Psalm 119:129-136:

Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. With open mouth I pant,
because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your custom toward those who love your name. Keep my steps steady according to your promise, and never let iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from human oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes. My eyes shed streams of tears because your law is not kept.

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; 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.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”  And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

How Do We Get There?

One of my favorite songs is a setting by Roger Quilter of Mary Coleridge’s poem, “The Valley and the Hill.”

       O the high valley, the little low hill,

      And the cornfield over the sea,

     The wind that rages and then lies still,

     And the clouds that rest and flee!

     O the grey island in the rainbow haze,

     And the long thin spits of land,

    The roughening pastures and the stony ways,

    And the golden flash of the sand!

    O the brown bracken, the black-berry bough,

    The scent of the gorse in the air!

    I shall love them ever as I love them now,

    I shall weary in Heaven to be there!

The speaker in the poem describes examples of nature’s beauty, and these are ordinary and everyday images, things that we might see here in Maine, too. Pastures, stone walls, a grey island, a black-berry bough. And then the speaker in the poem tells us that she loves these, and she will always love them, and even when she is in Heaven, she will weary to be there. That is, even after she dies and goes to Heaven, she will long to be among the beautiful things in nature, she will “weary” to be there. To be here, on Earth, in other words. And so, the message here, the message she is giving us, is that this is heaven, right here. It is right here, before our very eyes. If we can only see it.

Matthew Chapter 13

Today is the last Sunday in July, and it is the third Sunday in a row that we are reading from Matthew, Chapter 13. Here we have the seven well known “Kingdom of Heaven” parables. And so we have been asking, “What is the Kingdom of Heaven?” And along with this question, we are asking, “How do we get there?”

Remember last week, I mentioned that the Kingdom of Heaven is right here in our midst. It is right here and now, if we only can recognize. It is not somewhere else. But you might be saying, “Pastor Ed, I like that idea. But I just don’t feel it. I want to experience the Kingdom of Heaven. It sounds really good. But I don’t know how to get there! I don’t know how to actually feel it, to experience it, to be in it.

The Mustard Seed

And so we have these teachings from Jesus. At first, we read them. They are words on a page. And then, slowly, slowly, we begin to catch glimpses of what he is talking about. We have moments of peace and happiness. Slowly, slowly, we have these brief experiences of the Kingdom of Heaven. A brief moment of peace and happiness. There are glimpses. They come and go. Until eventually, the experience stabilizes, and it becomes our living reality. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard see that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown, it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Spiritual Growth is a Process

Spiritual growth is a process. And it’s a well-documented process. Many people in history have gone through this process and written about it. It’s not fake. It’s not make-believe. It really happens. And it can happen to you, that is, if it hasn’t already. But spiritual growth probably won’t happen in the way you think it will. It won’t follow your expectations. It will be a complete surprise, a shocking surprise.

Rebbe Kotzker

There is a story from the Hassidic Jewish tradition told about Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, also known as, Kotzker Rebbe, (the Rabbi of Kotzk, Poland). He was a Hasidic Jewish rabbi.

As the story goes, Rebbe Kotzker “always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, ‘Why on our hearts and not in them?’ The rabbi answered, ‘Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your heart breaks, the holy words will fall inside.’”[1]

The One Great Pearl

Spiritual growth involves loss. Spiritual growth often happens as a result of a crisis, or a result of heartbreak, a great loss. The heart breaks open and the holy words fall inside. The heart breaks open. And when the heart breaks open, a person’s life changes. Things that seemed important are no longer important. There is a complete shift in priorities. What used to matter no longer matters. “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.”

So often the things we think are going to make us happy, don’t make us happy. In fact, those things that we want so much, that we think are going to be the things that really make us happy, actually make us miserable. Have you ever noticed?

Desire is Suffering

You know, here in America we live in a consumer culture. We are taught from birth that desire is good. Wanting something is good. We are conditioned into consumerism. You’ve heard the term, “Car Fever?” “If only I had that new car!” Car fever is a sense of urgent desire to buy a new car. If you’ve ever had car fever, you will know what this feels like. You are obsessed with that car, you get it stuck in your mind that you need that new car, that it’s the thing that is going to really do it for you, it’s the silver bullet. And this is a kind of illness. Car Fever. You are sick with desire. The desire is actually very painful. You are suffering with that desire. It tortures you. You know, we are conditioned to think that desire for something is a good thing and getting the object of the desire, you know, purchasing the car, is the thing that will make you happy.

The End of Wanting

But let’s investigate this for just a minute. Is the happiness in the car itself? Is obtaining the car the source of happiness? When you buy the car and bring it home and drive it into your driveway, you feel good. It feels so good. But what is that? What is it that actually feels so good?

What feels good is that the desire is gone. You have purchased the car, and now, that burning desire to have a new car is gone. And that’s peace. You see, the desire is suffering. Such yearning, such wanting, is actually very painful. Take a look at that. Desire is suffering. For whatever it might be, the new car, the new house, the new clothes, the new relationship, whatever, that thing that you want, that wanting is the painful part. Maybe you want something different in your family, maybe your kids aren’t behaving the way you want them to, or your parents aren’t behaving the way you want them to. You want something different from the way it is, and that wanting is painful. It’s the wanting that is the pain. That is suffering. And then the end of that wanting, the end of that desire, itself, is the source of peace and happiness. The wanting stops, and that is peace. And it has been there all along.

When someone realizes that what they really want is peace and happiness, everything changes. When you realize that what you really want is peace and happiness, not the car, peace and happiness becomes the great pearl, the one thing that matters more than anything else, worth giving up everything else. Peace and happiness is more about losing than gaining. Now I’m not talking about everyone else being peaceful. I’m talking about your peace of mind. You. This is not making everybody else peaceful. This is finding your peace, in the middle of chaos, because that’s never going to change. That chaos, that confusion, that’s always going to be there. But your peace and happiness, your peace of mind. That’s what I’m talking about.

Peace and happiness is more about losing than gaining. Losing the obstructions to peace and happiness. Losing the afflictions that obscure our peace and happiness. The peace and happiness is already here. But we mess it up with afflicting emotions like greed, desire, hatred, anger, envy, jealousy. These are the obscurations. And they obscure our ability to see the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is not complicated. The Kingdom of Heaven is watching a bird fly in the sky. It is listening to the waves roll onto the rocks. It is hearing the birds sing their songs in the morning and actually hearing that. It is being satisfied with the blessings we already have. It is simply being.

The invitation this morning is to consider what is most important. What is the great pearl, the one pearl of infinite price, the one treasure. What is the true source of your peace and happiness. What is the one thing that matters most? Amen? Amen.

[1] Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006)