The Rich Fool 052310

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Parables M3 May 23, 2010

Title: The Rich Fool (Parable of the Rich Fool)

Text: Luke 12:13-34

Props: coin, pointer

Big Idea: We can move from a place of greed to generosity by recognizing that God will more than take care of all of our needs.

In the song Ain't No Rest For The Wicked by the group Cage the Elephant)

A man is approached by a woman who offers to have sex with him in exchange for some money.

The song continues…

Not even fifteen minutes later

I'm still walking down the street,

When I saw a shadow of a man creep out of sight.

And then he sweeps up from behind

And puts a gun up to my head,

He made it clear he wasn't looking for a fight.

He said "Give me all you've got

I want your money not your life,

But if you try to make a move I won't think twice."

I go like "You can have my cash

But first you know I got to ask

What made you want to live this kind of life?"

He said "There ain't no rest for the wicked, Money don't grow on trees.

I got bills to pay,

I got mouths to feed,

There ain't nothing in this world for free...

A woman sells her body; a man holds another person at gunpoint for money.

As a pastor, I’ve seen families torn apart as they fight over an inheritance.

As we continue our series on the parables today, we are going to look at what Jesus says in response to a brother who is in a dispute with his brother over how they will divide the inheritance. In response, Jesus tells this parable and then offers a teaching that relates to the parable.

(Jesus has been teaching his disciples and a crowd of thousands of people has gathered)

The Parable of the Rich Fool

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

14 Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."

16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

21 "This is how it will be with those who store up things for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Do Not Worry

22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life [a]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

27 "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well.

32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus is teaching his disciples, and someone in the larger crowd says to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Because Rabbis were well versed in the law, they were often called upon to settle legal disputes around inheritances.

The brother (almost certainly the younger brother) asks Jesus, “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” In Jesus’ day, the eldest son would always receive double what any other sons would receive as an inheritance. There was a legal formula that could have been used to divide up the inheritance. But Jesus refuses to step into the fray. He replies, “Who appointed me judge or arbiter between you?” He chooses not act as the arbitrator in this inheritance case, but uses the man’s question as an opportunity to teach.

In verse 15 Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does consist in an abundance of possessions.”

It is interesting that Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on our guard” against greed because greed is subtle. Greed is something that we are likely unaware of. Greed by its very nature hides itself from us. So Jesus says be on your guard against it. Jesus does not say, “Beware of committing murder” or “adultery.” Obviously, Jesus prohibits both, but when one is actually murdering someone or committing adultery, it is quite obvious. Greed is more subtle.

I know a pastor who serves in Manhattan. He was giving a series of talks, not in his church but in another venue in New York City. He was speaking on the seven deadly sins across 7 weeks. The themes had been announced ahead of time. His wife Kathy predicted that when he came to the deadly sin of greed, the attendance would drop. They had a good attendance for the other talks. People recognized, for example, their struggle with pride so people came out for the talk on pride. People even came out for the talk on sloth in driven New York City. But when Tim spoke on the theme of greed, the attendance dropped. It wasn’t that people were offended by the topic; they just assumed that this was not something they personally struggled with. Many of us are the same way we think… oh… someone like Donald Trump or Paris Hilton or struggle with greed or the people responsible for the financial credit crisis they’re greedy… but not me…

How would we know if we struggle with greed? Very few people think they do.

Jesus tells this parable of this rich man:

16-19… "The farm of a certain rich man produced a bumper crop. He asked himself: 'What can I do? My barns aren’t big enough for this harvest.' Then he said, 'Here's what I'll do: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll gather in all my grain, and I'll say to myself, Well done! You've got it made, Freedom 35, you can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!”

How do we know from this parable that this man struggled with greed? For one, we see he placed his security in his grain and his money. He has this bumper crop, this massive harvest, and says to himself, “I don’t have the space to store all my crops.” So he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones to store his surplus grain. He says to himself, “I have plenty of grain laid up for years. “Take it easy for a while.” He believes that because he is safe and secure.

There’s nothing wrong with saving per se, but are you inclined to put your security in your money, or the value of your house if you’re an owner, or retirement portfolio, or in the value of your parent’s house, or your income earning potential?

Another way to ask the questions, would you feel if your house, your investments were reduced to half of what they are now (as some people experienced in the fall of 2008)? How would you feel if the value of your home began to spiral downward so that what you owed on it was more than it was worth—so you have negative equity (as is the case for some now in certain parts of North America)? Naturally you’d feel anxiety, but would you feel despair and hopeless?

We know that this man is greedy because he places his security in money.

We can be greedy by placing our security in money that’s one side of the COIN—the flip side of the COIN (turn coin with powerpoint) is worry. Right after this parable Jesus says in vs. 22 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. In fact in this section he names worry four times (vss. 22, 25, 26, 29). It’s possible to be greedy by placing your security in money or some kind of investment. The flip side of that kind of greed is worry. Now if you find yourself in a financial crisis—you’ll have naturally have some anxiety about money, but let’s you have enough to live on modestly… but do you find yourself stressed over money? Even if you don’t have a huge amount of money, it is still possible to be greedy be stressed about money. I know someone who by all accounts has enough money, but seems to always be worried about money, about not having enough. So, this person is almost always willing to take an extra shift at work…

You can be greedy by placing your security in money…(show “security” coin again) sometimes that shows itself by trying to amass a fortune, at other times that greed manifests itself through worry …(show “worry” coin again).

Jesus in vs. 15 said there are all kinds of greed.

We know that this man is greedy because he puts his security in money, but we also know he is greedy because he is self-indulgent, hoarding his wealth for himself. There’s nothing wrong with saving per se, but in God’s eyes there is something wrong when we save only for ourselves and for our immediate family.

We know that this rich farmer would have known about God’s call when harvesting to not glean wheat to the very edges of their field. According to the book of Leviticus chapter 19, and as we see beautifully portrayed in the book of Ruth, in the example of Boaz, land owners were to leave some grain in the field for the poor and for the alien. This man obviously is not doing that. He is directing his money toward himself. The rich man in the parable says, “You have laid up grain for yourself for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.” Jesus, at the end of the parable, condemns this man because he has been rich (v. 21) toward himself, but not rich toward God.

Not everyone who is greedy wants to amass a financial fortune. Among younger people, a more common form of greed is taking on the attitude “let’s eat, drink, and be merry and thinking only about yourself and your well-being.”

I recently saw the movie, An Education. The movie is set in England in the early 1960s and is based on a true story, a woman’s memoir. Jenny Mellor, a school girl,

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meets an older man—twice her age--named David and they begin a romantic relationship. Jenny is bright, but she feels like her life has been secluded in the protective suburbs of London.

David charms her by taking her to concerts, trendy jazz clubs, art auctions…and even to Paris. Her parents have high hopes for Jenny and they really want her to go to Oxford, but she decides to pass up that dream to be with this older man who has given her everything that she could have hoped in terms of a lifestyle with an Oxford education. The headmistress, played by Emma Thompson, in one scene asks Jenny about her relationship with David and her plans to no longer seek admission to university (review scene): “What do you think you are doing?” Jenny replies, “No one has been able to explain to me the point of university. Jenny says to the headmistress, “Studying is hard and boring. If I study and go to Oxford, maybe I can become a teacher like you. But teaching is hard and boring, too. Are you telling me to go to university so I can be bored the rest of my life? This whole stupid country is bored. There is no fun in it, so my choice is to either do something hard and boring, or to marry my David. Go to Paris, and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants and have fun.” Jenny turns and walks out the door.

Jenny is a young person who doesn’t want to study any more, doesn’t want to go to university because it is hard work and boring, and because it will lead her to a job that will be hard work and boring. Instead, she wants listen to jazz at trendy clubs, eat at good restaurants, travel the world--have fun. David is her ticket to that kind of life. She doesn’t need to go to Oxford. Jenny’s whole life at this point is defined by her pleasure, her fun, herself.

In many ways her life is not that different from the rich fool. She is rich toward herself, but not rich toward God and others. A person can be greedy by placing their security in money by worrying about money, but also by being self-indulgent and self-centered with it.

One side of the coin of a self-indulgence (show COIN) lifestyle is a life of the Jenny and the rich farmer “eat, drink, and be merry.” The other side of the coin of a self-indulgence lifestyle is being stingy (SHOW COIN).

According to Jesus’ parable and his commentary after it, if we are not willing to give our money away in radically generous ways to God, to the poor, we are struggling with greed. In vs. 33 Jesus says, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”

One of the signs that we struggle with greed and is self-indulgence (show self-indulgence COIN again) lifestyle which may mean living like Jenny going to all the trendy restaurants and vacation places, but the other side of greed may also be expressed in another way by being stingy (show stingy COIN) —by a person not giving their money in generous and radical ways away to God and the poor.

(transition)

What does God say of him?

Before we get to that, let me say again that this man because of his material wealth would have been a sign to people in his culture that he was being blessed by God.

In our world, the man would have been lauded--considered visionary, entrepreneurial, and successful. This is the kind of person who may have been featured in the business pages of the Globe and Mail or Business Week. In either a spiritual or secular world he would have been seen as “blessed” because of his money.

But God says of him, “You fool!”

In the Scriptures, a fool, unlike someone in our culture, doesn’t necessarily refer to someone who has a low IQ, but someone who lives as if there is no God. This man has lived as if there is no greater reality beyond himself, to whom he one is accountable, to whom his world belongs.

So God says of him, “You fool! You have lived as if you are God, and not me. You have lived as if you are the centre of the universe, and not me.” He lives as if his money is his—not something on loan from God.

The only one whose opinion really matters says of him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

How do we avoid God writing over our lives with his finger when we die the four letters: F-O-O-L? How do we live as people who are free from greed, free from putting our security in money? Free from worry about money?

Free from self-indulgence? How do we become people who are radically generous to God and the poor? The verses immediately following vss. 22-34 are a commentary on the parable and show us how we can live like this.

Jesus says in verse 22-24, “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storeroom or barn, and yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” vs. 27 "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

If you see how God cares for the birds of the air, the lilies of the field and recognize that you are much more valuable than they are, you will see how you don’t need to worry. When we recognize just how much we are valued by God, how much treasured we are by him, we will find ourselves placing less of our security in money, as we place our security in God’s care for us.

If we seek first his kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well. Vs. 31

It is also as we recognize how treasured we are by God that we can fulfill the call of verses 32- 34, where Jesus says, “Don’t worry about money, but instead sell your possessions and give to the poor…

When we realize just how generous God has been to us, we can become generous toward others. In 2 Corinthians 8:9 we read, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” When we recognize that God became impoverished for us; he left the glory and splendor of heaven to become a human being, and to live as a peasant, to die on a Roman cross, to absorb our sins, when we recognize that he gave everything for us, so that we, through him, might become reconciled to God and become spiritually rich, we will become radically generous.

Isn’t it true that when we feel we have been the recipient of generosity that we become more generous? Generosity begets generosity.

Recently, my colleague, Sarah Zeigler, married to Ziggy, received a letter from Carnegie Mellon, the prestigious university in Pittsburgh informing her she was admitted to one of their graduate programs in architectural design. She was really grateful…really happy. She came around to all of our offices and with paper and pen saying, “What do you want from Starbucks, it is all on me.” J When you feel like you have been given a great gift, the door is open to a school where you really want to study at or something else, out of that gratitude you want to give. When you know that the greatest door has been opened to you, the door into a life with God and into God’s Kingdom, part of the way that we respond is by becoming radically-generous people.

We are really going to miss Sarah. She has been a wonderful part of our staff.

Another story from life that illustrates this point.

A couple of weeks ago at one of our staff meetings, Sarah and I got into a conversation on the topic of giving. I had talked about proportionate giving in a recent sermon and somehow we got onto that topic. Sarah told me how she and Ziggy, her husband, want to get to the place where they are giving away 80% of their income. They are not there yet, but that is where they want to land.

Afterwards, I followed up and asked her to share a little more of her thinking with me.

Sarah (photo) told me when she was 20 years old and a university student who loved drinking wine at parties and extolling the virtues of Nietzsche’s philosophy. Secretly afraid of leading a life of meaningless and mediocre, she went on a mission trip to a very poor part of Nepal with Operation Mobilization. She was absolutely blown away by the generosity of Nepalese people. They themselves were destitute, but so sacrificially gave to her. They had no money, and yet when they had Sarah over for dinner; they prepared their very best. Their “unbridled kindness, graciousness, and hospitality of the poor” was overwhelming for Sarah.

At the end of the summer, Sarah met with the leaders of the mission. Sarah said she had been so deeply moved, so profoundly touched by the generosity of the Nepalese people this summer, I want to ask you: “How can I express my gratitude to God? I want this summer be more than simply a fleeting experience? How can this mission be more than just another page in my photo album of a tourist?” Her mission leader said, “Why don’t you make a commitment now to express your gratitude to God by proportionate giving?” (Proportionate giving means that you decide that tithing 10% is going to your absolute minimum in terms of giving, but you make a commitment assess what you project you’ll need to live on, and then give the rest away.)

Up to that point in Sarah’s life she had been giving 10%, but no more. A straight 10%. A simple tithe. And that was painful. But, Ziggy as her once said, that if financial giving ever stops being painful, then we aren’t giving enough. She was just an undergraduate student at the time, she made a commitment to proportionate giving. “Some years are more financially comfortable than others, but we find we can always afford what we truly require…. Every year, regardless of our combined income, we’ve made an effort, through God’s provision, to increase our giving and to ensure it’s always a little painful.” As I mentioned, she recently told me that her and her husband’s Ziggy’s goal is to give away 80%. Not there yet, but last year they upped their giving by 5% more.

Sarah was telling me that since Ziggy is a student and she is working at the church, sometimes they are not able to give as much from their income as they like, so they dipped into their savings to give more to missions…to God’s work. (I said to Sarah, “That must have been hard. Right?” She said, “Yep. It was hard.”).

She said, “You know, I used to think that I only wanted to give money if I could get a tax receipt, but Ziggy and I are committed to giving in other ways, too, in ways that won’t land us a tax receipt.” She shared with me how she and Ziggy had bought suits for people who were applying for jobs and could not afford suits…how they had paid for homeless people to stay at a hotel…no tax returns there.

When we recognize how God generous God has been to us, one of the ways that we can express that generosity is by becoming radically generous to God and to others. The two are obviously linked.

I am challenged and moved by Sarah and Ziggy’s story. I, too, prefer to give where I can get a tax receipt.

I do look at my tax return as a kind of benchmark that gives me an indicator of what my giving is like across a year. But, like Sarah and Ziggy, I want to be free to give to organizations and people where no tax receipt will be forthcoming, not because it is a burden, not because it is an ought to, but simply as a way to express my gratitude for the fact that God has given me everything in Christ. So many gifts.

We can become people free of greed, free of worry about money, free of self-indulgence, free to give radically and generously because we know God has given us so much..

If we put ourselves first, as the rich fool, as Jenny did, we will find ourselves last one day. But if we know that we are first already in God’s eyes, and we trust in the provision of Jesus Christ, we can put the needs of others ahead of ourselves.

And we will find that all that we need, and more, is added to us.

New Wine, New Wineskins 051610

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Parable M2 Sermon Notes

Title: New Wine, New Wineskins

Text: Luke: 5:27-38

Big Idea: When God moves in a new way, we need a new container.

INTRODUCTION: Illustration about Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof and his playing the song Tradition.

The beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof (show image), opens with a scene of Jewish dairyman Tevye standing in front of his home in Anatevka, Russia (it’s the early 1900s).

Teyve says, “In our little village of Anatevka, every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck… (Tevye always feels like he’s about to fall off the roof as he faces poverty, the prejudice people direct against him as a Jew, the romantic entanglements of his daughters). And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: (play audio) Tradition!... Tradition!... Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a fiddler on the roof!

In Jesus’ day many Jewish people felt like they might fall off the roof, as their traditions were threatened by the culture of Rome. Many Jewish people were hoping for a messiah, a savior figure who would ride down the hill in on a white stallion, conquer Rome and enable them to keep their tradition.

But Jesus was not the kind of Messiah people were expecting:

In Luke 5:27 through 31 we read these words that describe a scene during Jesus’ life and ministry:

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking."

34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."

36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. If they do, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Jesus does not look or act like the kind of messianic religious leader that people were expecting.

Here in Luke 5:27 we see that Jesus approaches a tax collector by the name of Levi, and says, “Follow me” (become one of my disciples). Tax collectors are never popular at any time. When people who work as tax collectors for the CRA here in Canada or IRS in the United States if they are asked at a party what they do for a living, they are more likely to be ambiguous, and simply say, “I, uh, work for the government.”

Tax collectors in any age are not popular, but in Jesus’ day they were seen as criminals. They could charge people whatever they wanted for taxes—they could charge people 80% of their income. They had to give a certain cut to Rome, but could pocket the difference. They were seen as thieves--and thieves who were in bed with the enemy—Rome. They were hated.

Jesus calls a tax collector Levi to follow him as his disciple.

Then as we see (v. 29) Jesus goes to a party at the home of Levi, and he shares a meal with a large crowd of tax collectors and other “sinners.” (A sign in the culture that he accepted and considered them friends.) And so the Pharisees and the teachers of the law complain, “Why does Jesus eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus responds, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” End of the debate. Of course it’s questionable if the Pharisees were truly healthy… (Lee will address that in an upcoming sermon).

The religious establishment had expected a messiah who would confirm their traditions, but Jesus is breaking the rules.

Many devout Jewish men in Jesus’ day would pray every day: "Thank you God, for not making me a Gentile, slave, or woman." A Pharisee later in the Luke prayers, “I thank you that I am not a thief, an adulterer, or a tax collector.” There was a wide spread belief among the Jews that God’s blessing was only on the side of devout Jews or people who had converted to Judaism. Jesus,, by eating with tax collectors and sinners, was saying God is on the side of sinners, Gentiles and women, too.

Last week, as we began this new series in the parables we saw Jesus parables were designed to shake us, change our minds. They were intended to disrupt us and give us a new set of lens of seeing the world. Here we the same effect… in Luke 5 we see Jesus had been at a party with all these tax collectors--these crooks, and sinners. Jesus through his actions is saying, “There is a new wideness to God’s love that is being revealed through me… God through me is saying to sinners, Gentiles, and to woman—I am on your side….”

The Pharisees (who were part of a Jewish sect that emphasized a very strict interpretation of God’s law) and the teachers of the law are offended by this… He’s upsetting our traditions.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law vent some of their frustration by asking Jesus, “"John's (Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist, a forerunner of Jesus and a great prophet) disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking."

In the first century many devout Jews and the Pharisees in Jesus’ day had a custom of fasting (going without food) twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The practice of fasting was highly revered in Jesus’ day. When people fasted, they typically took more time to pray. They confessed their sins. They took on the mood of a mourner. They mourned the fact that God’s kingdom still had not arrived and prayed that God’s kingdom would come.

But what if God’s kingdom—his reign had now come in Jesus, was alive, moving onto the earth, creating a new world, and inviting you to enjoy it like a great party or a wedding feast?

Jesus’s coming represents a new wideness to God’s love—extending to sinners, slaves, to women, and his coming represents a new wedding.

Jesus asks, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast. (BTW, Jesus is not abolishing fasting. His disciples will fast when Jesus is taken from them and crucified.) But, Jesus is saying this is the time when I the bridegroom have come and people through me are being wedded to God. This is wedding time.

In Revelation 19:7 we read:

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.

The Lamb is Jesus and the bride is us, his people.

In Jesus’ day wedding feasts were the most joyous occasions in the entire village. They might last as long as a week. There would be eating… drinking…dancing…singing. And at this time the rabbis had a rule that all the attendants of the bridegroom were to be relieved of their duties to fast because that would lessen their joy. Joy was to be embraced at a wedding. Because Jesus, the bridegroom, has come and has wedded us to God, the normal rules, like at a Jewish wedding, have changed.

Jesus breaks the tradition as he brings a new wideness to God’s love, a new wedding and a new wine. Wine in Scripture among other things symbolizes abundance and joy. In Isaiah 55, God invites those with no money to come to him and enjoy milk and wine on him. Jesus’ first miracle involved turning water into wine at the wedding.

As Jesus shares his parable: "No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. If they do, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. (Like 5:36-38)

If someone sewed a new patch onto an old garment and then washed it, the new patch would shrink, but the rest of the garment would not because it was old. Then the new patch would tear the old garment.

Jesus said, “…And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins.” In Jesus’ day wineskins (show WINESKINE IMAGE here—SHOW UNTIL I’VE FINISHED EXPLANATION) were usually made from sheep’s skin or goat’s skin, the body portion was skinned; the hair was removed; the hide was treated to prevent the skin from changing the taste of the contents. Finally, it was sewn together. Over time the skin of the container would age, stretch, become brittle and hard.

As Jesus in his parable says, “No one pours new wine into old skins.” Why? Because as the new wine ferments it expands the container and the old skin will burst, because it is no longer able to expand. The new wine pours out. The old skin is destroyed.

The point of both parables is simply that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the new kingdom, the new wine, cannot be contained within the old forms of Judaism (the religion of the Jews—which stressed close adherence to the Torah as a way to draw near to God) without destroying both Judaism and the Gospel. The new ways in which God is dealing with human beings through Jesus cannot be mixed with the old ways. The Gospel is the new way to God. New wine must have new wine skins. They must have new containers.

A colander ((USE PROP) might be able to hold ice fairly well, but once the ice takes on a new form, when it becomes water, it needs a new container. It needs a bowl (Use Prop).

Newness is exciting, but for many people the new is also a threat. Think about how you would have felt if you were building horse-drawn carriages in the early 1900s and then you heard how the Ford Model T was being built. Think about how you would have felt if you were part of the shipbuilding industry when people started creating airplanes for the first time. Think about how you would have felt if you were working at Intel in the mid 1980s designing computer memory chips—that’s what you know, and your leader Andy Grove said, “We heading out of the memory chip business, and we are going into the new field of creating micro-processers.” Even when change is positive, people experience change as loss.

Jesus is the new wine who makes all things new.

The old containers will not be able to hold the new wine. We need new containers. New wine skins.

If you try to put new wine into old wineskins, if you try to mix and old and new and hang onto both, you tear the old wineskin and you lose your new wine, as well…

Several years ago, I was travelling with my wife Sakiko to a different part of the world (I keep this place unnamed so I can keep the person anonymous).

While we were there, we met a woman who had moved to this place in the world from the United States. She seemed really unhappy. Part of the reason she was unhappy was because she wanted the culture and the conveniences from her previous life in the United States replicated in this new world. It wasn’t happening. People were too relaxed and slow in the new place, and she was feeling miserable.

During the trip, my wife happened to be reading this passage in Luke 5 about the new wine and the old wineskins. At the time she had been in Canada, her new home, for just a few years. In many ways it was great; but in many ways it was hard, too, because of the cultural differences.

One cultural difference to her was the custom that some people in Canada have of walking in their house with their shoes on. Not a big deal here, but is a big deal in Japan. In Japan the floor in your home is considered to be clean space. So for someone to walk on the floors of the house with their shoes in Japan would be like my going to your house for dinner and instead my asking you to pass the ketchup from the other side of the table, I hop up on the table with my shoes and say, “No worries, I’m just going to get the ketchup.” That would shock you. It would probably be the last time I was invited for dinner. It is kind of the feeling that Japanese people have when you walk through their house with your shoes on--like the top of your table with your shoes on--it is considered clean space.

While we were on this trip, observing this woman, and reading the passage from Luke, Sakiko felt that God was calling on her to let go of the old wineskin of certain Japanese cultural practices (not all of them of course—the metaphor breaks down), and to embrace a new wineskin in Canada.

It was a turning point for her. She became more content, happier. When you are trying to live in between two worlds and hanging on to both sets of values and trying to practice them, like a new wine and old wine skin it ruins your experience of both worlds—it tears the old wine skin and the new wine spills onto the floor. Sitting on the fence is the worst place to sit… Your butt gets sore. You can’t enjoy either garden. So it with Jesus, you can’t sit on the fence… or you won’t enjoy the world, or Jesus… you lose both.

Part of what Jesus in his teaching is saying is, “Contrary to what you expected, I have not come to preserve your old traditions, but I have come to bring new ones, new wine. You will have to let go of your old wineskins, and replace them with new wineskins, new containers.”

What might this look like in our lives as the new wine breaks in?

Let me illustrate again, if I may, from Sakiko’s life. She is obviously a big part of my life so it is just natural for me to talk about her, as you do with people are a big part of your life.

The other day as a friend of Sakiko who’s not a Christian was asking her about her life journey, “Before I became a Christian, in my life, was defined by doing things that would cause other people to envy me.” Japan is a culture (as you know if you are from there) that places a great deal of importance on what people think of you. My wife had been able to play this game very well in Japan. She ended up going to a very prestigious university in Japan. She enjoyed her studies immensely, but she also liked the fact that she was going to a school that caused people to envy her. She dated guys who were considered very desirable: smart, successful, good-looking. She liked them, but she really liked the fact that people envied her because of her boyfriend. (So when I first met her, I thought she was a way out of my league.) When she graduated from university, she ended getting her dream job as an editor at Newsweek magazine. At the time Newsweek in Japan was hiring just one university graduate per year in Japan. She loved her job. But she says what she enjoyed most of all in those days was being at a party and giving someone her business card and doing a double-take and them saying, “Aren’t you a little young for that?” Her life was defined by doing things that would cause other people to envy her. She was able to play that game so well.

She shared that when she gave her life to Christ, she experienced a lot of losses. Many people talk about how much better their life gets right after coming to know Jesus. Sakiko said, “In many ways my life got worse.” As a result of meeting Jesus, she had to get rid of those old wineskins…those old wineskins of being defined by what other people think of her…of getting people to envy her. She ended up feeling led to start a small not-for-profit, publishing company. She was eventually led to marry me (someone in Japan who knew about the really successful guys who had wanted to date her asked me how did you get her to marry you—marry a minister is not a way to move up in the world, not in Canada, but especially not in Japan?!).

The irony is that though those outward trappings of success are no longer present in her life, she is happier. She was telling her friend of hers who, “No one envies me now, I’m an immigrant… we don’t have a lot of money... Looking from the perspective of an outsider, my life is very ordinary, nothing to envy… but with Jesus, I have this peace, this joy that I did not have before…a sense of security that I did not have before.”

If my wife had not been willing to let go of those old wineskins, those old garments of self-definition she had before and tried to embrace Jesus, she would not have able to enjoy the new wine, nor the old wineskin. The old and the new would have been destroyed. For those who are turning to Christ, you’re going to get new wine, so be prepared to shed the old wineskins, or you’ll tear the old container, and lose the new wine.

Let me speak to those of us, who have been followers of Christ for some years. We also need wine skins as God moves in our lives in new ways.

A few weeks ago (as part of the rule of series), I spoke about how Elijah on Mount Carmel. I spoke about how God had responded to his prayer to consume the sacrifice of the bull by sending fire from heaven that devoured the whole sacrifice…even the altar that the sacrifice was placed on, and licked up the water that had drenched the sacrifice and created a moat around the altar. Later in Elijah’s life we see that God doesn’t speak to him by fire, but in a gentle whisper. The Hebrew of that can be translated “God spoke in the sound of the silence.”

Some of us, when we were new believers, experienced very dramatic answers to prayer.

As a teenager and new Christian I remember going on my very first mission trip to a community of poor black community in the Deep South. We were there to do some renovations for the community church and the school. The evening before we were supposed to finish the dry-walling and paint the school and the church, ominous black clouds rolled in and the forecast for the following day was for a storm and a torrential downpour.

I remember being in that prayer meeting and praying to God about weather, and praying with the boldness of a teenager and relatively new Christian: “God, you’re the Lord of the weather, push away the black clouds and give us a clear day tomorrow.”

The next morning, we had a perfectly, clear, beautiful day in South Carolina—not a cloud in the sky.

As I look back to my early days as a Christian, I had some dramatic answers to prayer… But now that I have been a Christian for many years, I don’t experience many dramatic answers to prayer. I do not typically feel God’s presence like electricity coursing through my body. But I feel like I am experiencing God in quiet, gentle ways…in the ordinary and every day. I experience God as I jog around Douglas Park pushing a stroller. I experience God as I spend time with my son and my wife and friends. I experience God in my everyday work. I feel close to God, but I don’t experience him very often in a really dramatic way.

At some point, I can’t remember exactly when, looking back, it was as if God was saying, “I don’t want my relationship with you to be only one where you are following me because I am answering your prayers in dramatic ways and by doing amazing miracles through you.”

At some point for many of us who know God, God will say. “I don’t want you to love me only because you feel intense, cool vibes in my presence or get amazing miracles, but because I am God.”

Part of what it means to grow in faith is that we love God, not only for all the benefits he provides us with, but because God is God, and God is worthy.

I have felt called to shed some of the old wineskins of how God relates to me. Like Elijah, God does not have to answer me only through fire and the very dramatic, but also in the sound of the silence. Shed an old wine skin, embrace a new one.

As a church there are times when God calls us to let go of the old wineskins and embrace new ones. I first came here almost 14 years ago. Tenth Church was a wonderful community. Many people were in their senior years. Many were long-time Christians.

Part of what I sensed God putting on my heart was to foster the kind of community where people, even people who had never been to church or had been hurt by a church, would feel welcomed.

Part of what that meant was that we would change some of our art and communication forms so that they would be accessible to the ordinary person in Vancouver. The music director at the time came up to me one day (she had been classically trained) and said, “What do you think about the music here?” I said, “I don’t know much about music, but it kind of reminds me of the Lawrence Welk show. It feels like the music that is played here is from a previous time… my sense is that it won’t connect with people outside the church.” (Frankly though the words are meaningful to Christians, I’m not sure the music connects with a lot of Christians either). She replied, “What should I do?” I said, “Well, for starters… why don’t you get some drums on the platform?” A few weeks later she got some drums on the platform. Someone came in to the sanctuary, looked at the drums and said, “If Jesus saw those drums on that platform right now, he would roll over in his grave!” (For those of you who may not know, Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead. That is why we celebrate Easter.)

I regularly meet people here who tell me that they are inviting their friends who have not had a connection with church in the past and they had a good, welcoming experience here. I just spoke with someone who told me, “I have been bringing five people who are coming and are not Christians.” We want to be a place for all: The old, the young, the rich, the poor, those who believe in God, and have for a long time, those who doubt.

The CBC paid us a nice compliment several years ago, when they said that Tenth Avenue Church has become a resting place for people of all backgrounds.

In that time of change when we were first experiencing change around music in certain forms, it created a sense of loss for certain people. A new work that would require a new container…a new wineskin what would hold an older set of people, but a new set of people, too?

A new wineskin that God is leading our community into is a deeper discipleship… we’ll be unfolding this more in the coming year.

Jesus, contrary to our expectations, doesn’t come just as a preserver of tradition.

He comes as the new wine, as the one who makes all things new.

In order to embrace the new, we must let go of and die to the old. We cannot try to embrace both, or we lose the old wine and the new.

LET’S PRAY

Do you sense God calling you to rid yourself of a wine skin? (e.g., a habit, an expectation, a way of seeing, the need to control).

Do you sense God calling to receive new wine? (e.g., embracing a spiritual discipline, a relationship, a risk)

May 9, 2010

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Parables M1 May 9, 2010

KOG not just “out there” here

Text: Matthew 13:44-46

Big Idea: The joy of the gospel leads us to sacrifice.

As penniless peasants in China labored all day in the sticky heat and humidity of the rice the paddies they would utter proverbs like this to each other:

“No food without blood and sweat.”

“In the winter the lazy man freezes to death.”

“No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.”

Rise before dawn 360 days a year? What about vacation?

China’s storyline: Work hard and you will receive treasure in the end.

In our culture we know that if we jump through enough hoops: hoops at school, hoops at work, we will receive some kind of treasure at the end, financial reward, prestigious, an attractive partner…

In the Jewish tradition there is a similar storyline embedded in a popular rabbinic story. A generous man one day finds himself broke. He saw some rabbis that he knew he should support. He felt great angst in his heart. “What should I do?” He wondered. His wife was a devout follower of God told him, “Sell half the field” (which was the only property they had left). “Give the money to the rabbi,” she said. He did. In return the rabbis prayed for the man and his wife to be blessed. One day when the man was plowing the remaining half of the field, his cow fell and broke a leg. When he bent down to help the cow, he found a jewel. This storyline here do the right thing and you will receive treasure in the end.

Jesus often taught through parables. He often taught what the kingdom of God would be like through parables. Parables are not, strictly speaking, simply illustrations of what God’s kingdom would be like. Jesus’ parables were designed to shake us and change our minds. They were intended to disrupt the way that we see the world. Jesus in Matthew 13:11 said the parables contain mysteries into the kingdom of heaven. They provide enough clues for those sincerely interested in understanding what God’s kingdom is like, but are also ambiguous enough so that those who couldn’t be bothered to find out more wouldn’t understand.

We are beginning a new series today on the parables of Jesus. Today we are going to look at two brief parables—the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13:44-46.

In Jesus’ world people would have had a belief that treasure is something you receive after doing good. Something we gain through a prior sacrifice. Treasure is something we receive at the end of the story. In this world, Jesus tells the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl.

44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Show art image (please keep the image up for several minutes until the story about Wendy’s.

When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of heaven he is not just talking about a place we go after we die, but heaven in Jesus’ term refers to the place where God’s life and reign are being established.

The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl have slight differences. In the parable of the hidden treasure we have a man walking through a field, he stubs his toe on something and discovers a priceless gem. He apparently is a peasant because he has to sell all that he has to buy the field. In the second parable the man is not a peasant, but apparently a fairly well-to-do merchant. He doesn’t stumble across the treasure by accident, but actively seeks it out.

Though some of the details are slightly different (a poor man, a rich man, one person finding a treasure by accident, the other looking for it intently), the message of the two parables is one and the same—both parties are blown away by the incredible treasure that they find. They consider themselves the luckiest people in the world. They swell with joy.

In the parable of the hidden treasure we read about this peasant who accidentally finds a treasure hidden in the field. Now we may think, how implausible?! What are the chances? In Jesus’ day this scenario would have been very possible. People in the ancient world of the first century did not have banks or safes or insurance policies like we do today. So if someone in Palestine heard that their land was about to be raided by an army or by bandits, what would they do? Their valuables would be vulnerable if kept in their homes. So it was not uncommon for people in Jesus’ day to place their valuables in jars and hide them in some field as a way to protect them from enemy soldiers or bandits that might come and raid their land. It was obviously possible that when the enemy army would invade Palestine, the owner of the treasure would die. In many cases they would not have told anyone where the treasure was.

Peasants dreamed of finding these treasure jars left by someone perhaps years ago and forgotten in some field. But if you found one of these treasure jars in someone else’s field, you could not just pick it up and take it. The treasure belonged to the person who owned the field. The treasure was left in the ground. It simply belonged to the land owner. If the treasure was left in the ground and the person died, it belonged to the land owner. But if the land was put on the market and bought by another person, then the treasure would belong to the new owner.

This is the background of the first parable.

A peasant was walking through a field, not necessarily looking for anything unusual. He stubs his toe, looks down, and he discovers a treasure. When he realizes just how valuable the treasure is, he says to himself, “I’ve got to have this!”

And some people discover the treasure of the kingdom of God—the treasure of the Gospel by stumbling across it.

I used to live just north of Boston. There was a garbage truck driver named Craig Randall who lived north of Boston in that community named Peabody, Massachusetts. In a garbage container one day he noticed a Wendy’s soft drink cup bearing a contest sticker (use prop). He had won a chicken sandwich the week before, so Randall checked it, hoping to find some French fries or a soft drink. He pealed back the sticker and he discovered he had won $200,000. Randy literally stumbled across a treasure with joy.

Some people stumble into the kingdom of God. C. S. Lewis titled his autobiography “Surprised by Joy.” Lewis did not believe in the existence of God. But when he discovered God, or more accurately in Lewis’s words when God discovered him, he found that his greatest surprise in his conversion was joy. From time to time people started coming to Tenth, not because they were spiritually searching, but for other reasons. Two weeks ago, we baptized someone who in effect said, I came to Tenth meet girls (his Christian colleague actually said, “There are lots of pretty girls at Tenth”), but I ended up meeting God. Sometimes, people discover the treasure of God, the treasure of his Kingdom by stubbing their toe in the field.

The second parable is about a merchant who is looking for fine pearls. And again this is not something that is part of most of our worlds. Some of us when we were young, like Jimmy Pattison, put our fingers in the change slot in the bottom of pay phones, hoping to find a quarter someone forgot to retrieve. But in Jesus’ world people sought pearls in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean by diving for them. Some of the pearls that were found in Jesus’ day would have been worth the equal of millions and millions of dollars (pearls in Jesus’ day were viewed like diamonds are today).

My close friend Elizabeth Archer Klein says that one of her earliest memories is watching Japanese pearl divers in Honolulu diving into the ocean, holding their breath for what seemed like an eternity to bring up the treasures of the sea. As a little girl, Elizabeth said she was stunned by their beauty of pearls…bringing up the treasures of the sea.

In Jesus’ day it was common for people to dive for pearls, and a merchant looking for fine pearls found one of extraordinary value, and he went away, sold everything he had, and bought it. In the second parable, like many people today, the merchant was searching for a treasure. Some people today feeling like there is something missing in their life, even though they seem to have almost everything, in some cases search for a treasure meaning.

Although the stories are different, the message of the parables are one and the same. Both parties are stunned by their incredible find. They feel that they are the most fortunate people in the world. Like a person whose just won the 28 million dollar Lotto 649 jackpot, they that everything will change. If you were to ask them, “Don’t you realize you be burdened by your new wealth? Don’t you’ll fork out hefty premiums for your insurance policies?” They would look at you, as if to say, “Are you crazy? My whole life is now going to be different. And unlike the lottery, the person who finds the treasure of Christ, the Kingdom, the treasure of life with God, finds themselves on the cusp or more infinitely more blessed life…

The parables are about the joy of discovery and about selling everything, as a result. The story line is not “sacrifice everything in order to gain the treasure,” but “you have discovered the treasure, so sell everything.” They are parables about wonder first and then sacrifice. The jewel first and then the selling. The discovery first and then decision to give all.

One of my siblings, from the time she was a young girl, enjoyed school. She enjoyed both the social aspect of school and the learning aspect of school. When she was an undergraduate student in Montreal, she aspired to become a professor one day. I still recall the excitement she had when she was admitted into an Ivy League PhD program, which was the strongest program in her area of study anywhere. When you want to be a professor and you are admitted into your dream PhD program, in that moment you are not thinking about the fact that you are not going to be able to go to study at any of your back-up schools. In the moment, you’re not even thinking about the fact that you have to work and make all kinds of sacrifices to complete your program. You are lost in the wonder of the door that has opened before you.

When you utterly fall in love with someone, when you feel like you have found your soul mate, when your head and your heart are in alignment, and you commit to marrying someone, you are not thinking about the fact you are not going to be with all these other people that theoretically you could have dated. And if you are, then maybe you are not ready to get married. Maybe the person that you are with is not the right person for you, or there is something in you that prevents you from fully committing another person.

When I asked Sakiko’s parents for their blessing on my intention to marry Sakiko, I looked into a camera (I was going to send a video because they were in Osaka) and I said, “When I was a young child growing up in London, England, I fantasized about finding an old beaten map with a series of dotted lines leading me to a treasure left by pirates years ago. And so a year after that, when I stood right here almost nine years ago, and when the minister Leighton Ford, turned to me in the ceremony and asked me, “Will you forsake all others and remain faithful to Sakiko as long as you both shall live?” I didn’t say, “Hmmm, let me think about it. What are my options?” there was a solemn, but also deep, grateful “Yes!”

When you find a treasure that is of priceless value, you are not thinking primarily about the cost. When you are entering into a demanding PhD program of your dreams, when you enter into marriage, obviously there are great sacrifices to be made. But when you are in a place that you have always wanted to be, your primary emotion is not one of onerous duty, but JOY--joy in the infinite value of the treasure.

So it is with Kingdom. For some time, my dad had been concerned about me, his wayward teen son. He took me to a Christian youth conference. I really did not want to go, but to my surprise, I found myself interested in what the speaker had to say. On the final day of the conference the speaker asked a simple question. “If you were to die tonight, would you know for sure that you were going to heaven?” I hung my head thinking, that “no.” I have no idea. I knew I had turned my back on God. The speaker explained that because Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again if we I turned to him we could have a new start with God.

At that moment, it was like a huge door was opened before me to God… I thought “If I give my life to God, I will lose my place in the popular group in school, but I also knew that a door of opportunity was being opened to me… never… so I decided to pray and give my life to Him. In a way like never before, I felt really, really blessed—JOY…

I didn’t know anything about the Bible or theology, but I remember home going to my room pulling down a poster of a favorite rock band at the time KISS—that I sense did not honor God. Threw it in the fire and burned it. A friend and I had together bought our first pornographic magazine. I remember being at the 7-11 with him when we were going to buy it. When we got to store, I said I’ll keep watch at door, you never know when your parents might show up. You go in a buy it. I will guard the door. We bought it jointly, but after I said yes to Christ I remember… burning that too.

I had stumbled onto this great Pearl and that led me to voluntarily shed certain things from my life.

I felt like the most fortunate person anywhere.

Like the peasant and like the merchant, when you really discover the priceless treasure of the pearl that you have in Christ, the treasure of the Kingdom of God, the treasure of life with the king you will sacrifice anything for the pearl.

Treasure is not the end of the story. Treasure is the beginning. But when we have the treasure, we can joyfully sacrifice for it.

When you sacrifice for the treasure your is joy more complete.

If you find yourself without joy in the pearl, sort of half committed, “in-between” Christ and the world. You might ask yourself, “Have I really discovered and embraced the pearl of great price?” Am I really a follower of Christ, or would it more accurate I am an admirer of Christ?

One of the signs that we have really found the pearl of great price is that we are willing to joyfully sell everything for the pearl.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic book, Cost of Discipleship, said, (The Gospel) is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

When you know that you have discovered your only true life, you are willing to give everything for it. It is as we are willing to give everything for Christ out of a sense of deep joy in our only true life that our joy in our life in Christ is made complete.

When I was in high school, I remember that on the days before our actual football games we would practice without pads. We would wear our t-shirts, shorts, and our helmets. We would scrimmage and go over our plays at about 75 % intensity with no hitting. But there was this one player named Skidmore a linebacker who would be really frustrated by these 75% percent speed, no hitting practices. I remember at one of our scrimmages, Skidmore would bust through the line and drive his helmet into a ball carrier. The coaches and team mates would yell at Skidmore and say, “Hey! Someone is going to get hurt! We are going at only 75% intensity here. We are not hitting. Remember, Skidmore?” And Skidmore would throw off his helmet and say, “I can’t play this game at 75%! I’ve gotta play it at 100%!”

Now Skidmore was extreme, but at the time I thought he doesn’t get it, but there was another part of me that me that thinks, “No, he does get it” because football is not a game for the half-committed… for those who will give half-hearted… effort. It is a game where you will really flourish; your joy is more complete if you give it your all…if you leave it all on the field.

And so it is with following Christ. It is not a game designed for us that give a half-committed or the half-hearted effort… It is the kind of game that we are meant to give everything for the joy of the game… we are mean to leave it all on the field. As we do our joy is made complete.

Embracing the pearl of great price is like a great football player, it’s like a flourishing marriage; as you give it your best, it will yield its greatest gifts and your joy will be made complete.

Part of the way that we experience more fully the beauty and the joy of the treasure is by risking all, jumping in with all that we have.

Do you treasure Christ?

If you have never really felt the wonder and the joy and the treasure of the pearl, one way to feel the treasure might be like the peasant merchants and sell all that you have for the treasure, risking something great for the treasure.

I talked to a young person in our community who said, “I have been a Christian my whole life, but I don’t really feel God’s presence…ever.”

I blurted out, “Have you considered selling everything you have and giving it to the poor? Have you thought about going to like Iraq, or Afghanistan taking a risk for your faith?”

When we are willing to risk something for Christ—we see what a treasure we have in him.

Sometimes it’s in acting like we have a treasure in human relationship—even when we don’t feel that way—that we start to experience joy in the treasure.

Sometimes marriage counselors will meet with a couple who no longer treasure each other and will say, “Do you remember what attracted you to each other when you first started getting to know each other?” “Do you remember how you treated your partner when you first started dating?” How you took time to write notes to the person; how you bought flowers and chocolates; how you were willing to re-arrange your schedule to go out with the person? Start doing that again. Act like she’s your treasure; act like he’s your treasure; and as couples do that… as they fight for their relationship in many cases they begin to feel the treasure that they have…

Today is Mother’s Day. Part of the reason a mother treasures her children is because they sacrifice for them. And in their sacrifice their joy is made complete. If a mother has never sacrificed for her child. If she’s always had a nanny to change every diaper, to cook every meal, to get up in the middle to the night sooth the child, to put that band aid on the child’s scraped knee when they fall off their tricycle… then while that mother may love her child, her joy in her child won’t be complete because our joy is made complete when we sacrifice for someone.

Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

When you invest in something—you feel more keenly the treasure.

Another way to feel more keenly the treasure of the pearl is to share the pearl with others.

If you don’t feel like Christ is a priceless treasure you cherish, let me ask, “When was the last time you shared Christ with someone else?” Sharing the treasure that makes us treasure the treasure.

Last week someone told me they were planning on getting married. The guy said my fiancé is from an Orthodox background. She’s always believed in God’s existence, but you showed her how she could know God in a personal way. I was reminded that many people believe in God, but it’s such a treasure actually know God personally.

Last week I shared about how a Christian couple in our neighborhood had been praying for years that the wife’s brother would come to know Christ. Two weeks ago, they had the privilege of bringing him into a friendship with Jesus. When you see someone drawn to Christ or closer to Christ, you tend to treasure the treasure you have in him.

(Abrupt end)

When we find the pearl of great price, the treasure of Christ, life in the Kingdom, life with the King, out of sheer joy we sacrifice all for him… and as we give everything for him we find ourselves treasuring the treasure even more.

Pray: