The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A 2019-2020

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 | Romans 8:28-30 | Matthew 13:44-52 or 13:44-46

Oh God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us, and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even to those that ever endure.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.

It’s interesting that there’s a debate among believers of whether God created man as we are or whether we evolved over centuries, but it’s interesting that a very few people in the world believe that this was by accident.  So either way it’s God created human beings.  That’s the belief.  That’s what we believe in, trust in, but the most interesting thing about this idea of evolution is there’s no doubt in the minds of anyone who knows human nature that we have been in a process, whether it started 4,000 years ago or 5,000 years ago or whether it started millions of years ago.  We are a species that evolves into who we are called to be.  It’s interesting to watch the human race in the history as it discovered things.  There was somebody who came along as the first person who discovered fire, and then someone else came on and maybe discovered the wheel.  And somebody then – we know how somebody was given some insight, and they figured out that the world wasn’t really flat; it was round. And then you have modern people discovering electricity, radio, television, computers.  That wasn’t possible unless there was all the information prior to that moment that they were able to make the leap into something unknown.  So we see that there’s an evolution in our nature, and what is it that we’re doing?  What is the evolution all about?  Well, it’s about moving from a lower level of consciousness, a being that is self-centered and selfish to a being that is other-centered and willing to give their life in service for someone else. 

So we look at the second reading from Romans, and it’s beautiful when it describes this evolutionary process so long ago.  And basically what Paul is saying is we know that all things work together for the good.  This is a God who, in this revelation that Jesus has given to the fullness of who God truly is and what he’s about, that he wants to enter into our lives, be a part of us in a process that we become more and more who God has intended us to be, and who we’re intended to be is more and more like the God who created us.  It’s a natural evolution.  We grow into what we were created to be, and the insights we get along the way that are about all the things that happen are all there for the very purpose so they can awaken us to this human adventure of being engaged in something I think is exciting.  It’s saying, “I’m finding out who I am.  I’m finding what I’m made for, what the gifts are that I have and how I can use them.”  And if you use any kind of criteria for greatness, you’re really off base, because it’s not about being somehow better than you are.  It’s about being who you are, and it’s not about being better than anybody else.  It’s just being who you are, and so we listen to Paul saying what he’s discovered.  He’s saying what God has revealed to us about the kingdom of God is that he dwells within us.  That’s the most exciting thing that we have when Jesus came to announce the good news of the kingdom.  And he’s saying we’re the beginning of – the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, and the thing about us is that we have a destiny inside of us.  We’re predestined.  We’re called, meaning there’s a calling inside of you and me that I want to be who I really am.  It’s like a shift from self-survival to another form of survival, that I want to be exactly what God intends me to be.  That’s my goal, and so we have this destiny.  And then God comes into us, and he said, “All right, what I’m going to do is I’m going to justify you.”  And how does he justify us?  What does God bring into a relationship when he comes into us?  Judgment, criticism, shape up, stop doing that, stop doing this?  That’s sometimes what we think God is doing.  Sometimes that’s what religion does.  Clean yourself up so you can be presentable to God.  No, the last thing he wants is for you to feel you have to change in order for him to enter into you.  He comes to you as you are, and so that coming into him [sic] brings with him the most surprising, wonderful dimension that God has that we didn’t know he had, to the extent he has it, until Jesus came to tell us.  But what he brings into a relationship is forgiveness, and forgiveness is full acceptance no matter who we are or what we’ve done, unconditional love.  That’s what he brings.  That’s how we’re justified, and if we’re justified, the most interesting thing is then we have, all that we have, God’s presence in us, an affirming, loving presence.  And what’s going to happen is we will definitely develop and grow into who we were intended to be. 

In the second century there was a famous Greek bishop who made the statement that’s rather famous.  What is God’s glory?  What is the thing God wants more than anything else? What’s the glory of God?  Man fully alive, and alive doesn’t mean existence.  That’s what the lower form of consciousness wants so badly to exist.  The higher form of consciousness?  I want to be who I’m called to be, and when I achieve that goal of being the person that God has asked me to be in order to be the instrument of his grace that dwells inside of me, when I’m engaged in that, no matter how simple it is or how complex, no matter how private it is or how public, it doesn’t matter.  All I know is I’m giving glory to God.  To give glory to God is to be honest, live in reality, face your shadow.  I so often hear myself having said in the past, or I listen to people who keep talking about you’re supposed to make yourself better. And that uses your will and your mind.  You say, “Okay, I’m going to stop these bad habits. If I get rid of the bad habits, then I will be better, and if I’m better, that’s what God wants.” Well, yes and no.  He wants you to be better, but better is not something you work toward directly.  It’s always a side effect.  Acceptance of who you are, a belief that God has the grace and the will and the desire to enter into you and to move you into fullness of who that is without any – and you accept it without any sense, “Oh no, I wanted to do this, or I wanted to do that.”  People who choose something to do and then force themselves to do it will never be successful.  I’ve tried it myself, and I can’t be anything other than what God wants me to be.  And so when I try to be better than that or do something different than what I’m naturally drawn to, all I feel is anxiety and worry and failure.  So there’s a beautiful, beautiful image of that in that passage from Paul.  

We look at the gospel then, and we’ll say, “Okay, what is here?”  We have another parable about seeds and treasures and goals and things like that.  All these are descriptions of the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is God living in you and me, enabling us to become who we are meant to be.  So what is this like?  Well, it’s a treasure.  It’s more valuable than anything, and it’s hidden.  Hidden treasure, what would that be?  From the time God created human beings, from the story of Adam and Eve, to the time that Jesus entered the world, until the moment he died on the cross, this was hidden.  This treasure, this indwelling presence of God would have been considered a blasphemy.  It was thought God cannot dwell in something impure, imperfect.  God was pure.  The earth, human beings are impure. Purity and impurity cannot mix.  That was what the thinking was, but the treasure, it’s discovered, it’s not that at all.  No, it’s about something quite different.  It’s about being accepted as you are and having God enter into you and work patiently daily with you and use every sign and every event in your life to move you in the right direction, and so when you find it, you know it’s valuable.  So it’s worth – you sell everything you have.  Back then, if you found a treasure buried, and people didn’t have banks or safety deposit boxes, so it wasn’t unusual to own a piece of land that someone else owned and find the treasure that they put all their valuables in.  But you had to own it, and so I love that idea.  You have to go buy it.  It’s like you have to own this plan of God, and when you see it for what it is, you’re willing to pay anything.  What would it be?  What’s the charge?  What is it you have to pay for?  Well, it’s not as laborious as people think, but it’s about surrendering to the process.  And it’s like a merchant’s search of fine pearls.  When they find a pearl of great price, they sell everything.  A pearl is an image of something made in nature that’s so beautiful.  When you find this image of yourself, when you find this perfect self that has nothing to do with the standards of anybody else about perfection but it’s perfectly you, when you’ve discovered that perfection, that’s worth everything, more than anything else.  I love that image, because it’s so beautifully comforting to me.  

Let’s go back to the first reading, because I love this story so much that fits into this thing I’m trying to get across today.  And that is that we have Solomon, and the thing that God says to Solomon, I think, is so fascinating.  He says, “You know what?  What you’ve just done is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen a human being do.”  It’s clear that he’s the first one that does it.  So let’s just say Solomon is an image of the evolution of human beings where they get to a point where they finally realize this is not all about them.  It’s not about their riches.  It’s not about they’re conquering their enemies.  It’s not about being the greatest leader in the world.  No, what he’s asking for is something that has been buried inside of all human beings, but Solomon was aware of it.  And he said, “My gosh, you’ve given me this job. It’s so far beyond what I can do to serve these people.”  Well, if we’re really called to serve people, Solomon was aware that he had a job that was way over his head, but you know what?  Being in a relationship is over our heads sometimes.  To be able to put up with someone, to be able to know what to say, to be able to be the person you need to be in the moment, that’s really something that’s beyond our normal pay scale.  We don’t have that kind of wisdom.  So all Solomon does that gives him the praise that is beyond anything else that I’ve ever seen God praise anyone, any human being, by saying, “You are the most amazing, most wonderful, most successful person in the world, because you’ve asked for the right thing,” and what does he ask for?  So simple, all he asks for is, “God, would you give me the ability to do the work that my destiny is calling me to do?”  Now, this is so different than the way a normal person would have been thinking that grew up in the temple and in the Old Testament.  They would have prayed for God, yes, but mostly they would have prayed for the things that he didn’t pray for, riches, power.  People would have thought that’s what a king is, and that’s what they should do, and yet he comes up with this insight.  “No, no, the reason I have any kind of authority over anybody else is because I potentially have something that I can do for them that will take care of them.”  And there’s two things that he asks for.  The truth, reality, “I want to know what’s real and what’s true, and I want to understand human nature.  I want to understand divine nature.  Give me an understanding heart, a willingness to listen to what it is that people need, and then I can do this service.”  And that prayer was answered for him, but the most exciting thing is that that was the beginning of an awareness of who we really are.  And now we’re so further ahead and ready to receive this power.  We’ve evolved, all of us, and the closer we get to this, the more there is joy and peace in our lives as we go about taking care of those around us without feeling the burden, because we can’t do it on our own.  But with him, we can do anything. 

Father, your generosity, the abundance of your grace, your desire, your longing is where we need to place our trust whenever it comes to the things you’ve called us to do.  It’s you who are the essential ingredient that enables us to do this work, yet we’re so resistant sometimes to receiving a gift as rich, as generously offered as this.  So bless us with a kind of humility, a simplicity that trusts in you more than we ever do in our own ability to accomplish our goals, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.