Broadway Christian Church ·Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship ·July 24, 2005

Prayer of the Day

As we worship you this day, instill in us a spirit of adventure.  Keep us expectant and ready to be surprised by you.  And when we hear you speak, give us the grace to say, “Yes, here I am, Lord.  Send me!”  Amen.

Scripture
Matthew 13:44-50

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field.  In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field and to get the treasure, too.”

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When she found one of great value, she went away and sold everything she had and bought it.”

“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.  When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore.  Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.  This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Message
The Treasure
Rick Frost

OK, how to get into this text?  Oh, did I tell you?  This is pop quiz day.  I have a pop quiz for you today.  Are you ready?  Here is the pop quiz.  What do you believe is going to be happening in your life ten years from now?  Just ten years from now.  Where are you going to be?  Who are you going to be with?  How are you going to be spending your time?  And what will be the quality of your life just ten years from now.  Sort of interesting, isn’t it?  Take a look at ourselves, just for a moment, just to take stock... where we are… where we’d like… where we’d think… where we’d want to be… in ten straight years.

A teacher friend of mine gave this assignment to his class in another university in another town.  It was a ten-page paper assigned, and they were to write ten pages about that question: “Where they wanted to be ten years from now.”  This is not an uncommon assignment, particularly for young people – college-aged kids – but it is good for the rest of us, too.  What was interesting is he noticed there was a huge difference between the men’s papers turned in and the women’s papers turned in.  Interesting!  

He discovered the guys tended to see their future as rather bleak.  They seemed to indicate a perceived, steady loss of freedom as the years went by.   They would find themselves having to make commitments; they would find themselves in a 24/7 commitment possibly to a job in a market that might well terminate their employment in a downturn without blinking an eye.  There was a general decrease in expectations from these college kids about the pleasures, the joys, the meaning of life, as fewer and fewer options were perceived to be available to them.  Isn’t that interesting?

Now, the girls, on the other hand, generally saw their futures as unlimited.  I think this is even more interesting.  Beneficiaries of the women’s movement, no doubt, they bought into the syndrome called, “You can have it all.”  A lot of responses –  not uncommon responses – on these papers were, “In ten years I want to be a ranked amateur tennis player, a partner in a law firm, married to the man of my dreams, have three children, a leader in my community, and active in my church.”

The teacher wrote on some of these papers, “You are clearly a very talented and gifted person, but you are not that good.  You will be forced to make some choices.  Some of your dreams and plans are going to have to be set aside.  You are, no doubt, going to accomplish some wonderful things in you life, but you will not be able to have it all.  Start making choices.”  Isn’t that interesting?

Isn’t it true, one of the great challenges of our time, not the only one certainly, but one of the great ones for us in our culture is there are so many choices, so many possibilities, so little time.  Possibilities are endless, learning how to discern the true path from the false path, carefully weighing the options, all of the various possibilities, and choosing, intentionally, consciously choosing the right direction.  We have to decide.  Not to decide is to decide.  So which way is it going to be, folks?  Which way?  Which way to the treasure?

In our text today, Matthew remembers Jesus telling a series of parables about the kingdom of heaven.  In one of the parables, the person is working in a field.  He’s probably a laborer.  It’s not his field.  He’s just working there, probably plowing, which is common in that day, doing what he did most days, making a living, taking care of business, surviving, making money, really, for somebody else.  He wasn’t looking for anything.  Suddenly he discovers buried treasure.  Now you know there were no banks and no safety deposit boxes in those days.  People often buried their valuables on their land, so that no one would know it was there.  That way they couldn’t take it.  They couldn’t steal it.  Sometimes people died from various causes and reasons before passing that information as to where those valuables were.  Stuff was buried all over the place.  He wasn’t looking for it.  He had no idea it was there.  He just stumbled on to it.  He tripped over it.

On the other hand, said Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is like a dealer in fine pearls, who found this spectacularly expensive, very valuable, high-quality pearl.  He was an expert.  Maybe a Gary Robinson, or a Mike Menser.  I don’t know.  But he was someone who perhaps had spent a lifetime working with, buying and selling jewelry.  He knows good stuff when he sees it.  One day the mother of all pearls comes across the counter.  Oh my goodness, it’s a find!  It’s the find of a lifetime.  Perhaps, just perhaps, that’s the way it is with the kingdom.   Sometimes we stumble upon it.

Chuck and Belinda, members here, got invited some years ago by a little girl in their neighborhood to come to a performance of some program here at Broadway.  They weren’t church folks.  They hadn’t been raised in the church.  They hadn’t been raised in the faith, but they liked the kid, so they said, “Sure, we’ll come.”  So they came.  And while they were here (you know the story) they tripped over it.  They stubbed their toe on it.  They stumbled onto the treasure.  They weren’t expecting it.   They weren’t looking for it, but they did, in fact, find it.  They got themselves baptized as adults.  They found their life heading in a whole new direction.  They got “life!”  Everything changed for them.  And they say right to your face, it made all the difference in the world.  They wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Folks, you are not going to meet a more joyful, exciting, generous, loving, beautiful couple anywhere.  Sometimes you just stumble on it.

Sometimes the kingdom is given to us after a lifetime of struggling, and searching, and fighting, and pushing against it.  Our friend Jed went to Colorado University in Boulder, back years ago.  He received a degree in finance.  He became a very successful banker.  At one time he was the chief financial officer of Coors.  He married a beautiful, talented, deeply-committed Christian woman, Joann.  They had two children.  They had a wonderful life together.  But Jed, bless his heart, just didn’t get this Christian thing.  For years he went to church primarily to please his wife.  He listened to a thousand sermons, thought it was probably a good place – the right place – for his children to grow up.  It would be good; it wouldn’t hurt them.  He even served on the stewardship committee.  (You know, we’ll take anybody, particularly if they are good with money!)

For 20 years Jed went to church.  Jed wrote checks.  Jed supported his family in their faith development, but he didn’t believe.  It just didn’t fit.  It didn’t make any sense to him in his world, until one day, it happened.  It all came together!  Jed and Jesus, Jed and the Sprit of the Living Christ actually met for the first time.  Jed found the pearl, the treasure.  He knew it when he saw it.  He knew it! 

We saw Jed and Joann just a couple weeks ago when we were out there.  They are kingdom people, no question about it.  They are living the life of disciples as best they know how.  They pray together.  They study together.  They worship almost every week.  They serve their church and their community in a variety of ways.  Jed is on the board of the seminary there in Denver.  He audits classes at the seminary; he can’t get enough of the teaching.  Joann just returned from a mission trip to Eastern Europe.  Together they are doing their part to try to help build the Body of Christ in their community of faith there in their part of the world.

Sometimes we stumble onto the treasure, and sometimes it is just given to us after a long, long struggle and searching and questioning and pushing against it.  The point is, it doesn’t matter.  Whenever the kingdom dawns on us, folks, what really matters – the key thing – is are we ready to do what’s necessary to get on board?

She was busily engaged in very important work.  A project she had been working on was at a crucial point.  She had been working on it for a year.  This thing needed to get wrapped up, brought to a conclusion, put in its final form.   The printers were waiting for the project.  She said, “You know, if there is any kind of delay, if there is anything that sidetracks this, it’s just going to be a disaster.  You know how it is when you get backed up against some things.”

“I was working late one night,” she said.  “Papers and books were stacked all around me when the phone rang.   The voice on the other end said there’s been an accident tonight at the softball game.  Your child has been taken to the hospital.  We think he is going to be all right, but we wanted to get in touch with you as soon as possible.  And then suddenly,” she said, “suddenly all these papers, all these books, all these plans, all this important work became like dust in my hands.”

In so much of life, folks, we get distracted.  Trivialities elbow out matters of great magnitude.  We become preoccupied with our projects and our plans.  Now, we need projects and plans, but to get preoccupied…  But in an instant, folks, sometimes everything can come into focus and we realize the relative unimportance of what it is that some of us are chasing after so much.  I think that is a kingdom moment.  I think that is a God moment, because that is the moment for some of us, sometimes, if we have the guts, to drop everything, and we begin to move in the direction of the treasure.

Fred Craddock, the great Disciples preacher, loves to tell this story.  You may have heard it before.  It’s one of my favorites.  He talks about being invited to come to a church and preach a special service.  Fred Craddock, world-class preacher, gets invited to go just about anywhere and preach.  I don’t know anybody who is any better.  He accepted this invitation, and after church he was invited by one of the church families to come to their home for dinner.  He graciously accepted their hospitality.  He said they sat around as people do.  They had dinner, talked, and visited.  The children were there playing with the family dog, this sort of large, lean, long, narrow kind of dog.

“That’s a full-blooded greyhound,” said the father.  “We got him after his racing days.  He is great with the children.”

Indeed he was.  The children were rolling on his back.  He was licking them affectionately.  They were having just a great time frolicking around.  You know how children are with pets.

Eventually it was time for the kids to go to bed.  The parents gathered up the children, took them up to their rooms, leaving Fred alone with the dog.

“What’s it like to be a greyhound?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s not a bad life,” said the greyhound.  “They treat me like a king; feed me pretty well.   The rooms are pretty nice.  I had it made when I was racing down in Florida.”

“So, why did you leave?  I mean, did you age out?  You don’t look that old to me.”

“No,” said the dog.  “I’m not that old.  I just quit.”

“Quit?  What made you quit?” I asked.

“Well, if you’ve ever been to a dog race, then you might understand.  You see, in every greyhound race all the dogs line up.  The bell goes off.  The gates open, and we all chase this little white rabbit around the track.  One day after the race, I got a close look at that rabbit.  You know what?  That rabbit wasn’t real!  It was just some kind of stuffed thing that looked white and was pulled around the track somehow.  I don’t know how it happened, but it wasn’t really a rabbit.  And that meant, of course, the race wasn’t real either.  So I quit.  I spent a whole lot of my life chasing after a fake rabbit.  The good news is, I found this family, and they are real.”

Let me ask you one more time today.  Where are you going to be… where do your think…  I know you don’t know, but where do you think you are going to be ten years from now?  What path have you chosen?  Have you made a choice?  Because, you know, not to decide is to decide. 

Broadway Christian Church has chosen a path.  Most of you know that.  Most of us believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he shows us the way to life, real life, abundant life, life now, and life eternal.  We are making ourselves a commitment.  We are going to become the best disciples we know how to be.  Together we are going to build this community of faith that is in this place so that others, too, might possibly find that treasure.

I know it is going to be a challenge.  You know it is.  We know it is.  It is going to take the best that you and I have to offer.  It is going to be an adventure, and it is going to be expensive.  But you know what?  It’s going to be worth it.  The reason it is going to be worth it is because the kingdom of heaven is like treasure, treasure that is buried in the field, and when a person finds it, they cover it up, and in their excitement, in their joy, in their happiness, they go and sell everything they have, everything they possess, and they buy that field.  Finding the treasure, folks, changes everything.  Absolutely everything!

And we all say together… “Amen.”  

Benediction

Great Loving God, you are the treasure that we seek.  May we discover you in spite of the distractions.  When we find you, give us the strength to dig in, uncover, and wear your beauty.  Amen.