Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
By the time I met Eldon, he was
old, a far cry from the strong young man who served on the USS IDAHO in WW2. After
the war, he returned home and started a family. He soon was in a desparate
situation to find work anywhere and any how that he could to support his children
after his wife ran off with their small savings account and her boss. He sold
cars during the week and worked as a DJ and radio engineer on the weekends. At
night he stayed up late to take classes by correspondence. He remarried and
soon after an old Navy buddy offered him a job at Boeing in Seattle. He quickly
moved up the ranks in their space and rocket division, working on the massive
Saturn rocket for the Apollo project, eventually transitioning to Houston where
he worked at NASA. While there, he met astronauts, Senators, and even a
Vice-President or two.
By the time he retired, he had
been a part of the incredible journey of getting astronauts from the Florida
coastline through the stratosphere to the surface of the moon. He was even part
of the early work on the space shuttle. Not bad for a man who was born in the
back seat of an old Studebaker, the infant son of a traveling salesman who would
use his son – propped up in a suitcase – to help sell his products to women
when he got to a new town.
By his 80s, though, age and
illness had taken a toll on his body. Even with his hearing aids in his ears,
turned all the way up, I had to practically yell to be understood. After an
hour’s visit, I would be hoarse. War injuries that hardly slowed him down in
1945 were debilitating by then. His days were spent with a walker, then an
electric scooter, then a reclining chair, and finally a hospital bed.
As his pace gradually slowed from
staggering steps to not much more than a crawl, and finally to a halt, he would
look at me and weep. “What good am I?” he would ask. “I’m not worth anything to
anyone.”
It’s a common problem, a frequent
concern and lament among those who have lost their ability to do what they used
to do and to care for themselves, and have to get more and more help from
others. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve had elderly, shut-in,
handicapped, or bedridden people say words to that effect.
It’s easy to understand why they
feel that way. One of the first questions that you ask someone that you meet
for the first time is probably, “And what do you do?” We are quick to run down
a list of job descriptions, vocational duties, and professional
responsibilities so that people know: we have value, we are a contributing part
of society, we are doing something for the greater good. Even among retired
people, there is usually a disclaimer, “I’m retired now, but I used to…” and
add their former work pedigree as well as what they do to keep busy with
grandkids, the old home place, and a volunteer organization or two.
Or, perhaps there are other
mitigating circumstances that can come into play, even among the young and
healthy. I sat with a young man who could only see himself as a negative value:
a failure, a disappointment, literally thinking his life insurance made him
worth more dead than alive. Clinical depression is no joke, and this man’s
illness could only see himself in a negative light. Bringing it closer to home,
one of the worst phrases that has come out of the pandemic is this:
“Unessential worker.” Early on, the list was quite extensive and included
people who work at movie and live theaters; gyms, health and recreation
centers; salons and spas; hair stylists and barbers; museums; casinos and
racetracks; shopping malls; bowling alleys; sporting and concert venues; bars
and restaurants and even, in some states, that list also included pastors and
church staff. Some of you know this full well. I heard from some of you, declared
unessential. I heard how it made you feel. To be declared unessential is a
terrible feeling. It undermines a person’s sense of wholeness, wellness, value,
and even identity. If I’m not essential, then what am I? What good am I? Why am
I here?
How do you answer someone who
thinks their worth is tied to what they can produce? How do you assure someone
who thinks their value is only based on what they are able to contribute? How do you comfort someone who literally has
been told they are unessential to the overall wellbeing and welfare of fellow
citizens? If you have ever been told, or ever felt, that you were unimportant
and unessential and of little to no value, what do you need to hear this
morning? To answer that question, I told you the story of Eldon; now let me tell
you another story.
“The kingdom of heaven is like
treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then, in his joy,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Again, the kingdom of
heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, in finding one pearl
of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
How you understand this parable
will impact how you apply it to yourself. If you think this parable is a way of
Jesus explaining what you must do for the kingdom – that you must go out and
search for lost souls, for example, or that you must surrender everything you
have for the kingdom, you would be incorrect. If you think that this parable is
a method of you attaining the treasure of salvation by going out and searching
for it high and low, you would be missing the point. If you think that this
parable is that Jesus is hiding something from you and, unless you are good
Christian, you will never get it, then the only thing that is hidden is, in
fact, the meaning of the parable.
But this parable isn’t about you.
At least, it’s not about you as the main actor. You do have a part in the
parable, but you aren’t the lead character. Remember, parables tell us
something about the Kingdom, they tell us something about Jesus. So, what does
this parable say about Jesus and His coming among us?
It tells us that Jesus is a great
and magnificent treasure hunter, a seeker and finder of lost pearls. Christ,
whose very purpose is to seek and to save the lost, seeks and finds the lost
ones. Notice what He finds: not lumps of clay, but treasure; not bothersome grains
of sand, but pearls. He declares that which is found of great value, great
worth, great significance to Him. If, as they say, beauty and value is in the
eyes of the beholder, than your value is found in the eyes of the beholder, and
the Beholder is Jesus Christ who values you and you and you – each one of His
beloved brothers and sisters – He values you so greatly that He was willing to sacrifice
all that He had to redeem you from where you lay hidden. He surrenders Himself
to rescue you.
These parables teach that you,
dear friends, you are of great worth to your Lord and your Savior. You are of immense
significance to Him. You are as valuable to Him as a newly discovered treasure or
a bright and shiny pearl. Our Lord has found you, a lost and condemned
creature, and rescues you from your lostness. He cleanses you with baptismal
water, washing away all that held you captive, and he takes you and you and you
– each of you - into His nail-marked hands to be His most treasured possessions.
That’s what I told Eldon so many
years ago. His value is not in what he does, or makes, or produces. His value
is in the eyes of His Lord and Savor who died to rescue Eldon, Jesus surrendering
Himself for the sake of Eldon, declaring him a treasure of treasures, a pearl
of all pearls.
There is one other part of the
parable that needs to be explained. Did you catch the detail that the treasure
hunter hid that which was found? Does that seem odd to you? It did to Eldon, as
well. In your baptism, you were buried with Christ and you were raised with
Christ. Unless Christ returns before, the day will come when you fall asleep in
Jesus and you will be buried, hidden in the ground, earth to earth, ashes to
ashes, and dust to dust. But, remember –
you are a treasure, a pearl. While you will be hidden in the earth, it is but
for a moment. Your Lord has already paid the rescue price for you. The day will
soon come when the Lord, with resurrection triumph, will bring you up from the
earth, from your hiding and resting place, and you will be raised and restored
in wholeness, a treasure among treasures, a pearl among pearls.
In a world that places worth and
value on what you can produce, our Lord values you for who you are: His. Your
identity, your worth, your value is in Christ Jesus because you have been
redeemed with His blood.
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