The Precious Way of God

The Reverend Tommy Thompson
“The Precious Way of God”
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 12A
24 July 2011

“Sometimes human beings are confronted with something that they must reject outright or that, if they accept it, will demand the remaking of their entire worldview.”1 It is rare, but sometimes something comes along in life -- an event, a gift, an experience--that is so great that we must either dismiss it altogether or allow everything to be torn down and rebuilt around it...

Dr. Wood was a very wealthy retired surgeon and owner of a well to do medical practice. Though most of his life’s energy was spent in the medical field, his one hobby--the only one he ever had time for--was art. When Dr. Wood was not in a business meeting or performing an intricate surgery, you could find him in an art museum or gallery. He enjoyed experiencing new art...always looking for that one piece that would be a few notches above the rest. He had acquired a few of these over the years...art that had the perfect balance of color...the most intricate details that sometimes seemed more vibrant than real life. But there was this one that was almost too perfect...too beautiful...too unique. Every time Dr. Wood gazed into its beauty, he’d get lost in it...it was magnificent. But there was one problem...it was too unique--too beautiful. It simply would not fit any of the spaces in his lavish, historic Victorian home or his contemporary medical practice building. He knows the painting is very important...it took his whole life for this one to find him...but it won’t fit in with any of his surroundings...so he puts it in his house, in a large walk in closet, encased with a light shining down upon it, and locks the door.

He would go into that closet from time to time and gaze into the beauty of the painting...and get lost there...but it stayed in that closet...it was too unique to fit in with his current surroundings. As Dr. Wood grew in years, he had some regret that such a magnificent piece of art was locked away in a closet for no one else to experience. He knew he had to do something...He didn’t want to make money on the piece...he wanted to give it as an extravagant gift to someone who would appreciate it at least as much as he did...Instead of being locked away in a closet, he knew this piece’s beauty was created to enhance whatever world it found itself in...

He decided to gift it to the college he once attended on the occasion of it’s 150th anniversary celebration. When he unveiled it, the crowd gasped with awe. Committees met to decide the best place to hang such a beautiful and unique piece of artwork. But they ran into the same problem as did Dr. Wood. It was too beautiful...it simply would not fit in the current architectural arrangement. But instead of locking it away in a closet, they decided on the only other possible solution. “We will tear everything down and build around this great and unexpected gift.”

Once the building project was completed, anyone who walked the campus knew that all the best things about the college are now enhanced within the new structures and the problems of which people had been aware of had been dealt with...simply by rebuilding everything around the beauty and majesty to which this piece points.2

“Sometimes human beings are confronted with something that they must reject outright or that, if they accept it, will demand the remaking of their entire worldview.”3 It is rare, but sometimes in our lives something comes along -- an event, a gift, an experience--that is so great that we must either dismiss it altogether or allow everything to be torn down and rebuilt around it...

In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is still in parable land...except today we get not simply one parable and its explanation but several parables and no explanations. Today we are more like the crowds who hear and not so much like the disciples who get to go into the house to hear the meaning of the parables...and boy do these parables engender a sense of wonder and awe! They, like the parable sower and the parable of the weeds & wheat, compel us to press in a little closer...to dive deeper into the mysteries of God in Jesus Christ.

As we press in, we have to be, at the least, intrigued with the nature of the kingdom these parables present. The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man, likely a hired plowman, who is out working in another’s field...just an ordinary day in the ordinary world and then a treasure that has been right there in the ordinary is uncovered by the plowman. The parable doesn’t tell us what this treasure is...but the man is overjoyed by it...so much that he hides the treasure in the field and goes and sells everything that he owns...This treasure is so important...so utterly priceless to this one that EVERYTHING the plowman has acquired throughout his entire life doesn’t even come close to comparing...he JOYFULLY sells it all and buys that field that contains this treasure.

It is interesting, this parable. If we got to know what the “treasure” actually is, we might not have as many questions as we do...I mean, why didn’t he just take the treasure? Maybe he knew the treasure wasn’t his in the fist place...well, then why did he make himself feel better by hiding the treasure and buying the field so the owner wouldn’t realize there was a treasure in the first place?

I don’t think Jesus is justifying what seems to be unethical practices by the plowman...but I do think that this parable shines light on the nature of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, the way of God, is precious. It is something so valuable, so important that it requires leaving everything we’ve ever understood as worthy and investing EVERYTHING WE HAVE AND EVERYTHING WE ARE IN IT. Sometimes this investment will mean breaking the rules of the current established ways. Jesus has done that more than once you know...

But what strikes me as much as anything about this parable is the way the plowman is described...upon discovering this treasure out in this field, he JOYFULLY sells all that he has and invests in this field with this treasure. And this is the nature of the precious way of God, the Kingdom of God. When it is revealed, it takes total commitment...total investment of all that we are...we can’t hold on to this and that from the age that is passing away...no, all that dies in the baptismal flood. Because all those things we’ve always held on to...those things we’ve always assigned worth...they were all mere “fillers” of the real thing...we always knew there had to be something else...then the real thing is revealed to us and all those other things that filled that hole are no longer needed...they are joyfully done away with and all is invested in this new way of life--the precious way of God that we’ve risen from the baptismal flood to make our pilgrimage...the one thing that was missing that makes everything right—the treasure that is kingdom life.

Another parable in today’s lesson is a lot like this one. The kingdom of God is likened to a merchant in search of fine pearls. This merchant has surely found pearls before...even fine pearls...but this time the merchant finds THE pearl...like Dr. Wood found THE painting...like the plowman found THE treasure worth selling everything for.

In the first century Mediterranean world, pearls symbolized the highest good in similar fashion as the way diamonds are understood in our world. It is a very good thing to find a pearl...but to find THE perfect pearl!...the merchant is left to do one thing: go and sell EVERYTHING he has and invest it all in this one pearl of great value.

That is what the kingdom of God is like, brothers and sisters. They way of God is THE most precious of treasures--the most costly of jewels. When we understand what is before us, the only logical conclusion is for us to liquidate all that we’ve ever had and invest EVERYTHING in this kingdom Jesus came to inaugurate: our time, our energy, our space, our resources...EVERYTHING...it’s that central to life.

You see, “Sometimes human beings are confronted with something that they must reject outright or that, if they accept it, will demand the remaking of their entire worldview.”4 The kingdom of God happens to be that something.

But what is so precious and important about this something that it requires such a response? Enter the other parables of the mustard seed.

The kingdom of God is likened to a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

What a curious parable...anyone who knows anything about mustard plants knows that there is no mustard tree...at best it is a garden shrub...in reality it is more like a garden herb. Is Jesus confused? I mean the Gospel of John teaches us, and we confess it in the creed, that all things were made through him and without him nothing was made. Surely he knows something about that which he has made! So I don’t think we should dismiss this parable as Jesus being misinformed...i don’t think he slept through his botany courses...

In the ancient world, trees were imperial symbols. The great empires would be compared to various strong, mighty, or towering trees. It was their imperial symbol of power. So, when Jesus likens the “Kingdom” of God to a certain kind of tree...it doesn’t matter whether it’s botanically accurate...what matters is he is making a qualitative statement about the kingdom he is inaugurating and his hearers would have made this identification. If we look at the back of a U.S. quarter, we see a symbol of the eagle with outstretched wings symbolizing the presidential coat of arms. If we were to look at the back of the coin of the kingdom of God, maybe we’d see a mustard seed...like on this coin that Elizabeth Chenault loaned to me...on the front is a mustard seed and on that back, the mustard “tree.”

This is the meaning Jesus is sharing through this parable. The imperial tree of choice of the kingdom of God is not a strong oak or a towering California Redwood...No, it is a garden herb. Talk about upsetting the equilibrium. Talk about turning the tables upside down...This kingdom is alternative to the so called “power” structures of the world we live in...it redefines power...it shows us what power really is...

This is the “preciousness” of the kingdom of God...it’s power...This “little shrub” will one day be finally understood and accepted as the greatest of all trees--of all kingdoms or empires.

If you think your mighty...great...someone of note, i hope you hear the Gospel who proclaims His kingdom’s imperial tree is a garden herb and not a gigantic oak. Again today, Jesus has invited us to become the “least of these” and by so doing become the greatest in the kingdom of God. This is true power...humble, selfless, becoming least, elevating the other--self-giving love that reveals the heart of God. This love came face to face with the oak trees and redwoods of the world, and in Jesus Christ, the mustard tree conquered. Now the slaughtered Lamb is revealed as the powerful Lion of Judah. The way of God is the way of the cross. The power of God is the self-less humble love of Christ. And the cross has given way to new creation through His resurrection when death was beaten down by death. What the world understood as a mere garden herb has become the greatest of trees that nurtures the creation through it’s far-reaching and shade proving limbs. One day it will be completely evident for all to see...

“Sometimes human beings are confronted with something that they must reject outright or that, if they accept it, will demand the remaking of their entire worldview.”5 It is rare, but sometimes in our lives something comes along -- an event, a gift, an experience--that is so great that we must either dismiss it altogether or allow everything to be torn down and rebuilt around it. What will you do with such a unique and precious treasure?

Amen.

End Notes:
1. N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (New York: Harper Collins, 2008) 66.
2. Ibid. Wright tells a story about a painting that was so great that, for it to fit, everything had to be torn down and built around it. I have based my fictional story off Wright’s original.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.