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Sep 14, 2014

Don’t Miss Out on the Celebrating

Passage: Matthew 11:16-30

Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

Series: Tell Me the Stories of Jesus and Peter

Category: Discipleship

Keywords: jesus, peter, disciple, stories, grace

Learn how Jesus viewed the way in which we should enjoy ourselves; always with grace.

I admit it. I really love a wide variety of foods. I love many different ethnic foods – Indian is probably my favorite. And then there’s bread. There’s nothing quite so yummy as a warm, perfect loaf of bread – slathered with butter, of course!

It’s no secret that I’ve been dieting – many of you have noticed. I’ve had a battle with weight all my life, but things have been going fairly well since we embarked on this most recent campaign on April 27 – not to be too, too specific! So, from April 27 until we went on vacation on August 9, we had not had a piece of bread, dessert with sugar, or anything with significant carbs – including fruit.

The Finger Lakes region of New York offers a veritable feast in the summer, with Amish farms all over the place with those little self-serve veggie stands and the best corn anywhere – sorry, Eastern Shore! Rich and I had been eagerly waiting to sink our teeth into some of that corn, and we sure did! (And I only gained 1 pound while I was gone – we didn’t go hog wild!) We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Just imagine that wonderful flavor and texture of something you really love – something you haven’t allowed yourself or been able to get for a very long time – and biting into it. Warm bread. A crisp apple. Corn on the cob. Ice cream!

Jesus knew that kind of pleasure and he made no bones about enjoying life! Jesus’ joy in celebrating was about thoroughly and deeply enjoying the day God had made and about showing the world a new way – a way where people are cared for in pretty fantastic ways.

Today’s scripture probably needs some context. The first 15 verses of the chapter draw sharp contrasts between John the Baptist and Jesus. John was pretty confused. He had been so sure that his cousin was the One – the One to bring God’s judgment. But no judgment seemed to be coming, and here was John locked up in prison. He was beginning to wonder if he had staked his whole message on the wrong guy! He sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him whether he was really the One, and Jesus sent them back talking about healing and freeing and spreading good news. Not a word about judgment – what gives?

So Jesus begins teaching, and I can almost hear him saying, “Oh, come on! John came and led a life that was close to self-torture and people said he has a demon. Then I come, celebrating God’s abundance, eating and drinking with people who need me – people who to many are the wrong crowd -- and I’m labeled immoral! Sounds like we will use any excuse to ignore God’s call!”

Of course he was talking about the Law. How people used the Law to lord it over others – to exert power and control. He knew that many were oppressed by the religious and Roman rulers who tried to “protect God” by making people toe the line with laws that were unfair, unjust, and that held them back from meaningful life – Law that was dependent on their interpretation which often was to the benefit of the powerful instead of those in need. The masses couldn't get ahead. They couldn't feed their children. They did not enjoy.

“Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Jesus saw things very differently. Jesus enjoyed life and wanted the people to enjoy life. Life under God’s rule is not a life of oppression and fear and striving. It’s free and delicious! And it is the Messiah that makes a way when there is no way. Come to me!

Judgment and grace – just as the contrast in this passage is obviously a struggle – even between John the Baptist and Jesus – people, and especially Christians have struggled with judgment and grace for – well, maybe forever. In our Book of Discipline, the very first Basic Christian Affirmation articulated for us as United Methodists says:

We hold in common with all Christians a faith in the mystery of salvation in and through Jesus Christ. At the heart of the gospel of salvation is God’s incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. Scripture witnesses to the redeeming love of God in Jesus’ life and teachings, his atoning death, his resurrection, his sovereign presence in history, his triumph over the powers of evil and death, and his promised return. Because God truly loves us in spite of our willful sin, God judges us, summons us to repentance, pardons us, receives us by that grace given to us in Jesus Christ, and give us hope of life eternal.

Two pages later, when the Discipline is stating our distinctly Wesleyan theology, the very first part of the section is about grace, defining Prevenient Grace this way:

We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God’s will, and our “first slight transient conviction” of having sinned against God. God’s grace also awakens in us an earnest longing for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward repentance and faith.

Our first impulse as Wesleyan Christians should be grace. And please hear me well when I say that applies equally to how we see others and how we see ourselves. I meet people every day who are hard on themselves – ‘way too hard on themselves. I meet people every day who make snap judgments about the way someone looks.

In his version of verse 29, Eugene Peterson says,

Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

Imagine what a world it would be if could just get that right!