Ordinary Time (Matthew 13:44-45) - Pete Williamson

We are drawn to the idea of surprising and unrecognized value. Sometimes we have my mind wanders, I think about what I would say to a younger version of myself, like say when I was a teenager with all that I know now. And I'm sure if I had the actual opportunity to talk to my teenage self, I'd say all sorts of wise and thoughtful things. But when my mind wanders in this way, what I find myself actually saying to my former self is buy as much bitcoin as you can in 2010. Turns out my wandering mind is more interested in how you can manipulate things if only you could know the future. I'm not really into bitcoin not anymore anyway, but I do know that these days it can be worth in the vicinity of $100,000, but back in 2010, it was worth a few cents. No one knew how valuable it'd become. A guy famously bought a pizza for 10,000 bitcoin, and that pizza would now be worth $600 million. With a few thousand dollars in 2010, if you could know the future value of this thing, you could be a billionaire now if that's what you wanted to be. From a purely money-maximity perspective, which is not the right perspective from which to live your life, but from that perspective, you should, big, borrow, doesn't matter what the loan terms are, sell everything you have in order to buy as much of this thing that would become immensely valuable, because from a dollar's and cents perspective, it would work out. Now, of course, if my teenage self followed that advice, I'm not at all convinced that my life would be better that I would like it more. Being a bitcoin billionaire is not a vision of flourishing life. But there is something intriguing in the idea of surprising and unrecognized value, of extreme value, which is not yet known. It makes us wonder whether there might be something of extreme value right in front of us if only we could recognize it, if only we had eyes to see. In today's parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, Jesus calls us to direct that part of our self, that is intrigued by surprising value and pointed towards the good news of the kingdom, calling us to recognize the unrecognized but incomparable value of the good news of Jesus and to joyfully pay any cost in order to receive it. This summer, we're walking through the parables of Jesus. These are the stories Jesus tells in order to expose and unveil the nature of his kingdom. And so often what Jesus is doing in the parables is he's taking something that is familiar to his audience and then comparing it to the kingdom. So the thing that is evident and logical in the area of life that you know, or the sudden teaches you about something that is real and evident in the kingdom of heaven. And the parables, when they're held together, go through the whole arc of the good news, of the gospel. From God giving His grace to us receiving that grace, to us living that grace, and Him fulfilling that grace, that arc of giving, receiving, living and fulfilling, the parables chart that whole trajectory. But it's helpful to notice that different parables emphasize different parts of that trajectory and to read them as such. And parables do more than inform us. If Jesus simply wanted to inform us, he could have taught much more directly. But the parables are meant to conform us into the nature of his kingdom. They do a work in us, they have a more holistic sort of vision of what this kingdom is and we need to sit with them and let them work upon us that they might shape us more into the image of his kingdom. So let's look at these parables for just a little bit. So we're in Matthew chapter 13 starting at verse 44. And if you want to join with me, you can find it in your pubibles or your phone or whatever you have on you. So Matthew chapter 13 verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like. This is how many parables start. And it's worth reminding ourselves that when Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like, he's not pointing to one aspect within the parable that this thing in the parable, that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. He's pointing to the whole story that somehow kind of unveils the nature of the kingdom. So it's not that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure. No, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field that a man found and re-buried and in his joy he goes and tells everything he has and buys that field. That's what the kingdom of heaven is like. Something in there that we need to let it work on our heart. But we can notice some of the details here. First is treasure buried in a field. In a world before banking, it was a pretty common way to store your wealth in a relatively safe way to bury it. But this inevitably meant that through death or forgetfulness that people, these treasure troves would be left behind. And so though it certainly wasn't a common experience to dig up treasure, it was like no one and understood as a thing that could happen in the world that Jesus was speaking to. And then we have this man who finds it. And nothing is said about this man. There's no sense that he is out there with a metal detector trying to find treasure. He just seems to be digging. And we can perhaps imagine this man as a day laborer who's been told, go and dig up that field. You know, an unremarkable field that he's been told to dig up. But in the process of doing so, he uncovers something of immense value and realizes he has an opportunity here to gain greatly beyond anything he could have done through his own strength and cunning. And so in his joy, he sells everything he has to buy that field. This line seems to me in stark contrast with the story that will come up a bit later in the gospel of Matthew when Jesus is talking to a man. And the pinnacle of that conversation is, well, if you want to be perfect, sell everything that you have and give it to the poor so that you will have treasure and heaven and then come and follow me. This is the rich young ruler. And that man leaves Jesus downcast because he had many possessions. So in contrast to the rich young ruler who was called to sell all his possessions but leaves Jesus downcast, here we have this man who has recognized the extreme value of this otherwise unremarkable field and in his joy sells everything he has in order to gain the greater thing because he has understood that this thing is more valuable than everything asks that he has. And then we have the next parable. And in some ways it's the same parable but there are some important differences because here the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. Here we have someone, someone with connections and means and skill it seems to assess value who is actively searching out unrecognized value. That's how a merchant profits. And they see the value in something that is not fully seen by the person who is trading it to them. So utilizing that skill he is searching for great value and then he finds it and we can perhaps imagine this, this trade is table with all sorts of trinkets junk but somewhere in the midst of it is this pearl which he hasn't realized is of immense value. And so immense all the sort of things of low worth the merchant comes and says, "aha, I need to buy that pearl." And knowing the immense value of that pearl he goes, he sells everything that he has to attain this greater value. These parables are really on the front end of that trajectory. God is giving his grace, giving the goodness of his kingdom and then calling us to receive it. It's worth noting it though one seems to stumble upon this wealth and one seems to be seeking it out with skill. Neither of them generated this wealth. One was made through natural processes that were within the mysteries of a clam, let's call it. And one is built up by people long ago, forgotten through the annals of time and it is here. Both of them are not generators of wealth, they are discoverers of wealth that has been made available to them. This is the gift of God, the preciousness of his kingdom, something that does not come out of our own strength but is going to be a great success. God's giving us, God gives His grace. But both of these people have these very clear acts of reception, of receiving that grace, going and selling everything that they have, joyfully paying any cost in order to receive this greater thing. So held together, the call of these parables is to recognize the incomparable value of the good news of Jesus and to joyfully pay any cost to receive it. And there's kind of two phases there, if you notice it, the phase to recognize the incomparable value in an unremarkable field on a tray of trinkets, and then to joyfully pay any cost. So I want to meditate on each of those phases for just a little bit. So firstly, to recognize the incomparable value, it is so often unrecognized. There's so many loud sirens in our world telling us, this is valuable, this is important, this is where your attention should be drawn towards. We have massive markets of entertainment things that will kind of draw your attention and say, if you consume all these things rightly, these experiences, this content, then you will kind of have the sort of joy that you're looking for. Or fortune, 500 companies who present a vision of wealth, but also we can solve the world's problems in these ways. This is what's important. All political processes, where politicians will say, what this world really needs is for me and my people to be in charge, and then everything will be right. There are places in our society for all of these things, but compared to the slow, steady message of Jesus, we need to notice that there are constant distractions with other things that are saying, this is what really matters, this is the important thing, this is what you should invest in, this is where your attention should be drawn. But as was shared last week, the way of Jesus more like that mustard seed, small and underground, like that buried treasure, like that pearl on a tray of trinkets. God is the one who takes the things that I've been rejected by the world, that are seen as unremarkable by the world, and says, my promise is there, invest in this. This is what he was doing with Jeremiah, sitting in a conquered city, in a conquered nation, where no one was buying, no one wanted to own this land. But in a public witness called by God, Jeremiah goes and purchases this land to invest in the promise of God, that people will again buy and sell land and vineyards in this land that I have promised you. This is the God who calls our attention to the things that the world does not value. And I think for people who are in and around church, the risk for us is not that we kind of despise the way of Jesus or that we attribute no value to it, but that we deeply undervalued. It reminds me a bit of the Antiques Roadshow, which is a show which is kind of built on the premise of our intrigue by surprising and unrecognized value. And one of the famous stories of this show is back in 2001, where a man brought a blanket into the Antiques Roadshow. And this blanket had been on the back of his chair and it had been passed down through his family, and he had some sense that it might actually be somewhat valuable. He actually hoped that maybe it was worth a few thousand dollars, which is pretty good for an old blanket. But when he brought it to the assessors, they were like, "Oh, this is actually an extremely rare, pristine 19th century, Navajo youth. And on the open market, this would draw more like half a million dollars." We love those stories. All of a sudden, this thing he had as an ornament in his house, that he thought was actually pretty valuable, but kind of set alongside probably other valuable things in his house. Suddenly, was more valuable than the house itself in 2001 dollars. It's a paradigm shift of value. And I think too often, we treat our faith. Either explicitly because it's how we were taught, or in practice because life has gotten busy. We treat our faith the way of Jesus as a nice thing of value that sits alongside other valuable things in our life. That we have a house that is full of like the value of our health and well-being, of our career, of our financial stability, of our recreational life, our relational life, our family life, and all these things are important. And yes, in a nice, important place in our life is our faith life. Tick that box, have a nice, balanced life where everything has its nice value. Not realizing that this way of Jesus is the entire house that gives value to anything else in our lives, and without which, everything else is simply perishing. When I had my initial significant coming to faith moment when I was 12 years old, it was at a youth camp, and it was really rooted in an encounter with the living God. Because I'd been a church kid, but I had associated Christianity with being good, being obedient, living, a stable, and sensible life. And that was not a vision of abundant life to me. But it's like really a prayer for the first time had ears to hear what the good news was, that this was an abundant life that was purchased for us by God's own self-giving. And this was not a theoretical idea, but this was the Creator, the living God, who cared about my life and had turned up in my life. The one thing that became immensely evident to me at that point was that everything was about this. And my faith has grown in many ways and changed in many ways, but that core conviction that everything is about this is absolutely central to everything I believe and live out. Now I don't live it out perfectly by any means. But it is that pearl of great price that we must never neglect to hold on to deeply. And the reason why it is the most precious thing is because this is the God, the source of all life. Everything flows from Him. And what He offers us is something that the world cannot give. It is resurrection life. The life that points even to the grave and says, invest in that. That thing that is totally valueless in the world. And says, if you participate in the death of my son, you will participate in the life of my son. And all the other important and good things in our life make no sense, a futile. If we cannot have the life that makes it possible, the life that triumphs even in the face of death. God points to unremarkable fields. God points to trays full of junk and says, there is surprising value here. You must have eyes to see. And if we have eyes to see, then we are called to joyfully pay any cost to receive it. And we struggle with this a bit because we live in a society of instant gratification. So if something seems good, we can generally get it pretty quickly with just a few clicks. And that deforms our mind and our heart a bit, such that if something takes a good amount of cost and sacrifice to attain, we start to question whether it's worth it. Because we haven't really been given a vision of great cost, but great gain. We're just used to the great gain part. So we have to unlearn some of those rhythms and join the man who found the very treasure so that we can joyfully sell everything we have in order to attain this greatest thing. And thanks be to God in this congregation, there are many people who have paid great costs for this faith. People have turned away from lucrative and important careers to choose a different path that they believe that God is calling them to. That is not really valued in the world's eyes. People who have turned away from romantic relationships, knowing that that way would not draw them closer to Christ. These are great costs to pay. But we also need to keep in mind that people throughout history, the followers of Jesus throughout history, and around the world. world who have been called to pay the ultimate price of their very lives in order to hold on to this pearl. And though we may live in a society that rarely asks that level of cost of us, the pearl is still of the same value and is worth paying that price for still. And sometimes we need to lose our grasp of trying to have it all because it can be really tempting to have this vision of this comfortable 21st century life and the fullness of faith in Jesus. And we really try to avoid those things ever coming into tension because we're not sure what we will do if they come into tension. But we need to be convicted in the reality that where those things come into conflict and they will, the way of Jesus must win, even if it is at great cost. It may be deeply difficult to pay that cost, but like the Psalmist speaks, we need to be people who if we sow in tears, we will reap with the shouts of joy. And I think someone who understands this more than most is Paul. Now I'm going to actually just read our New Testament reading again because having sat in those parables for a bit, what he says these common verses, these well-known verses in Philippians almost feel like a commentary on what Jesus is teaching in those parables. Here's what Paul says, "Everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. All in that I consider everything to be a loss in view of this surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Because of him I've suffered the loss of all things and considered them done so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, not a wealth that I've worked for myself, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith that which is bound in an unremarkable field. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death and festering in that, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead." This is the way of life. This is what it looks like to receive that greater thing, that great treasure, that pearl of great price. And sometimes, as to the testimony of the martyrs, this is a dramatic cost evident to many that is paid. But we have to also remember the unremarkable nature of that field and of that tray of trinkets. What it often really looks like in practice is to pay those daily, simple costs. The costs that we have to pay in order to live out those rhythms of grace, of scripture, of prayer, of sacrament, of community, of turning up for one another in the church, of breaking bread, here, and in each other's homes. We need a look back to the formation of the church and that first pander cost where 3,000 people at once uncovered this pearl of great price. And what did they do? They went into each other's homes. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. They broke bread together. They devoted themselves to prayer, and they shared as each other had need. These are unremarkable fields. These are things that are undervalued in our society. And there's so many things that seem so much more important to do than to be together here on Sundays or in each other's homes, on Tuesdays and Wednesday nights, to make that space in the morning for prayer. There's always things that are trying to capture our attention beyond it. But this is the buried nature of this treasure. To organize our lives around the things that the world thinks are unimportant and even equate. Because of this, we live in a world where priceless pearls are sold for pennies. Where forgotten fortunes are forfeited for free. Where everlasting life is on offer and rented community halls and across tables and homes, across cafe tables. Wherever the word of life is spoken of and pointed to, wherever the sacrament is brought and we share in that community together, here is a life upon life upon life. It is those ordinary fields that are veiling buried treasure. And we must not undervalue it the way the world does. We must not let all the big and important and busy things that fill our lives squash out our vision of the pearl of great price. You need to be the people who have eyes to see and ears to hear the surprising and unrecognized value of the kingdom of God. Brothers and sisters, let us recognize the incomparable value of the good news of Jesus and joyfully pay any cost to receive it. Amen.