Message 09-25-05
Series: The Three Gifts of God
Scripture: Deuteronomy 14:22-27
Title: The Meal of Life
At a time of national calamity – as we’re experiencing with the hurricanes Katrina and Rita – there are always questions about the judgment of God. Some people have actually claimed that God brought his judgment down on New Orleans in particular. Of course, that now seems to beg the question, what did God have against Lake Charles?
Jesus doesn’t seem to view God’s judgment this way. At one point Jesus brings up current events and questions the common understanding of judgment. The first event was a political calamity and the second more of a natural calamity. We read, in Luke’s Gospel,
1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
That might not seem too clear. On the one hand it seems like Jesus is saying that you can’t claim the judgment of God has come on someone just because they’ve had a calamity, but then he immediately says we need to repent or we’ll perish as well.
One of the things he’s telling us is that if we claim the place of God, as if we can say who is a sinner and who isn’t then we’re the ones in big trouble with God.
I bring this up because I want us to start thinking about the judgment and grace of God. I want us to think about it. I want you to continue doing theology with me, thinking through the things of God. But I also want to give you permission to respond to the grace of God. Sometimes we don’t see that as part of our repentance. We need respond to the grace of God. How do we do that?
Last week, today and next week, we are looking at what I call “The Three Gifts of God.” These are three components of our action, our mediating of the ministry of reconciliation that we are called to do as Christians and they are cleansing, feasting and knowing. Today we’re looking at feasting which I believe is the core of our response to grace.
Study:
How do we respond to grace?
In that same passage where Jesus confronts judgment he tells a parable. Now, let me just add a thought here. You may already be thinking that Jesus’ attitude about judgment is the right and that might be because you already are thinking that. You may be thinking that it is wrong for someone to be condemning New Orleans as an expression of God’s judgment. And you may be thinking that it’s good that Jesus thinks that way too. But I want to encourage you not to go at it that way. Look for Jesus’ attitude and bring yourself in line with that. Look at what the Bible – not just a sentence from the Bible, but the whole Bible says and align your heart and mind with that. God is for us. We don’t have to be worried about being backward or cruel. We just need to be patient and study. God loves us. We can trust in that.
I say that even as I come to this parable that Jesus told. He tells a story about judgment. A landowner comes to see a fig tree he planted and it never has any fruit on it. The landowner tells the gardener to cut it down. “Why should we waste this space of dirt on it?” he asks. The gardener speaks a word of grace and says, “Wait, give me a year. I dig around it, pile on the manure and let’s see what happens in a year.
God’s judgment is called down on the fig tree, but the one who is responsible for it calls for grace. What is the response of grace supposed to be? Fruitfulness… that’s what the gardener is looking for, isn’t it? The response to grace is fruitfulness.
And what does our fruitfulness look like? It looks like people joining in on grace. It looks like people are finding ways to get close to God. It looks like people pulling the fruit off of you and enjoying it.
Jesus calls us into a fruitfulness that other people can see, recognize as grace and enjoy.
How do we do that?
Our Scripture passage today suggests that we party with God.
Ever had a party with God? Ever had a party with God and invite the neighbors and invite the poor and those who don’t believe in God?
If you ever want to do an interesting study in the Bible look for the times when you’re told to rejoice. I find it interesting that we are commanded to rejoice. It’s kind of like being commanded to love. But you’ll find it. The people of Israel are told that they are to show up several times a year and rejoice, to party with God.
Richard Foster makes this comment:
It is the occupational hazard of devout folk to become stuffy bores. That should not be. Of all people we should be the most free, live and interesting. Celebration adds a note of gaiety, festivity, and hilarity to our lives. After all Jesus rejoiced so fully in life that He was accused of being a wine-bibber and a glutton. Many of us lead such sour lives that we couldn’t possibly be accused of such things.
But this is what we’re told to do and we’re told that this is the purpose of a tithe. You bring in a tithe of everything you’ve received and use it to party with God and to make sure there’s enough for the people who have nothing.
Jesus clearly led us with the example of someone who enjoyed life. He enjoyed eating and drinking. He welcomed everyone to eat with him – people who were insiders and people who were outsiders were invited to eat with Jesus, but he did more of that with the outsiders. And we are told that this is the way God wanted it.
When Jesus started his ministry he used a passage from the book of Isaiah to announce it. The passage is also the one used to announce the Year of Jubilee. Now if you don’t regularly read your Old Testament you may not know that the Year of Jubilee was the year when everyone who had become a slave was set free, when all debts were cancelled and when there was an enormous celebration. Now think of what that would look like. People who had sold their family property because they in debt, people who had sold themselves or their family members because they were in debt, people who had lost everything would be invited into a new chance at life.
Jesus used that passage to say, it starts now. Now that I’m here the party gets going. Get this party started. Now if you’re feeling kind of wary about that, if you think I may be pushing this, then let me remind you that Jesus said that his disciples didn’t fast because he, “the bridegroom”, was with them. Jesus, we’re told in the Gospel of John, turned every feast he attended in Jerusalem toward himself. Each festival or feast in Jerusalem was for a specific purpose. It was both a looking back – toward what God had done – and a looking forward to what God was going to eventually accomplish at the end of all things. Jesus, we’re told in John, replaced the focus of every festival with himself.
In my study on this I came upon a wonderful paper entitled “The Recovery of Celebration” and it was a great help to me in preparing this message today. And one of the things that is pointed out there was that one’s attitude toward celebration derives from one’s understanding of God. If you figure that God is a God of judgment and condemnation who is worried about you breaking the rules and ready to get you back into line then celebration may not fit well for you. But if you are following Jesus and learning his style and listening to the good news he preached then celebration might be just the thing that expresses your faith.
You see, Jesus tells us that God is like a father who had two sons. One acted like he was an orphan – like there was no father in his life and one acted like a slave. Both of them just about missed the love of the father because of the way they thought about him. Instead the first one went off in search of something to fill up his soul and finally, when he’d squandered everything he had he turned around and came back.
When he was still a ways off, his father saw him, ran to him, grabbed him and called the servants together to start the party. When the other brother came near the house he heard music and dancing. And he refused to go in because he heard that it was a party for his brother who had been slaving alongside him all these years. While he was outside the father went out to him as well and invited him into the party because this was a meal to celebrate life. His brother was “dead and now is alive”.
What is the judgment of God like in your life?
You may be thinking that judgment is all about everything you’ve ever done wrong. What if God judges you on the things you didn’t enjoy, the things you passed up. Suppose God judges you on missing baseball games, or not going to concerts or parties. Suppose God judges you on not playing at the seashore with little children or on sitting on your front steps when the evenings cool and dry or on not singing.
You think I’m pushing this too much? Jesus tells a story of a man who throws a lavish party. He sends out word and everyone he invites is too busy. I’m got work, I have an appointment, I have a life they all say. So, he opens his feast to the people on the street. Whoever happens to be going by or just hanging out. He calls them all in on his party and then he says that all those for whom the feast was made won’t be get in. Suppose God judges you on what you pass up.
The Westminster shorter Catechism is one of the Confessions of Faith that we find in the Book of Confessions that’s part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church. The very first question of this Catechism is an important one. Now this series of questions and answers that was created so that people could learn what to believe about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the church and the Bible was put together by very serious people who wanted to get it all right. The first question is “What is the chief end of man?” That is, what is our purpose in life?
The answer is “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Our purpose these people claimed is to make sure that God is honored and revealed, glorified, in every part of our lives and to be enjoyed. We are to rejoice with God. These very serious people tell us that the highest purpose of life is to rejoice with God – this is what happens when you take the Bible seriously. When you read it seriously you discover that at the beginning the very first thing God makes holy is a day – a piece of time and he says on this day no one works, we just all get together and sing and dance and eat – everybody. That’s how he begins the world. Do you know how he ends the world? He tells us through the prophet Isaiah that at the end of time,
On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
We are called to bring this news to the people of the world. We are called to invited them into the feast. We are called to be people of celebration. When Jesus was just about to go to the cross, when he took the time to share his most important thoughts with some of his best friends, he summed it all up by saying, These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Are you full yet? Have you had enough? Are you in the party? Are you sitting at the feast? Or are you still outside wondering why it’s happening?
Suppose we showed up and taught the people of New Orleans how to have a really good time. Suppose you brought food to shut-ins as part of Big hearts or even on a regular route with Meals on Wheels. Suppose you invited your friends over for dinner, just because you were thankful that God saved us from a hurricane. Do you think these people would be offended if we invited them into the feast of God?
