You Aren’t What You Think

Delivered May 29, 2011

Genesis 2:4-9; I Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Who are we? Except for the question of God, there is no greater question. In the discipline of systematic theology it is called anthropology – not the social science of anthropology, but the theological doctrine of man. What are we? If we answer that question incorrectly, then we get everything else wrong in the spiritual life. I started to answer this question last Sunday by exploring some biblical metaphors. Humans are the creation of God, the image of God, and the words of God.

Today I am going to explore the biblical understanding of human nature as body, soul and spirit. Just as the Christian understanding of God is triune – God as one in three – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – so is man (and I am using the term man in the traditional inclusive sense) three. We are body, soul and spirit. The apostle Paul says in I Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are spirit, soul, and body. This might sound a little strange. Normally we think of the Christian understanding of man as composed of body and soul. But that is not the Hebraic understanding in the Old Testament or in the New Testament. That is the Greek philosophical understanding of man articulated by Plato and developed by Aristotle. It came into Christianity through Thomas Aquinas and has dominated both the Catholic and Protestant theology ever since. But that is not what the Scriptures teach. The Scriptures understand us as three in one. We are made in the image of God, and we are a trinity like God. We are body, soul and spirit. Those are the three points of this sermon today.

I. First the body - the physical dimension of human beings. The creation story found in Genesis 2:7 says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Here are all three elements. Our bodies are formed from the dust of the ground. God breathed into this physical creation the “breath of life.” The word “breath” in both Hebrew and Greek is the same word that is translated as spirit; it can be translated either way. “And man became a living soul.” Other translations say living being, but the traditional word is soul. The three elements of man are found right here in the creation story.

So let’s look at the body with its five senses through which we experience the world. We all know that these physical bodies are temporary. The Apostle Paul says in our Epistle Lesson, “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  

Scripture teaches that our bodies are real, unlike some religions and philosophies that teach that they are illusory. Our bodies are real, but only relatively real; they are temporary. The apostle Paul says in I Corinthians, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” Our bodies are part of our temporary nature. They are part of who we for the time being, but they are not who we will be eternally. We are embodied creatures, but when it comes down to what is eternally real and important, we are not our bodies.

II. Second is the Soul. Discussion of the soul can be confusing because the word has been so distorted by Greek philosophical dualism. I hesitate to even use the word. The Greek word used in the New Testament is pusche, which is transliterated into English as psyche.  We get the word psychology from it. It is our psychological self. It is our personality. The Latin word is persona from which we get the words person, personality and personal. It is who we are as a person. Biblically speaking the soul is not our spiritual essence, which is what people normally think of as the soul; the correct biblical term for that is spirit. The soul or psyche is the personal part. I like to use the word “self.” It is what we generally think of as who we are – our personal identity. Some psychologies will use the word ego to describe this.

The Bible describes this part of us as having three dimensions – thinking, feeling, and willing – the intellectual, the emotional, and the volitional – mind, emotion and will. (If you are interested in exploring this in more depth, the writings of Watchman Nee are helpful. He was a 20^th century Chinese Christian, who was imprisoned by the communists in 1952 and died in prison in 1972. His major work is the three volumes “The Spiritual Man” but he has smaller books and biblical commentaries.) Our self or soul is what we normally think of as our identity – as who we really are – this conglomerate of feelings and thoughts and choices. This is what we often assume is the permanent part of us – the part that is going to survive death and reside in heaven and be in the presence of God.

But the more I study scripture, and more I experience God and examine my relationship to God, the less certain I am that this personality is the permanent part of me. The spirit is the permanent part and not the psyche or self. The self has a beginning and will have an end. It is a product of our genetic makeup, our upbringing and our environment. Our personalities change over time; they are subject to mental and physical illness. Brain injury can change a person’s personality. All sorts of mental illnesses can change a person. All sorts of chemical changes and imbalances in the brain and the body can affect the personality.  Sometimes we can get caught up in the moment and do something out of character and later we say, “I was not myself.” If we were not ourselves then who were we?

There is an insight in the etymology of the word “person.” “Person” comes from the Latin word persona, which means a mask. It literally means ‘to sound through” and refers to the masks that actors wore and spoke through in Greek and Roman plays. The same actor could play different roles by wearing different masks. The masks could be changed – as in the two masks that are the symbol of the theatre – a happy mask and a sad mask. Shakespeare’s famous line in “As You Like It” has more truth then we might think, “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts….” Then there is his less famous line from the Merchant of Venice, “I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one.”

Our personas (our personalities, our psyches, our selves, our souls) are masks. Our personas are roles we play while we are physically alive on earth, but they are not who we really are. They not permanent. They will be set aside at death like an actor sets aside his role and costume. The apostle James wrote: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Much of who we think we are will not survive death. We are not who – or what - we think… or what we feel or what we will. We are not our egos; we are not this role that we have created for ourselves. We are not our selves. That brings we to the third point.

III. The Spirit. We are three – body, soul and spirit. The body is constantly changing – every cell in the body being replaced every seven years – and eventually it cannot sustain itself any longer and will die and return to the ground. God said to Adam in Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”  But our spirits are a different matter. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

God breathed the spirit of life – the breath of life - into our bodies at our creation. The spirit is what gives these mortal frames life. When the spirit of life comes into this mortal body, then a person is born. The person lives for three score years and ten or more and then dies, and the spirit returns to God. That which is eternally real is spirit. As bodies we are temporary, as spirit we are eternal. Spirit is not born nor does it die. The traditional language is to say that we are immortal soul, but it is more biblical to say we are eternal spirit.

What is spirit? It is that spaciousness at the center of our being. It is who we sense we are and intuitively know wew are – that which does not change from childhood to adulthood. It is the deepest, fullest, indescribable sense of who we know we really are – beneath the masks, names and roles. I like the metaphor of the temple. The Bible says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple had different courts – different layers, if you will. At the heart of the temple was the Holy of Holies. The spirit is the holy of holies of our bodies. In the Holy of holies in the temple was the ark of the covenant. The lid of the ark had two cherubim facing each other with their wings outstretched. God was said to dwell in the space between the cherubim. In these temples of our bodies, the spirit is the space at the heart of our being. And God as Holy Spirit dwells in that space.

 Scripture makes a distinction between Holy Spirit and human spirit. For example Paul says in Romans 8 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” In speaking about what we normally call heaven, the Book of Hebrews describes it as “Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” and describes it as the abode of “the spirits of just men made perfect.” In essence we are spiritual beings. The French Christian philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a physical experience.”

          Who are we? We are spirit embodied in a physical form and personified in a self. We are an earthen vessel (to use Paul’s language) within which is space in which dwells God as Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God dwells in/with our spirit. Through faith in Christ we are united with God in the Holy Spirit. We become one with God while still being ourselves. This is what Jesus prayed for us on Good Friday. In John 17 Jesus prayed these words:

          “[I pray] for those who will believe in Me… that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” This is who we are and who we were created to be.

          The meaning and purpose of our lives is to be united with God through Christ. This is not just something we wait until we die to know. This is something we are now and experience now and live now. Eternal life is not just a state called heaven that comes after the death of our bodies. Eternal life is now. We live it by submitting our bodies to the Spirit of God. Paul tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, which is our spiritual worship. We submit our bodies to God. We submit our selves to God – our minds, our hearts, and our wills. It is summed up by saying that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We surrender it all – every part of us - to God. Our will become one with God. Our minds become one with God. Paul tells us to “have the mind that was also in Christ Jesus.”

          There is an amazing passage in I Corinthians 2 where the apostle says, “ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” ¹⁰ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. ¹⁶ For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

          In short he is saying that our natural human hearts and minds cannot comprehend who we are and what we were meant to be. But the Spirit of God accomplishes this in our lives by the grace of God. Who are we? We are body, soul and spirit. We are earthen vessels in which the Spirit of God lives through us. May the Spirit glorify God through our lives.

Who Do You Think You Are?

Delivered Sunday, May 22, 2011

Genesis 1:26-31: Matthew 5:13-16

Who are you? There are a lot of possible answers to that question. If some one comes up to you at a social gathering and asks, “Who are you?” you probably would respond with your name. But that is not who you really are. That is just a label. Your parents could have called you by some other name, and you would still be you. You could even change your name, if you want, but it would change not change who you are. Some might respond to the question with their occupation. “I am a doctor or nurse or lawyer or artist or mechanic or teacher or pastor.” That sense of identity can be very deeply ingrained in us. I identity myself to others as a pastor – specifically as the pastor of the Federated Church, just as I identified myself previously as the pastor of First Baptist Church and before that Calvary Baptist Church. I took time off from being a pastor for all of 2010 and I had an identity crisis of sorts. If I was not a pastor, then who was I? It was a real issue for me. It is an issue for people who find themselves suddenly unemployed or retired. If your identity is wrapped up in your profession or occupation, then who are you when you no longer do that?

To the question, “Who are you?” many of us respond with our family connections. We identify ourselves as someone’s spouse, partner, parent or child. We find a sense of identity in our biological, marital or social relationships. But a little bit of thinking will reveal that if we had made some different decisions in life all those relationships might be different. Would we still be us then? The same is true with our cultural or national identity. It is not hard to imagine that we could have been born in another culture, which could mean being born into another language, worldview and religion. We also tend to identify ourselves by age; we see ourselves as young or old. But our age changes more quickly than anything else. It seems like I was 21 only a few years ago. It feels like yesterday that I first came to be pastor this church, but I was 31 years old then. Both of my sons are older than that now. So if we identify ourselves as a teenager, young adult, middle age or a senior (as I am identified these days when I am given the senior discount at Dunkin Donuts) that is the most temporary of all identities.

Is there an identity that does not - and cannot - change over time? That is what we want to know. Are we these bodies? Every cell in our body is replaced every seven years. I have had eight different bodies and I am working on my ninth now. Unfortunately these bodies are not getting any better! If we are not identified with our bodies, then who are we? That is what I want to explore today. Just to warn you, it is going to take more than one Sunday even to scratch the surface of this question. Who are you? The scriptures give some answers to this.

I. First, you are the creation of God. Just so you know, I do not get into the Creationism-Evolution debate. That is a complete waste of time in my opinion. Creation is a theological doctrine, not a biological one. The doctrine of Creation tells us who made us, not how we were made. If you want to discover how we were created you look in the fossil record and human DNA. If you want to discover who created you, you look in the Bible and into your own soul.

A little girl asked her mother: “How did the human race begin?” The mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve; they had children; and so was all mankind made.” Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, “Many millions of years ago there were small mammals, monkey-like animals, from which the human race evolved.” The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said man came from monkeys?' The mother answered, 'Well, Dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family, and your father told you about his.'

I am telling you about both sides of the family. We are the creation of God. I admit that this is a statement of faith. We cannot prove there is a God or that he created the universe; I have dealt with that in a previous sermons. If you don’t believe in a Creator God, then you will answer this question differently. Without God we are simply biological organisms. We are alive here and now, but one day we will die, and cease to exist, and that is it. So we make the best of it for the few decades we exist. Maybe that scenario is true. But my experience – and the testimony of scripture – is that there is a God and we are God’s creation.

If this is true, then that means our identity is connected to our Creator. Who I am is who I am in relation to my Maker. That is the one relationship that will not change. All our other relationships can change. Spouses can die or leave, the same with parents or children or friends. But God does not die. He does not leave us or forsake us. So the essence of who we are is that we are the creation of God. To me that is very profound and important. It means that the source of my being is found in God. Paul Tillich speaks of God as the Ground of Being, which I find very helpful. Our bodies, according to scripture come from the physical ground; they are composed of water and minerals. But our identity beyond our physical form comes from the ground of Being. We come from God. Our Source is in God. If you want to know who you are, then you look to God because only in relation to God can we find the answer. We are the creation of God.

          II. Second, the Scriptures say that we are the image of God. To put it more precisely we are created in the image of God. That is what the Bible tells us in the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis. (1: 26-27) “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness….” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

What does it mean to say we are made in the image of God? It means that there is a resemblance. When a sculptor makes an image of a person there is a physical resemblance. When a photographer captures the image of a person, there is a resemblance between the person photographed and the image in the photograph. Often I can tell who someone’s parents are just by looking at them. We say of children that they are the “spitting image” of their mother or father.

God has no physical body, so we don’t look like God physically. He is Spirit, so it means that we look like him spiritually. It also means that we are spirit as well as body’ we are more than body. I am going to get into this more next week when I talk about the Biblical understanding of human beings as body, soul, and spirit. But today I just want to get across the idea that when we say we are made in the image of God, it means that we resemble God in some way. When we ask the question “Who am I?” we have to go beyond the physical, and even the psychological, to the spiritual. The essence of who we are is spiritual. Our bodies will die; therefore we are not our bodies. We are spirit, made in the spiritual image of God.

Another way of looking at the concept of the image of God is that we are created as reflections of God. When you look in the mirror, you see your image. It is not you; it is just an image of you. Likewise we are the image – the reflection of God; human flesh reflecting God. It is almost like we are mirrors, and the spiritual life is like Alice stepping through the looking glass. We are designed to be reflections of God. Whom are we reflecting God to? We are designed to reflect God to others. The meaning and purpose of your life is to reflect God. I think that is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Do we reflect God to other people? Do we reflect God’s light like mirrors reflect light. The problem is that our mirrors are pretty dirty. We are not very godly. God’s image in us is obscured and hidden. A mirror covered in dust does not reflect light very well. Spiritual practice and disciplines are designed to brush the dust off the mirror, to wash the glass in the water of the Holy Spirit so that the light of God can shine, can reflect from us – so that people can praise God. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We are also designed to reflect God back to God. When we face God, then God sees himself in us. Worship is when we reflect God back to God. That is what we are doing here today. This worship service is not a performance. This is not theatre. Neither is it merely a social gathering. This is not a self-help or group therapy session. We are not here to see what we can get out of it. That is what some people assume a church worship service is about. If they do not get what they want out of it, then they don’t come. But we are not here for ourselves; we are here for God. We are not the audience; God is the audience. Someone asked me before church on Easter Sunday, if I ever was afraid that no one would show up on Sunday. I replied, “No” because I am not leading this service for you; I am doing it for God. God is the audience; a worship service is service to God. We are here to reflect God back to God. That is what it means to glorify God. The first article of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the most famous statement of the Christian faith ever written in the English language says, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” The word glory in the Bible describes light shining. We are designed to be shining lights; we are to shine the image of God but to God and to others.

That is the way I picture heaven. The most frequent spiritual questions that people ask me have to do with heaven. People want to know if there really is a heaven, and if they will recognize people in heaven, and things like that. People say that when they get to heaven they plan to ask God some questions, or they will spend time chatting with family, friends, and famous personages. I don’t think heaven is like that. I picture heaven as facing God and perfectly reflecting God. I am not going to be asking God questions; my soul is going to be filled with God. During Easter week Time magazine devoted its cover story to a new book by Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids. The book is causing a great debate in evangelical circles. It is on the topic of hell - whether there really is a hell, and who will be there, and how can anyone be happy in heaven knowing that people are in hell, and how could a loving God assign anyone to an eternal torment, and so forth.

My initial reaction to the whole debate is that if we are asking questions like this, we are facing in the wrong direction. Face God and the question will seem irrelevant. What we believe or don’t believe about afterlife does not make any difference to what really is after life. We are going to get it wrong anyway. The apostle Paul says in the famous love chapter of I Corinthians 13, “whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. … For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Our understanding is imperfect now, our best attempts at theology distort the reality of God ‘s Truth. Let’s not waste our time on such matters; they will resolve themselves. Instead be who you are. Be the image of God, mirrors of God, reflections of God. Reflect the love of God.

Scripture says that Jesus was the perfect image of God. We were made in the image of God, but it says that Jesus is the image of God. There is a difference. Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God.” Hebrews 1 says, “¹ God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ² has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ³ who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.”

III. There is one last understanding of who we are which I want to convey. We are the words of God. The creation story of Genesis 1 pictures God as speaking the world into existence. He simply said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And he simply said, “Let Us make man in Our image,” and we were created. We were spoken into existence. That means that we are words of God. Again, Jesus is spoken of as the eternal Word (with a capital W) who was not created, but who is the Creator. As made in his image, we are words from God. This means that our nature is to convey God. Words are meant to communicate; it they don’t do that then they are not fulfilling their purpose. As the words of God, we are meant to communicate God to the rest of Creation; That is the real meaning of having dominion. It doesn’t mean that we have the right to abuse the earth for our pleasure. It means that we pass on God’s love and care and compassion to his creation.

Who are you? You are the creation of God. You are the image of God. You are the words of God. Be who you are. In the preface to the book “The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell On His Life And Work,” the editor Phil Cousineau quotes from an epitaph on a grave in Boothill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona. It says, "Be what you is, 'cos if you be what you ain't, you ain't what you is." It is not very good English, but it is good advice to end this sermon: be what you is.

Hidden Treasure

Delivered Sunday, May 15, 2011

2 Corinthians 4:1-7; Matthew 13:44-46

Do kids read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson any longer? You know, with Jim Hawkins as the cabin boy and Long John Silver? When I was a kid there was something about buried pirate treasure that fascinated me. Growing up near the ocean I imagined stumbling across a treasure washed up on shore or buried by some pirate in my backyard – of all places. Such are the fantasies of childhood. I really thought that it was feasible that one day I will find a treasure map with an X that marks the spot. In a certain sense we never outgrow that. The whole Indiana Jones series of films feeds on this fascination, whether the treasure is the Lost Ark or the Holy Grail. Even Antique Road Show feeds this hope that you might find some valuable treasure in the attic, in the basement or at a yard sale. Even the lottery is driven by the dream that treasure will be found in a sequence of numbers. I never had that particular dream; I know too much about the odds of winning to throw my money away in that state sponsored scheme, but the lure of hidden treasure remains.

There is something about hidden treasure that fascinates people. The religion of Mormonism was invented by a treasure hunter named Joseph Smith who said he could find hidden treasure by looking into a crystal called a seer stone. Eventually he said he found treasure. He said he found some golden plates buried on a hill in upstate New York. He said that upon these golden plates was written the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately the golden plates were not seen by anyone else; he said they were taken up to heaven when he was finished translating them. That was convenient; so no one could confirm his story. But the story of this buried treasure gave birth to one of the fastest growing religions in America today. I guess it shows how much people love a story about buried treasure.

Jesus told a story about buried treasure. He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  Then he tells another story about a treasure found in a marketplace. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” I want us to explore these stories this morning.

I. First, let’s explore the concept of treasure. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says these words: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Treasure has more to do with the heart than with the dollar value. You have heard the expression: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Some people see antiques as just old junk and they want new things; others see antiques as works of art of lasting value.

Jesus’ point in the verses I just quoted is that some people see earthly things – money, property, possessions – as of great value. But Jesus was forever trying to show people that spiritual treasure was of much greater value. If you can’t take it with you, of what real value is it? Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

Treasure is what your heart values. I really believe that what all people are looking for in life is the fulfillment of their heart’s desire; that is their treasure. And they are looking for this treasure in all the wrong places, to paraphrase that old country song about love. What people are looking for in investments, property, and financial security is a deep emotional security in God, What people are looking for in relationships, in romance, in family, in friendships, in marriage is really a relationship with God. They are looking for the soul’s Beloved – our true “soul mate.” We are looking to be part of the family of God. What people are looking for in fame and celebrity is to be recognized, known, and loved by God. What people are looking for in religion, spiritual practice, theological beliefs and worship services is a deep connection with God. You don’t really care what I have to say. You just hope that maybe something I say might connect you with God or put you on the path to God or point toward God. Every man and woman’s treasure is really God.

II. According to Jesus this treasure is hidden. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field….” Jesus doesn’t go into detail in his short parable. We do not know anything about the treasure or how it came to be buried in the field or how the man came to find it. In that time people kept their wealth mainly in land and animals, but also in coins, precious metals, or jewels. In a time before banks people used to bury their valuables in the ground in earthen jars. If the owner died suddenly or was captured  – for example by an invading army - then the location of the treasure was lost. It could remain in the ground for centuries until someone stumbled across it. A new owner might be plowing his field one day and suddenly this plow would unearth a jar of coins.

Something like this happened with the man in Jesus’ story. The man appears to be a sharecropper; he does not own the field. But he unearths the treasure, perhaps while he is plowing. It says he immediately reburies it and scrapes up the money to buy the field, knowing that the treasure is worth a thousand times the price he is paying for the land. There is no question here whether this is the ethical thing to do – to cheat the owner of the field out of the treasure. Jesus is not telling a moralistic fable. Jesus’ point is that the treasure was hidden, and the treasure was of great value, and that the man would do whatever it took to get it. The hiddenness of the treasure is an important element of the story. Treasure was hidden right beneath his feet and he didn’t know it.

There is a story of a pickpocket who worked a certain marketplace where jewelry and precious gems were sold. One day he watched as a man bought a valuable diamond and put it in his pocket. He thought to himself that this would be an easy score. He bumped into the man and carefully reached into his pocket so as not to be detected, but nothing was there. He followed the man throughout the city, onto buses, and through the streets, trying several times to snitch the diamond, but he could never find it. He tried every pocket and every trick he knew. This frustrated him because he considered himself one of the best pickpockets there was, yet he could not seem to steal this diamond.  Finally at the end of the day he could take it no longer. He went up to the man and said, “Excuse me, sir. I am a pickpocket, and I have been trying to steal that large diamond that you bought in the marketplace this morning. But I have not been able to find it anywhere on you. It is driving me crazy. I don’t want it any more, I just need to know where you have hidden it.” The man replied, “I knew you were a pickpocket when I first saw you in the market, so I hid it in a place you would never think to look.” The man then reached into the pickpocket’s pocket and withdrew the gem, saying, “I hid it in your pocket.”

This is the Kingdom of Heaven. It is hidden in our pocket. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will people say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For truly, the kingdom of God is within you.” That same verse can be translated “the kingdom of God is in your midst,” meaning all around you. It is both. The Kingdom is Spirit. Spirit is not in a place somewhere. Spirit is omnipresent; it is here now. It is hidden in plain sight. That is the lesson of the other story that Jesus tells. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

I am going to tell you a true story that happened to my son Ernie. At the time he was working at the Squam Lakes Association in Holderness teaching kayaking lessons. A woman lost a valuable gold and diamond bracelet when kayaking a year and a half earlier. She had called up immediately asking if anyone had found it but she was told “No.” But she was in the area again and decided to come by for one last try. She asked at the front desk, who told her that nothing like that had been found but to go ask Ernie down at the waterfront. So she came down and talked to my son. He said, “No,” he had not seen anything like that. But then he remembered a box of junk – the Lost and Found box in the shed were sunglasses and hair clips and things like that were kept. He looked in it and “lo and behold” (as they say) he found it there. He brought it out to the woman, who she saw it broke into tears at seeing her lost treasure. True story. That is the story of how we find the Kingdom of God. It is hidden in plain sight, and only those with eyes will see.

III. Another element of Jesus’ stories of hidden treasure is that this treasure is found. In the first story it is found by a man who was not looking for it. The man was just plowing his field and uncovered it. But when he saw it, he recognized it value. That is the important thing. The man in the other story was a merchant who was a professional seeker of fine pearls. He made his living looking for, buying and reselling pearls. One day he found a “pearl of great price.” It was a pearl like none other he had ever seen. He had been looking for such a pearl all his life and when he saw it, he knew exactly what it was, and had to have it.

In both cases the treasure – which symbolizes the Kingdom of God – is hidden and is found – either intentionally or unintentionally. There is a spiritual truth here. Some people are looking for spiritual truth and some aren’t. Some people are looking for God. They are religious or spiritually minded. We call them seekers. They do a search in Christianity, other religions, philosophies, and spiritual practices – looking for spiritual Truth. Some look for years and never find it, and yet others do. Some people could care less about spiritual matters. They are content with work, family, friends, and recreation – and they go through life and that’s it. They do not care about church or religion or spiritual things. They are not necessarily against it; they are just not interested. Many live all their lives like this and die like this. But some people stumble across the treasure they are not looking for – like the man in Jesus’ parable of the hidden treasure. They hear somebody talking about the Kingdom of God, and they immediately recognize it as of supreme value, and they embrace it. In both cases the treasure is found.

IV. In both stories, when the treasure is recognized, then it is purchased. Both the man who found the treasure in the field and the man who found the pearl of great price recognized immediately what they had found. In both cases they sold all that they had and bought it. This is the common feature in both stories. It illustrates the truth that to accept the Kingdom of God there is a price to pay, and that price is everything. This is not cheap grace; this is a costly salvation.

Jesus said it plainly and often. He said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸ And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹ He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” He said, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” That was the lesson Jesus taught to a rich young man who wanted eternal life. Jesus told him he could have it; all he had to do was to give up everything he had. The man wouldn’t do it, and it says he went away sorrowful.

Jesus’ teaching about the treasure of the kingdom comes down to a couple of things. First, whether you are looking for spiritual truth or not, when you come across it, you need to do something about it. You don’t just leave the treasure in the field or the pearl in the marketplace. You get it whatever the price. Otherwise you will be kicking yourself for the rest of your life. Both men in Jesus’ stories had to act right then and there.

You probably have heard the news account last month of the man who missed out on winning a jackpot. Last month Michael Kosko missed out on a share of a $319 million Mega Millions jackpot because that particular day he did not put in his two dollars to buy a ticket. Seven of his co-workers at the Division of Housing and Community Renewal in Albany NY won $28.9 million each when their lucky numbers came up on the Mega Millions. Mr Kosko usually joined in the workplace lottery pool but he didn't have two singles in his pocket on that particular day. A colleague even offered to lend him the money, but he refused. He has been kicking himself in the pants ever since. 

         Now don’t go home today and say the preacher is telling you to play the lottery. I’m not. I don’t play it, and I do not advocate it. My point is that the Kingdom of God is bigger than any lottery. And we will kick ourselves if we pass it up. When we recognize the truth of the Kingdom of God, then we need to be willing to act – to pay the price – to give up anything and everything if necessary to inherit eternal life. And when we give up everything we realize we actually gain everything. Jesus taught that: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”  “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” The Kingdom of God is a precious treasure, and it is ours if we have eyes to see it and faith accept it, whatever the cost.