17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) – July 30, 2023

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52

Where Have We Been?

Today we come to the conclusion of four weeks discussing the Kingdom of God. For the past four weeks, all we have heard about in our Gospels has been about the Kingdom of God. And remember, the Kingdom is not heaven; the Kingdom is not just something that we might get to experience one day, if we’re good little boys and girls, if we follow the rules, if we’re a good person, no. The Kingdom is not far away in the clouds. The Kingdom of God is here. The Kingdom of God is here, and we can experience it now.

I’ve been saying the same thing for four weeks (classic, I know), but it’s because it’s very easy for us to think of “the Kingdom” as a place, somewhere we all want to go. And that’s why we’ve clarified: the Kingdom is a relationship. What Harvard showed us, what we know from experience, is that we’re wired for relationship—and that’s what Christ wants with us, that’s where we experience the Kingdom. Jesus Christ is the Kingdom, and in a relationship with Christ we experience the Kingdom, and that can happen right here and right now.

It’s Not About Gambling

But if you’re anything like me, you already know this. You were taught since second grade that the right answer is always what? “Jesus.” Exactly. And if I hand out a quiz about the faith, you’ll get most of the answers right. What I could easily do each Sunday is stand up here and teach you a lot of new facts about Jesus and the Kingdom, and you would be like, “Yeah, sounds good. I agree.” But if you’re anything like me, you would walk out the door thinking, “Yeah, but why do I care? What difference does it make?”So the issue isn’t, “What’s the right answer?” The issue is, “Ok, I have the answer. What do I do now? Intellectually, logically, I know a relationship with Christ is the most important, that in a relationship with Christ I experience the Kingdom, great. How do I do that? How do I experience the Kingdom?”

Go to the Gospels. If you want to see it in action, go to the Gospels. Time and time again, we see this play out. Our Gospel today, that’s what it’s all about. “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44) It’s that simple. “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it” (Mt 13:45-46).

Do you see what’s going on? A person finds a treasure, and then goes and sells all that he has; a merchant finds a great pearl, and then goes and sells all that he has. When these people in the parables sell everything they have, it’s not a wager or a gamble! They’re not making a last ditch effort to turn things around. They’re not pulling all their savings and then going down to the Casino and putting it all on 24, no. (I once heard a homily on this parable that went like this, “Place your bets, everyone.”) But that’s the exact opposite! This isn’t making a bet! The people in these parables are acting shrewdly! It’s like they’re doing insider trading, shorting the market. They know they’re getting an amazing deal, so they sell everything in their life in order to get it!

But what does this look like? The question remains, “How do I do that? How do I experience the Kingdom? What does this look like?”

The Parables In Real Life

Again, go to the Gospels. The parables are just parables, but a couple chapters later in Matthew we see them in reality. We read a story of a young man who ran up to Jesus one day and asked him, “Jesus, what do I need to do to gain eternal life?” In other words, to gain the life that I can’t find anywhere else. And that’s a great question, one that I think we all ask. And Jesus says, “Well, follow the commandments. ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” Seems simple enough. But the young man looks at him, a bit exasperated, weary. And he says, “I’ve done this. Ever since I was a young kid, I have done all of these. But it doesn’t seem to change everything. In fact, a bunch of my friends don’t follow these commandments, and they seem to have a lot more fun than I do!” And we’ve all been there. We were the good kid, we did the “right thing,” but we never liked it, we never really understood why we tried so hard. And just like this young man who runs up to Jesus, we’re following the rules, we’re trying to experience the Kingdom like Jesus promises, but we just seem to be missing something. And so listen to what Jesus says. (Remember, by this point, Jesus had already told these parables we heard many times, people had told them to each other.) Look what happens: Jesus looks at this young man, loves him, and says to him, “Well, you’re right. Because you’re missing one thing. If you want that, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor. And then come, follow me.” Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor. And then come, follow me. That’s the recipe: to follow Christ, give our life to him, not place any possession or event or anything over following him; to buy the field, to buy the pearl, no matter what it costs us.

But what does the young man do? When the young man hears Jesus say this, when Jesus says, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor. And then come, follow me”—when the young man hears this he goes away sad, why? Because he had great possessions. (Literally, sad to the point of death.) This young man has found the kingdom, he has been told the path to the kingdom—and the only thing that stood in his way…was himself, him clinging to his possessions, clinging to other things: money, career, sports, Netflix. And because of that, because he is unwilling to let go of these other things, he goes away sad, right back where he started—he goes away sad, because he has everything this world offers…but he walks away from this relationship with Christ, he doesn’t follow him. He abandons him, simply because he can’t let go of all of these other things. And it crushes him.

Do you see what’s going on? In this story with the young man, Jesus just switches himself out for the treasure. “Go, sell all that you have, pay the broker (the poor), and then you’ll get the treasure, me, the Kingdom!” If these people in the parable had been there with the young man, they would tell him, “Do it! Sell all that you have! Do it!!” 

But what does this look like? The question remains, “How do I do that? How do I experience the Kingdom?What does this look like?”

What Does It Look Like?

This is where you have to put yourself in the position of that young man in the Gospels. Imagine yourself running up to Jesus, asking what you need to do to experience the happiness, and joy, and peace, and fullness, and everything you’ve been looking for in your job, or kids, or Netflix, or sports, and sports, and your kids’ sports, and sports—imagine yourself running up to him and asking, “What must I do to experience this?” He’ll initially tell you to follow the commandments, which—timeout: maybe you need to take a hard look at your life and ask, “Am I actually following the commandments?” Not, “Am I nice to people?” No, “Am I living the commandments? Do I truly have no other gods besides God? Do I truly not place anything above God? Or does my job, do sports, do politics, does my school and career get in the way? Do I keep the Lord’s Day holy? Do I go to Mass, is Sunday dedicated to the Lord or to the Chiefs and the lake?” Do you see what I’m saying? I can keep going. But it’s a good reality check—anyway, so Jesus will tell you to live the commandments. 

But then, when you presumably say, “I am living those,” he will give you the next step: “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor. And then come, follow me.” Jesus is going to invite you into a relationship with him, to follow him, to give your life to him. He’s going to say, “I’m the treasure in the field. I’m the pearl.” And let’s be honest: this is where most of us say, “I’ll go to Mass. That’s good enough, right?” And that’s when we will walk away sad. All of this becomes one big bet, something we do just trying to “get to heaven when we’re dead,” And missing the fact that everything in life can be different. We walk away sad, because we know we’re choosing something else over our relationship with Christ.

Again, place yourself in that scene: What are the one or two things you know Jesus is asking you to “sell,” to give up, so that you can truly enter into relationship with him? What are the one or two things that you know are standing in your way? What do you refuse to let go of? What is it, what are those things that make you say, “I’ll work on my relationship with Christ another time?”

Place yourself in that scene. Truly place yourself there. And as those one or two things come to mind, notice that Jesus isn’t looking at your angrily. What does the Gospel say, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Jesus is looking at you with great love, hoping you choose him over everything else. Why? Because he is the treasure, the pearl. Our first order of business is to “go, sell what you have,” and buy that field, buy that pearl—go all in on him.

The Kingdom isn’t experienced by being a good person, or believing the right ideas, following the best rules, none of that. The Kingdom is experienced when you invest everything in Jesus Christ, in your relationship with him. Ask him. Ask him what he wants you to sell—and like finding a treasure, or a pearl of great price, sell whatever it takes to get them, to get him.