According to medieval alchemy, there was a stone that could turn all to gold! No such stone exists, but there is certainly truth in the belief that what is considered worthless by some can be transformed into gold by others.
Michelangelo’s ‘David’
Michelangelo could have discarded the fractured marble from which he carved the ‘David’. Two other sculptors had abandoned the work, and the unfinished statue lay in the cathedral workshop, forgotten. Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea Sansovino were keen to get the commission, but it was Michelangelo, at the age of 26, who convinced the Council that he deserved the commission. He saw something that others did not and transformed their ‘rubbish’ into gold.
The same is true in the world of business. Great businesses have been created out of what others considered worthless.
The Surprising-ness of God
One such business, National Car Parks, was the creation of an enterprising young man who was wandering around the ruined remains of London after the Second World War. The bomb sites were nearly worthless, but he could see their potential and bought them. These he turned into car parks, and so his fortune was made!
The same genius is found in great inventors, artists, and scientific innovators. Alexander Fleming could have thrown out the mould in his Petrie dish.
Rowan Williams speaks of the ‘Surprising-ness of God’ in this way.
“We search for beauty, and what do we get – a cross as the revelation of God’s love”.
Peter is looking for beauty. Following his confession of Christ, he is hoping for a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but is shocked by Jesus’ dark words about his death and rebukes him.
Jesus speaks to Peter and us of the need to see the ‘Cross’ with new eyes,
“You do not have the mind of God, but the mind of men” Matt 16: 23(b).
Lewis Carrol wrote about this strange way of seeing the world in ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’. In Alice’s world, to get anywhere, you have to do the exact opposite of what makes sense! It’s no good walking towards the ‘Looking Glass’ to get through it, you have to walk away.
That’s the way things work in the Kingdom of God, too. The world takes on a mirror image, and what we think of as nonsense in this world is transformed into ‘gold’ in God’s kingdom, and so we need to start looking at the world with the eyes of an artist or inventor to discover the gold in the rubbish.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it”. Matthew 16: 25
The Cross turned human hatred into a channel of love in the hands of God.
The Cross, once seen as a symbol of shame, has become a badge of commitment to Christ.
The Cross, the instrument of death, has become the means of healing and restoration through Christ’s death and resurrection.
The Cross reverses all human expectations, transforming the rubbish of the world into ‘gold’. The Cross is the surprise of God!
Rev. Simon Brignall.
This will be my last Email sermon. Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement over the past few years. You have helped me delve deeply into the treasure trove of the Gospels' teachings and find the gold. I began these sermons during the COVID-19 pandemic, when churches were closed, to stay in touch with everyone. I have used paintings to draw attention to the sermon in your crowded inbox, but it has grown into more. I hope you will agree that these paintings have made the gold glitter!