buying and selling treasures

Matthew 13

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,

46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

What do I have that is worth selling? What is worth buying?

Kingdom of heaven is the pearl. It is hidden. It can be found. Then it is ‘covered up’. In a real story it would be so that no one else gets it. The point being that the guy wants to make sure he does get it. What pops into my mind is Mt. 6:1

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

I imagine myself going through life, maybe even being like the merchant studying different philosophies of life, then I find IT. IT is so good that I hide it to make sure that I really get it.

I sell what I have (irresponsibility, arrogance, drama, pettiness, indulgence)… to whom? Not the point. The point is liquidation. They become dead to me. I no longer own them, nor do I need to tend to them. Now I have resources freed up: time, focus, energy, attention.

I go back to that hidden treasure and get it. With what currency? What I freed up by releasing. Time, focus, energy, attention. Will I spend what I have on the treasure of the Kingdom of heaven?

Self justifying

People get defensive. We know we are vulnerable to some accusations, so we avoid those areas whenever possible. Then someone says something implying we are vulnerable in some other area. Almost out of a twisted transference of anxiety from our indefensible failure, temptation launches us into a vigorous defense of ourselves in the area of perceived accusation. It can really freak out people who get the defense without ever realizing they have accused.

Galatians 2:17-21 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! (18) For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. (19) For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. (20) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (21) I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Why do we want to be justified? There is a sense of 'ought-ness' we all carry. Nature and nurture foster this. Yes, community gives us expectations, yet there is traction in those expectations partly because of the inner sense of who we should be. We should be righteous, but we aren't.

Righteous is better than wrongous, yeah? Of course. Righteous ultimately just means appropriately correct. We get all wound up about the word though. Same with "sinner". Missing the mark, as in an arrow failing to hit its target, just means: "no, that's not right." Sin vs. righteousness is the same dynamic but not in weapons management, rather in soul management. When I sin, I mishandle my soul (body, mind, will). Righteousness is properly handling the soul I have been created to be.

I was born flawed and I do not fly true. I am un-righteous arrow. The warning from Paul is twofold. 1. Don't use "Christian" terms to do the old trick of trying to draw the bull's-eye around where we strike. This happens when we adjust scripture, doctrine, missiology, gossip or whatever to make sure that what we just did was the right thing to do, regardless. 2. By the grace of God in Christ, work out your gifted salvation such that you become a more righteous, straight and reliable arrow.

I'll type it out for myself again.

1. Less energy trying to look good by lawyering definitions.
   
2. More energy in releasing who I have become so I can be transformed by Christ's wisdom and power
   

I need to treasure Christ, and his righteousness. Life can work. Jesus managed his soul quite well.

I need to not protect my unrighteousness. If it gets exposed, it will have a hard time surviving. So be it. Didn't like the unrighteousness anyway!

I need to crave actual righteousness. I want to add into my habits the habits of thinking and acting that Jesus employed so well. By his grace (and all that means) I want to enjoy the freedom of forgiveness so I can learn to live well.

from flakey to fruitful and fresh

The voice of Solomon is in places the voice of overcooked wisdom. He goes back and forth between indulgence and diligence, devotion and despair, idealism and realism. Fortunately there is an integrated perspective at the end: live is hard (and gets harder as your body starts to fall apart) and wisdom is limited (though talk of wisdom isn't) so just keep focusing on what God actually wants you to do. That is what will count. So what should I do?

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (14) For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Psalm 1 is an image I go back to over and over. Chaff (the flakey organic wrapper around grain) is what I will be like if I just follow the typical worldly pattern. No weightiness, just trivial excess in the world waiting to be blown away. The alternative is to get connected to a source which will cause me to grow in ways far beyond what would be expected, to actually be like a fruit bearing tree that is strong and fresh. That is a life rooted in God and his revelation of what I am to do.

Jesus models this in his baptism with John, showing that he believes in the rightness of God the father and his ways. His declaration is tested physically, relationally and spiritually in the desert. He then goes about stating clearly that we can change our thinking and actually live with trust that God is in charge of our very real lives right here, right now. He also shows it by caring for many and then explains it to apprentices he is showing how to do likewise.

The talk on the hill is a sit down and sort it out time. Hard realities are stated. There is a life that is good, but it is not easy or obvious. Ways of coping with the complexities of life have to be broken down to be replaced with a genuine reliance on God as the source of everything. Only then will there be enough to experience the confidence of actually doing the conclusion of Solomon's pondering.

Matthew 6:31-34
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Truth serum

There is a whacky scene in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film True Lies. Arnold's super tough character is juiced up with truth serum and tied to a chair awaiting a torture facilitated interrogation. The serum works well enough for Arnie to answer his tormentor's question truthfully:

SAMIR: Is there anything you 

would like to tell me before we start?

HARRY: Yes. I'm going to kill you pretty soon.

SAMIR: I see. How exactly?

HARRY: Well, I thought I'd break your neck, then use you as a human shield, then 

kill the guard with that knife there on your table and take his gun.

SAMIR: And what makes you 

think you can do all that?

HARRY: Because I picked the lock on these handcuffs... 

And then he did what he said he was gonna do.

The gospel is about truth, but it is also about doing what it says. Paul wrote to Titus with a different plan to deal with Cretans than Arnold's character.

Titus 1:1-5 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, (2) in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began (3) and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; (4) To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (5) This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—

The idea is to have truth about God result in actions which correspond to that truth.

Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, (12)training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, (13) waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (14) who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

The truths of God, and man, and sin, and judgment, and so on are not just idle interests and speculations. They are revealed action plans intended to be lived out. Transformation, from being driven by our cravings to being driven by a character shaped by God's revelation of who we are in his world, is how we know the truth serum is actually working. 

From failure to faithfulness

1 John 1:2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us--

Us with God// us without God // God with us // us toward God …

The invisible God was made manifest. And now, the character of God is our vocation. Forgiveness saves us from failure and leads us to faithfulness

1 John 2:1-6 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (2) He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (3) And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. (4) Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, (5) but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: (6) whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

 

Retraining former rebels

Monday: work is good

Tuesday: work is hard

Wednesday: we need to work for the King, not against him

Thursday: we have to retrain under the King to learn his ways, not our old ways.

The cool thing about being a rebel is that you don't actually have to build things, you mainly just mess things up. To be a rebel you reject authority, get an attitude, and start destroying. You have the image of being bold, decisive, wild, exciting… But in reality, being a rebel is not that satisfying. There is a sense of displacement, a lack of healthiness. At times it is cool to hang out with other rebels, because they also seem bold, decisive, wild, exciting… until there rebel ways mean they mess things up with you, too.

Coming over to the servant King can be a relief. To finally have peace with the one who is so unusually sacrificial and positive. He too is bold, decisive, at times a bit wild and exciting… but he is different. He is not about tearing down and chaos. This Lord is about building up. He only tears down to make way for creating what is good. When one makes that shift, to reject selfish rebellion and to become a servant of the servant king, there can be a feeling of inadequacy that follows. "I don't know how to be other than destructive!"

The retraining of the human soul that was rebellious is a demanding thing. Our allegiance shift is ceremoniously wonderful and relatively immediate. Our learning to think and move and be in accordance with the Kingdom we now serve, well, that takes time, effort and help.

Titus 3:3-8 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. (4) But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, (5) he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (7) so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (8) The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

An effort at faith

 

Life has problems. Many of these problems are just clumsy, frustrations, but some seem aggressive; like someone is out to get you. Mark records a story of self-destruction that doesn't ultimately come from self:

Mark 9:19-24 And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me."
(20) And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. (21) And Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. (22) And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." (23) And Jesus said to him, "'If you can'! All things are possible for one who believes."
(24) Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

 

A spirit. Another will fighting with the will of the boy. A spirit who wills the destruction of the boy. But, to the observer, it just seems like the boy is crazy and self-destructive. What help is available?

Initially Jesus' disciples are trying to help, but they aren't making much progress. Jesus' rebuke is that they are a 'faithless generation'. They just cannot manage to trust, believe, have faith, that God is able and willing to intervene decisively. After hearing the boy's story Jesus does two things: declares that when trust in God is active, there is no limit to what can be done, and then demonstrates it by delivering the boy from torment. What is the trigger between the two? An effort at faith.

No thanks, I just had a fresh apple

The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world's worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself? The heart cannot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of resignation. But may not the heart be prevailed upon to admit into its preference another, who shall subordinate the world, and bring it down from its wonted ascendancy?*

We were meant to have an appetite. It's good. The problem comes when we have given control over our appetite to foolishness. Ever want something salty? Something sweet? Ever try to randomly hit the spot by eating as much and as diverse an assortment as you could find? Ever think you just poisoned yourself with snacks? Ever break the vow to never do that again?

'The world' is where we live. Yet, oddly, the Bible says not to love it. Why? It's tasty! …like junk food. We can develop a taste for what doesn't satisfy and refuse to acknowledge that no matter how much more of _______ we consume, we will never feel right. It isn't what our body really craves.

I am physical, but I am also spiritual. What does my spirit crave? Getting this right or wrong can make all the difference in life.

Psalms 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

* THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION

By Thomas Chalmers

Growth

This year… I will promise to remember. I will remember that all that is good comes from the God who is good. I will remember that all that is wrong comes from separating from God and his goodness. I will remember that God kept his promise to restore life in a world ravaged by death. I will remember God.

Why? Why remember God? Why is it even necessary? Am I concussed? Dazed and confused… yes.

I can find hope when I pull away from the river of consumption and chaos flowing without meaning, only compulsion. But the hope is not of this world. It comes from without, returning home and subverting the world I know too well. I tilt my head, I squint, I disfigure my countenance tuning into what resonates deep within me from dimensions of which I have only heard what seem to be rumours. But their stories form a river that is different. I will remember the stories of old and the hope which has happened and is to come and I will be like a tree stretching downward, deeper.  As i descend in grace... only then will I grow up.

Psalms 1:1-3  Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;  (2)  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  (3)  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

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