A Good Foundation for the Future

1 Timothy 6:17-19; John 11:32-44; Revelation 21:1-6a

How far can you see? Looking out our windows today, not too far. To the tree line along the road or to the homes on the other side. If we were in a great flat expanse, on a clear day we could see for about fifteen miles. That’s because of the curvature of the earth. If we could be raised high above the plain, we could see farther. From the top of a mountain the view seems to go on forever.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we can see forever – spiritually. That’s what the vision of John of Patmos is all about. He sees forever until that day when creation is made full, final, and complete. He “saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away.” We can see that far, too, although the view is indistinct, like looking through frosted glass. Our faith tells us that that is what we are seeing, even if we can’t fully make it out.

How can we see that far? Because we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before in the faith of Christ. Think about that. If a new generation comes along every twenty years, then in the two thousand years since the resurrection of Jesus, there have been about 100 generations. You are the 98th generation, your children the 99th, your grandchildren the 100th, and your great-grandchildren the 101st  generation after Christ. If we were literally standing on each other’s shoulders, then you would be standing abut 485 feet above the floor. That might be the 40th floor of a building. That’s taller than any building in Columbus.

To build a building that tall, it takes a strong foundation. The foundations of skyscrapers go a number of floors deep into the earth to reach bedrock. The foundation walls are very thick and reinforced. There are huge girders and beams to support the weight of all that rises above the foundation. Because of all the weight of the building, the upper floors are often smaller than the lower floors. Think of the Transamerica Tower in San Francisco which is a tall, slim pyramid. 

We have to build things with bigger bases than tops in order to support the weight. God doesn’t follow human construction rules. The church is an inverted pyramid. It rests on its point and gets bigger as it rises. 

Think about that theologically. What does the hymn say? “The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.” Peter in his first letter quotes Isaiah: “Thus it is written in scripture, ‘Look! I am laying a cornerstone in Zion, chosen, valuable. The person who believes in him will never be shamed’” (1 Peter 2:6). Every succeeding generation following Christ’s resurrection has been built on the previous generation and has expanded the number of believers. Thus the Church grows and gets bigger generation after generation, layer upon layer of believers standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before.

Shortly we will remember some of the believers on whose shoulders we stand. And on some future All Saints’ Day the generations which come after us will remember us and give thanks for the strength of our shoulders which enabled them to stand tall and firm in the faith. 

Timothy wrote his readers about saving a treasure which would be a good foundation for the future. There is an integral connection between treasure and foundation and future. Just as a building cannot come to be if there is no foundation, so the future requires a foundation. Our future is dependent on Jesus Christ, the strong foundation, the solid rock on which the whole church rises. 

Jesus is not only our foundation, he is our future. All things of creation were made through him and with him and for him. As the new heaven and new earth come into being, it is Jesus who is the core of the new creation. Everything comes from him and everything will return to him.

Jesus is not only our foundation and our future, he is our treasure. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his listeners, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19). As people who have received much – the grace of life abundant and eternal through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – much is expected. Believers, having the treasure of Christ, lay up treasures in heaven. They invest their riches – their faith in the one Lord – for eternity. This kind of investment includes tithing and giving offerings in church but is much broader. Any unselfish giving to meet the needs of others, especially the poor, creates a deposit in eternity. 

When Paul speaks of the treasure “that is a good foundation,” he’s playing with his words. In his theology your treasure is your foundation and vice-versa. Your treasure is the place where your life’s efforts and meaning are founded. Your life’s foundation consists not of the treasure you possess but the treasure you bestow in the form of blessing, generosity, good works. 

We could play with the idea still further and say that your one true foundation, the site of your most authentic, divinely envisioned life, lies in the masonry of blessings God gave into the world with your life. The mortar of the Gospel is what cements us firmly to the generation that preceded us and which handed the gospel of salvation in Christ to us. So blessed and so fixed in the saving grace of Christ means that not a one of us is poor, and all are treasured.

Today’s masonry buildings are built with blocks of uniform size and composition. Before concrete blocks were invented, stone cutters labored to create blocks of nearly equal size and masons chipped away to adjust the stones to fit together. But before stone cutting became an art, builders had to deal with stones as they were, doing the best they could to fit the stones together. The wonder of the stone walls of New England or Kentucky’s horse country is amazing. They are quite solid and strong.

We are a lot like those stones made into solid walls. We aren’t uniform. We are all different. We have different backgrounds and training, different experiences, different hardships or infirmities, different easy streets and free passes, different defeats and triumphs. Yet the Holy Spirit works to bind us together within our generation, adheres us to the generation before us, and prepares to be built upon by those who will come after us.

Paul wants us to take hold of the life that really is life. That life – the life that God implants in us and longs to see it become solid as the foundation for the next layer of the church building – is the future God has been coaxing us toward since our first breath of God-air, since the time when the stone was rolled away from the tomb, indeed since God spoke the first piece of creation into being.

What a treasure that is. It will come to be when, finally, enough blessings have been poured out to firm up all of the foundation stones – you and me and everyone who will receive the gospel through us generation upon generation. When every person has the capacity and each life is filled with the freedom and solid ground to be the blessing that God intended, foundation and future and treasure will indeed be one.

We all know that God desires abundant life for us. That abundant life is based on the foundation of Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist went ahead of him to announce his coming, so Lazarus also went ahead of him in coming out of the tomb. What a treasure was glimpsed in that moment and sealed in the death-conquering, sin-defeating resurrection which Jesus accomplished days later. That treasure was given to the first generation of believers – the disciples and other followers who knew Christ personally. The treasure has been faithfully and gloriously handed along the line of saints year after year, decade after decade, century after century, until we received it. Now it is our turn to hand it on to those who come after us, not just in these seats but in countless holy spaces, some built with bricks and mortar, some under tents and trees or in borrowed rooms. 

Maybe you’ve heard the quip “Jesus expects only one thing from you: everything.” The gospel invites us to give ourselves – give everything – to the life that we know really is life, the blessed kingdom and household of God.

As we have been blessed to be built spiritually on a good foundation of faith, so we become the spiritual foundation for tomorrow’s believers. Our treasure is the realm of God’s rule with Christ on the throne of eternity. Our treasure is the original foundation stone: Jesus Christ himself, the very best foundation for the future.

Thanks be to God.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2015 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.