October 9, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Found Faithful Series
2 Corinthians 9:6-11; Matthew 13:44-46
Faithful with Much
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Each week the popular PBS show Antiques Roadshow takes place in a different city across the United States. People in that region can come to the venue site to learn about heirlooms and have them appraised.
Some former neighbors of mine attended the Roadshow when it was in Minneapolis. They brought with them a British Toby Mug. A Toby Mug is a porcelain mug shaped in the form of a colorful character’s head. It turns out that their mug was quite rare and valuable. The antiques expert appraised the mug to be worth a surprising amount of money.
Now, these neighbors of mine, they had had one child, a daughter. But then they ran into fertility problems. It became apparent that they weren’t going to have another biological child. And their daughter desperately wanted a sibling. And so they cashed in their precious Toby Mug. They used the money from the sale to fund the adoption of their son.
Their experience reminds me of the parables we heard this morning. Jesus explains just how precious and valuable God’s kingdom is by comparing it to the actions of two individuals. The first one finds a treasure buried in a field. He sells everything he owns and then buys the field. The second person is a merchant of fine pearls. In his search he finds one extraordinary pearl. He sells his entire stock of pearls to buy it.
Our stewardship emphasis this year is “found faithful.” May we as stewards be found faithful of all that has been given to us by the grace of God. Last week we reflected on “faithful in little.” Our actions of kindness and care may seem like small things, but God can work significant returns through our actions of mercy.
This week we consider “faithful with much.” The two parables encourage us to value God’s kingdom and make it the central focus of our lives. The value of our faith may not be apparently known right away. It may be like that unknown, rare antique whose true value remains hidden until an expert recognizes it for what it is. Faith may require the refining fire of life’s trials before we come to recognize just how valuable it really is. It’s when we’re under duress that we come to see just how faithful God is. Faith can require testing.
St. Paul speaks of this to the church in Corinth. Paul has been travelling throughout the Mediterranean basin to visit all of the congregations he started on his first missionary tour. As he goes from one community to another, he collects an offering for the impoverished widows and orphans in Jerusalem who are experiencing difficult hardship.
He writes the Corinthians in advance of his visit. He wants to give each of them time to prayerfully consider how thy might like to contribute to the offering. He shares with them a reflection on faithful giving.
There is a dynamic, he says, between God’s faithfulness and our sharing. At the bottom of it is God’s faithful supply. God provides for our needs because that is God’s character: God is faithful. God is faithful in little, in much, in all things. Paul tells the Corinthians that when they give of their means, God is the one who will be found faithful.
He writes, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
God is faithful to us, on that we can rely. But we might not discover that, we might not know that, if we hold too tightly to our possessions and rely on ourselves instead.
In their book The Edge of Adventure, Keith Miller and Bruce Larson share a story about a man crossing a Nevada desert back in the 1930’s. The man finds himself traveling across an isolated and seldom used trail. Along the way, he finally arrives at an old hand pump. A baking power tin is wired to the pump’s handle. The dusty and thirsty traveler opens up the tin and there he finds a letter.
The letter was written by Pete, a man who lives in that stretch of desert. Pete wrote this letter:
“This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller.”
The traveler faces a dilemma. In his hands he holds a bottle of water. If he pours the water down the pump and the well has gone dry, then he will have wasted the only drinking water available. However, if he drinks the water, then he’ll be leaving the pump in a way that will compromise the next traveler down this road. What will he do? Will he trust this Pete, or will he drink the bottle of water?
In the end, he chooses to trust the pump. He does as Pete suggested. He pours part of the water into the pump to moisten the leather washer. Then he pours the remaining water down the well and starts pumping the handle.
At first, nothing happens. The man thinks, “Well, I’ve blown it. I should have drunk the water.” But then he hears a gurgling deep down the well shaft. And soon water aplenty comes gushing from the pump. There is more than enough. He drinks the cold water and fills his canteen. He washes his hands and face. The last thing he does is refill the bottle and return it to its hidden spot. And then he writes a message on the bottom of Pete’s note: “Please prime the pump. Believe me, it works!”
As we engage in our fall stewardship emphasis, part of what we do is to consider and pray about our financial giving to our congregation’s ministries. And as you do so, I invite you to pause and reflect on God’s faithfulness. God is faithful, on that we can rely.
