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The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, July 24, 2005
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52, Walter Harms
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WHAT IMPRESSES YOU?

What really makes a deep, lasting impression on you? The Teton Mountains of Wyoming, looming up in their snow-capped grandeur to a boy
of 14! Standing at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge looking up at
its towering strength, and then passing underneath it a few days later, as it gleamed in all it ?golden? splendor, to become a lasting impression for a person to be gone from the USA for 5 years.

I have eaten a lot of peanuts in my time, as nuts or in peanut butter.
Good but no real lasting impression. I have planted many different kind of vegetable and flower seeds in my time. Some so small you could lose many of them in the creases of your hand. To think that these seeds could produce the wonderful multi-colored flowers I loved?that was always impressive to me.

I watched my mother make bread from ?scratch? so many time that it was nothing unusual. She always used a ?cake? of moist yeast to make the bread rise. I can remember asking her what it was and why she used it.
The yeasty smell is still with me, and the aroma of that rye graham bread makes me salivate to this day. Lasting impressions of some things that are and are not impressive.

I have seen a pearl, one pearl valued at $10,000.00 American dollars in the Ginza store of Mikimoto Pearls. Talk about impressive! A pair of them, large, absolutely round, glistening in all their iridescent glory. I wonder what wonders were not on display that would give the connoisseur of pearls sweating palms and heart palpitations.

I always imagined treasures were hidden in the field beyond the vegetable garden of my childhood. I guess I had some kind of vision that treasure was stashed there. My digging was so bad that just to dent the sod with an adult spade was too formidable, and I soon went on to other fantasies and never found but one treasure, worth going to any trouble for.

Fishing? The first fish in some creek near my home when I was a nascent teen was a 4 inch long catfish. And I ate that rascal! And was it ever so delicious! I wouldn?t though be able to tell a ?good?
fish from a ?bad? fish, if my life depended on it. It seems that most fish are edible, or at least part of them. Being in the Orient for 10 years, I ate fish and sea creatures and crustaceans that some of you wouldn?t go near. Most were delicious. Some I know you would think were ?bad.?

All about the Kingdom
This person Jesus talks in these 5 plus stories, (parables he called
them) about the ?kingdom of heaven.? That?s his shorthand for ?how God operates.? God?s name to the Jews of Jesus time was so sacred, you didn?t use it, ever.
Jesus is talking how the world of God operates. It?s like a mustard seed. Not very impressive. But when it is sown, the possibilities are almost too much to believe. So big that even birds can sit on its branches.

It?s not very impressive to hear that God accepts you, loves you, just as you are without standards to meet or changes made. It?s not impressive to see the bloody cross, a tortured wreck of a person hanging on it, and thinking: This is going to turn into something ?good??

The story of God working through Jesus is just that. Not impressive, well, until you see the results in the lives of people. People hanging on their every word?Mother Teresa, a cloistered monk, Martin Luther who tortured himself until he learned that God was not only not impressed, but all he was trying to do?get in a position of favor with Whoever-is-in-charge was already a done deal because of this cross hanging fellow named Jesus. A small word becomes the Word and there is an explosion of force that drove kings to tremble, empires to fold, and nations to revolutionize their way of dealing with people.

Impressive? To you?

The Power of Yeast
That?s kind of explosion is what yeast causes in flour. The large amount Jesus used in that second story about ?the kingdom of heaven? is the equivalent of bread to make 100 loaves. Bread makers in Jesus time didn?t use nicely packaged yeast. They used some left over ?sourdough?
type of yeast, left over unbaked bread dough. Powerful stuff! If you have ever baked anything with yeast and you were somewhat tardy in getting it into the oven, it could be all over the place, continuing to use its ?influence? on its surroundings.

A little goes a long way! The way God operates through the telling of the Good News of God?s concern for individuals is absolutely astounding. It brings peace, a sense of joy, a sense of purpose to lives once focused on only the present because there was no future.
Now the horizons brighten. The future becomes open. And the people around those affected by the ?yeast? of the ?kingdom of heaven? result in a changed world that has produced economic changes in the hearts of the most dedicated capitalists so that now ?the poor who are always with us? are considered, truly helped, not just money tossed at them.

The aroma of the effects of this heaven-sent yeast produce an attraction that cannot be produced by any other time of luring scent or odor. What is more impressive? A mansion of 60 rooms or a store front chapel serving the homeless with bread and the Bread of Life? What is more impressive?a TV evangelist bringing in million of dollars each month or the lay person, the ?you? speaking to a fellow worker who has just found the spouse straying of God?s loving presence even in the most desperate of circumstances?

Impressive? To you?

Worth Getting Rid of Everything Else
I don?t know of anything that I would want so much, I would sell everything I have to own that one thing. Probably couldn?t get by doing it either, with a wife and grandchildren. I don?t know of anything that would be so valuable that I would even consider doing it.

Bu there is just that. It is called by this teller-of-tales, Jesus, the ?kingdom of heaven.?
As Jesus tells this story, the man found it, hid it, and, you have to catch this, for joy! For joy sold all he had to get that field with its treasure in his hands.

Now before you call the boys in white uniforms to take this man off to the asylum, you have got to remember that this people called Christians have said for a long time, that the joy of salvation, the rescue from all fears of life, death, and beyond is so great that it is worth the loss of everything else. The joy that comes from total dependence on our gracious God is so freeing, so liberating, so exhilarating, that nothing else?relationships, ?things,? dreams are all in and under this great treasure, this relationship with our gracious God and Savior, Jesus, the Christ.

Of course, you have just got to find the treasure or you would think those who have found it are fit for the loony bin, the fringe element, the weirdoes of the world. Then again, when the treasure finds you and it will, if it hasn?t already, you?ll have to deal with the joy it brings.

Impressive? To you?

Searching for the ?Priceless?
Looking for fine pearls. That?s not done much anymore, in a world that cultures them. There have always been fine pearls. Perhaps not by present standards, but there have been fine pearls. This ?natural?
result of irritation in any oyster can absolutely enthrall you. The color from a silky black to white to pink and many shades in between.
To hold in your hand the ?perfect? pearl?the end of a lifetime of searching. Do you have idea what that is like? To picture it in your mind, and then to see the reality, and know it is better than your best fantasy. To know that your whole world would be, can only be complete with this one Pearl, then releasing all the other ?lesser? pearls in your life is no problem. To be in the present of the One of great value always, no sacrifice is too great.

Is a relationship with God, is the ?kingdom of heaven? that important?
Is knowing that Jesus alone is Lord, he will be with you always in every situation, he is working out your life so that good will result to you and honor to him, is having a friend who takes your place among the damned worth all else? Or put it this way, to know there is this way of life which will be so exciting because the Lord of the universe is with you and then accept lesser gods as the ones you?ll place your money on?would you do it?

Yes, I know that Jesus as Lord of the universe?to believe that in this chaotic, tsunami occurring world of fanatical violence, and indiscriminate bombing of houses, subways, houses, and buses it a major leap. Yes, it is a leap of faith, and into a joy that you cannot imagine until you have seen it, until it is yours?the Pearl of great value.

Impressive? To you?

The Good and the Bad
Most of us are not too impressed by the church of our day. It appears that some bad fish are there and cause quite an odor (well, yes, it is a stink). Corruption, pride, arrogance, self-serving fish are all over the place.

It is no wonder many are withdrawing from bureaucratic organization which tend to perpetuate themselves, and with no real goal other than self-perpetuation. It is no wonder many are drawn to churches which serve all kinds and in all situations of life.

And many are simply separating what they believe is the good from the bad before the nets are pulled to shore. It appears that angels are to do that. The great separation is not the work of men, but of angelic beings.

And we all know that the perfect church is the one we belong to, and it is too bad that all the others belong to such bad churches with bad people.

Well, I do believe that fish are fish and we in our fishiness cannot tell the good from the bad. Only God knows the heart and all shall be revealed at the last.

And yes, there is a fiery furnace. Yes, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It will be by those who thought they could get on with God simply by associating with those who have the pearl of great price, but didn?t really want it themselves.

Let me tell you, to know that there is this collecting of the good and the throwing away the bad, make me sad, because I would want all people to be with me in the paradise of God?s eternal home. But that will not be, and so it is in the ?kingdom of heaven.?

This is possible to reject. It may go beyond our ideas of God, that he can be so mean that he would finally separate the good from the bad.
But the One who reveals all about God to us has just told us it is so.
He does it not to cause fear, but to let us know, God knows the real pearls from those man-made. It is a warning, but also so that we don?t do that separating from other people now. We are not in charge of that. Aren?t you glad about that?

Impressive? To you?

Impressed?
Jesus asked his disciple: ?Have you understood all these things?? They answered with a yes. I hope you have understood all these things. I am on the road of understanding more and more of these things as God gives me time and mercy.

These stories are treasures. Some with old messages told again. Some with new messages from the treasure house of God.

Will they be remembered by you as you go from here, to your work, to your relationships, to what you do daily? Will they in any sense alter your orientation to life and what it brings to you?

Will they be impression giving? Impressive among all that comes to you this week?

Walter W. Harms, retired pastor
Austin, TX, USA
Comments? waltpast@aol.com


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