Austin McGehee
Proper 12 (July 27 2014)
The Unexpected treasures of God’s Kingdom
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be
always acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our redeemer.”
Looking over Acadia National Park, Cadillac Mountain offers a truly
unexpected treasure. In this place, at the summit, the first glimpse of
sunrise comes into view in the western hemisphere. As dawn’s first light
discovers creation, islands and waters come into view. Witnessing this
astonishing sight of vibrant colors of pinks, blues, and oranges is
impossible to describe. No pictures or words can captivate this moment
making it worth waking up for.
The Kingdom of God works in a similar bewildering way. Everything
about the Kingdom of God astonishes us. Surprising moments of beauty
and love, sense of belonging and call remind us of God’s Kingdom.
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Though too often we develop our own idea of what our lives could be
and miss the presence of God’s kingdom. In these moments, God
surprises us the most, and offers us unforeseen treasures of indescribable
joy.
My wife does not care for the unexpected. Tiffany is the resourceful one
of the two of us; the planner and the organizer. She is open for any
adventure, but prefers to have an idea about what we’re getting
ourselves into. She keeps our lives ordered and our schedule consistent.
She planned our trip to Acadia National Park, waking us up at 3:15 in
the morning, so that we could see the beautiful sunrise at the summit of
Cadillac Mountain. If Tiffany is the structured one, I am well the total
opposite. I feel too much order can feel constricting, or limiting in the
course of a day. Of course this can get me into trouble, I prepare for the
unexpected. For Tiffany, there is type of surprise she loves and… if you
ever pay attention, ever listen… listen to this. My spouse enjoys an
unexpected gift, at an unexpected time.
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When Jesus describes the Kingdom of heaven to us, we get the
unexpected. Jesus… Teacher… Tell us of your Kingdom… Describe
to us paradise. We expect a depiction of perfect bliss, of order and
beauty in the presence of our creator. We envision the reunion with our
loved ones racing to one another. The love of God breathes in palaces of
unbounded splendor, and all desires given to us.
Jesus, the only one ever able to describe heaven to us does not seem to
give the people what we want. Instead, Jesus tells a series of parables;
enough metaphors describing the Kingdom of God to cover the past
three weeks in our Liturgical Calendar. Of course the seminarian gets
assigned the passage ending with, “Do you understand all this?” Well.
No not really.
In today’s Gospel, I am most drawn to the two parables depicting the
surprise of discovering the Kingdom of Heaven. The first parable
describes someone surprisingly discovering a hidden treasure in a field.
They protect it and cherish it, until they buy the land from the owner
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who has no idea of the buried treasure. The person digging for the
treasure deceives the owner of the land, making them a thief.
Similarly, the second parable describes the merchant discovering the
perfect pearl. Merchants, in the time of Jesus, were considered as corrupt
as thieves. This merchant inspects pearls for their own unique
distinctions and looks for the very best. Every color, shape, and texture
of pearls shows beauty in their individuality. The flaws of pearls are
part of their characteristics. In this case, the merchant discovers a pearl
standing out from the rest, the perfect pearl. The merchant gives up
everything to have it.
In both of these stories, Jesus takes two frowned upon vocations, and
uses them as agents for describing God’s realm. They discover
something special after looking, digging, deciphering and gladly take
something infinitely special and valuable. When they make these
findings, they take them for themselves. These two are not supposed to
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be where they are, and surely not supposed to be rewarded. This is not
the kingdom the disciples know or taught before.
This irregular nature of God’s Kingdom defines our faith. Jesus slams
into the world at an unexpected time, in an unexpected way. Jesus
chooses the unequipped and unexpected disciples who remain surprised
by the treasure walking with them. Christ walks among the thieves and
merchants to experience our humanity. Jesus reaches out to heal and
care for the forgotten, the outsider, abused and deprived. Then there is
the cross... the unexpectedly perfect death, from the most perverse and
shameful method of execution. This surprise only surpassed by the
ultimate surprise three days later. This is where the Kingdom of God
lives, where it thrives.
When we are most surprised by the work of God, we most experience
the kingdom. This especially occurs when our lives don’t exactly carry
out according to our plans. We miss out on our vocations, but receive
more time with the treasures of our children and loved ones. We move
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away from homes that are familiar to us, before reuniting with old
friends. We look for signs of God’s Kingdom in receiving news of a
diagnosis, or the loss of loved ones, only to share memorable stories to
bring us together.
We question and wonder the presence of God’s Kingdom in the places
with the most distress. We wonder if the girls taken from Nigeria or the
children from Latin America know they are children of God, fully
deserving of dignity and love. We ask if those affected by the crash in
Ukraine or the families in Israel and Palestine identify any treasures
remaining in the ashes. It is in these places, these crevices of
hopelessness, where the treasures of the kingdom are most unexpectedly
discovered and perfected. God’s dominion is found here, because
nothing else can.
Jurgen Moltmann describes that this unexpectedness is exactly how God
works. He says Christ “humbles himself and takes upon himself the
eternal death of the godless and the godforsaken, so that all the godless
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and the godforsaken can experience communion with him.” Jesus, our
perfect treasure, opens the kingdom for the thieves, the merchants, the
accused… Jesus offers perfect love for everyone. Only through the
violent and lowly death of a criminal can this become possible. Here
Jesus experiences our abandonment and rejection, and stays
unexpectedly with us.
Instead of searching and digging for God’s Kingdom, what if this
treasure we seek… is us? We are the pearl. In our flaws God sees us as
perfect. God is doing the digging, the searching, the perfecting and
knows exactly where to look. We are taken with joy as God’s own,
discovering treasures and perfections we cannot describe. As we
discover who God makes us, we carry within us the kingdom. We want
to build it in the world as it is in heaven.
St Alban’s exhibits God’s unexpected treasures every day making the
parish feel like home. The community responds to loss while embraces
the new in baptism and welcome. Tim recognized something buried
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within me and offered me this experience out of well… hope. You
continue to surprise me by offering unexpected patience in my formation
and a confidence in my call. We share the Centennial together, in the
place where the parish began. Together we listened to words of
unanticipated inspiration by a colonel, so poetically linking lives of faith
to lives of duty. In VBS last week, children experienced a memorable
and formative experience because of a willingness to recognize how
truly tiresome this ministry can be. “Moses needs a nap.” At the same
time, we continued to be surprised by the unexpected insights to God’s
Kingdom communicated through the hearts of children. On one
particular occasion, when Tim explained our hospitality of the Great
Thanksgiving, one child responded “It’s like a play date with God.”
This is God’s Kingdom. It is already there, it has always been there
from the beginning. We are its treasures, the pearls that are so
unexpectedly discovered without flaw in the eyes of God. We treasure
all the ways God surprises us. God’s Kingdom is inside us, God calls us
to discover it, becoming God’s perfect pearl, treasures of the Kingdom
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of Heaven. God sees us as treasures and perfect pearls, worth giving up
everything for.
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