Delivered on Sunday 18 November 2007 in The Royal Chapel

Matthew 13:44-45

When I was a child I was a great fan of Sesame Street. I can still remember Ernie and Bert, Oscar in his trash can, and Big Bird in Mr Hooper's store. I can remember the immortal last lines of every show: Sesame Street was brought to you today by the letter K and the number 6! But I can also remember a game they used to play. It was called, one of these things is not like the others - and I'd quite like to play it now. I have here four things and one of them is not quite like the others. [Soft toys: polar bear, whale, horse and cheetah].In some way it is true that the horse is like the cheetah is like the polar bear. There is no way that we will be persuaded the horse is the same as the polar bear - but there is a sense in which they are alike.

We accept this logic of likeness and use it a great deal in our everyday language. Let's think of some examples: Like a bull at a gate; like a dog with two tails; like a house on fire; like a rat up a drainpipe; like greased lightning; like nobody's business; ... like something the cat brought in.

You can all think of many others I'm sure. But our fondness for the logic of likeness is not a recent one. For, as we heard in this morning's second lesson, Jesus was also a dab hand at this kind of logic. He tells his listeners 'The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field'; and again, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls'. In both instances he needs to add a little bit of explanation. In the first, there's a chap out ploughing a field when he comes across a stash of treasure that must have been buried by some rich person trying to hide his gold and silver from the sticky hands of the invading mob. Well, this chap sees the value of this treasure, so he buries the treasure and goes, sells everything that he has and buys the field. In the second there's a merchant out in search of fine pearls - probably more valuable in the ancient world, than even gold or silver - and he comes across a whopper. So he too, knowing the value of what he has seen, goes, sells everything that he has and buys the pearl.

Well so far so good but making sense of these examples of the logic of likeness is a bit complicated. When someone tells me that I look like something the cat brought in, I don't need to think too long to understand that that person thinks I'm untidy or dishevelled. But what is Jesus saying about the kingdom of heaven. I think he's saying at least two things. First, he's giving us a sense of urgent response. The farmer and the merchant both see their precious object and go, sell everything they have, and purchase it. Jesus is saying, when you see the kingdom of heaven, there is the need for an urgent response. And we know that that's the case from other stories in the gospels. When Jesus calls the fishermen to be his disciples, they drop their nets, leave their boats and follow him without a word of farewell to their families. When another is invited to follow Jesus, he responds by saying, 'Let me first bury my father'. Not an unreasonable request, but he gets ticked off for his trouble, as Jesus snaps, 'leave the dead to bury the dead'. There is a heightened sense of urgency. Now I suspect this is easier for most of you to identify with than it is for me, and Irishman. We tell a story in Ireland of a Spaniard and an Irishman compiling a Spanish-Irish dictionary. Things were going famously until they reached the letter M, and the word 'Manana'. The Irishman looked with furrowed brow. With great care the Spaniard carefully explained. 'Ah', said the Irishman, 'we have a word like that, only not with the same sense of urgency'.

If you see the kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells his listeners, respond urgently. That's the first thing. The second is that the kingdom of heaven is of enormous value. Clearly according to these two little picture stories it is worth more than the farmer or the merchant currently own. Of course, the kingdom of heaven is only like these stories, it not equivalent to them - just as the horse is not the same as the polar bear - and there is no sense in which the kingdom of heaven has an economic value. So what is its value? The kingdom of heaven is in place when the last are the first, when the lion lies down with the lamb, when the lame leap for joy, when the weakness of the crucifixion is understood as genuine power. The kingdom of heaven is a topsy turvy understanding of the world - it comes into being when the things we adore, as in wealth and power and so on, are shown to be a chasing after the wind. In the moments when that becomes clear, when you understand weakness as genuine power, respond urgently. Certainly, the kingdom of heaven is a dishevelled thing; it is like something the cat brought in. But more accurately it is like something that Jesus brought in.