Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
August 18, 2002
Matthew 13: 44-46
Patrick Wilson, a Presbyterian minister in Virginia, shares this story: “One day I looked out the window of my office to see someone walking around on the church lawn with a metal detector. He swept the machine over the grass, paused, knelt down, and dug around. He found something, rubbed the dirt from it, and put it in his bag. I went out to see what was going on.
“He showed me a copy of Lost Treasures magazine. A feature article described how church lawns were productive places to search for, well, ‘lost treasures.’ The fellow opened his bag to show me some coins children had probably lost on their way to Sunday School, a cheap ring, an old Sunday School pin. He said that some of these pins were gold, but he ran his metal detector over it to show me that this one was only brass. The metal detector had a needle indicating ‘brass,’ ‘silver,’ ‘gold,’ ‘copper.’ It also had a gauge to calculate how deeply something was buried. It did not, however, have a gauge to point you toward that treasure which would cause you to sell everything.”
I once misplaced my wallet at the Houston airport. I had taken it out to use my calling card. I placed it next to the phone while I made my call. When I finished, I simply walked away from the phone, leaving my wallet there. It did not take long for me to realize what I had done. I raced back to the phone. No wallet. As you know, I am usually a very calm person. But losing my wallet caused me to become just a bit frantic. Then I heard my name called: “Eugene Nelson, report to gate C-16.” I went to gate C-16 and there was my wallet. Some unknown Good Samaritan had found my wallet and turned it in. I was more than a little relieved. Very grateful. But, as relieved as I was at finding that valuable item – a kind of treasure really - which was lost, I really wasn’t moved to sell everything in response.
But Jesus’ parable of the treasure hidden in the field speaks of a treasure so marvelous, so valuable, so precious, that it possesses us, grabs us, compels us, and we are never quite the same. In fact, it just might completely turn our lives around…probably will! What could possibly be that compelling, that valuable, so that obtaining it just might be worth everything we have?
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.” All that he has…such is the value of this treasure. Jesus describes what people do when they find an incomparable treasure, or in the case of the merchant and the pearl, when they find what they have been seeking. That, he says, is what the kingdom is like. In the words of Patrick Wilson, “It’s not so much about giving up anything as it is about finding what you are really looking for; it’s about finding what you’re looking for even if you don’t know what you’re looking for; it’s about finding what you’re looking for even if you gave up looking and hoping a long time ago. When you find it, everything else pales in comparison.” Yes, says Jesus, the kingdom is just like that!
But for a moment let’s shift gears and return to the one who found this treasure. Once again, Jesus finds a less that sterling example of humanity to illustrate his point. A man finds a treasure hidden in a field he does not own. First, let’s be clear. It is somebody else’s treasure. The man is probably a tenant farmer, working land that is not his. It was not unusual in first century Israel for people to bury their wealth. Between the invading armies of the Egyptians and Babylonians and Assyrians and then the Romans, people in Israel had learned over the centuries that it was often best just to hide your wealth away…wait for happier times. But sometimes happier times never came or the owner of the wealth died or the place was lost or forgotten. Who knows what can happen over the years? Meanwhile, a treasure lies hidden.
Until it is discovered by this farmer. The land isn’t his; the treasure isn’t his. But he is not above a little larceny. Like Fagan, the lead thief in the musical, Oliver, our farmer is “reviewing the situation” – he knows that sometimes you have to “pick a pocket or two.” He covers the treasure, and then sells everything he has to buy the field. He makes the land his own so that he can claim the treasure. He is not one of those people who finds a bag of money in the street and immediately takes it to the police station. No, he buys the street and takes the money! Again someone who is not exactly a role model for our children…or anyone else! Yet this farmer is lifted up by Jesus as a model whom we should follow. Why does he do this to us?
Perhaps it has something to do with the nature of the kingdom of God. The man finds a treasure so fabulous that he gives up everything – even his sense of right and wrong – in order to claim it as his own. He surrenders everything. Perhaps Jesus uses the larcenous farmer in order to give dramatic illustration to the compelling, overwhelming nature of the kingdom. When you grasp it, better yet, when it grasps you, your value system, your understanding of what really matters, what is really important, is turned upside down and you are never quite the same again.
I’ve shared with you before Andrew Young’s reaction when he learned that his daughter had decided to take some time off from college and go to Africa to work with the poor and the sick. When he made his concerns known to her, she responded that love and compassion for the poor and suffering and oppressed, finding Jesus in their pain, are what she had heard him preach her entire life. She had decided to put his words into action. All he could say in response was, “Whoever thought she would take me seriously?”
William Willimon, chaplain of Duke University, writes that in a previous church, in the middle of a sermon on the rich man and Lazarus, he read an account out of a Brazilian newspaper about how the poor of Brazil are now selling organs from their bodies to the rich. The story quoted a man named Walter who had recently sold his eyes to a rich person for a corneal transplant. Walter, who had never had a job, was quoted as saying, “At last I can see my family to a better life.”
Says Willimon, “I just read the story; that’s all. Next morning, Monday, when I arrived in my office the telephone was ringing. It was Debbie. Debbie was our resident congregational activist. She lived with her teacher husband in a small house near the church.
“’I haven’t slept all night,’ Debbie said.
“’Why?’ I asked.
“’Because of Walter. I can’t get him out of my mind. I got David up this morning at five o’clock. We talked. We prayed. We were going to get a new car. We can live without a new car. We were going to buy a new stereo. We don’t need it. We are going to double our giving to the church if you can promise me that this money will go to help someone like Walter.’
Says Willimon,“I thought to myself, ‘I slept like a baby last night.’”
What happened to Debbie is what can happen to any of us when this kingdom gets into you. You find yourself following someone who is headed somewhere that you would not have gone if left to your own devices. That is why Jesus tells us about that farmer. People who discover treasure do the most amazing things, the most uncalculated things, the most unpredictable things. In the kingdom this crazy behavior makes perfect sense.
“Or,” says Patrick Wilson, “Maybe Jesus told this parable to people who hadn’t seen the treasure and weren’t giving up anything and weren’t acting crazy. Maybe Jesus was saying to them, one of these days you’ll see something that will turn your life upside down. Things that seem important won’t seem so important any more. You’ll discover yourself giving your life away because you have so much to give. People, even your best friends and family, will wonder if you’ve lost it, but of course, it’s just the opposite: you’ve found it, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price. When that happens, don’t be afraid; it’s just your true life happening, your true life hidden with God.”
Jesus wants us to know that God is on the move in more ways than we can possibly understand, including on the move in our own hearts. And God is nothing if not persistent. Who knows how many times we have walked over buried treasure and didn’t even notice. But it’s there. And if we don’t find it, it might very well find us.
Frederick Buechner tells about an encounter he once had near Central Park in New York City: “Hurrying along Central Park South, she didn’t even stop as she said it. It was as if she didn’t have time to stop. She said it on the run… ‘Jesus loves you,’ she said. It was a corny thing for her to say, of course. Embarrassing. A screwball thing to blurt out to a total stranger on a crowded sidewalk. But, ‘Jesus loves you.’ She said it anyway.”
He concludes, “And that is the good news of the gospel, exactly that. We cannot make the Kingdom of God happen, but we can put out leaves as it draws near. We can be kind to each other. We can be kind to ourselves. We can drive back the darkness a little. We can make green places within ourselves and among ourselves where God can make God’s Kingdom happen…Pray for the Kingdom. Watch for signs of it. Live as though it is here already because there are moments when it almost is…’Jesus loves you,’ she said. It means we are loved even in our lostness. It means we are precious, every one of us, even as we pass on the street without so much as noticing each other’s faces. Every city is precious. The world is precious. Someday the precious time will be up for each of us. But the Kingdom of God is at hand. Nothing is different and everything is different. It reaches out to each of our precious hands while there’s still time.”
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure…” Dare to believe it. Dare to put all other treasures, prizes, priorities and pride at the curb to be hauled away, that we might finally cling fast to the One who gives life true value.
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