Pearl of Great Price
27 July 2008 - 25 תמוז 5768 by Huw
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; 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.
T SEEMS A happy coincidence that these two parables should be in the assigned readings for tomorrow, Proper 12, Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary. I was thinking about them at supper not 30 mins ago (as I write) and, lo, here they are.
As I’m in Asheville this weekend, I visited, tonight, the Orthodox Monastery where I used to worship. I was there for the Saturday Vigil which is a combination of Vespers and Matins celebrated in the Russian tradition (it’s not used in the Greek or Arab tradition where Sunday Matins is served in the AM before Liturgy). It doesn’t really last overnight - more like a couple of hours. But it is one of my favourite services in the Eastern Rite: beautiful, meditative (and usually sung mostly in a totally darkened church because “natural light” is part of Orthodoxy’s liturgical makeup). Present were a couple I’d seen back in the day when I used to worship there. In fact I remember their first Sunday. I found out tonight that they are to be chrismated tomorrow.
At supper with friends after the service I found out that the husband is rather prominent in local Charismatic circles and his conversion to Orthodoxy is causing a bit of an issue. But, said my friend, “He feels he has found the Pearl of Great Price.”
To be perfectly honest a lot of churches call themselves “the Pearl of Great Price”. Orthodoxy, too, is that.
But the text doesn’t say that: these two parables go together of a purpose. And they contain a mirror for each other. In the one, the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to buried treasure, someplace in a field. The kingdom is in the midst of the world and we must take the entire world to get the kingdom.
But in the second the kingdom is compared not to the pearl of Great Price but rather to the man who buys it.
You miss the point if you go looking for the pearl: we are the pearl - and the kingdom has come looking for us, selling all he has (Jesus died to win us). But in the first parable, we find the kingdom buried in the midst of the world (the field) and one must buy the entire field (the world) in order to get the kingdom too. Thus Jesus did - buying the entire world.
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast - a little bit fills the pot.
The kingdom of heaven is like a net that catches everything, good and bad.
If we assume the commentary at the end of the last parable is not authentically Jesus, but rather the community’s midrash (like the Midrash passages on the Wheat/Weeds and Sower parables), then all of these parables - from the mustard seed to the net - all of them are about how generous, inclusive and over-abundant the kingdom is.
When the Church is at her best she is the bleeding edge of the Kingdom of God in the World: not all of it, but the clearest marker of it. She is the continued incarnation of Jesus’ universal redeeming actions when she’s at her best. Read “Church” for “Kingdom” in these parables and see what you get and, again, leave out the midrash.
The Church is like a treasure buried in the middle of the world - buy the world to get the treasure.
The Church is like a man who sells everything to buy the most valuable thing ever.
The Church is in the world like yeast in flour - only a little bit leavens everything.
The Church is like a net that catches everything, good and bad.
It’s not about a denomination - for a good laugh try reading any denomination in there.
The LCMS is in the world like yeast in flour - only a little bit leavens everything.
The SBC is like a man who sells everything to buy the most valuable thing ever.
The C of E is like a net that catches everything, good and bad.
The OCA is like a treasure buried in the middle of the world - buy the world to get the treasure.
When we confuse our denomination for “church” we put our lord - the Church’s groom - in the position of Jacob getting stuck with Leah instead of Rachel.
Hi - I’m a friend of Sarah Gordy’s and she shared a link to your blog. This reflection is amazing. And spot on. Wow. Thanks for opening this passage to me in a new way!
Fran - thanks for dropping by! I’m glad you enjoyed this.
After I wrote it a friend (and priest, and quite a good preacher) told me that, although some other commentaries make my observations, in the Greek, the parallel structure is evidently quite clear, however and more in line with the traditional reading.