Matthew
13:31-33, 44-52
Two tickets to a
baseball game, $46, two hot dogs, two popcorns, two sodas, $27, one autographed
baseball, $50. Real conversation with
your eleven year old son: priceless.
Sound familiar? It’s from the
first Mastercard priceless commercial that ran back in 1997. (Hence the great deal on the tickets and
food!) That commercial launched an ad
campaign that twenty years later is still going strong because it touches upon
a deep truth that resonates in all of us - that ultimately the meaning and
fulfillment that we seek is not something that can be bought.
Ironically
though, Jesus uses some things that money can buy in order to point to what
really is priceless. First, he says,
there is a man who discovers a treasure hidden in a field. That man is so excited that he goes and sells
everything he has to lay hold of that treasure.
Then there is a merchant who comes upon one of the finest of
pearls. He desires it so much that he too
goes and sells all he has to buy it. In
both cases, these men are not just willing, but eager, to completely upend
their lives, abandon all other pursuits and sell everything they own so that
they may have something they recognize as having more value than anything
else.
This, Jesus tells
us, is like the Kingdom of Heaven - even though it can be easily overlooked
like a treasure that’s buried or a pearl amongst many it is of the utmost value
and worth all that we have and all that we are.
But what exactly is this Kingdom of Heaven? It’s God, Herself, as well as the world in
which God’s ways, God’s priorities, and God’s love has full rein. What makes the Kingdom of Heaven the most
priceless thing of all things is that it gives us what we ultimately desire - lasting fulfillment and satisfaction. Nothing else, no human relationship, no
longed for accomplishment, no unique set of experiences is able to meet our
deepest need for any sustained amount of time.
Seeking fulfillment in anything that God has created is a recipe for
disappointment. St. Augustine puts it
this way, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless
until they rest in you.” The Kingdom of
Heaven is where our hearts find true and priceless rest.
Now in order to
help us better grasp the value of God’s Kingdom and the path one might take to
enter into it I’d like to call upon the 12th century a monk and Church Father,
Bernard of Clairvaux. He wrote a book
called On Loving God and in it he
lays out four stages a person takes in order to find a spiritual
fulfillment.
The first stage,
Bernard says, is loving oneself for one’s own sake. This is where we all begin. When we are born we are naturally only
concern for ourselves. We have needs and
we want them to be met. That’s all good
and appropriate for the first stage of development, but if by the time we reach
adulthood we still act as is we are the center of the universe then very likely
our universe will be very empty and lonely one.
Thankfully, most
of us choose to move from this stage onto the next - Loving God for one’s own sake. This is considered the next level because
there is some awareness of something beyond ourselves. However, at this stage the reason we seek God
in our life is because it serves us in some way and it’s easy to get stuck here
or visit this stage over and over again.
I mean how much of our prayer life is focused on asking God for
something or telling God what to do? A
lot, right? No wonder our faith is
shaken when life doesn’t go the way we want and God doesn’t act like our
all-powerful butler at our beck and call.
When the states are high, when it’s a matter of life or death, and it
appears that God does not come through for us it can be absolutely devastating
and we are left with bitterness and hurt.
Loving God for one’s own sake is a step in the right direction, but this
kind of faith will never truly satisfy.
But if we can
shift from loving God for one’s own sake to loving God for God’s own sake
well, then we’re making real progress in the Kingdom. To love God for God’s own sake begins to happen
when we start to recognize that God’s value, God’s worthiness is not based on
what we get from God, but on who God is.
To worship, delight and stand in awe of God because God is God - period. We know the difference in our own lives and
relationships - people who attend to us because of what we can do for them
versus people who value us just for who we are.
This dynamic may be especially obvious in some parent/teenager
relationships. Imagine you are a parent
of a teenager who one day sits down next to you and strikes up a pleasant
conversation. He says that it’s nice to
see you and even asks about your day! At
this point, for many parents at least, one’s radar goes on alert. And an internal monologue may begin. What does this child of mine want? The car?
Money? A later curfew? There’s got to be something behind all this
attention and kindness. So you the
parent ask the question, “My Dear Teenager, what can I do for you?” Imagine the surprise and delight to hear,
“Nothing. I just wanted to be with
you.” Now that may be fantasy, but we
can still apply it to our relationship with God. Simply wanting to be present with God with no
agenda is loving God for God’s own sake and that’s when true fulfillment for
the soul begins to happen.
But there’s one
more stage in the Kingdom of God that Bernard speaks of which, quite honestly,
is hard to get one’s mind around. It
brings us back full circle to the beginning for it is about loving oneself, but
it’s not about loving oneself in a self-centered way. At this point it’s loving oneself...for God’s sake. Now let me remind you this does not come from
a modern writer influenced by the “Me Generation.” This is written by a 12th century French monk
reflecting on the highest stage of spiritual connection and fulfillment. Loving oneself for God’s sake means that we
are able to see ourselves the way God sees us with charity, humility and
mercy. Seeing that we are full of flaws,
failures and frailties, yet even so knowing deep in our hearts, as Psalm 139 puts
it, that we really are fearfully and wonderfully made. To love oneself for God’s sake is to
recognize that in God’s eyes each one of us, with no exceptions, is a treasure,
a pearl of great price - a keeper! When
we are able to know that for God’s sake then we are able to love more perfectly
and our hearts find rest.
That’s not to say
that having a real conversation at a baseball game with your eleven year old
son or anyone else is an insignificant thing.
God has blessed us with countless wonderful and meaningful things in
this world. However, to experience the
fullness and ultimate fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven? That is truly priceless.
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