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S. Pentecost 9.26 Matt 13:44-52

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure being hidden in a field which a man, finding, hid, and for the joy of it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field…’

I love this parable. It’s my very favorite. It’s made me happy all week just saying it over and over to myself. We’ve (maybe?) been a little spoiled the last couple weeks by Jesus explaining the last two parables to us. But this week, we’re free climbing without a rope. And the joy of that is considerable for me, preaching it for you…

Explaining the explanation is maybe too much man-splainin’? It doesn’t always bring out the best in me. The exhilaration of free climbing like Alex Honold, just you, no rope, heaven above, abyss below, every move high stakes, fills my heart with joy, the glory of it all, the view from up here…

Most of Jesus’ parables are like this, you know? I read a sermon last week that was preached at the ordination of a brilliant young Anglican theologian, John Hughes, by his Cambridge don (Hughes would die tragically at age 35, a few years later) that in two sentences beautifully sums up our calling as Christ’s apostles…

“Fr. John is not being called to preserve unchanged a message that we have already comprehended. He is rather being called to explore this message, and to receive it again in so radical a fashion that he becomes contemporary with the apostles and with Christ himself.”

“Becoming contemporary with the apostles and Christ himself” is a famous line of Soren Kierkegaard’s. SK says this is the whole point of Xnity: not to get ideas in our heads, not to improve our behavior, and, weirdly, not even to escape the punishment of sin, death, and hell!—but to become contemporary with the apostles and Christ, by chasing after him down the dusty trails of ancient Palestine as all the distance of history and time just melts away and we are always already there with him, the Gospels becoming our own story as we are transfigured into little icons of Jesus ourselves, by his word, sacraments, and presence…

This is what pastors are apostled for: not for preserving unchanged dogmas you’ve already comprehended—embalming Jesus like a dead butterfly pinned to a card, bound for all time in between the dusty covers of an old book. No! (though something like this is what has passed for ‘theology’ since the middle ages and well into modernity! 🙁

Nah; we’re exploring the Word, free climbing the steep path to Heaven with no ropes or nets, the abyss below and Heaven above, where one misstep is disaster and one bold leap for an unseen hold gets you right on Jesus’ heels, coaxing a slight smile from his face as he’s glancing back at you and nodding an unspoken: “Well done, good and faithful servant” that makes you happy, not just for a week, but for life…

I really like preaching and teaching! I hope it makes you contemporary with the apostles and Christ himself (as it does for me!) melts the walls of text, history and time so that you are really there with Jesus when he says:

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure being hidden in a field which a man, finding, hid, and for the joy of it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.’

Now; what does this mean?!

Here’s my take, and take it for what it’s worth—a radical exploration of the message, a free climb with no ropes and no way except your own imagination and faith to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ and try it yourself or not…

It’s a good news/bad news thing—like everything with Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is right there for us, under our very noses, waiting for us to stumble bumble into it and be transformed into the very likeness of Jesus himself! ‘Mmm; how would I do that?’

Well, bad news: it’s hidden. Actually, I have to fix that common mistranslation of the Greek for you. It’s not “hidden”—like some static thing forgotten and cast aside and discovered by chance. It’s a perfect passive participle of κρυπτω ‘being hidden’.

That’s a fun twist! The kingdom is constantly being hidden—not so that we won’t find it, but so that we will find it—tripping over it in the fields we traverse on our daily way. Who is hiding it? Uhm; Jesus? Maybe God’s not sitting up in heaven like a divine watchmaker leaving it to chance that we’ll stumble upon the treasure he is?

Maybe… he’s out amongst us, daily, just out of sight, right in front of us, burying the treasure right in front of us so that we’ll trip over it, fall awkwardly, and go: “what the heck is that?” dig it up and go, “Treasure! Awesome!” And for the joy of it, we rush and sell all we have and buy that field so it will be ours forever…

So far, so straightforward. Here’s the radical bit, my leap for the unseen handhold, ‘you better watch me now’…

The “field” is a spooky abandoned limestone quarry just outside the old city walls of Jerusalem, 30 AD—where the Romans crucified criminals. You see 3 crosses; 2 with dead bodies hanging from them, and 1 empty one. You are arrested by the sight! Disturbed, yet intrigued. Have you been caught in some weird time travel loop? Maybe!

And about 30 or so yards down the slope from the empty center cross, is a tomb with a stone rolled away. It’s just at the break of dawn. You are inexplicably drawn and stumble at the entrance where a man shining in unearthly white robes, goes: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen!”

And for the crazy joy of it—which you can’t help believing—you’d sell everything you have, die on that cross and be buried yourself in that tomb, if that’s the only way to find JESUS, the treasure of treasures, and claim the body for yourself, become 1 body with him now and forever!

Every time you hear the old, old story (as the apostolic-catholic liturgy narrates it 😉 as a decent preacher will make contemporary and present for you (if he has any way with words—or if the Word has any Way with him 😉 you’re stumbling upon the treasure God is always hiding just where you’ll trip over IT… 😉

He baptizes you into his dying, so that stumble-bumbling into the grave (having missed that handhold and gone tumbling into the abyss 😉 you’ll find him in the pit of your own death and hell, going: “What are you doing here? Let’s get the hell out of here!” and you’re off, on the merriest of chases, climbing (being pulled up, really 😉 the steep ascent to heaven, as you become contemporary with the apostles and Christ himself…

Anyhow; that’s my read on it. The treasure’s hidden right there, Jesus’ very body, broken for you and me. Come and taste and see; and Peace, surpassing all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.