earlier considered how we would feel if we though of ourselves living a life with out an awareness of God, now extend that thought. How many people do we know that have no knowledge, no understanding at all of the incredible treasure of knowing about God and living a life of love toward Him?

What can we do to both help make others aware of the treasure of God and to realize how much they need it? With a glass of water, or the gold of the cartoon mentioned earlier, it is easy to get people to claim the drink once they have been made aware of where it may be found. It is not so easy to get people to claim God as their own, even if we were able to make them aware of His presence and location. There is a vast denial of God present in our world, a world of His making, a world which daily sings His praise:

Psalm 19:1-3 - The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

The denial is not one of ignorance for one cannot deny what one does not know. The denial is a deliberate turning away from the revelation of Himself God has given, a determination to ignore what is so loudly proclaimed by all creation. In our cartoon Bugs had the opportunity to ignore what was happening and so lose out on the treasure of gold. He also had the opportunity to follow up on what was happening, satisfying his curiosity so to speak. The choice was his to make and his alone. Those who share this world with us and deny the revelation of God are like those who walk over ground never caring for the history that lies beneath them. The choice is theirs and theirs alone. We cannot make it for them. Yet we can do something that may have some influence on them.

Most people, whether they like to admit it or not, are pragmatists. Remember that a pragmatist determines the value of things by their effectiveness. We can set examples of faith, of the utility of God in day to day living that cannot be ignored. We have in earlier lessons answered the question "Have we experienced God's power in our lives?" with a resounding yes. I believe that there is not a person here who has not at one time or an other experienced God in a very definite and undeniable way. Given that most people are pragmatists at heart we should remember that if they see something in action in the lives of others that works and is effective they will have had one more piece of information encouraging them to overcome their denial of God. This is not to say that it will work each and every time, it may never work that you know of. We have all had the experience of trying to convince someone to use specific model of a thing that we have found to be useful, be that item a pen, computer, or car. We are hardly ever successful. But remember Bugs Bunny; he did not go around talking to others about this strange thing that happened to him when he walked near gold, he simply dug it up and let the actions speak for themselves. People's greed would then take care of the rest.

But we are talking of a relationship with God, not of some pieces of gold. Greed does not enter into the equation as easily as it would for material things. To put it very bluntly: There is no way that you or I can reach into the mind of an other human, flip a switch, and make them into a God fearing person. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, as we see from this verse in Acts:

Acts 2:47 - And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

We have an awareness of an awesome treasure. We may be ridiculed by others when we act in odd ways or do strange things, but we should not let that dampen our enthusiasm for we are in the right. While I may never be able to talk you into buying a Dodge Caravan as your next vehicle, my satisfaction with it as my family makes use of it will certainly help you to realize that we rate it highly. Let us live our lives in such a way that those who know nothing of God, or who have denied Him as just an other supernatural being may be slightly more encouraged to give up their ignorance and follow Him with us. The reward, for both them and us, will be beyond imagining. It is truly good news worth telling.

Luke 16:16 - The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.