"Rubbing Out The Wrinkles"
Seeking the pearl of great price
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Text: Matthew 13:44-50
There is a story told among the aboriginal tribes here in Canada of a tradition that goes back many hundreds of years. When a boy turns 13, he goes through an important rite of passage that will make him a “brave” and a man. On his 13th birthday, after having been trained for months in survival, in fishing and hunting and in cooking, he is blindfolded and taken into the midst of a forest and left alone. When evening falls, the young man has to survive away from his parents and his tribe for the first time. On these dark nights on their own, many a young brave is frightened. Every time a twig crackles, they think there is a deadly animal coming to attack them. When their stomachs grumble with hunger they have to remember how to find food in the woods. When the darkness sets in, they have to be strong, they have to be courageous, and they have to remember what they have learned. Many a brave goes through that night terrified, but survives.
In the morning, when the sun rises and the beams shine through the trees, the young brave awakens, and there in the distance, he sees a figure with a bow and an arrow. The figure is his father. He has been with him all night long, watching over him, making sure he is safe. The young braves are sworn never to reveal this, it is a secret they will remember for the rest of their lives. When they have sons, and their sons turn 13, they will not tell them what they went through. They will simply go into the woods and stand guard over their sons until the day breaks and they are safe. In many ways, the Kingdom of God, as it is portrayed in this marvellous parable that we read this morning, is very much like the experience of that young brave.
Very often, people wonder, “Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? Where is it? I cannot see it!” At times, we are like those young men in the woods at night, surrounded only by dark and uncertainty, and never sure about what is going to happen. In response, Sometimes we become frightened, and sometimes we become cynical, and sometimes we become hard, for the Kingdom of Heaven does not seem to reveal itself, and everything seems obscured by the darkness. Often, it is tragedy or it is death or it is sorrow that makes us feel that way: cynical, doubting, wondering whether the Kingdom of Heaven really does exist, and whether God really is at work.
I felt a twinge of this when I read about a young woman who was in a car accident on the 401. She had in her car her 10-month-old baby, and after the accident, she decided to get out of the car and take her baby and stand on the side of the road and wait for help. Then another car came along and struck her and the child. The baby was killed in her arms, and she lost a leg. When you see things like that happen, it seems like you are standing in the woods in the dark all alone, and you wonder, “Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? Where is God when I feel such darkness?”
At other times, we feel this way due to our temptations and our inability to do the good that we want to do. Then we say, “Where is the Kingdom of God when we feel so tempted, when we feel so powerless to do the good that we want?” We feel like a brave in the woods in the dark in the night, blind, unsure of which path to follow, or whether there is a path at all.
Well, in this morning's reading Matthew presents three parables one after the other. All three of these parables - about treasures, about pearls of great price, about catching a fish - all of these are a symbol that the Kingdom of God often appears to be hidden. It doesn't seem obvious in front of our eyes, always present, and Jesus addresses the issue of this hiddeness. The disciples clearly feel the hiddeness of the kingdom. They look at the ministry of Jesus, and they hear all his teachings, but they really wonder whether it is all worth it.
Many argue that these parables were addressed to the disciples, who were having a crisis of faith, and wondering where God was in the midst of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. And yet, there is more. In Verse 35 of Chapter 13, a few verses before today's reading, Jesus says, “I will open my mouth to speak in parables. I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.” In other words, these parables speak of that which is being hidden; by telling these parables, Jesus is pointing to himself. Whether it is the pearl of great price that is worth selling everything for, or the buried treasure that is worth going after, Jesus is saying to the disciples that he is revealing that which previously had been hidden. In him, the Kingdom is seen. In him, the Kingdom is realized. In him, the Kingdom is like a light that comes through the dark woods to reveal God's presence.
What strikes me particularly about the one parable I want to look at this morning - the parable of the pearl of great price - is what we as believers must do to see that which is hidden, in order to understand how the ministry of Jesus Christ was and is the breaking forth of the Kingdom into the world. It is so obvious, because he says that the man who went out to find the pearls went looking for them. It is no good just sitting back and looking at the world and being cynical and saying that it is all hidden and dark - you have to go out and search and seek and find. Now, in the time of Jesus, if you lived in Israel and were a shopkeeper who wanted to get pearls, you would have to travel a great distance. You would have to go to the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean to find the oysters that would give you the pearls. It wasn't just a simple matter of going down to the beach and looking for them. You had to go out of your way, you had to make an effort to go and to find these pearls.
Now, I know that in this day and age, we read a great deal about people who are what we call “spiritual seekers,” people who want to have a spiritual experience. We read about it in books and magazines, and sometimes I think it is exaggerated, but they do exist and you might be one of them. You, listening to me on the radio this morning, you, at home, or you, in your car - you might be one of these people. You might want a spiritual foundation in your life. You might want a spiritual experience that will last you for your life, and that will give you a sense of hope and purpose, especially for the times when you feel like a brave in the woods at night.
Part of the problem in spiritual seeking is that very often it is 100 miles wide and a quarter of an inch deep. In other words, it looks for spiritual thrills or temporary bandages, or immediate solutions to personal crises, rather than looking for something really worth investing yourself in. There has to be an investment in the search, there has to be a commitment, or else you will not find what you are looking for.
Last week, a couple of people saw the title of my sermon for this morning about rubbing out the wrinkles, and made some rather interesting comments at the door. They said, “Look, Reverend, I hope you are not going to be rude about this, for I cannot help it. I am of a certain age and I have a certain amount of wrinkles, but I will be back next week to find out how you suggest I can rub them out.” Well, for those of you who thought in such terms, you might be a bit disappointed this morning: This is not a Botox sermon!
It is about a couple I knew who inspired me immensely. They lived in a small town in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. One day, they got up early in the morning, and the husband looked in the mirror, and he realized he had a tremendous number of wrinkles on his face. He started fiddling with them, and pulling them about, and getting really depressed. It was the first time he had really seen how wrinkled he had become. So, he called his wife over, and in a real gesture of marital love said to her, “Why don't you look in the mirror, dear? You will notice that you, too, have an awful lot of wrinkles.” What a charming man he was!
They looked at each other, and they saw their wrinkles together. (They were quite open about telling this story, by the way.) They then started to look at their lives, and they realized that they had had their children, and they had a lot of money in the bank, their house was paid off, they had an RV, they were able to invest in whatever they wanted, their debentures were doing well, they had some blue chip stocks, a nice portfolio, they were comfortable, but that was the problem! They didn't seem to think that all these wrinkles really amounted to much. Now what? What for the rest of their days?
Well, these two were committed Christians, and so they decided they would do something radical, but they didn't know what it would be. Then one day, they saw an advertisement in a local valley newspaper inviting people to buy a franchise for a coffee shop named after a well-known hockey player. The ad said if they were to buy this franchise, they could open it up in one of three towns in the Annapolis Valley. So these two decided to cash in all their debentures, all their stocks and purchase this franchise.
They opened their coffee shop up in this little town and they couldn't believe what happened! No sooner had they opened it, than they met all the people in the community. It seems that everybody dropped in to this coffee shop at least once a day. They met all the people in the community whom they had never met before. People they had passed by on the streets. They were flabbergasted by how they had become the centre of society. Their children, who had lived elsewhere, decided that they would come home and work with their parents in the coffee shop, and so, all of a sudden, the children were back home, and they were able to enjoy their grandchildren. When they looked in the mirror at night, they were tired, but they were invigorated, for they didn't see the wrinkles any more. They had invested everything that they had to do something bold, to do something great, and their reward, they said, was incredible. They eventually left the coffee shop and the franchise to their children, who I believe are running it to this day. They did so with a sense of passion and vigour and faith.
My friends, the Kingdom of God is exactly like that. If you are going to embark upon a search, if you are really going to take faith seriously, the search is not just a matter of sitting back and looking for some great spiritual experience. It requires the investment of your life. It requires the dedication of your soul. It is worth going after, and going after with everything that you have got.
There is another side to this. Once the man had gone and sought the pearl, he found it, and it was the greatest pearl that he had ever seen. It was priceless. In a book Dr. Charles Swan, who I see is in the sanctuary today, writes about the pearl of great price. He tells us that pearls are created when there is irritation. Some grit gets into the oyster, and as it works away, the oyster creates a liquid or gel that eventually hardens and creates a smooth surface, and so the grit becomes a pearl. This pearl is inside the oyster and builds up over time and becomes luminescent and gorgeous. However, it occurs through irritation, it occurs through the struggle and roughness and vibration of life. Well, the Kingdom of God is just like that: A beautiful pearl is the kingdom, and it doesn't just happen, it doesn't just emerge: There is a cost to it. The cost of the kingdom is the death and the resurrection of Jesus. It is only when Jesus died and rose that the disciples saw exactly what he had been talking about: The very gift of God for humanity. It is not as if humanity had to pay the price for the pearl. God paid the price for the pearl; but then it became the most valuable thing in the whole world.
Now, I know there are some writers and some theologians who don't like the idea of God having to pay the price. It would appear that it imposes on us a sense of guilt. Who are we to be worthy of what God has done? However, in a brilliant essay in the last United Church Observer, Peter Wyatt, who is the Principal of Emmanuel College, addresses this very issue. He says that the price that Christ paid should not cause us guilt, the price Christ paid releases us from our guilt, and gives us a sense of forgiveness. Yes, we owe a debt to God for what he has done with this pearl of great price, but it is not the debt of our sorrow or our suffering, but the debt of our thanksgiving. For the merchant who went and found the pearl of great price, it was everything! It had been paid for, it had been made, it had been formed as a gift from God, and therefore, it was worth selling everything in order to get it.
This week, like many of you, I have been watching the Olympics with great joy. Apart from a few sad moments when the men completely embarrassed themselves at hockey (which is not surprising in light of the team they picked), I realized that the people who won the day for Canada were the women. Sisters, don't you agree that it was the women who won the day? Yes! And of all the women, the most impressive is Cindy Klassen. What a lot of people didn't know until recently, but I have known for some time through reading Christian magazines and literature, is just what a devout Christian Cindy Klassen is. She has spent her life dedicated to the service of Jesus.
When she won her silver medal at the 2002 Olympics, she didn't let it go to her head. She realized that while it was probably only the beginning, it could even have been the end. She wrote two years ago, “Right now, in speed skating, I am having the time of my life, but I have to move on, if God wants me to do something else.” Then, in one of the most telling statements that I have ever read by an athlete, she said, and this is so a propos, “I have won a medal, but that is nothing compared to the Crown of Heaven.” I see a lot of people in sports who think that when they have reached a certain lofty height that they have made it, but really, you can only find happiness in the Lord.
In an interview on the CBC yesterday, her brother, beaming all across his face, said, “Oh, we never worried about Cindy. Cindy just skated because she was free - free because she knew this was not the most important thing in her life.” The most important thing in her life was her faith in Christ. My friends, it is the pearl of great price! That is the thing that is worth having, even if you are like a brave in the woods when it is dark. When the light appears, someone is standing with you. That is the prize worth having! Even when you have the roughness or the wrinkles in your life, you can still be bold and seek and find great things. That is the gift of God! The price has been paid, and the pearl is priceless. May you find it for yourself! Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.