Download True wisdom 1Kings 3:5-12 Matthew 13: 31-33, 44

True wisdom
1Kings 3:5-12
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
Some time, later this year, a couple of keen archaeologists will once again try to find
evidence of the existence of a holy well in Whitekirk. Now over the last two centuries many
people; enthusiastic ministers and land owners included, have tried to locate the well, but
unsuccessfully, so why try again? What is it about this well that gets some people so
excited?
I can of course only speak for myself, but I think the point is that this well is the whole
reason for Whitekirk’s existence. Without it there would have been no pilgrimage, without it
there would have been no point in building a church in the middle of nowhere, as at that
time hardly anyone lived in what was to become the small village we know.
And so although life in Whitekirk has changed, and few people are aware of its amazing
history when they move to the area, there is a treasure there ready to be discovered. A
treasure which is central to the identity not just of Whitekirk but of East Lothian in general.
Treasure is what I would like to focus on today, treasure and the wisdom needed to discern
what is true treasure, that is, what is so valuable that it changes our lives and defines who
we are and what we do.
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus compares the kingdom of God ( Matthew who comes from a
Jewish background avoids using the holy name of God and therefore says kingdom of
heaven instead) to a treasure as well as to a precious pearl, both of which are so valuable
that they are worth selling all the finder has for.
Both stories about discovered treasure, yet two ways in which they are found.
The first person finds his hidden treasure by accident.
I like to watch the antiques road show, and last week a lady was showing a little
insignificant looking bauble which she had found in a tub of costume jewellery she had
inherited. Like the pearl merchant in the other parable she soon noticed that she had
something special in her hands. I’m not sure if she first went on to Google to find out more
about what she had found or if she took the tiny item straight to the road show, however
when she was there she was told she possessed a coveted Faberge egg worth thousands if
not tens of thousands of pounds.
She had indeed by accident stumbled on a great treasure, but the important thing was, that
when she saw it she knew it was special, and worth much more than anything else, however
pretty, in that box of costume Jewellery.
A treasure found by accident yet other people find treasures through hard work, through
years and years of searching.
Like the Chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who in the nineteenth century
discovered the existence of microbes floating in the air . Not only was he ridiculed for his
theory but he spent years and years of research trying to find proof, and in the end not only
could he prove that microbes indeed existed and brought diseases but he discovered the
treasure of vaccination and in particular the vaccination against rabies. A treasure that not
only saved the life of the boy Joseph Meister who had been bitten by a dog with rabies but
that of many, many more people then and even today.
Years of searching, years of not being taken seriously, of being vilified, but in the end Louis
Pasteur knew he had found what he had been looking for. And what is maybe even more
important Pasteur’s discovery grew, and his work enabled more vaccines to be discovered
which in turn saved more lives.
When it comes to looking for the kingdom of God, there are treasure-hunters too, people
who don’t give up till they have found what they are looking for. When I was at university I
had a friend who tried out all kinds of religions and spiritual movements, looking for the one
that would bring her the love, peace and forgiveness she was looking for. She had not been
brought up in the Christian faith, or in any faith for that matter, and this being the 70’s she
decided to follow some kind of Guru, a few years later she became a Baha’i , then she
joined a Buddhist community, but wherever she was she was still missing that which she
was searching for. Until in her fifties she finally discovered Christianity. Having seen many
different pearls she finally found the one she valued above all others, the one that was
worth giving up everything else for.
She found her treasure through years of searching.
Others discover the love peace and forgiveness the kingdom of God is about, when they are
least expecting it; at a time of deep suffering, in a person they have just met on the street,
at the birth of a child...
But either way once the treasure of the kingdom is discovered it has priority over everything
in our lives. And helping to make that kingdom of love peace and forgiveness come, helping
others discover that same treasure, is all that we should ever want to do.
Now all this talk about treasure is all very well, but how do you know what is a treasure
worth giving everything else up for and what isn’t?
The answer to that question can, I believe, be found in our Old Testament reading of today.
Here God offers the newly anointed king Solomon any gift he might wish for, including
worldly treasures and victory over his enemies. However Solomon requests wisdom.
But what is wisdom? In the Bible wisdom comes from putting God first.
I don’t know if you noticed this, but before requesting wisdom Solomon spent quite some
time both praising God for what he has done in the past, as well as recognising humbly his
own lack of gifts necessary to be a good king. In his answer to God, Solomon first and
foremost expresses humility that comes from his faith in God.
For Solomon only God can help him be a good king, because only God can give him the
understanding mind, the heart with skill to listen, which will enable him to distinguish
between good and evil and rule as God’s anointed king.
As we know God grants Solomon his wish and promises him riches as well, but what we
often forget is that there was a caveat to Solomon’s blessings; they depended on him
continuing to walk in God’s ways , keeping his statutes and commandments.
We need wisdom to discover the treasure that is the Kingdom of God but more importantly
we need a heart with skill to listen and, as in Hebrew listen and obey are the same thing, we
need to obey God in the way in which we help make his kingdom come.
The discovery of the treasure that is the kingdom of God, affects who we are and changes
our inward looking life into one that focuses on giving life to others .
Remember Gollum from the Lord of the rings: he has a treasure he wants to possess at all
cost, but when he has “his precious ” he wants to keep it to himself. And how this greed
makes him evil and self-destructive.
Greed is not what the kingdom of God is about, it is not a treasure to keep, it is one to share
as our two first parables highlight today.
The tiny mustard seed grows into a big tree which offers shelter and welcome to all kinds of
birds.
Similarly bringing the kingdom begins small; it begins with a seed sown in our hearts, but
from there it reaches out to the world around us to finally include the whole universe.
Bringing the kingdom can start with a cup of tea or a listening ear, but through the power of
the Spirit such a small seed can grow in unimaginable ways.
And the parable of the yeast highlights this amazing and often invisible growth of the
kingdom.
In Jesus’ time yeast would not come in dry form that you would just add to your flour with
other ingredients in order to make a loaf of bread, in those days every time bread was
made, some of the dough would be kept to use as yeast for the new batch, for you only
need a little dough which contains yeast and a bit of patience to allow it to develop and
become the growing element in the next batch. A little such yeast can indeed affect more
and more of its surroundings potentially feeding not one family but a whole town.
With one single gift God can do amazing things, with just a small (elderly) congregation God
can bring about his kingdom...
For having found the treasure and having listened to God in our hearts we are changed and
become channels of God’s kingdom. Channels of God’s peace.
Like the yeast changes the dough and therefore the kind of bread you end up with so the
kingdom changes us; this is not a one of event but an ongoing thing, which involves always
listening to God’s word and following his ways. If we stop doing that we end up like
Solomon, completely on the wrong track, listening to the wisdom of the world rather than
God’s wisdom, destroying rather than bringing life.
With all the fighting and violence around us I can’t help but think of those few brave
Christians in Germany during the late thirties and early forties. A small number of men and
women who despite the wider church supporting Hitler, chose for Godly wisdom over
earthly wisdom, and as they listened with their heart and obeyed God, discovered that
the true treasure could only be obtained by choosing for the kingdom at any cost.
As we know, thanks to those few brave Christians who not only stood up against their
government but also against the wider church, good did prevail in the end.
So let me finish with a paraphrase, I found recently, of the well known prayer of serendipity:
O Lord give us the wisdom to discern the difference between treasure and trash; and then O
Lord give us the guts to go for the gold that we might partake of the joy of your kingdom”