The Pearl of Great Price
Jesus’ parables of the buried treasure and the pearl of great value or of great price are “gems” of their own, speaking to us of the reality of “the kingdom of heaven”. 
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.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
G.K. Chesterton once wrote that, discovering the Christian faith was, for him, like travelling from England, which, for him, was the land of his birth, and where he lived.  It was like travelling from England on a journey, and then discovering—England.  The Christian faith, for him, was something supremely natural, something supremely familiar, in the sense that it corresponds to the way life is.
One could connect this to the parable of the hidden treasure.  The treasure was there, and a person simply discovered it.  It wasn’t as though this person worked terrifically hard in order to accumulate this treasure.  No, this treasure was simply found.  It was there for the finding.  The Christian faith is something like that.  It’s there.  It’s for us to find, to discover.
Jesus said to his disciples,
Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!  For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it (Luke 10:23-24).
Similar (again) to the idea of the pearl of great price.  They are honoured, they are privileged, in being witnesses to this extraordinary reality which is the kingdom of heaven, come in the person of Jesus, whereas those who have gone before have not actually seen it the way they have.
Well, that kingdom of heaven is for us also to discover.  But we are also privileged, because the Messiah has come, and we have the testimony to his life in the Scriptures, his Spirit to live by.
Now, the kingdom of heaven is described in these various ways.  One could also say that the kingdom of heaven is a description of the whole-hearted nature of God’s love to us, made known in Jesus Christ.  Now, the parable itself does not tell us that.  The parable tells about the response of the persons discovering these treasures—they act in a very unusual way.   And they act in a whole-hearted and enthusiastic sort of way.  Well—backing up—the basis of that is God’s own whole-hearted approach to us through the one who tells these parables, who gives these parables to us.  The kingdom of heaven is revealed in him, and for us to receive and discover.
There are many valuable things in the world.  But this is the uniquely valuable reality.  “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him... may have eternal life.”
Now, as I mentioned, those who encounter this reality in the parables—who discover the hidden treasure, or find this uniquely valuable and precious pearl—they respond in ways which would not be normal sort of behaviour.  First of all, the person who discovers the treasure hides this treasure in the field, and then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Now, it would seem a trifle odd, if you happened to be a neighbour of such a person, to witness this taking place.  Or, in the other case, the merchant—merchants are known not just for buying, but also for selling.  But, as for this merchant, he was in search of fine pearls, and found this uniquely precious pearl.  He sold everything in order to obtain this one precious pearl.
There are some people—perhaps ourselves included—who feel that they do not want to pray, for example, because they are afraid what God might do in answer to those prayers.  Or, there are people—perhaps ourselves included—who do not want to get too close to the whole reality of faith—putting faith, entrusting one’s life into God’s hands, because you don’t really know what God would do with that commitment.  Would God send one to some remote part of the world, where one would have to live in abject poverty, in order to respond to the needs of the local people?  Is that what God would do if you prayed or if you committed your life wholly to God?  Well, God may do that, and God has done that, in the case of certain individuals.  Francis of Assisi was one of those persons.  Or Mother Teresa was another of those persons.  But God, when we commit ourselves wholly to God, and put all of our eggs into that one basket (so to speak)—we find that God supports us and guides us, that our leap of faith is not into a void, but is into God’s arms, so to speak, and into the reality of his grace.
So the parables encourage a level of commitment which is not partial, but which is total.  And, when that commitment is total, it may seem very dangerous.  But, on the other hand, when we make that sort of commitment, that leap of faith, God supports, sustains us, in it all.
Now, there is another item that one could take out of this pair of parables.  As I have said, the pair of parables can be seen to speak of this uniquely precious reality of God’s love, made known in Christ.  It certainly also speaks of the total commitment that we are called upon to offer of our lives to God.  But one could also say that our lives, having made that commitment, acquire a certain type of behaviour, a certain quality.
Earlier this year, a number of people of this congregation were involved in a Bible study of the book of the Acts of the Apostles.  And one thing we heard repeatedly was that “they were filled with the Holy Spirit”.  And, for us, that meant, among other things, that there was no just external layer of Christian faith on the part of these people; totally, the Spirit motivated their lives.  The Book of the Acts of the Apostles tells us of one rather shocking incident where one person and his wife, Ananias and Sapphira, committed a certain amount of money of what they had received from a sale of land, to the work of the Church.  But, at the same time, they said, essentially, that they had given it all, when, in fact, that was not at all the case.  Well, that duplicity is not of the characteristic of the gospel, of the work of the Spirit in people’s lives.  It does not describe people who are “filled with the Spirit”.
A good description of this characteristic that God’s whole-hearted love brings into our lives, as we respond with a complete commitment, a total commitment, is this orientation to what is true, to honesty, to forthrightness.  And so, for example, the apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, describes his own ministry as follows:
We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God (2 Cor. 4:2).
In response to God, and as a consequence of the gift of God’s Spirit, our lives become oriented to the (living) truth, to living out of that, and communicating with others out of that, just as Jesus said that he came to testify to the truth.  Not a veneer, but wholeheartedly, the Spirit of God moves in our lives.
So, may the pearl of great price, the treasure of heaven be indeed ours, ours that was lavishly given to us by God, in Christ.  And may the energy, the dynamic, of that great gift, move in our lives, so that we are ruled by truthfulness, openness and genuineness.