We have an image of treasure hunters as swashbuckling risk takers.  Or perhaps as focused, solitary individuals, who comb the beach with their metal detectors and headphones, head down, eyes glued to the earth, listening for the “ping, ping, ping” sound that will reveal a buried treasure.

Mel Fisher is probably the most famous treasure hunter of our time.  On his website, it says this about his adventures hunting for treasure in sunken ships off Key West, Florida:

“Mel Fisher did what many have not—he realized his dream during his lifetime.  Every day he insisted, “Today’s the day!” His mantra continues to inspire the search for the rest of the treasure from two Spanish galleons that sank during a hurricane on September 6, 1622, near Key West, Florida.”

Mel Fisher suffered many personal losses to keep his dream alive during his sixteen year search…

Eventually, through a series of court battles that went all the way to the Supreme Court, he and his investors won ownership of the treasure of $450 million dollars in valuable metals, jewels and coins.

You can be a treasure hunter with Mel.  You can invest in his continued efforts to salvage treasure by sending money, or you can buy some of the treasure itself from the online store.  “Today’s the day” if you’ve got the internet and a credit card.  You can be a swashbuckling treasure hunter from the comfort of your own home!

The image of trunks overflowing with gold and jewels stands in stark contrast to the image of a man who sells everything he has because he has found a single, solitary pearl that is so precious as to warrant being his only possession.

The image of a treasure hunter lifting up his hands, dripping with golden artifacts and crying “eureka!” is in stark contrast with the image of a worker who quietly goes home from work, and sells everything he has because he must buy the ground under which lies a hidden treasure about which no one else knows.

One pearl – won after a long search Buried treasure, discovered in the course of a day’s work – and left in its place until all else can be exchanged for ownership of it.

If nothing else, these treasure parables in Matthew point to a contrast in values between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world.

The word translated “kingdom” in Matthew is the word basileia – from which the word “basilica” is derived.  It is something like the household of God.  Both a place and a set of relationships among those who constitute the household.

Matthew uses “heaven” not as a place, but as a reference to a realm – to God’s sphere of activity.

Matthew’s audience, and Jesus’ disciples, and presumably people who come to church on a warm July morning are looking for evidence that God is in the world.

Where should we look? What should we be looking for? How will we know when we find it? What’s it worth?

These are not the kinds of questions that are easily answered by parables – all parables do is point us toward something that is hidden in plain sight.

If you are seeking the kingdom of God, look at the birds.  I love to watch the birds in my back yard, and that’s how I came to realize how many places there really are for them to find shelter.  Some of them love the Japanese Maple; some of them, love the Magnolia.  But there are dozens of other small trees and bushes where they find shelter – and I only see those other tress by watching the birds.  I see how they find a place to nest in the trees…look at how common some of them are, and how easy it is to find a tree with a bird in it.  But think about those trees.  Did they start out this size?

N. T. Wright tells the story of a class of young children who went to plant seedlings to replace mature oak trees that had been damaged in a storm.  Looking at the large trees, they were asked to guess how old they were.  Most of them thought they were really old, saying things like “well, my Dad’s 42.” The teacher asked them, “how long until these trees we are planting are grown up?” And then she suggested that they come back when they were 150 years old to see the trees!

The parable of the mustard seed suggests that Jesus wants his hearers to look to the past to see the seeds of the kingdom of God that they are now noticing.

The kingdom of God has its beginnings in the past – the kingdom of God is realized by those who take a long view.  The culture of instant gratification is not reflective of the Kingdom of God.

If you find the kingdom of God in this place, in worship, think about the first time this music was heard, or the first brick that was laid for this structure, or the first sermon that was preached here.  A series of decision and actions that come together to result in this place where we find shelter and sustenance today.   The kingdom of God begins in small things – seekers should plant seeds as they go.

Our visitors this morning are getting ready for a week of mission work.  Our own youth just returned from work camp a few weeks ago.  One of the frustrations of this kind of work is that you never stay long enough to finish a project.  Seldom do you get to go back in 150 years- or even one and half years to see the progress to which you contributed.  You just do your part.  You plant seeds; you trust that God has the long view and you are the planters of seeds; you are the yeast.  To the ones who you will help, you are the priceless treasure of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is found in looking at a loaf of bread.  It’s neither all flour nor all yeast.  It is a lot of flour, a little yeast.  God’s presence is like that yeast – it leavens life – it makes life something that without God it would not, could not be.  This is bread – who can see the yeast? But you know it’s there.

The kingdom of God is a treasure, and one to be sought.  Becoming a seeker after the kingdom of God requires discernment.  It is not just looking and finding – but seeing and recognizing.  I used to hunt those rare sponge mushrooms in the spring with my Dad.  They are quite a delicacy-fried up in flour and butter they are delicious.  They grow only in certain areas of the Midwest and only when the amount of rain and sunlight and the temperature have been just right.  I remember one time walking through the woods with Dad, our paper bags in hand.  I couldn’t find a single mushroom! Suddenly my Dad said, “Stand still! You’re walking all over them.” The kingdom of God can be right there, and we still may not see it.

There is an interesting contrast between the merchant who is in search of fine pearls and the unknown someone who happens upon a treasure in a field.  One seems to be intentionally searching for something of beauty and value – the other seems to have discovered a treasure in the course of daily work.  The kingdom of God apparently comes both to those who are actively seeking, and also to those who are just looking as they go.

But the two treasure seekers have this in common: both of them sell all they have in order to gain the treasure.  Once discovered, the treasure seeker discovers that less is more.  Everything else they own is sacrificed in order to possess the one great, perfect, beautiful treasure.

The kingdom of God reorients us from possessing many things to focusing on things of eternal value.   Where the kingdom of God is concerned; less is more.  There is something about it that diminishes the value of everything else, so that this one, rare precious thing becomes the only thing.  I have a picture book that shows the pearl merchant, sitting in an otherwise empty room, on a single chair in front of a table, admiring one, beautiful and luminescent pearl.  I look at that picture and think, “Whose chair? Whose table?” Doesn’t the text say he sold everything!

Perhaps it’s a matter of attention – his attention is focused on this one thing.

The poet Mary Oliver writes about this ability to pay attention.  Her poetry is often focused on images from nature.  In her wonderful poem, “The Summer Day” she invites us to be treasure seekers; attentively finding treasure in the most extraordinary of ordinary things.

Here is her poem:

Will you be a treasure seeker? Will you seek first the Kingdom of God? Will you find that one, rare, precious, beautiful thing, and hold it in the palm of your hand?

May it be so.