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Henry Mora saw an opportunity and seized the day.

A gold detector tested positive near the patio in the front yard of his Montclair, California, home and he figured this might be something big. So he grabbed a shovel and started digging. While he only intended to go down three or four feet, ten days and sixty feet later the Montclair Fire Department showed up, sidestepped the hole and shut down the whole operation. The hole was as deep as it was going to get and no significant amount of gold had been discovered. The city officials commented that the homeowner had gotten carried away and they were lucky that no one had gotten hurt in the process. The hole has been fenced off and Mora is required to work with a civil engineer to correct the situation. Interesting that a hole could cause such a stir.

I've wondered a time or two if Jesus based his parable about the kingdom of heaven being like treasure buried in a field on a real-life event, or if he discovered the image buried in his own imagination. The Gospel stories of the Biblical-era Henry Mora are simple and to the point. "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44)." Apparently the main character in the parable was a little more adventuresome, or a little more crazy than Mr. Mora. At least our modern-day treasure hunter already owned the land on which he was digging and didn't risk everything on an expedition that turned out to give him nothing back. And therein lies the question. When are we supposed to take risks with our lives and when are we supposed to stop digging, fill up the hole and go home?

Questions are a good place to start regarding Jesus parables. He taught using these compact, seemingly-obvious lessons to draw people in and then encourage them to really think about how the stories spoke to their faith and informed their lives. The people with whom Jesus conducted his ministry were from a variety of backgrounds. Some were farmers, others were shepherds or tradespeople. Those differences didn't matter because everyone living in the Roman Empire in the first century understood who was in charge. Rome's kingdom stretched far and wide, fully beyond most people's comprehension.

But when Jesus spoke of a kingdom of heaven, people wanted to know what that meant. Would Go'd's kingdom be like Rome's? That couldn't possibly be, so they asked Jesus, and themselves, what a kingdom

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