Latah Valley

There’s a well-crafted scene in the film, October Sky, when Homer Hiccum and three of his buddies are trying to develop a small rocket for their school’s science fair.   After a series of mishaps, Homer’s father has told the boys that they may not launch any more of their test rockets on company property.   And, since this coal mining company in Coalville, West Virginia owns the entire town, the aspiring engineers face a dilemma.   Do they walk the twelve miles to Birch County, or do they give up?   Miss Riley, the boys’ teacher, encourages them to try.  Later, she’s diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and when the four build their launch pad outside of town, she can see the rockets soar from her hospital bed.   

 

Now, Lord knows, I am neither an aspiring engineer, nor a scientist.   I have no intention of igniting any kind of combustible fuel any time in the near future.  But when I read about Jesus telling stories about fields and seeds and pearls and fish of every kind, it seems as if he’s preparing to launch something.   It seems as if he’s mixing some fairly potent words and images and when the right person lights the fuse the good news of God’s Reign is sent.  The message is sent out, out beyond the company owned operation.  It’s sent into valleys and over mountains.  

 

And the only question, according to Matthew 13:51, is, “Have you understood all this?”  

 

I heard a different question over ten years ago.  

 

In Pennsylvania we helped to start a new church with a bank of rented telephones and a reverse directory.   We placed calls to over 14,000 households, and among them I will never forget the Scottish brogue of one agitated gentleman on the other end of the line.  He said, “What’s wrong with the ol’ Kirk?”

 

Well, after considering the obvious weight gain of William Shatner a.k.a. the Captain of the USS Enterprise, I took a deep breath and stuck to my script.   That script involved the demographic changes in the local area, the postmodern statistics which describe a decline in denominational loyalty and finally the hope of connecting with the many who do not currently participate in any religious institution.   That was the script that I had rehearsed and the one that promptly fell upon deaf ears.   But if I had the chance to respond to that nice gentleman again, I think that I would simply refer him to what Jesus says in verse 52: 

“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

 

Here, the focus is not upon what’s wrong with the old, but upon the ways in which “the kingdom of heaven,” the Full and Complete Reign of God, is preceded by a volatile mixture of “what is new” and “what is old.”  Jesus is indeed about to launch something, something utterly unique and terribly mysterious, something at the limits of all human experience.   The ekklesia, or the church, however, involves those men, women and children who have been called out in preparation for this coming kingdom. 

Every scribe.   In the first century, as you know, scribes are often lumped into the same genetic pool with lawyers and Pharisees.   They have a bad reputation for misinterpreting the Law of Moses and the Prophets.   And yet, in this passage, Jesus refers to “every scribe who has been trained,” every story-teller who anticipates not being able to tell the whole story, every script-writer who cannot quite express what happens in the final episode.  Every scribe who yearns and aches for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household. 

 

The master of a household.   This person, of course, has at his or her disposal a fantastic assortment of gifts—jewelry, utensils, food, furniture and treasure!   And the master of a household would probably like nothing more than to sit inside the walls of his household and to bask and to luxuriate in the glory of that treasure.   But, if that’s you and that’s me, Jesus compels us to finish the sentence.    

 

Every scribe who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household WHO BRINGS OUT OF HIS TREASURE WHAT IS NEW AND WHAT IS OLD.  

 

Friends in Christ, Latah Valley Presbyterian Church is comprised of both new and old treasure.  And it’s your treasure.  It is the treasure that Christ has trained us to bring out of the household.  Already, you see, our precious fragments reflect the radiance of God’s Resurrected Son.  Already we shine with prayers, with passion, with purpose.  

And it is WITH YOU, and not WITHOUT YOU, that we make our brightest witness to future generations.  It is WITH YOU that we cross the threshold.  

 

It is WITH YOU that we launch.  And it is WITH YOU that we soar.

 

 

Amen.