This week Morton Church and I are celebrating thirty years of ministry together. I am thankful. This congregation is a luminous pearl in the kingdom of God.
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A Sermon on Matthew 13:44-46
There was one occasion when Jesus urged people to count the cost of following him. But not here. “Picture the kingdom this way,” he said. “It’s like a farmhand working in the field. And when his hoe strikes something hard—surprise! It’s not a rock. It’s a treasure so great that with joy he quickly reburies it, hurries off, liquidates all his assets, and uses the money to buy that field.”
“Or picture the kingdom this way,” Jesus went on. “It’s like a merchant constantly on the lookout for fine pearls. And one day he finds the most precious pearl he has ever seen. He hurries to sell all his assets, and uses the money to buy that pearl.”
When these men realized what they were looking at, they were ready to put everything they had on the line. The treasure was so valuable, the pearl was so luminous and beautiful that they didn’t hesitate at all. They let go of everything to have something that meant everything.
In parable form, Jesus was calling for the same kind of commitment, the same kind of total life reorientation that he later asked directly of a rich man who came to him looking for the way to eternal life. There Jesus put it plainly: “Sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
To participate in the kingdom of God, to know its precious treasure, Jesus calls us to be ALL in. Wholehearted commitment to Jesus and his way, living by kingdom values and kingdom priorities. It means putting all that we have and all that we are on the line, like the surprised field hand, like the persistent pearl merchant who put their all on the line, treasuring something far greater.
But Jesus isn’t asking anyone to do something he himself has not done. If anyone knows what it means to be all in, it’s God. God knows what it is to cherish a treasure so much that God would give anything to have it. What could mean that much to God? Human beings. People are the treasure that is so precious to God, and there is no length to which God will not go to embrace this treasure.
God pours out God’s own life in Jesus Christ, loving each and every one of us with all God’s heart. Jesus is all in for us. In Jesus’ eyes, each and every one is worth opening his arms wide on the cross. Each and every one is worth the effort he made, worth the pain, worth dying for. Our Savior longs to rescue us all from the sin that kills our love for God and each other. Our Savior longs to rescue us all from death, and so he gave his all. Beloved, you and I mean everything to our Savior. We are his treasure.
Knowing that is who we are is itself precious kingdom treasure, for there are so many voices in the world, even within ourselves that tell us we are not worth it, that we are only worth what we can do, that our flaws and weaknesses, and mistakes render us worthless. In the kingdom of God, all are beloved. In the kingdom of God, love is the purpose of life, and that love is lived out as we seek life with peace with justice and wellbeing for all. In the kingdom of God, the wondrous will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God and what God is up to in it are bigger than the earthly span of our lives, but our lives don’t stop mattering when we die. We rest in the love of God through Jesus on earth and in heaven, here and now and then and there in eternity. We are safe and saved, treasured forever and always.
Again and again Jesus calls us to let go of lesser treasures and stake our lives on this one: abundant life in God’s kingdom forever and always.
Life together in beloved community is certainly one of the precious treasures of the kingdom of God. It is luminous, lovely, holy. I understand the joy when the field hand discovered the treasure, and when the merchant discovered the beautiful pearl. When I met you all for the first time, when John and I spent that first day here with your search committee, we recognized the loving presence of God here right off the bat. That afternoon in the sanctuary I preached to the committee about the four friends who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Then we sang “Blest Be the Tie” together. Back around the table in the fellowship hall, the committee made it clear that it would not matter to you all that speaking clearly is an issue for me, and that folks might have to listen harder to understand my speech. That meant everything to me. Before we left, Peggy threw her arms around me. When we got in the car to head home to Richmond, I said to John, “I think this might be it!” I rejoice in this treasure that I found, and that found me.
What treasure to talk together all these years about the God we know in Jesus, getting to know him more deeply and learning to trust him more and more. We have prayed oceans of prayer together in Jesus’ name, through many joys and sorrows and everything in between. What treasure that the Holy Spirit has been among us faithfully, challenging, comforting, and sustaining us. What treasures are the people that God has brought together through the years, the communion of saints, the great cloud of witnesses. We have learned so much from one another about many things—faithfulness, forbearance, forgiveness, and more.
Our quest continues, to lift up Jesus together, to tell the story of Jesus and his love whenever, wherever, and however we can. For all this is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. It’s the nature of kingdom treasure. When we embrace it with all our hearts we can’t keep it all to ourselves, because we long for the time when all will know Jesus and his love, when all will find healing, wholeness, salvation, when all will find their place and their purpose in the kingdom. We love to tell this story that we have loved so long.
Jesus, the king who embraces us wholeheartedly, calls us to embrace the kingdom wholeheartedly. We are called to treasure wholeheartedly the one who treasures us, and to treasure wholeheartedly the way of the one who treasures us. For where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. AMEN.
The Mustard Seed Journal 
Nicely done. Congratulations on the ministry you and the church share!
Thank you, David!