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"Who are we at Easter?” asks the poet Barbara Pescan. Before I begin today’s reflection, I want to just give you a bit of context about how Unitarian Universalists understand Jesus. From its early days Unitarianism broke with traditional views of the trinity proposing that Jesus was a holy one, Jesus had a special relationship with the divine, but was not the same substance as God. That’s where the word Unitarian comes from.
In the 19th century Unitarian preachers like Theodore Parker brought a historical approach to biblical scholarship, and after much research and soul searching came to believe that biblical miracles were “best not accepted as facts, nor dismissed as legends, but appreciated as "myths"—that is, poetic expressions of ancient piety with profound symbolic meaning.” Even among mainstream Unitarians at the time, this was considered radical, many felt that you could not really be Christian if you didn’t believe in the factual truth of miracles. But the transcendentalist ministers like Ralph Waldo Emerson preached that, "an intuition cannot be received at second hand.”[i] That is to say, it is more important what each receives through our own intuition, than believing a miracle happened elsewhere long ago.
By the time I grew up in a UU church in the late 20th century, this view was mainstream in Unitarian circles, especially those which were strongly humanist. The Jesus I grew up knowing was a wise teacher, community organizer, who stood up for the dispossessed, and whose wisdom and life of integrity was available to all of us, whether we believe in miracles or not. That is why even though many UUs do not identify as Christian one of the sources of our living tradition is
“Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;”In this spirit, honoring Jesus as spiritual teacher, I offer a parable. We UUs don’t believe that these parables have one specific interpretation, but that they are symbols which invite us to know ourselves and the world in a new way, and that the meaning we find will change and grow as we do. I chose for today a parable from the gospel of Matthew – the pearl of great price, or “Great Value”.
“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. " -Matthew 13:45-46This simple parable has been in my heart a lot lately as I wonder “what really has value-- what would be worth “selling all you own”?
In this time of Covid, with so much is in flux, I think a lot of us have been discerning what is truly valuable to us. I wonder, what would a pearl of great value be to you?
Love? Friendship?
Knowing what is true and deeply real?
Seeing the true beauty of life?
Consider the great wave of resignations we have seen this past year- the pandemic has given us time to consider what is really important to us. This pandemic has also show us our own fragility, our own mortality and that of those we love. Folks have had to ask, what is worth risking my life for? And more important, what is worth living for? Each of us has made our own unique response to these questions we all are facing. For example, I know some folks who have given up a good income to stay home with their school-aged children. The pandemic taught them to value the precious time at home with their families. Others have made the exact opposite choice- because they love and need to provide for their family, they are willing to put their own lives at risk of exposure to the virus by going in day after day to their high risk jobs.
What treasure have you found over these past 2 years? What is truly valuable to you, valuable enough to give up, maybe not all that you have, but something?
This chapter in the gospel of Matthew is a series of parables Jesus offers to those assembled around him, all beginning with: “The kingdom of heaven is like…” This can be tricky for UUs who are not sure about heaven, and find the whole idea of kingdoms problematic, but many of us believe that we are called to work together in this life to create a just, compassionate world for everyone, to make a heaven here on earth. If this is what you believe, this parable might mean that we are encouraged to “give it all” to create this gem, this pearl of great price- a just compassionate world for everyone.
What would be worth sacrificing for?
Ending racism?
Creating a world where all were free-- None were oppressed?
Growing in compassion?
In her book A House for Hope Rebecca Parker describes another view of heaven found among UUs- a view that heaven is here and now, that the divine, the spirit of life in their miraculous beauty is right here, and that this is the pearl of great price, the end of all our searching.
Parker remembers a conversation with a fellow traveler on a Forest Service bus in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.
“We do foster care for kids.” He said it was heart breaking to see some of the violence, abuse and deprivation these children had experienced. But he and his wife welcomed them into their home and did what they could. ‘Not even love can repair the damage sometimes,’ he said “I know,“ I replied.Could this be the pearl of great Value? Those moments when we know in our hearts the true beauty that is right here, even despite the very real suffering we see in the world?
He asked what book topic I was working on now, and I answered, “Paradise.”
“Paradise” he mused, and looked out the window of the bus for a few moments at the bright sky, the deep green pine forests, the alpine meadows coming into view, and, rising above them, the sharp peaks of the Minarets.
“Do you mean ‘paradise’ like where we are right now?”
“Yes,” I said ”like where we are right now.”
We both gazed out the window… breathing the pungent fresh air.
“This is enough,” he said
“You know that because you help kids” I said
A could of thoughtfulness passed over his face.
“Yes, “he replied “that’s right” [p. 16]
Christian author and pastor Ray Stedman asked “why a pearl?… Why didn't he use the ruby or the diamond, or any other jewel? The answer is that the pearl is the only jewel which is the product of living matter. A pearl is the response of an oyster to something which causes it injury. A pearl grows out of hurt.”[ii]
From life’s hardships that we would never have chosen, sometimes a pearl comes-. Like the Foster Parent in Parker’s story whose work with heartbreaking hardship taught him to see paradise in the hills and trees of the natural world. What beauty do you see in the world despite the suffering? Despite the ugliness that we all see every day? Consider also the compassion of that foster parent, which seems to have grown over those years of working with foster children. Compassion is another gift, another pearl that can grow in times and places of real suffering. Many people notice that their own struggles help them grow in compassion for others.
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Wisdom is another gift that is built up slowly layer by layer from the hard things of life. This has been a challenging time for all of us, and quite devastating for some. The heart of the Easter story is not a message that those who are most holy avoid suffering, but that despite our suffering we rise.
As we observe our third Easter together since the start of this pandemic, I wonder --are there pearls of wisdom, of beauty of compassion that perhaps have begun to form in each of us and in our community? These pearls don’t appear right away, it takes time for a pearl to be formed in layer after layer of nacre. It takes 6 months for a pearl to begin to form, and 18-24 months for pearls to be big enough to admire in a jewelry store. In the same way it takes patience for our trials to be transformed. No good comes from rushing the process, it happens at its own organic pace.
I invite each of us to be on the look out for these pearls of great value, of great price, which may be growing in our hearts and spirits even now. Despite the conflict and suffering we see in the world, I believe such pearls are growing also in the larger communities and web of life of which we are all a part. Let us cultivate and treasure them when we do find them, because they are precious. May we all grow in wisdom and compassion so needed in our suffering world, and notice the profound beauty which is here too, pearls of great price. 
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