Two Independence Day Sermons

Matthew 13:44-46

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I’d start a Summer sermon series on the Parables of Jesus—parables are fun! Well, the reason they’re fun is because they’re cryptic, they’re essentially riddles; they make us think critically and creatively; they make us think in ways we never would otherwise. And yes, while that can be really fun, it turns out to also be a lot of work—and I didn’t mean to give myself extra work during the Summer months... but I’m finding out it’s a huge task and a humbling undertaking to figure out how to, not only figure out how to interpret them in ways that do these sacred words justice, but additionally to interpret them in ways that will do its listeners justice, will do the people of this world justice.

There is so much being said in these short verses I just read, and so many directions we can go. The first of these two parables requires a little explanation—the implication here is that the man who found this treasure was a laborer; law at the time said that once you own a piece of land, anything you find on that land is yours—and so this worker found this treasure, presumably secretly re-hid it, sold everything he had, bought the land, and then treasure was then legally his. The second one is a little more straight-forward—a middle class merchant searches for pearls, finds one particular one, and picks that over all the others.

Now, let’s be honest with ourselves here—we can interpret these in really harmful ways. I could make this a pro-capitalist, pro-unethical business sermon if I wanted—one about being shrewd and cunning with our resources; I could do a pro-land grab sermon about how it’s okay to be deceptive and secretive in order to get rich. But I won’t do that. Because we have to look at the bigger picture. We have to take the rest of Jesus’ ministry into account, what he really stood for—the new world he was ushering in, and it’s only then that we can begin to understand what these parables are saying.

There’s nothing said in either of these parables about monetary value. There’s nothing about becoming rich, nothing about gaining any kind of earthly power with the buried treasure, or with that specific pearl. But what is said in both those parables is that the person had to sell or trade something when he got his treasure. The laborer sells everything in order to buy that field to gain what he found there; the merchant gets rid of all the other pearls he’s found throughout his journey and holds on to only this one.

We have to sacrifice what we know, what we once thought was important in order to find the treasure that truly matters.

Like the Jesus’ parables, we can interpret our constitution in ways that harm the people of this country—“all men are created equal.” Should we take this literally? Exclude women as we did until 1920? How do we interpret the right to bear arms—are guns more important than human beings? How do we understand the rights of workers vs. the rights of those who own the means of production and thoard as much money and resources as they can? When it comes to freedom of religion, does this mean the freedom of emphasize, even impose Christianity to public schoolchildren, as we’re seeing right now in Louisiana or in Oklahoma? Is punishing the homeless for simply living outside, when they have no place else, truly not cruel and unusual punishment, as the Supreme Court recently decided? We’ve seen this country recently backsliding into a strange literalism, twisting the founding principles of this country in ways that lift a few up at the expense of the many.

We’ve lost the plot. Instead of looking at the big picture, instead of understanding and celebrating the fact that this country was built on an idealistic dream of freedom, and freedom from tyranny and persecution, a dream of a country where everyone has a chance to be free and happy, we’re emphasizing and encouraging the whims of the small, wealthy minority over the well-being and the rights of the many, thanks to irrational fears and to bad-faith interpretations of this country’s founding. And combined with a bad-faith version of Christianity, one that blasphemously promotes individuality and material wealth, we’ve ended up with this version of American culture and American Christianity that is a far cry from what each was meant to be, or from what each should be.

 In the Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical gospel that didn’t make it into the Bible, but is believed to have influenced Matthew, Mark and Luke, there’s a version of the Parable of the Pearl that ends this way: “You, too, seek the ceaseless and enduring treasure, where moth does not approach to eat nor worm to destroy.” The treasure that must be sought, the treasure that must be valued, is one that is priceless. It’s one that has no monetary value, it’s one that transcends all that our broken culture claims as important. In our Christian faith, it involves the sacrificial capital-L Love of Christ; but ultimately, that’s all this is—it’s Love, unconditional Love; it’s making sure that everyone in this country, everyone in this world, has a place to call home, can feel safe and secure; can feel loved.

 And maybe we stumble upon it, or maybe we spend our lives seeking it out—but either way, when we find it, when we realize what will make this world just for all, we will be filled with such hope and such joy that we would trade all that we have for that singular priceless treasure, one that no moth will eat or worm destroy—one that won’t be misinterpreted or twisted for someone’s violent means; one that will make this country, this world, what it can be—an earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Ghazal: America the Beautiful
by Alicia Ostriker

Do you remember our earnestness our sincerity
in first grade when we learned to sing America

The Beautiful along with the Star-Spangled Banner
and say the Pledge of Allegiance to America

We put our hands over our first grade hearts
we felt proud to be citizens of America

I said One Nation Invisible until corrected
maybe I was right about America

School days school days dear old Golden Rule Days
when we learned how to behave in America

What to wear, how to smoke, how to despise our parents
who didn’t understand us or America

Only later learning the Banner and the Beautiful
live on opposite sides of the street in America

Only later discovering the Nation is divisible
by money by power by color by gender by sex America

We comprehend it now this land is two lands
one triumphant bully one still hopeful America

Imagining amber waves of grain blowing in the wind
purple mountains and no homeless in America

Sometimes I still put my hand tenderly on my heart
somehow or other still carried away by America

(transcript for Rev. Paul Sawyer’s sermon unavailable)