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In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, follows his father Dr. Henry Jones, played by Sean Connery, on his life-long quest for the Holy Grail. Henry’s quest has taken a toll on his relationship with his son throughout their lives. It would be an understatement to say the two aren’t close, but the journey for the Holy Grail gives them the opportunity to talk about their relationship. It gives them the opportunity for them to show each other how much they care.
At the very end, Indiana is at the edge of a cliff as the temple is falling down around him. Just barely within arms reach in the Holy Grail. Indiana reaches out, risking his life, to try to get it. His father is holding on to him and says to him, “Indiana, let it go.” The ultimate grail hunter tells his son, who he has been estranged with almost his whole life, is telling him that there are more important things than possessing the Holy Grail.
As Indiana, Henry, and their friends discuss the journey. Henry is asked what he found. He says “illumination.”
What Henry found was so much more important than what he spent his whole life looking for. He found something unexpected in his journey. He found something worth giving up everything else for.
We find the same lesson in Jesus’ descriptions of the Kingdom of God this morning. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. It seems really small at first glance, but the unexpected happens when it is planted. Out of this tiny seed comes a great tree, greater than what we could have initially imagined from it.
The Kingdom of Heaven is also like a treasure, or a pearl of great price. It is something of such value, that all else will be sold to obtain that treasure, no matter what our possessions might be.
When Henry Jones gave up the Holy Grail, he was sacrificing the treasure he had been searching for to obtain something greater, mainly his relationship with his son.
For us, giving up all other treasures for the Kingdom of Heaven means placing God and our relationship with Him, above all else. That means letting go of a lot of things.
It means letting go of our stability and certainty. It means change. We are seeing that right now and once again as the seeds planted in the Civil Rights Movement, as well as before, are once again being tended to. In order to move forward towards racial equality and justice, we must recognize that change is needed. Our old systems have change or even go away in order to allow for all people, not just a few of us, to benefit and have good lives. It maybe an uneasy change for us, but if we are to accept what Jesus says in John 3:16, that “God so loved the world”, then we must make sure all are loved and feel that love too.
Letting go of certainty means realizing that nothing stays the same. I have heard many people over the past few months saying they look forward to returning to “normal”. That will never happen. Yes, we will be able to one day stop social distancing and shop without masks, but that doesn’t change that this Pandemic happened. It doesn’t erase the past.
It doesn’t erase the fact that we can never forget that some people put their own “civil liberties” and “rights” above our own collective and personal health and safety. It doesn’t erase the fact that there were people, including our leaders, who could have done more to help protect us but didn’t. It doesn’t erase the fact that many of you, like me, might be really angry as those who have put lives at risk by not doing what they should have done during this crisis because we are justifiably angry at those people who care less about the lives around them than their own.
But seeking out the pearl of the Kingdom of Heaven means that we have to find a way to forgive, even when we don’t want to. It doesn’t mean our anger is not justified, because it is. It doesn’t erase those deeds, because it doesn’t. It doesn’t even mean that we forget what has happened. But we will have to find a way forward as we live together.
Seeking the Kingdom of God means letting go of all other parts of our identities. It means letting go of nationalism and our political alignments and realizing the only allegiance we should have, the only alignment we can make, is to God.
Seeking out the Kingdom of Heaven means putting God first, and not making idols out of the tools we use to serve God, including the parishes we love. I have been told the question has been asked here, as it was to the first parish I served, “if St. Michael’s was to go away tomorrow, would she be missed?” I think the better question is “if you didn’t have your parish, how would you continue to serve God in your community?” I don’t mean just by outreach. I mean doing what is behind outreach. I mean going out there and telling people the Good News, that you may struggle with your life just as I do, but God still loves you no matter what, and came down in human form to be with you to show you that love.
There are a lot of things we are called to give up and sell in our identities in order to gain that pearl of great price, the Kingdom of God, but at the end of the day, that price, as Jesus tells us, is worth it. That’s what countless saints and disciples of God have found over the years. The question for you is “are you willing to pay that price too?”