Some of you may remember the novella The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Written in 1947 it tells the story of Kino, a poor Mexican fisherman, who finds the ‘Pearl of the World’, which he hopes will save his sick baby from death and give his family a better life. But the pearl brings out the worst in human nature, and this story ends with Kino throwing it back into the sea from where it had come. 
In the prologue to the book, Steinbeck describes what he has written as a parable. It is a story with an underlying message or moral. He says, ‘everyone takes his [or her] own meaning from it and reads [their] own life into it.’ They may see in the characters an image of themselves, the grief-stricken parent, the heartless doctor, the envious villager. Or they may recognize in the plot the truth of the saying, ‘the love of money is the root of all evil things’. 
As with this novella, parables and pearls are a feature of today’s Gospel. Jesus often spoke in parables. The two I’ve just read form part of a collection known as kingdom parables. They each begin with the phrase ‘the kingdom of heaven (or God) is like this’, and their intention is to give us, the listener, an insight into what God is doing in our world, and how we can respond.
But unlike Steinbeck’s story, Jesus doesn’t expect his hearers to take what they want from these parables; they convey a simple truth. And unlike what we find in Matthew’s Gospel, scholars suggest Jesus gave no interpretation. The parables are intended to stand alone. The interpretations are later additions.
So, in our reading we find two parables, similar in message but different in emphasis. In the first, Jesus speaks of a buried treasure. A man finds some treasure buried in a field, by accident, and he buries it again. Then he goes away and sells all he has to buy the land. In the other, a merchant searching for fine pearls finds the pearl of great price, and sells all he has to obtain it.
Quite different to The Pearl, where ‘the Pearl of the World’ exposes the greed and evil proclivities of human nature, the pearl Jesus speaks of offers a vision for our world that’s worth us giving everything for. It’s a vision of God’s rule. In Jesus we see God at work. In his words and in his witness, God’s reign of love and justice is made known for the world to see. And as Jesus shows us in his death and resurrection, neither human greed nor corruption can exhaust this vision. It lives on, as S. Paul says, in those possessed by the Spirit of Christ.
Another author, C.S. Lewis, has an interesting story to tell. He came to faith in Christ in a most peculiar way. He was on a motorbike heading to Whipsnade Zoo. When he set out he did not believe Jesus was the Son of God, but by the time he had reached the zoo he did. His experience is a little like the man who stumbled on the treasure. Once he had found the treasure he was prepared to give all for it. Lewis later said: ‘I believe in Christianity like I believe the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I can see everything else.’
The ‘Pearl of the World’ is a symbol of the dangers of money and wealth. Perhaps a modern equivalent is the lotto ticket many people believe will free from them their misery. But the pearl Jesus speaks of, the kingdom of God, brings out the best in human nature. Those who give all to obtain it discover it is a gift. We can not own it; but having received it, as Lewis did, we find what no money can buy: the source of all joy is closer to us than our very breath.
So, how much are you willing to give for the pearl of great price? Are you prepared to commit your whole being to the vision of Jesus? In your family life, in your work place, amongst your friends, are you willing to allow God’s life to transform your own? Or will you cast this pearl into the sea as Kino did? He did the right thing to rid himself of that which brought him so much despair, but to throw away the pearl of great price is to squander the greatest gift of them all. 
As Kino says, but now in a different context, that is heard in the light of Jesus’ words, ‘[t]he pearl has become my soul… If I give it up, I shall lose my soul’.
Well, in a moment I will baptise Matthew Miller. The service invites his parents and all of us here to say ‘yes’ to the vision of Jesus; it asks us to renounce evil and to commit our lives to Christ. May those words not fall on deaf ears; for the sake of all whose lives touch ours, may we so live the gospel that the light of God’s love shines through us. As Jesus says, ‘If you have ears then hear.’  
A sermon preached at St Alban’s on Sunday 27 July 2008
(1 Kings 3:5-12; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33,44-52)