Nov 5 2019 Matthew 13: 44-52

‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’

I must admit that I like the not-so-brilliant disciples better than the ones who answer that they understand everything. Jesus has just offered three examples of what the kingdom of heaven is like. And I’m not entirely sure I understand any of them, but when he questions the disciples say they do. Either there’s more to the story than is written down, they’re brilliant, they’re fibbing, or I’m thick. Or some combination of the four.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. A man finds the treasure, and hides it in a field. Then he sells all he has to buy the field. My question is that if he’d originally found the treasure, why did he bury it, and then need to buy the field in which he’d buried it?

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who’s searching for pearls. He finds one ‘of great value’ and sells all he has to buy it. If he’s been a merchant for pearls, of course he’s searching for a pearl of great value.

Finally, the kingdom of heaven is like a fisherman’s net that catches all sorts of fish, good and bad. He brings the full net to the shore, and throws away the bad ones. Um, yeah.

This is not an attempt to explain these. Maybe with more coffee. But for now, I’m interested in what the disciples understand, and I don’t. And how Jesus concludes this passage. After the disciples explain that yes, they do understand, Jesus says that every person who thinks about God, and is trained in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house who gets both new and old things out of his treasures.

I understand this to be saying that if we think about God and think about our world, we can see new things from the old, that there are things to learn about God in all sorts of places. From buried treasures, to found pearls to nets full of fish. If, in fact, we can learn new things about God from the old and regular things around us, it seems that God’s got a hand in all of those old things and in what peculiar old things draw my attention and musings.

There’s a phase I’ve heard a lot in the past ten years, that I’d never heard before, because my circle of colleagues expanded when I was ordained. The phrase is “That’ll preach!”. That's when something old or seemingly regular happens, but you acknowledge God’s hand, or see a way to tell a new story from something routine. I’m imagining that Jesus’ examples of the kingdom of heaven were instances where he thought ‘that’ll preach’, and so he did. I still don’t necessarily understand his examples, and this morning I’m not feeling the need to. But I am grateful for the time I spend thinking about Scripture, and all of those regular, yet peculiar instances of God’s hand in my world. 

This morning, I’m thinking about the instances where I can bring new things from old treasures, seeing God’s hand in the routine, and ways to remember and share those moments. I’m thinking I might start keeping a collection in the notebook I carry all the time of those instances where I think, “that’ll preach”. Maybe the instances won’t make sense to anyone else, but I always enjoy those epiphanies when I see something new, and something blessed.