Today’s scripture: Matthew 13:44-46 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
In conducting the spiritual assessments for our new hospice patients, I have found that the vast majority, maybe even 80% of them, have not participated in church activities for decades, if ever. After confessing that, most go on to say, “Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe in God.” I always want to respond to this revelation by quoting James 2:19 (KJV), but I restrain myself and we typically move on to talk about their prayer life and their awareness of God’s presence and help.
So many people are convinced that Christianity is about believing certain things, and others are convinced that Christianity is about doing, or abstaining from, certain things. However, orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (correct action, usually following the rules) are secondary to that one thing I learned from my Conservative Baptist Sunday school teachers years and years ago: my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who dwells within my heart, is the most important of all. As my relationship with Jesus grows and deepens, empowered and guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit, more accurate understanding and more appropriate behavior results.
I remember falling in love; it transformed my life. Like the trespasser who found the treasure in the field, I wasn’t looking for it. Overpowering love just took ahold of me; and I knew that it very well may have been hormones, but I didn’t care. If he had told me that day was night and night was day, I would have believed him. (He didn’t.) I was available to him whenever and wherever, in a way that I would not be available to anyone else. My pastor once referred to being in love as “the euphoria of falling boundaries.” It was wonderful! Jesus says that the kingdom of God is kind of like that.
Now, I imagine that there are also those who find that kind of transforming love by diligently searching for it, as the jewel merchant sought out the perfect pearl. But the point is that either by stumbling upon it or by searching for it, when that kind of transforming true love comes to you, it is worth whatever the cost to keep it and to nurture it. It is wonderful! And fortunately, when we find that transforming, unconditional love in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and when we are willing to give all, to sacrifice whatever is asked to maintain and develop it, then God makes it all worthwhile.
I am convinced that as that mutually loving relationship with Jesus Christ matures and deepens, I am able to discern between what is theologically useful in understanding God, ourselves, and the cosmos, and what is useless rot. I am convinced that as that mutually loving relationship with Jesus Christ matures and deepens, I am able to discern how God wants me, individually and in community, to live out my life, and to free others to do so as well, even if it differs from what I’m doing. I am convinced that I will be led into right belief and correct actions as I whole heartedly commit myself to love, trust, and follow Jesus Christ, as I give all for the treasure in the field, for the pearl of great price.
Thought for the day: The church, and the world, are full of believers and rule-followers. What a shame! May our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, transform us, the church, and the world! It will require all we are and have, but it will be worth it!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.