Discovering the presence of God in the world is like a person finding treasure buried in a field. Having discovered it they cover it over again and then in great excitement they go out and sell everything they own and buy that field.
- Matthew 13:44
All of the parables that Jesus spoke are meant to highlight two realities. The first is the manner in which the presence of God is not found in the world. And the second is the manner in which the presence of God is actually found in the world.
Virtually all of formal, organized Christianity has at least forgotten, if not outright rejected this. The historical Jesus today comes to people sitting, listening quietly in pews for an hour a week. The words and songs spoken and sung in that hour are designed to tidy up a few bad habits, make us better citizens, and send us back to the world as model citizens. There is no discontinuity between what we are in our daily lives and what we have taken in in that hour. People have essentially looked for ways to fit their religious convictions and values into their culture. Again, Jesus teaches differently. He says that by doing so it is like putting new wine into old wineskins; both will be ruined.
The treasure is not new values, new beliefs, new convictions. The treasure is the encounter with the living God. And it is every bit as possible today as for Israel's patriarchs, prophets, judges, and Jesus' apostles. And that will change everything.