Across the Pastor’s Desk

By the Rev. Mark Boorsma, Ascension Lutheran Church

One of the seven deacons of ancient Rome during third-century persecutions, Lawrence of Rome, reaches across the centuries to teach the true treasure of the church.

After the bishop and the six other deacons had been put to death, the Roman prefect threatened and demanded that Lawrence hand over the church’s treasure. Lawrence asked for three days in which to gather the wealth.

Swiftly distributing church property to the poor to prevent its seizure by the empire, Lawrence presented himself and a small delegation on the third day.

Ordered to surrender the church’s treasure, he presented a ragtag collection of poor, lame, blind and suffering souls, stating that these people were the true treasure of the church.

“The Church is truly rich,” he is reported to have said, “far richer than your emperor.”

An enraged official had Lawrence put to death immediately.

Lawrence’s defiant display of the “true treasure” serves still to remind people of faith where value, worth and wealth really are.

Whenever members of any congregation are tempted to view buildings, furnishings and money as having greater value than people, Lawrence would beg to differ.

The physical property and financial resources of any faith community are best understood as instrumental — tools meant to serve the goal of serving people.

However splendid the house of worship, none are ever meant to be a pristine museum. “God’s house” of any denomination is first of all a place of encounter between people and God, between insiders and outsiders, between strangers who have already been welcomed and strangers who have yet to be welcomed.

The true treasure of the church is people — always has been and always will be — and the richest church is not the one with mere things piled high, but the one that pours itself out in service for God’s world.

“Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” — 1 Peter 2:5

You will encounter people today — most will strike you as diamonds in the rough — but make no mistake: in every person you encounter God’s richest treasure.