Midweek Faith Lift
November 6, 2019
Three Parables
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
This week, our menu has on it three parables which are clustered together in the book of Matthew, and they read like this:
Matthew 13:44-50
Three Parables
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; 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 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NRSV)
Well, that is a lot to say about the Kingdom of Heaven, isn’t it? Here we are again, with earthly stories that have a heavenly meaning. All three topics are relevant to the people in first century Palestine who were listening to Jesus. They would understand someone who has a treasure in his field, or a merchant who is searching for a wondrous pearl to sell. And they would understand the image of casting a net to fish and then having to sort out the good and the bad fish. But each of these has a plot twist and a hidden meaning, a metaphysical meaning that is not so evident to the ordinary listener’s understanding.
I do have to tell a story about the third parable, which was the topic of a fiery fundamentalist preacher who relished the image of fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth! When a poor, toothless woman in his congregation responded, “But pastor, I have no teeth!” He replied, “Teeth will be provided!!” Oh, dear Lord!
If we consider these three parables as a Trinity, then they represent the creative process: Mind, Idea, Expression, which is the Unity understanding of Trinity. So how does that work with these three parables?
There is in the first Parable a field, which metaphysically means “outside the house of God.” (Revealing Word, p.74). One could also say it means outside of God Consciousness. But there is treasure hidden in that field, waiting to be discovered and when the person discovers the Treasure, they sell all they have to have this field. Why is that? Well the Treasure in this Field is the Discovery of the Truth of a Reality greater than the field: God. We grow in consciousness to the place of Knowing that there is something of great value in this field, which cannot be seen, it is hidden, it is a Truth, a Spiritual Reality; it is awakening to an awareness of God, that which is greater than your human self.
Carl Sagan says it this way: “When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.”
When you discover it, you want to take ownership of this realization deep in your mind, body and spirit! You want to own that experience, that discovery for yourself. You want to claim that field as your discovery of a Greater Reality that is the Source of your Good. When you discover the treasure of God-love that is hidden in plain sight all around you it is natural to want to claim it, to own it, and to live in it. We discover the Treasure that we are part of God-Mind and the creative energy of God-Mind is hidden in us, ready for us to wake up to and claim as an infinite supply of all of life. We discover that we are a part of Love and loved beyond all human understanding! How do we learn that?
Well, it comes to us in the next story, the one about the Pearl. A version of the parable also appears in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (Saying 76):
Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a merchant who had a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. That merchant was prudent; he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself. So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys."
— Gospel of Thomas 76, Patterson/Meyer translation
The Gospel of Thomas’ version of the parable of the Hidden Treasure appears later (Saying 109), rather than immediately preceding, as in Matthew. In Gnostic thought the pearl may represent Christ or the true self. In the Gnostic Acts of Peter and the Twelve, found with the Gospel of Thomas in the Nag Hammadi library, the travelling pearl merchant Lithargoel is eventually revealed to be Jesus.
Well, that provides a lot of insight for us! We have the treasure of the Field of Energy or Love, which is God, and then we have a Pearl, which is the Divine Idea of our Christ Consciousness, which Jesus is continually trying to describe for us. This Infinitely valuable Pearl of our True Self, our true Christ nature is to be found among all the other “stuff,” or merchandise of our lives. When we recognize, in the midst of our human experiences that we are of infinite value and loved beyond measure, then there is no price that we will pay that compromises that inherent value. We now live in that Christ-Energy, that spiritual center and we cannot be bought, coerced, manipulated, shamed, guilt tripped, targeted or otherwise maligned.
We know who we are: Children of the Living God, material expressions of that Infinite Energy of Love that is God. We are the place where God is; lives and moves and has its Being, we are the place where God shows up! In God, we live, move and have our Being-ness while still in living in the field of our human experiences. So where are we? We are living in the field of our humanness with an awakened awareness of the true Infinite Nature of Reality that we call God. In that human awakening, we now recognize the Pearls of Truth about ourselves, which is the Divine Idea, or Pearl of Wisdom that we are also Divine as we are human. Wow! That is truly as Carl Sagan write, “that sense of elation and humility combined” that is surely spiritual.
We have Mind, Idea and all we need now for the Creative Process to unfold is Expression, which is what shows up in the third parable of this Trinity! We have fish, which metaphysically represent:
“ideas of multiplication and fecundity…. Fish represent ideas in which there is a great possibility of increase; Jesus used these ideas to represent the inexhaustible, everywhere present abundance.” (Revealing Word, p. 75.)
In the third parable, we are literally “multiplying ideas” which offer the possibility of increase and affirmation of the abundance of the universe. This parable assures us that our good will manifest abundantly when we are in the field of God-Consciousness and deeply connected to the Pearl of our Christ-Consciousness! From the Mind of God, we have the Divine Ideas and now we learn about the manifestation process. The parable tells us that we will haul in a lot of ideas, both divine and otherwise, which acknowledges our human/divine nature and we need to keep the good ones and throw out the bad ones. How do we know which is which?
That is clearly a process of discernment, which happens in the fullness of time, because we are told that “at the end of the age” this reckoning will happen which is a great way of saying, “In God’s Time, not mine!” The traditional understanding of this is that the “chosen or saved” will go to heaven and the bad or evil will go to the furnace of fire, commonly described as hell, with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Whew! How do we navigate this more spiritually? Are we really talking about hell, here!?! Well, no, not really.
Angels enter the story at this point, and they provide the means whereby we separate the dead end ideas from the ones that will truly bear fruit and multiply. What are angels anyway? They show up a lot in stories throughout the Scriptures. Metaphysically, angels are:
Messengers of God; the projection into consciousness of a spiritual idea direct from the Fountainhead….(they are) the word of Truth, in which is centered the power of God to overcome all limited beliefs and condition. (Revealing Word, p. 13.)
We are assured that those ideas that are truly of God, or for our highest Good will prevail as long as we allow God’s will to take the lead. The word evil in Aramaic is immature, so we let go of the immature ideas, which are frequently our very human responses to circumstances and we embrace the God Ideas, which will show up in the fullness of time. The other feature of this process is fire, which metaphysically represents a process of purification, a process that frequently brings tears, or what I call holy water!
So in very human terms, in these three parables, I participate in the creative process of Mind, Idea, Expression. I wake up to the Reality of the Power and Presence of God, all that is…a “Power Greater than myself!” What a relief that is! Then I discover that I am part of that Power and that I can wake up to my connection to my Higher Power and my true spiritual nature. This is both exhilarating and humbling, as Carl Sagan suggests. And then, as I learn to live in this new truth that I am both human and Divine, all of my “immature ideas” or “evil” which is live backwards begins to shift. When I make these shifts, I almost always have to let go of old ideas of unworthiness or “not-good-enough” or “undeservingness” to embrace the abundant good that is waiting to manifest in my life. It often requires heat and water….the fire of purification and then tears before I can truly understand what it means to live into this new Reality!
Sounds like the healing journey of Recovery to me!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb