“What Is Your Pearl?”
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-46
Preached Sunday, July 26, 2026
One of the games from the New York Times app is “Connections.” I know I have talked with some of you that you play this game - anyone here play it? Now me? I am a big Wordle fan. I do that daily…but Connections? I’m awful at it and so I don’t do it regularly. For those of you not familiar with the game, there are 16 words that you have to sort into four groups of four. You have to figure out what words are connected without knowing the category beforehand. I find it very tricky because - you may think four words are connected but it’s not the category the game used to sort them. There are also four levels of difficulty within the four categories - so the day I went to go do this the categories in rising difficulty were Spherical Things, In An Anxious State, Parts of an Airport, and Ending in Geometry Terms. I…did not get a single category right in the allotted amount of guesses. I’m just no good at it.
But I bring this all up with you to you because I feel like today’s Gospel reading is like a Connections category: Seed, Yeast, Treasure, Pearls. What could possibly be the category that binds these things together? It would be - parables from the 13th chapter of Matthew. We got parable dumped on in this Gospel reading today - and it’s not even all the parables that Jesus offers in this chapter of Scripture!
So this week, I am not going to go in the order that the Scripture goes, but I am going to attempt to bring these four parables together into a category. Each of these parables has rich meaning and interpretation when considered on their own. And - how do they speak to us when grouped together like this?
We’ll start with the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value because those two things make sense together in my mind. A person, upon finding something of great value to them, gives up everything else in pursuit of this treasure or pearl. Now in the parable of the pearl this man is described as a merchant seeking pearls. But upon finding THE most beautiful pearl, singular, he sells everything to buy it. Not just his wares - but all he has. In essence, he impoverishes himself completely for one item. Now, what IS this pearl? Commentators throughout time have called it many things. It’s sacrifice, it’s knowledge, it’s detachment from money or this or that...but my question to you today is not what is this pearl in the story, but what is YOUR pearl?
For this man, he found something beautiful, an item hitherto unknown to him that became all consuming. He found one thing that he believed to have true value and he did whatever he had to do to attain it. And whether we recognize it or not - we all have some sort of pearl, something for which we would sell everything we own to have.
Some of you will be familiar with the book “Short Stories by Jesus” by AJ Levine as we did it as a Wednesday Bible Study several years ago. In that book, she considers the Parable oft eh Pearl. Once, A.J. was teaching the parable of the pearl to a class at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison - the class was made up of half Religion Ph.D. students and half students serving time as inmates. A.J. asked each of them, what is your pearl of supreme value? For what would you sell everything you own?
One student talked about obtaining her Ph.D. She was a professional pastor’s wife and her husband was against her returning to school. Her applying to the Ph.D. program and receiving funding came at the same time her marriage fell apart. Her story reads, “I never expected to find myself here, but when the graduate school offer came, I did what I needed to do to accept it. I gave up my home and my status as ‘minister’s wife’; I took out loans; I took back my original name. I do not know what will happen at the end of this program, but that does not matter. I am doing what is right for me. I have my pearl.”
One student who was an inmate said his pearl was freedom - he would do whatever he had to do, confession, anger management, psychological tests - whatever it took to be released. Still another said safety, he would do whatever he had to do to continue to live each day and not get knifed or attacked.
Another student “said that when he came into prison, he lost all that he had - his prosperity, his clothing, but also his identity, his dignity. He had to construct his own pearl, layer by painful layer, tear by tear, and see what was really important.”
...But our pearls, those things to which we assign ultimate value, or the path we take to achieve them, are not always good things. The word for pearl in Greek is margarita - and one student, a recovering alcoholic, said that a margarita was her pearl. And the search for her great pearl cost her her home, food, family….
Consider this over the top example in Walter White from the popular (if not a little dated) show “Breaking Bad.” When he was diagnosed with cancer, his pearl of ultimate value was making sure his family was well-taken care of after he was gone - not a bad pearl as pearls go...but he would do anything to achieve that goal. And that leads him down a path to becoming a drug lord - a path that destroys him and all of his relationships.
Not all of those things that we consider to be of true value are. Not all pearls are cultured - some pearls are fake, and yet their cost can be quite high. This parable causes us to stop and look at our priorities - and to take a good, hard look. It is often said, if one truly wants to know where their priorities lie, they better take a look at their time and their wallet. Where are you investing your time and your money? What is listed on your credit card and bank statements? What appointments are written in your calendar? What pearl are we investing ourselves in?
And then the question may come - are there things that we need to divest ourselves from? Are there things that we are invested in, pearls in our lives, that are keeping us from investing in the things that God wants us to invest in, like yeast and seeds and the Kingdom of Heaven? Are those things even on our list of priorities? Are they even one of our pearls?
So let us consider yeast and seeds.
All of these parables start “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” So we must consider - what is the Kingdom of Heaven? The Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God…these can be obscure terms that people outside the church don’t understand and even people inside the church can struggle with their meaning. And if we don’t understand what the Kingdom is - how can we invest in it? How can we live into it?
The most simple way that I can define it is that The Kingdom of Heaven is just a term for what the world would be like if God was fully in charge - Hence, God being KING of the Kingdom. Now, before any of you call me a heretic for implying that God is not fully in charge, hear me out. We live in this in-between time that we call the already but the not yet. God has already come to us in the form of Jesus and defeated the power of sin & death. Because of this, the Kingdom of God is here. We live into it and catch glimpses of it. And, it is not here fully - yet. Sin and Death still have power in this world. The Kingdom of God will be fully present on that day described in Revelation 21 when God dwells with mortals and there is no more pain, tears, or death.
Another term for the Kingdom of God that many chose to use to help get to its meaning is the KIN (K-I-N)- dom rather than the KINGdom. This is because the Kin-dom of Heaven comes when we treat everyone as kin - children of God.
So the Kingdom of God is like yeast - I told you that I was going to get to it! - so the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that gets put into some bread mix and creates way more bread than just one person can eat - assuring that everyone gets fed. And the Kingdom of Heaven is like a small seed that grows into a large bush that gives shelter to all birds - everyone has a home. At a very simple level here, I see through these parables that the Kingdom of God is realized when all people are fed and all people have shelter. For many people, their pearl is simply that - do I have food today? Are my children fed? Do I have a place to sleep tonight? These basic items, these basic needs, are essentials in realizing the Kingdom of Heaven because God CARES for all of creation - and that includes our bodies and our needs. And if our bodies are not cared for, many people will not care for the care that God can give our souls.
And that’s another thing these parables show us - the Kingdom of Heaven looks like nature, all of creation, being able to live and act and be as God created them to be! The yeast, though a small ingredient in small amounts, has a very large impact when used properly! Anyone who has ever baked bread can attest to this. As the dough proofs and rises, it is amazing how it multiplies. And as the mustard seed grows, planted in the ground that God created, watered by the rain God sends, nourished by the sunlight of each created day - the bush grows into a large bush where all the animals and birds find a home and people rest in its shade. The Kingdom of Heaven is like this - when all of creation, Earth and sea and sky and US, you and me, are living as God intends us to be, created us to be.
And so as we consider what we need to invest in, our pearls and treasures, so we can be like the yeast and mustard seed of the Kingdom of Heaven where there is room made for us and for all - we ask, what do we need to divest from? We need to divest from anything that defines us as less than the beloved, created, children of God that we are. Status, power, wealth, accumulation of goods - these are on all of our priority lists - or they have been at sometime. But these things can have negative effects on us and can obscure or corrupt our ability to identify what has true value! Material goods? We never have enough? Status? We never are enough! Power? We never have enough. And just because of the world we live in, we are invested in these messages - hence why we are always trying to improve our lives, our bodies, our incomes - not for the glory of God but to the false satisfaction of the world and to the glory of self!
Henri Nouwen is an example of one who divested from his status and wealth to be who God intended him to be. He was a distinguished professor who gave it all up for life as a priest living in an intentional community for those with physical or mental disabilities. During his discernment of his life change, he wrote his thoughts in a book called “The Inner Voice of Love.” He writes that everyone around him is going to the ballet, going to the theater, going to dinner parties...and it does fill him with sadness that he is leaving that life behind. But he says to himself, “You sense that nothing but God’s love can fulfill your deepest need while the pull to other people and things remains strong…You know that something totally new, truly unique, is happening within you. It is clear that something within you is dying and something is being born.” Nouwen was in the process of divesting in status and investing in God’s love, he was changing his pearl.
And God’s love can be our pearl of great value! We might just have to live our lives in such a way, invest our lives in such a way, that we truly come to believe it and live it out in our day to day lives. Invest in nature - the yeast, the seeds, the pearls of beauty God has given us. Invest in other people, may we see that all are fed and all are sheltered. And invest in YOURSELF, allow yourself to be the person God created you to be, and just as the yeast multiples, and the seed grows, when we allow ourselves to live into who God created us to be, whatever that may look like in your life, the Kingdom of Heaven is revealed.
I also want to say - before I wrap this sermon up - even when we are striving after pearls that aren’t the pearl of great value that is God’s love, even when we are investing ourselves in things that don’t reflect the Kingdom of heaven - God still loves you, is seeking after you, and is inviting you to step into the Kingdom of Heaven. Our reading from Romans 8 today reminds us of this:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Even pursuing the wrong pearl doesn’t stop God from loving us. And because God loves us, God invests us into the Kingdom of Heaven.
And so friends, today I leave you to ponder just a few things things:
What is your pearl?
Who has God created you to be?
And do the two match?
Amen.
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