Pentecost 10                              Matt. 13:31-33,44-52; Rom. 8:26-39                  7/24/05

                                                            “What’s In Y’r Wallet?”

 

Just about anyone who ever watches TV has seen the credit card commercial where a band of savage Huns or Norsemen are about to invade a modern-day man’s home.  Just in the nick of time the man holds up this credit card. The invaders stop in their tracks and then stomp off to find some unlucky person who doesn’t have this particular credit card.  The final line in the commercial is, “WHAT’S IN Y’R Wallet?”  The commercial tries to impress on you, the viewer, how infinitely valuable this credit card is.

 

Let’s see today what you value.  Get out your wallet, please.  Open it up, and tell/show me what is most valuable to you.  It doesn’t have to be a credit card.  It could be a picture of your wife or children, a memento, a membership card, or even good old fashioned money.  Come on, let’s see, “WHAT’S IN Y’R WALLET?”

 

Now, let’s say that George, our retired expert jeweler, came up to you one day and told you he knew where you could get the most precious jewel in all the world – a priceless pearl - and we can get it for a bargain.  Since we all trust George’s expertise and know he’s as good as his word, I’m sure, we’d want that jewel. 

 

So, look in your wallet, and mentally look through all your assets.  What would you be willing to give for this jewel?  How great a sacrifice would you make?

 

Because this is a parable, the jewel, of course, is not a diamond, ruby, emerald or pearl.  The Jewel is the Kingdom of God .

 

As you may remember from previous sermons, the Kingdom of God is not a place like heaven.  The Kingdom of God is a relationship.  Furthermore, this relationship doesn’t wait to come into being till after we die or Christ returns in glory.  The Kingdom of God is Now.  The moment we are baptized we become a part of the Kingdom of God – we enter into relationship with God.  We become subjects of the King of all Creation, Ruler of the Universe, the One who is above all and in all.

 

Furthermore, contrary to the worldly image that might be created by the word, “kingdom”, we are not in relationship with a greedy tyrant or a maniacal despot.  We are in a love relationship with the greatest Lover of all time. 

 

We’ve heard the Scripture and theology related to God’s love in Christ so often in our lives that it becomes almost devoid of personal meaning at times.

 

 “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son that all who believe might be saved.”

 

And a little voice inside may say, “Yeah, okay, that’s nice.  So, I’m going to heaven someday.  Now, let me get back to the TV news that’s telling about how the terrorist threat level has been increased to bright orange because of the bombings in London .  Don’t distract me from the real world where I’m being dunned for a medical bill and can’t find a human being to talk to at my insurance company – just recordings with instructions to press more buttons to get more recordings.  Don’t talk to me about the love of God that I’ll enjoy in the sweet by and by, when that so and so who hates my guts is making my real life a living hell.

 

Life can seem like a living hell sometimes and I don’t want to make it seem like anything less than that.  When we are dealing with a life-threatening diagnosis or living with severe physical pain or severely depressed or see all of life through a filter of shame, it can be nearly impossible to feel God’s love.  When we’ve been betrayed by people we believed cared for us or been rejected by an institution like the church because we are different, it can be very hard to see how God loves us.  When some disaster occurs – loss of a home to fire, loss of possessions to financial ruin, loss of family or friends to an accident – it can be difficult to believe there’s a loving God out there.  Just when we most need to experience God’s love, we may feel most cut off from it.  And I want to tell you that this is normal.

 

But more importantly, I want to tell you that no matter how far away God may seem, how cut off we may feel from His love or how totally impossible it may be that God could love us, GOD does, in fact, love us.

 

This is the awesome beauty of Rom. 8:31-39.  Take out your bulletin and read along silently, as I read part of our second lesson from a slightly different version:

 

RO 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

 

  "For your sake we face death all day long;

    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

 

RO 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Take that lesson home with you.  Underline or highlight the key phrases.  Tape it to your mirror or frig.  Read every chance you get.  Memorize it if you can.

 

This is what all of Scripture from Gen. 1:1 to Rev. 22:21 is all about.  Nothing – not Satan, not our own sin, not what others think of us, not what we’ve been taught to think of ourselves, not natural disaster or human created tragedy, not death itself  – not ANYthing  (not even our lack of awareness or acceptance of love) will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

This, my beloved brothers and sisters, is that pearl of great price.  Jesus is telling us that we have before us that one thing in life that is more valuable than anything else we could possibly possess, and it is free!  Jesus has already paid the full price.

 

This pearl, God’s love, isn’t something we can only experience way ahead in the future when we die.  This isn’t something we receive as a reward if we are good enough or lucky enough or work hard enough.  This isn’t something that comes and goes with the fortunes of this life.  

 

God’s love is constant. 

 

God’s love is free to everyone.  

 

God’s love surrounds us and is part of every fiber of our being right now, and every moment of everyday. 

 

And God’s love is there when we are able to look up from whatever pain may seem to have buried us.  It was there sustaining and strengthening us all along and will carry us forward into other events of life.

 

That pearl is ours and all we need to is do treasure and enjoy it for all it’s worth.  You can put away your credit cards, close your wallets and stop worrying if you can gather enough assets to purchase this most valuable gem.  The final line in this script isn’t “What’s in your wallet?” but “Who is in your life?”  Amen