"When he found a pearl of great value, he went away
and sold everything he had and bought it."
Most of the people receiving this weren't around to remember the days of glass milk containers, with the tin foil caps, delivered to the house by the milkman. Non-returnable, disposable milk containers made their way into everyday lives in the late 50's and they have been followed by a host of disposable products. When our oldest daughter was born, I still remember Nancy and I having to decide (to be honest, it was a pretty easy decision) between the diaper service and disposable diapers. If I remember, the extra cost of the disposable won out over the smell factor of a diaper pail filled with dirty cloth diapers.
In reality, disposable products have made life much more convenient and have invaded every sphere of life. We now shave with disposable razors, eat lunch on disposable paper plates using disposable silverware on a table covered with a disposable tablecloth.
On our school trips to Washington every year, students purchase disposable cameras, at outrageous prices, to record their memories of our nation's capitol. Add to those the disposable cell phones now available, disposable tupperware containers for lunches and storage, the list would be pretty long.
Now for the problem and it's not the environmental impact of disposable products adding to our landfills at alarming rates; it's the danger of a disposable mentality getting into our faith and producing a disposable religion. In a world governed in so many areas by our desire for convenience, that kind of an attitude could creep into our faith. And the result would be our looking for a religion of convenience. If it interferes with our plans and desires, get rid of it. If it interrupts a person's leisure or recreation, throw it away, just one more "disposable" in life. And if becomes confining, too limiting on what we can and can't do, too demanding of our time, we move on to something else.
And what about relationships. Sometimes, it seems that people undervalue relationships and only see them in the light of what they can get out of them. When a relationship starts to place demands on us that we aren't willing to pay, we too often treat them as disposable and move on. It is a lesson better learned earlier than later in life, treasure the relationships and friendships you have been blessed with.
When Jesus talked about the pearl of great price, and a person selling everything they had to purchase it, He was revealing the value and importance we should place on the Kingdom of God and on our relationship with the Lord. What a contrast - the little value we place on disposable products compared to the pricelessness of having God in our lives. Let's make sure we haven't fallen prey to a disposable mentality!
God bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church
I think you have hit the nail sooo centre on the head with this message. The question now is: How much have we as humanity strayed over the centuries with our tweeking and tuning of His teachings to suite our own conveniences? And how do we move back from here to practice religion the way He inteded?
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