THE TREASURE YOU SEEK

A sermon given on Sunday, July 26, 2026,

by the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bridge Pastor

Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew [13:31-33,44-52] is a smorgasbord of mini-parables.  Most of them relate to obtaining some treasure or some prized commodity: leavened bread, hidden wealth, fine pearls, a good haul of fish.  And in most cases, the parable presents an increase of that treasure, some multiplication of the blessing, some leveraging of the treasure from smaller to greater: seed to tree, yeast to leavened bread, empty nets to full baskets.

Now, how does that growth happen?  How does our metaphorical treasure get expanded?  In last two weeks’ gospels the disciples asked Jesus for a detailed explanation of his parables – the story of the sower, and the story of the wheat and weeds.  This time, he gives a dizzying recitation of five quick stories, but they do not ask him to explain.  Maybe it was just too much and they didn’t want to be there all day!  He actually asks them, “Have you understood all this?” And they say “Yes!”  Frankly, I don’t believe them, but as a consequence Jesus provides no interpretation. 

In each little parable, Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like …” – so there is some connection between these various images and God’s realm.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and posit that in these tales of leavened richness the growth factor is Love.  I don’t think Jesus is talking about Get Rich Quick Schemes to amass personal wealth.  I think that the treasure in each case gets multiplied because – and to the extent that – it is destined for the common good, making things more like “the kingdom of heaven.” 

This, I think, is consistent with the whole Gospel witness.  There are four elements to these parables: a limited resource; in the face of need; multiplied by love; destined for the common good.  Today’s passage is followed very closely, in the next chapter of Matthew, by the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, the feeding of the five thousand.  [Mt. 14:13-20] Here are those same four elements: a limited resource; in the face of need; multiplied by love; for the common good.  Seen in this context, today’s short parables are a prelude to that great miracle sign act of Jesus, the Loaves and Fishes. 

Acting out of love for the common good is also a theme of some key moments in the Hebrew Scriptures.  For instance, let’s have a look at today’s story of Solomon from First Kings [3:5-12] – one of the two options for this morning’s First Lesson.  In this story God comes to the young Solomon like the ultimate divine genie, offering to grant a wish.  “The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’”  So, what is Solomon’s wish? Solomon says, “Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people, [and the ability] to discern between good and evil.”

For Solomon, desire and need are one and the same.  He’s about to take the throne.  He is thoroughly daunted by the magnitude of the task before him – to be king over God’s chosen people, “so numerous they cannot be numbered.”  That which he desires is that which he needs to rule a great nation – wisdom. The wish he makes is not selfish.  The treasure he seeks is for the common good.  And God is pleased by Solomon’s request: “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word.”

Later in life Solomon’s desire to rule an empire would become grandiose.  Later, “more became better.”  His politically expedient marriages would lead him towards a people not his own, and the worship of gods not his own.  Eventually his construction of ostentatious splendor would require the use of forced labor, replicating the very slavery from which his own people had famously been delivered.  But the Solomon in today’s reading is noble.  God grants Solomon the blessing he asks for precisely because it’s a form of treasure to be shared with his people, for the common good. 

Solomon’s request shows that the seeds of wisdom had already been planted within him.  The seeds of his later excess must also have already been within him.  It is for Solomon to choose between them.  And that’s how it is for you and me, isn’t it?  It is for me and for you likewise to choose – between unrestricted self-interest and the well-being of the whole.

In some ways, I think, we are still emerging from the cataclysm of the COVID pandemic.  It is often said that crisis and disaster bring out the best in humankind.  It’s true -- people often pull together in a crisis. But we saw during Covid that this is not always the case.  Sometimes we retreat into our own ‘me first’ way of being.  The astonishing amount of controversy over the wearing of face masks was one example.  For some folks it was purely a matter of individual rights and freedoms: I should not be forced to do something that someone else has decided would be for my own good.  But that wasn’t really the issue.  Unlike seat belts, for instance, the point of the face mask was not just that I should wear it to protect my own self. The evidence was that it would help protect others. Sometimes the greater good to which I am called is to do an inconvenient or uncomfortable thing for the good of my neighbor.  We call that Love.  And the multiplication of that benefit – like leaven in the lump - is for the good of all.

So many decision moments set before us – both individually and collectively for our leaders – call for Solomon’s wisdom, to act not out of fear-based individualism, but out of love and for the common good.  You and I can take inspiration from this young Solomon, asking God for the wisdom to do what is best not just for ourselves but for others as well.  At the communal level these days, we might feel discouraged by the perilous gridlock of our national leadership, but we can re-commit ourselves to the health of institutions which push back against a culture of individual self-interest and entitlement.  That includes cultural, civic, and voluntary associations of all sorts which bring people together for commitment to one another, or to a larger cause which advances the common good.   Of course, the church should be one of these!

This is not just airy-fairy religious niceness.  The economist Francis Fukuyama has written that:

Law, contract, and economic rationality provide a necessary but not sufficient basis for

… the prosperity of [our] societies; they must as well be leavened with reciprocity,

moral obligation, duty toward community, and trust.[i]

Here is a famous economist giving the same message as Jesus, even using the word “Leavened” – the same image as Jesus’ parable.  A successful economy, he says, is leavened with reciprocity, moral obligation, and duty toward community.  All around us these days are the consequences of rampant self-interest, the absence of reciprocity, shattered trust, and a diminished commitment to the common good.  If you and I let our anxieties and fear cause us all to pull into our own isolated, self-protective cocoons, then collectively we will all be devastated. 

One of the things I have admired about this parish is that, even as it has adjusted to smaller membership rolls, it has resisted the urge to pull into a self-protective cocoon. Rather, it continues to act like the yeast which can leaven the loaf – the small agent of larger goodness.  “The kingdom of heaven is like … a small church believing that it can accomplish big things.” Your long commitment to Pioneer Valley Power Packs and Take and Eat are yeast.  And now I urge you to read about and support the efforts of your new Social Justice Committee in the current News of the Week.  Its focus on responding to food insecurity and the just and dignified treatment of immigrants are concrete ways to love our neighbor.  Remember those four elements of the parables?  A limited resource, in the face of need, multiplied by love, for the common good.  Here is our “mission description.”

Our question for today:  If God appeared to me or to you in a dream to say, “Ask what I should give you?” – for what would we ask?  What is the treasure you would seek?  What is the treasure which with our lives you and I are already pursuing?  What are the ways in which, like Solomon, we might align our own goals with the common good?

‘Cause, look what happens when we do says Jesus !  Small seeds of compassion growing into capacious trees.  The leaven of reciprocity providing enough bread for all.  Casting our nets together enabling the heaviest of hauls.  In our churches, in our communities, in our nation – may we strive for the common good, fueled by Love, the one inexhaustible treasure.

In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

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[i] Francis Fukuyama, Trust (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1995), p. 11; as cited in Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference (London/NYC: Continuum, 2002), p. 152.