Sometimes in the process of looking for one treasure, you inadvertently find another.  That happened today, as I was searching through one of my very favorite books, The Letters of Samuel Rutherford.  (Rutherford was the pastor of a church in Anwoth, Scotland, in the 1600’s, but was removed from his pulpit during a time of persecution, and sent into exile.  He continued to minister to his congregation through his letters, which were preserved in this gem of a book.)  I was looking for a specific quote for Sunday morning’s sermon, but my search was continually interrupted by the need to record yet another line from one of Rutherford’s letters that I just felt compelled to save in my illustration file.

In one of his letters, to Lady Kenmure (an aristocratic woman in his congregation who had endured many “losses and crosses”) I found that Rutherford wrote the following: “Anwoth is not heaven; preaching is not Christ …”.  That little sentence stopped me flat.  I think many of us in the ministry today need to ponder these words.

“Anwoth is not heaven; preaching is not Christ.” Rutherford’s point was that even though he had been taken away from his church in Anwoth, he had not lost his home in heaven.  Even though he had lost his ability to preach, he had not lost Christ.  His church, and his ministry of preaching were both very important to him.  As others of his letters indicate, he was very passionate about both.  But here he exhibits a perspective that I hope many of us as ministers today will not miss.  Our churches are not our “heaven.”  Our ministry is not our Lord.  I think that most of us who are in ministry “know” this on one level, but I wonder if it has really sunk in on another.  Many of us act as if our church and the Kingdom of God were synonymous; that mishaps or difficulties in one equate to tragedy in the other.  That is not so.  As much as we should care for our own local churches, our churches are not heaven.  They are not our ultimate goal.  Heaven is.  There are things that happen in our churches that we have no control over, but too many ministers think and act as if our eternal destinies were indeed tied up in our work.  They are not. Rutherford had lost Anwoth.  But he had not lost heaven.  To his benefit he could see the difference.

And “preaching is not Christ.”  As important as our preaching is, it is not ultimate.  It may be difficult for a layperson to understand how conjoined a minister’s message and his person may become.  He sees his preaching as an extension of himself — and perhaps in the best sense, it truly is.  But again, many of us have perhaps made it too much so.  It is not uncommon for a minister to suffer much angst if his sermon is not well-accepted, or applauded, or “successful” in some measurable way.  But we need to remember: “Preaching is not Christ.”  Preaching is not our life; even for a full-time pastor. Jesus is to be our life.  As important as our ministry of public preaching is, our greatest good is not our speaking; it is the One of whom we are speaking!  And there is a big difference.  Unfortunately, it is a difference that can become blurred, or even lost entirely.

Samuel Rutherford realized it.  It may be that he did not realize it before he lost his church and went into exile.  It may be that it was only there, in the “fire” of adversity that he so often mentioned in his letters, that it became clear to him that the Kingdom of God did not depend on the success or failure of his little church; and that losing his ability to preach did not mean that he lost the most important treasure of his life – NOT his preaching, but his Lord.  Stripped of his church, and of his pulpit ministry, Rutherford was reminded that he still had the Kingdom; and he still had Christ.  His words have been providentially preserved as a needed reminder for those of us who serve as pastors today.  And I believe there is application beyond the pastorate as well.  Surely it is not only the pastor who becomes so wrapped up in his own ministry that he cannot see beyond it; who makes the ministry – whatever it is – almost an idol that takes the place of the Lord whom it was intended to serve.   Hopefully we can learn vicariously through Rutherford, and will have no need to lose our places of service to be reminded that our ultimate home is not on earth — not even in our churches; and our ultimate good is not even our ministry, but our Lord.  It is Jesus who is our Treasure; it is He Himself who is our Pearl.