Have you ever been invited to a party where the icebreaker, “Who am I?” Is being played?
I want you to imagine watching an invited guest arriving at such a party. The hostess has relieved them of their bottle of wine and box of chocolates and then slapped
a post-it sticker on their forehead. The house is filled with guests with their foreheads similarly “plastered” with post-it stickers all trying to guess the word, words or characters written on them. Having exchanged brief introductions with his fellow guests he points to his forehead and enquires as to whether he is “animal, vegetable or mineral?” “Not really!” One of the guests replies. Mmm..not very helpful.
Having first helped one of them to discover that they are “Elvis Presley”, which was all too easy, our character moves on. Successive enquiries reveal that he is “a bit like a net” a bit like a precious jewel made by an oyster, a bit like a mustard seed and like a blob of yeast in a batch of dough. Exasperated he gives up.
As well as comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to nets, pearls, mustard seeds and nets, Jesus compares it to a clear out of dusty store rooms out of which both old and new
treasures have emerged. I dare say that such description would have sent our erstwhile word guesser do-l ally.
This parable caught my eye as I read this scripture and felt of particular relevance to us as a family as we are trying to get on top of spring cleaning at home.
The other day I decided to tackle a much neglected area of our sitting room. Having hoovered our huge sofa I turned it over to reveal the
hidden secrets which lurked beneath. Not only was there piles of dust, unswept debris, cobwebs and a variety of missing pens, I found our missing specialist pet comb. I was delighted, but imagine how I would have felt if my efforts had also revealed an item of huge value in brand new condition that I didn’t even know we owned?
This is how Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven.
In 2 Kings 22 we see the ascension to the throne of Judah of the very young King Josiah. The Holy Spirit was already moving in his heart, but it was in the rediscovery of God’s word that real change happened. In the process of renovations of the Temple in Jerusalem Hilkiah the High Priest found a discarded copy of the Book of the Law of God, the Torah lying in a storeroom. On reading it young Josiah’s heart was filled with remorse on behalf of his people and
he was filled with desire to implement extraordinary religious reforms. He put an end to Baa’l worship and set about the restoration of true faith amongst his people. One wonders what the priests in Jerusalem had been using for liturgical resources up to that point, but for the young King these ancient scriptures offered him great joy and were something entirely new.
I experienced something of this kind of joy when my faith came alive as a soldier. I had been brought up with the
Book of Common Prayer, but it had been to me an old musty smelling and irrelevant collection of largely meaningless texts. Although
I could recite some the words of the prayers and liturgy off by heart they lacked any kind of lustre. When I gave my heart to the Lord and received the Holy Spirit these ancient texts came alive to me and I discovered new treasures which hitherto had been hidden to me.
Today’s message is simple.
New treasures are to be found behind the old and those with open and tender hearts will discover new truths about God’s reign and rule.
Many of those outside the Church regard it as nothing more than a deposit of outdated an irrelevant truth statements. If they were to search with open and receptive hearts they would soon discover new and priceless treasures. It is
important for us to read the scriptures with open and receptive hearts too. There is much more for us to learn and new and exciting truths and insights for us to discover amongst what perhaps has become old and familiar.
Amen