Not the Race

 Matthew 16:13-19 August 30, 2026

 

There was a woman who decided that a goal in life

was to complete a foot race.

So she trained, she ran every day, she did strength training.

She was comfortably able to get to about 15 miles.

So she signed up for a half marathon –13 miles.

 

So she got to the race, and she lined up, started the race.

with all these other people, and she’s running and running .

One hour and she’s doing pretty well, running, running,

two hours and she feels like she should be coming close to the end.

But it doesn’t end, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else

is thinking about finishing soon.

 

So she asks one of the other runners

and she finds out that she is not in a half marathon

she is running a full marathon – 26 miles.

 

What should she do? she didn’t just want to stop

and admit defeat, so she keeps running.

But the whole time she is saying to herself

and to anyone else:

“This is not the race I signed up for.”

“This is not the race I signed up for.”

 

She finished the race in the end.

But this was not the race she signed up for.

 

That is kind of what Peter is saying to Jesus.

Jesus just tells them that he’s going to undergo great suffering

be rejected by the elders, and be killed –

(oh yeah and rise again, but I don’t think that’s

what sticks in Peter’s mind) –

Peter is now getting a fuller picture about what

Jesus ministry will be like.

 

 Peter was certainly not expecting this

when he put down his net and followed.

So he takes Jesus aside and tells him that he’s crazy.

 

Rejected and killed by those in power?

“This is not the race I signed up for.” says Peter

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

And people who have been hanging

around Jesus and the church for a while,

know what Peter is going through.

We can commiserate with poor Peter.

Usually, we didn’t sign up for this race either.

 

When I was 27 I moved to New York City to write.

I was a writer, I was ready to embark on my artsy life

of writing plays and hanging around other artsy people.

Maybe I would even start wearing a beret.

Then, I don’t know why, I started to go to church,

a Lutheran church -- for no good discernible reason

but because it was close to my house.

And then the whole trajectory of my life changed.

 

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

At my first congregation, we were going through

a really tough time, like really tough.

A very smart person was council president

and he was caught right in the middle of it.

Now he was a family court judge,

so he wasn’t adverse to conflict,

and it was like he was perfectly chosen to handle

the interpersonal problems we were having.

but something about conflict at church bugged him.

He was in my office talking about things and he said,

“Pastor June, I just want to stop all this stuff

and get back to what church is about.

Praying and meditating on God and Jesus

and listening to good music.”

In other words, this is not the race I signed up for.

 

In my internship church there was this guy named Greg,

who had a tough street life,

then he was very involved in the church.

Some guys around his apartment were

bugging him, stealing from his neighbors

painting graffiti on the garages around his house.

Greg came into church one day annoyed,

not really at the guys, he was annoyed at Jesus and the church.

He said, “Before I would have just cracked these guys over

the head and taught them a lesson.

Now I gotta think about what Jesus would do.

Stupid Church.”

 

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

When Jesus called Peter

maybe Peter thought he was signed up for

some fame, some adventure, some challenges.

Maybe he thought Jesus and the disciples would get the

Roman Empire out of their business,

or maybe they would just reform the

synagogue and change how some things were done.

 

Maybe he thought he would just watch some miracles

and bask in Jesus glory, maybe he thought it would be all prayer

and worship and spiritual life.

We don’t know exactly what Peter thought he signed up for.

But it sure wasn’t this race,

not the “rejected by the authorities, suffer and be killed” race.

 

So when Jesus said that was the future,

Peter says, “no, this can’t be. You can’t do this.”

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

But Jesus tells Peter, and Jesus tells us:

“You get behind me.”

Remember, we don’t run this show, Jesus does.

 

And this is a reminder for us too.

We follow Jesus. 

We don’t decide the way it’s supposed to be.

We follow Jesus way.

And Jesus way was not around pain and suffering

It was through it.

 

Sometimes Jesus calls us to challenging jobs.

Sometimes following Jesus calls us to lives

we never would have imagined otherwise.

Sometimes our plans get derailed and we have to let them go.

 

And being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean you get

to skirt all the bad and uncomfortable stuff.

It doesn’t mean that we get gifted an easy life.

Bad stuff happens to us, just like it happens to everyone else.

As Christians we don’t get to do praying and meditating

on God and  like we’re above this dirty, earthly things.

And sometimes we get more problems because

we’re trying to follow Jesus way.

 

And then, as followers of Jesus, we have

this extra difficult call to respond to these

challenges in ways that are different from the world.

We can’t just “crack people over the head

and teach them a lesson” anymore, although

we might be tempted to do it, like Greg was.

  

We are to lead with love, we lead with compassion.

And because of that, sometimes we are vulnerable,

and because of that, sometimes we lose.

That is our cross to bear.

 

Jesus said “If any want to be my followers

let them deny themselves and take up their cross.”

 

The cross that Jesus talks about is what happens

when we sacrifice ourselves and our own direction

and inclination and follow Christ’s direction.

When our own wants and impulses take a back seat,

and our compassion takes a priority.

When we see the face of Jesus in the strangers

and the difficult people in our lives.

When we think of the needs of the world over our own.

That is our sacrifice. That is our cross.

 

When we follow Jesus we deny ourselves deny our plans

and follow Jesus’s plans.

When we’re moved to do things that aren’t

in our best interest, that don’t profit us.

We find ourselves in situations that we wouldn’t find

ourselves in a million years.

Sometimes things don’t go right. Sometimes we get hurt.

But we keep doing the right things.

That is the cross that Jesus wants us to take up.

That is the race that Jesus has signed us up for.

“If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves

and take up their cross and follow me.”

  

So is that the end of Jesus’ story? 

Life is hard and then you die?

Is that where Jesus leaves us?

 

Of course not, because we know what happens after the cross.

On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.

 

And the same for us.

God doesn’t just leave us down in the mess.

God picks us up from there and restores us to new life.

Each time we experience these little deaths,

Those places of loss, and hurt, and betrayal.

God brings us to a new and transformed life.

A life that is changed,

a little better than the old one we left.

One that is authentic and real.

One that is closer to God and God’s compassion.

Not the same as before, but changed.

 

“Those who want to save their life will lose it,

and those who lose their life for my sake,

and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

 

Maybe this is not the race that we signed up for,

but this is the life that God has in store for us.

This is the race that we are running.

And this is the promise of God.

 

We lose our life, but God promises to find it again.

 

Two Parties

 Matthew 14: 13-21

August 2, 2026

The Five Thousand
Euleria Clark

 

In chapter 14 in Matthew we get two stories

of two different parties.

Two very different celebrations,

two very different feasts.

 

The first party that Matthew writes about is Herod’s party.

The second is Jesus’s party, which I read just now.

I think Matthew purposely shows us

those parties together so we can see the difference in the two.

So let’s look at them.

 

The first party is a royal party. King Herod’s party.

An official party of the ruling class.

King Herod, the king of the northern region of Judea,

appointed by the Roman Empire,

has thrown himself a party for his own birthday.

He has an exclusive guest list for the party,

Just the officers and the leaders of Galilee.

I’m sure they had the best food and wine.

The best décor, the best of everything.

 

Now John the Baptist was not invited to the party.

But John was very much involved.

 

Herodious, who is King Herod’s current wife, is angry with John.

 

Herod had recently married Herodious,

But Herodious was originally Herod’s brother’s wife,

which wasn’t too odd in itself at the time --

it was actually a custom for women to marry their widow’s brother.

Except that Herod’s brother,

was still alive, and so was Herod’s wife. 

 

Most people were probably pretty upset with

this arrangement and how the king had left his wife

and taken up with his brother’s wife,

but still no one said anything about it.

People in power seem to get away with stuff like this.

 

But John the Baptist said something about it.

and he had mentioned it publicly

that Herod and Herodious’ marriage was a sham.

 

So Herod has John thrown in prison,

but he doesn’t want to kill John.

It says Herod is even fascinated with him and afraid of him.

He was also afraid of what the people would do if he had him killed.

 

But back to the exclusive dinner party,

the birthday bash for Herod.

Their entertainment was a dance by Herodious’ daughter.

It says the dance pleased Herod and his guests greatly.

 

Herod wants to show off to his guests how generous

and wealthy he was.

He swore to the girl that he would give her

anything that she asked for – half his kingdom even.

Right in front of all these important people.

 

I’m sure he thought that maybe she would ask for a pony,

or a new dress, or a chariot,

or whatever the first century equivalent of a cell phone was.

But the girl knows an opportunity when she sees it,

and she consults with her mother Herodious

who’s been steaming about John the Baptist.

And Herodious tells the girl

to ask for the head of John the Baptist.

Having it on a platter was the extra flare of the girl.

  

Now Herod is stuck.

Stuck in that awful place that so many politicians are.

Between doing what he wants to do,

doing what he should do, what he knows is right,

and what the rich and powerful around him expect him to do.

What he promised to do.

So forced by his oath, his honor, his fears, his pride,

and his need to be respected by his high-powered guests,

Herod has John the Baptist beheaded.

And, just as the girl asks, at the banquet,

he gives her his head a serving platter.

 

That is the feast of Herod.

The feast of the empire.

A party thrown for his own honor.

The feast that is a feast of wealth and power.

The feast that’s governed by greed and gluttony.

Where children are paraded around for entertainment

The one that’s governed by misplaced oaths.

It’s a feast that’s exclusive, where just a few eat too much

and most everyone else gets nothing.

 

This is the feast of the market,

of politics, and commercialism, even of religion.

And if you stay until the very end, you see that this

is a gruesome feast.

It’s a feast that always ends in violence and death.

A feast that ends with the truth being slayed and killed

and served up on a platter for someone’s spite and enjoyment.

This feast is a feast that ends with death.

 

We know this feast.

We live in this feast every day.

Whether we’re the guests or the victims or,

for most of us, somewhere in between.

It’s the world we live in. It’s the empire all around us.

It’s the one that is comfortable sacrificing people to save the economy.

It’s the party that has enough to fill our own comfort and excesses,

but doesn’t have enough for other people’s needs.

The one that has plenty to spend on parties and 

luxuries and gold plated statues, one more car, 

or another yacht but says that people who 

need food stamps to survive are greedy moochers.

It’s the party that demands competition, 

where there must be winners and losers, where some are in and some are not.

It’s the party where the strong survive

and the weakest are taken advantage of.

It’s the party that says there’s just not enough for everyone.

 

I don’t have to dwell on describing this feast.

We eat at this table every day.

Or the world tells us that this is the table

we need to hope and strive for.

John the Baptist is just one of its victims.

 

And when Jesus hears about this feast

and the death of his cousin and friend John,

he goes off by himself to grieve, and pray

But the people find out where he is.

 

Which brings us to the next party.

In this next feast, Jesus is the host.

Jesus doesn’t throw this party to honor himself.

He gives God the honor, he celebrates the people there.

And unlike Herod’s party, there is not an exclusive guest list,

everyone is invited to come,

they can come even if they haven’t been invited.

 

At this party, people are healed and cured, not harmed.

People are left more alive not dead.

 

At this party, there is enough for everyone.

When the disciples try and get Jesus to send everyone away

to get their own food, Jesus tells the disciples to

give them something to eat.

 

Now the disciples haven’t learned all the lessons of Jesus table.

they are still used to eating at other tables.

They’ve eaten at the empire’s party so long

and they know it’s mantra, “there isn’t enough for everyone”.

So they try to convince Jesus that its true.

 

“Jesus you know, there’s just too many people,

There’s just five loaves and two fish. The math doesn’t work out.

It’s complicated, Jesus, distribution and all that.

Supply and demand, the economy, Jesus.

If you give the people something for free,

then they won’t want to work for it. Yada, yada, yada.”

 

But Jesus won’t hear it.

Jesus knows that at his table, there is enough for everyone to get fed.

So everyone is invited to eat and enjoy.

And so he takes what he has and he blesses it, breaks it,

and gives it away.

 

And at this party, Jesus feeds five thousand men.

And besides, even the women and children were invited.

Not just for entertainment, but to eat with everyone else.

Not just to serve, but to be served too.

 

And at the end of the meal, everyone is satisfied.

And there are even twelve baskets of food left over.

More food to feed more people. The abundance doesn’t end.

This feast doesn’t end with a death, it ends with more life.

 

At Herod’s party, he makes an oath –

half the kingdom to one select person.

But Jesus makes a promise:

The whole kingdom to everyone.

 

In Chapter 14, Matthew presents us these two meals.

These two options: The feast of the world, of greed and cruelty,

where some eat and some go hungry. The feast that ends with death.

 

Or the feast of God. The feast of abundance, of plenty,

of gift, of grace, where the everyone eats.

The feast that ends with life.

The question is, which party do we want to join?

At which table do we want to eat?

 

For Lutherans, we believe that we don’t

decide whether or not to have faith.

God’s grace is ours no matter what.

 

But we do believe that we have a choice

what to do with that grace.

We make a decision every day at which table we want to eat.

 

We make that choice in how we treat others,

how we work, how we spend our free time,

how we vote, how we use our money, how we raise our children,

how we talk to other people, how we treat those

who are poor and how we treat those who are rich.

How we, as a church, represent God to the world.

 

At churches all around the world we have eaten meals

like at tables like this for a couple of thousand years.

We eat it to take away our sin and

for our own spiritual nourishment, yes.

But we also eat it every week to remind us of this meal of God’s grace

and that there is enough for everyone.

We eat it to remind us of the party that we want to

be invited to and a host of.

We eat it every week to help us to remind us of that choice every day.

 

Jesus Christ has set this table of abundance, and healing and life,

in the middle of this world that keeps defaulting back

to scarcity, and division, and death.

 

We are all invited to eat at Christ’s table.

There is enough for everyone.

And everyone is invited to come and eat.

The Kingdom of God is Like

Matthew 13:31-52     July 25, 2026

 

More parables.

Jesus has been telling a lot of parables.

Jesus doesn’t say too much of anything directly.

He doesn’t much say exactly what

we should or shouldn’t do.

Mostly he’s doing things himself and hoping

 we follow suit.

Or he’s using parables and metaphors.

 

Jesus obviously thinks it’s important for us to use our

imagination and creativity when we’re thinking about God.

It’s not enough to just say it, Jesus has to show it.

That’s why if anyone tells you that the Bible is an

instruction manual they’re flat out wrong.

The bible is not at all as dry as a how-to manual.

It’s more like a coloring book, it gives you the lines

and we color it in with our own lives.

 

It really takes a lot of the magic and wonder out

when it’s reduced to a rule book or a  manual.

I don’t even know how you get rules or how-to’s

out of these parables we’ve been hearing.

And especially today.

Jesus is sharing a few images today about

the Kingdom of God. He says, “The kingdom of God is like…”

A lot of times when we hear the kingdom of God,

people think of heaven, eternity, a place we go after we die.

But I think that these parables make it real obvious

that when Jesus says “The Kingdom of God”,

he’s not talking about heaven, because if he was talking

about the promise of a wonderous eternity,

these are some pretty lame descriptions of that:

mustard seeds and yeast.

Not very compelling descriptions of an afterlife.

 

When Jesus says the Kingdom of God,

he’s more talking about what God’s vision and inspiration

looks like when it comes in to our own world.

 

When Jesus says “the Kingdom of God is at hand”

he’s not saying,  “you’re about to die”

He’s saying that the vision of God is coming into the world.

In these parables today, he’s telling people how they can

recognize God’s work in their own communities in their own time.

When we look for God’s work in the world,

what should we look for? A mustard seed and leaven.

 

And then with the last couple metaphors,

what we should do once we find it.

But first the first two: Mustard seed and yeast.

 

One of the things about uncovering the meaning of parables is

trying to understand what  they would have meant to

the people who heard them in the first place.

Although we are familiar with mustard seeds and yeast,

we may not be as intimate with those things as the people

who were around in Jesus time. Growing and home baking

weren’t just hobbies then, they were mandatory for survival.

 

So what about the mustard seed?

Just to interject here, there are two mustard seed images

from Jesus, there’s the one today which is in

Luke too, and then there’s another one where Jesus says that

if we have faith the size of a mustard seed

we could move a mountain.

Today’s is arguably the better one with better imagery.

But just so we don’t conflate the two.

We’re not talking about moving mountains today.

 

But back to this mustard and what people thought of mustard.

 

So - Pliny the Elder was a Roman citizen who

Wrote an encyclopedia of “Natural History” around

the time that Jesus was alive. It covered animals, plants, rocks,

minerals, all things nature. In the entry about the mustard plant

he wrote that “the mustard plant needs no cultivation”

He says “Its seeds are pungent and fiery and very useful”

But in the end he calls it

“a malignant weed with dangerous takeover properties.”

Mustard was actually so invasive that

there was a Jewish law that you couldn’t

plant it even in your own fields because

it would infest everything including your neighbor’s field.

 

So, the kingdom of God is a malignant weed

with dangerous takeover properties.

People are afraid of it, don’t like it.

Maybe even have a resistance to it.

Maybe even a law against it.

The man planting it in his field looks a little crazy,

you would advise him NOT to do it.

But he does it anyway.

And when he does, it becomes this awesome

big plant and the birds take shelter in it.

And the birds may even take the seeds

and drop them around randomly and more can grow.

But it is insidious, and once it establishes itself,

it’s really hard to get rid of.

 

Interesting description of God’s work in the world.

I think most people’s inclination is to say that

God’s work is terrific and awe inspiring, majestic.

Not risky and dangerous and controversial.

  

And Jesus says the Kingdom of God is also like leaven.

The stuff that makes bread rise.

Well, if we think of yeast as this stuff that is

in a neat little envelope that you put in hot water,

then that could be misleading.

Leaven was different in those times.

Leaven was old, fermented dough, like a sourdough starter.

You combined it with the rest of the flour and it would make it rise.

 

But leaven was tricky to use without refrigeration.

If it was bad, it would ruin all the flour you had.

And you wouldn’t know until you tasted it after it was done.

So the kingdom of God is like leaven,

that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour –

that’s almost 8 gallons of flour.

That’s like 50 loaves of bread.

Almost two months worth of flour.

She could ruin all of it with a little bit of bad leaven.

 

So the kingdom of God is like a woman living

on the edge, it’s a little dangerous.

It looks crazy at first.

You would advise her NOT to do this,

but she does it anyway.

And when she does then there is a terrific bread party,

everyone eats. 50 loaves of bread.

It’s still a little crazy, but that was a really good day.

 

You see these are not rules here.

These are stories, images.

Jesus is dealing with feelings, impressions,

he’s giving us these lines and we’re coloring it in.

 

So how do we identify the kingdom of God?

Based on these parables, when the kingdom of God

is entering into this world, it looks a little crazy.

It looks ill-advised. At first it looks like something

you wouldn’t want in your backyard.

 

It’s not popular. The Kingdom of God – God’s vision

entering our world can look potentially dangerous.

Even a threat. But it becomes something wonderful,

and life-giving, and delicious, but still uncontrollable.

And once it’s in, it’s hard to get rid of.

It’s in there, it changes the landscape.

The paradigm is shifted permanently.

And abundance abounds.

 

I’ll color those lines in with a little history.

I like history if you haven’t caught on yet.

And I think I like it so much because you can’t see the Spirit

working so much in the present tense,

you have to look in the rear view mirror to see it,

and that’s what history is.

 

So, I’ve done a lot of reading on the civil war

and the time leading up to it especially.

And specifically about religious people’s feelings around slavery.

 

Slavery is certainly one of America’s greatest sins and

embarrassments in its history.

And the Emancipation of slaves, and the end of slavery

was certainly a move of the Holy Spirit,

the Kingdom of God coming to the world,

that we can see plainly see now, in the rearview mirror of history.

It was not so clear when they were going through it.

  

If you read newspaper articles, and essays,

and sermons from that time before the war,

like 1830’s on, you can read some essays and

newspaper opinion pieces from Abolitionists,

those people that wanted to end slavery completely,

 

Now everyone wants to see their favorite

hero of history as an abolitionist,

or they want to hear how their denomination was abolitionists,

but it was a very small portion of the population that actually

wanted that.  Most thought compromise was best way forward

or a slow phasing out of  slavery. Even in the north.

Or those in the south wanted to just keep slavery going just as it was.

Many people thought it was just the proper order,

how God had ordained the world to work.

 

And abolitionists were seen by most of the population

of the United States, north and south, as absolute radicals.

They were called extremists, fanatics, lunatics, incendiaries, mad men. Crazy loons.

 

And if we’re honest, the writings of abolitionists

had a pretty hysterical quality to them.

William Lloyd Garrison, one of the leading abolitionists wrote:

 

I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language;

but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen,—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.

 

You can almost hear him pulling out his hair in this

(Even though he doesn’t have much hair)

In contrast, the people opposed to abolition, north and south,

sounded very reasonable, very measured,

like they’re all sipping brandy in a library

This is in contrast from George Fitzhugh a pro-slavery sociologist:

 “At the slaveholding South all is peace, quiet, plenty and contentment. We have no mobs, no trades unions, no strikes for higher wages, no armed resistance to the law, but little jealousy of the rich by the poor. We have but few in our jails, and fewer in our poor houses. We produce enough of the comforts and necessaries of life for a population three or four times as numerous as ours.”

 This is nearly universal of the writings.

Every one of the abolitionists, I’ve read

(except for Frederick Douglass who was always very chill and matter-of-fact) 

basically sounded like the house was on fire, because it was.

And the pro-slavery, or at least the anti-abolitionists

sounded calm as cucumbers.

“We can work this out. Don’t be so radical.”

The kingdom of God coming in the world

looks like a very bad idea at first.

 

I was invited to talk at All Saints at a Lenten

thing they had about community and the

discussion turned to our current times.

And for some reason I don’t remember,

I told them about the hysterical abolitionists.

And someone came up to me later and asked,

“so was your point that we should try and

calm down and be more reasonable”, and I said,

“no we have to be more comfortable with being

seen as hysterical.”

 

The Kingdom of God, the work of God in this world,

is often identified as a malignant weed with dangerous

take over properties. It can seem radical, hysterical, crazy.

It’s a guy planting a danger seed, and like the woman

with the leaven.

 

But we shouldn’t shy away from that.

Because that guy and that woman are the ones

with the courage of the Spirit in them.

The ones that were willing to take the risk.

Like the abolitionists. Very few liked it at first,

but once that thought took hold, once everyone saw it,

that no one should be enslaved, 

that God wanted freedom for everyone, then it took over.

Then everyone wanted to say they were an abolitionist

right from the start.

 

And even when people try and take it out again,

that persistent mustard plant is there,

and the birds are still finding rest in its branches,

and the birds are taking the seeds and dropping them

in the neighbor’s backyard and it keeps growing.

You can’t get rid of it.

 

So, there, I’ve drawn some lines there.

What would we color that in with?

What does the Kingdom of God look like today?

 

And then Jesus gives us another nice image after those.

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

When he finds one pearl of great value,

he goes and sells everything he has to buy it.

Notice the order.

The merchant doesn't sell everything hoping he'll find something worthwhile. 

He finds the pearl first.

And then everything else he has becomes expendable.

That's how the Kingdom of God works.

 

When you catch even a glimpse of what God is doing—

when you see a world where

every person bears the image of God,

where enemies become neighbors,

where the hungry are fed,

where strangers are welcomed,

where forgiveness is stronger than vengeance,

where love proves more powerful than fear—

once you really see that – you can't unsee it.

 

It's like that mustard seed.

It gets into your imagination and starts taking over.

It's like the leaven.

It works its way into every part of your

life until everything begins to rise.

And eventually you realize you've found the pearl.

 

That's why people throughout history

have risked their reputations,

careers, fortunes, even their lives

for the sake of justice and mercy.

From the outside it looks irrational.

Why would anyone give up so much?

Because they have seen something

that everyone else has missed.

The world says they're throwing everything away.

Jesus says they've found the pearl.

 

The Kingdom of God has always looked foolish

to those who can’t see it yet.
It looked foolish when someone planted

mustard in a field where it didn't belong.

It looked foolish when a woman trusted

all of her flour to a lump of old leaven.

And it looked foolish when abolitionists

refused to stop saying the truth about justice, and slavery

and freedom, and the true vision for the Untied States.

The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 

but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

Once you've seen the pearl,

once you've caught sight of God's dream for the world,

there is nothing more valuable.

And maybe that's Jesus' one rule for us today:

 

Don't spend your life protecting the things

that will one day pass away.

Look for the pearl.

And when you find it—

have the courage to let everything else go.

Because the Kingdom of God isn't just worth believing in.

It's worth everything we have.