Pastor Judy's Blog

More Than A Meal

I love food and I’m a sucker for a banquet. If you lay out the turkey and mashed potatoes you won’t have to ask me twice to come. I’m always so thankful for an invitation to eat but a unique kind of gratitude and thanksgiving wells up within me when the invitation to the table is not just about eating but about being invited to gather around something good and praiseworthy.

When Jesus gathered people around the table it was never just about food. Jesus forgave people at breakfast. Jesus healed people at lunch. Jesus included the outcast at dinner. While the food was important what would be revealed through the gathering was what people raved about no matter what else was being served.

Luke 14 details a gathering where Jesus has been invited to eat to eat at the house of a prominent Pharisee. The Pharisee invited Jesus for food. Jesus would now invite the Pharisee to see something fabulous. Before the meal even begins Jesus starts to nourish those around him. He takes notice that right in front of him there is man who is sick. Jesus takes hold of the man and heals him. And once again a shared meal becomes an opportunity for an incredible act of God. But, those around Jesus “had nothing to say.”

You want to know why they were silent? We find a clue in Luke 14:1. “One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee he was being carefully watched.” Jesus had already healed someone on a previous Sabbath, a day the priests reserved for God but not for healing. Suspicious that Jesus was playing fast and loose with the Sabbath laws at this Sabbath meal they sit him next to a broken person and they watch him carefully to see if he will focus on the fixings or the fixing of this man.

It seems Jesus can’t help himself but heal all those who are gathered around his table. And he does just that, reaching out and healing the one who is broken. Unfortunately because the other table guests are seeking to see only the problems that might exist in his procedures they miss out on the miracle that is happening in their midst and they are left with nothing to say. The God who put on skin to come and live with his people in fleshed out ways has just healed a man’s flesh and made him whole and the whole assembly is quiet.

Right now in our culture we spend so much of our time cultivating attitudes that look for negative things. We pride ourselves on being able to pick out inconsistencies, inaccuracies and flaws. I fear that we are becoming so accomplished at this task that when an opportunity for praise finds itself right in front of us we will find we have nothing to say because our hearts have become calloused and we hardly hear with our hears and though our eyes are open we miss most of what God is revealing. (Matthew 13:13-15)

This Thanksgiving I challenge you not to be so watchful for other people’s mistakes that you end up missing out on the miraculous moments that often occur around tables where Jesus is present. Don’t be so busy finding fault that you miss out on the opportunities for praise and thanksgiving that may be right in front of you. This Thanksgiving have something to say about the good things that are going on around you.

Walking

In January of the year that I walked across the United States I got snowed in right outside of Indianapolis. I had planned to be further south by January but my decision to put people in front of pace in order of importance in my life, while delightful had also led to some delays. So there I was, stuck looking out the window at the road I wanted to walk, knowing full well that even if they plowed the highway, the snow on the shoulder of the road would be left until spring. Although I believe in and had experienced God’s protection I thought it wise not to push the issue by walking down the middle of the road . I sat there seriously thinking that I should head south rather than continuing on with my planned route over to Cincinnati.

I agonized over this decision because before I began the walk I had prayed over a map and felt specifically directed to Cincinnati then Lexington and then Knoxville. I wrestled with whether or not I would screw up everything if I made a wise decision to head south. Would God be mad if I chose a different route? Would God quit using me if made a decision to deviate from the directions I felt so clear about 2500 miles before?

I called Jeff, who is my husband now but was my boyfriend then and poured out my struggle and my fear that God would withdraw his blessing if I chose wrongly. Jeff responded with a question, “Is that what you believe about God?” “I think so.” I said. He continued, “You believe that if you pick a road that heads south to Louisville and then to Knoxville instead of the road that leads to Cincinnati and if you walk on that road as deliberately and faithfully as you have all other roads, preaching Jesus and loving people that God won’t use you anymore? That God will leave you at that crossroads? That’s what you believe about God?”

I began to realize that I didn’t believe that at all. I had made countless choices along the way, choices of where to eat and sleep choices about when to rest and which road to walk. I had been deliberate in walking in the ways of God on the paths I chose, but I had not sought specific direction at every step and still God had blessed me and used me on the routes I chose. “I guess it’s not what I believe at all. I believe you pick a way and you sell yourself out to God on that road and the way that you walk that road will determine whether or not God uses you on it.”

On that day I was set free from the need of being specifically directed by God before moving forward. I was set free to live deliberately for Jesus on all the roads I walk, those that God directs me towards and those that I freely choose. Although I continue to believe that there are occasions where God can and does offer specific direction, I am also utterly convinced that much of the journey is about a deliberate way of walking on whatever road you find yourself traveling.

Fairness

I like fairness. As a child I was the sibling that made sure that the cake was cut evenly, the free time was doled out justly and that no one received more than was their due. Fairness in my childhood system consisted of one basic guiding principle, that no one, except possibly me, would receive something they had not earned or did not deserve. As a reasonably well behaved child in the world of behavior modification I was aware that good behavior could go unnoticed and I made it my duty to make sure that such a travesty would not occur. Let me just say this, when you believe you are almost entirely good and mostly right, you are a pain in everyone’s backside.

As a child who was rooted in this system I understood why God loved me. What choice did he have? I hadn’t done anything terribly wrong and my report card showed all E’s for excellent, I was usually the first kid to memorize the Bible verse for Sunday School and from my perspective I was pretty sure I was the teacher’s favorite. God had to love me; I was entitled to it in the same way that the teacher had to acknowledge that I had the most points.

I know that the adults that surrounded my childhood were all very well intentioned when it came to their use of behavior modification, but the results of believing in a world that rewards good and punishes wrong have not been pretty. There is the pain-in-the-backside piece of which we all become when we believe we are deserving of reward and then there is the tragic belief that follows this line of thinking that states, privately if not publicly, that those who remain without reward are somehow rightfully without. /p>

This was the oversimplification that flowed from the followers of Yahweh as well. Obey and live, disobey and die. You read this in the book of Job where his “friends” try to convince him that his tragedy is a result of some sin that has gone unconfessed. You see this again in the gospels among the Pharisees and the followers of the law as they seek to make sense of a Messiah who has a preference for sinners. Why should sinners be blessed? Why should lawbreakers get the bigger piece of cake?

I sometimes long for the simple days of classroom behavior modification. Things seemed so much easier when we just judged everything at face value. However, looking back I do recognize that the system was oversimplified. It did not take into account that a student who had their parents attention in the evening, who was fed well at home and who slept in a bed was more likely to have behavior worth positive reinforcement. I am simultaneously aware that I was not nearly as good as my face value purported to be. The E’s were an accurate assessment of assignments completed but they did not take into account a heart that rejoiced when others were defeated, which is nowhere near excellent.

I am grateful for a God that does not judge us at face value, a God who does not treat us as our sins deserve, who causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Luke 7:41-43, Psalm 103:10, Matthew 4:44-46). I am grateful that I follow a God who does not withhold love until I behave, but instead doles out love so that in response I will want to behave. As we seek to be a sign that point to this unfair God I pray that we would resist the temptation to oversimplify our assessments, that we would dig deeper than what we see at the surface and that we too would live in a way that causes people to ask why we are so generous with those who are “undeserving”.

Serious Snacks

Last night the University Ministries (UMin) hosted an event called Snack Attack. The premise was simple, if you offer free food in the lobby of a university dorm students will come. Sundaes, popcorn and nachos brought together athletes and members of the African Student Club, student senators and students on their way to social events, international students, individuals interested in ministry and those who didn’t know there was a University Ministries. As I stood in the lobby of Burgh Hall covered in nacho cheese I found myself smiling as I was reminded that sharing snacks is the key to good community.

I suppose I should have known it was that simple, after all I follow a God who gave his people food in the desert to keep them from revolting, who multiplied loaves and fishes to keep his people listening and who invited tax collectors and sinners to a dinner table to teach them about loving. From the beginning God believed it was good to share his goods with people and so perhaps it shouldn’t be shocking that when we share our goods that God thinks it’s good for his people.

• According to UNICEF, approximately 3 billion people live on less than US $2/day and 1.4 billion people live on less than US $1.25/day
• 25,000 children under the age of 5 die each day due to poverty-related causes.
• Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Nearly 900 million people do not have access to clean water.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

What if we shared our goods?

This morning in chapel we are delighted to have Eugene Cho join us as we seek to be a sign that points to a God who shares his stuff. Eugene is the pastor of Quest Church in Seattle and along with his wife Minhee are the founders of an organization called One Day's Wages (ODW), a new grassroots movement that is seeking to do their part to alleviate extreme global poverty by teaching people to share.

www.onedayswages.org

The Chos made a decision to donate their 2009 income ($68,000) to the cause of fighting extreme global poverty and are now inviting the rest of the world to consider donating one day's wages so that the world might know a generous God. One day’s wages is equivalent to about 4% of your annual salary, for me it would be only $238.00 about what I spend on snacks in any given year.

• $20 can provide clean water for one person for 20 years.
• $10 can purchase a bed net to help prevent malaria.
• $45 can pay annual school tuition for one child.
• $100 can provide a woman with a sewing machine and job training.

What if we shared our goods? Pastor Eugene Cho is with us this morning as part of a week-long UMin initiative called THRIVE: a series of events to fertilize your faith in the midst of real life. It’s not too late to get involved, there are still opportunities this week to share your time, your life and your resources with this community and this world so together we could thrive.