Dear Friends,

We recently had a yard sale at Westminster and made a couple thousand dollars for mission selling people's unwanted treasures from attic and garage. It was a win-win affair. People got great deals and folks got to rid themselves of some clutter. Everybody had a great time whether donating, shopping or staffing and many of us did all three.

During the event I kept thinking of "Antiques Roadshow" and how people would bring in an odd looking little object they picked up somewhere and it turns out to be worth a fortune. We actually "googled" a few pieces to make sure we were weren't naively selling high value collectibles for next to nothing. We weren't.

I was interested to see in the news recently that in England a man had an odd little cup his grandfather had bought as a scrap metal dealer in the 1940's. The man assumed the cup to be bronze. It was interesting in that it was Janus-like bearing two high-relief faces. The man said he had used the cup as a boy for target practice with his air-rifle. It had been sitting in a box under a bed with other childhood memorabilia for decades, but the man was getting ready to move and he decided to have it appraised before just getting rid of it.

The cup turned out to be not bronze, but gold. And besides that it was determined the cup was of ancient origin made in the fourth century B.C.! The cup will go on auction this June for a starting bid of five-hundred-thousand pounds. How this antique Persian cup came to be acquired by the English scrap dealer is a mystery. But you can bet somebody let it go cheap because they didn't know what they had.

And what about us? A lot of people have let the cup of Jesus Christ be shelved in their lives - put in a box stuffed under a bed - out of sight out of mind. They don't know the cup's true nature and value. Someone you know needs to give the cup of Christian faith a fresh appraisal. Someone you know is "sleeping on it" (or over it) when it comes to Jesus Christ and the Cup of Salvation. It was a part of their past but it has been hidden away. They don't know the value of what they have in their Christian heritage. They have let it go cheap.

Invite a friend to church to let them reconnect with Christ. Let them come to see how they are valued by God and the Lord has need of them. So often we under-value what we have been given - our gifts and talents and individual character - and over-value the stuff we have accumulated - the very stuff which will end up at next year's rummage sale for pennies on the dollar.

Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Let our hearts be with Jesus. And let us call all to share in the fellowship of His Cup.

Pastorally yours,

Frank

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