GRACE -- NOT JUST FOR MEAL TIME
Matthew 9:9-11
I John 4:8-10
"God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen."
One time I asked one of my confirmation students to define grace, her answer was, "It's the prayer you say before you eat."
Well, it is the correct answer -- I asked the wrong question. What I meant to ask was, "What is God's grace?"
Day after day, Matthew sat in his booth doing his job. It paid the bills, but only because the Romans looked the other way if tax collectors charge a little extra as long as they got their cut. And because he was a Jew and he was employed by the Roman Empire, the Pharisees and religious leaders called him, "unclean and a sinner," while his family and neighbors saw him as a traitor and a turncoat.
Until Jesus came along one day. Jesus looked him in the eyes, smiled and said, "Come follow me and be my disciple." For the first time in a long, long time, Matthew felt he was worthy and accept, and so he left the tax booth behind to go with Jesus.
That night, Matthew threw a dinner party for Jesus and the disciples. Matthew invited all his friends, people who like Matthew had been alienated and rejected by the community, people who were told every day in every way possible that they were the lowest of the low and not good enough to hang out with decent people.
When the Pharisees saw Jesus dining with those people, the riffraff and the disreputable, they became incensed, filled with self-righteous anger. They lit into the disciples and demanded, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?!?" (Matthew 9:11)
Why? Because God is great, and God is good, and most importantly God is love, and Jesus is the greatest expression of God's nature, a nature that governs everyone of God's attributes and characteristics: forgiveness, mercy, compassion, power, and even his justice. That loving nature is the driving force behind creation, all of God's interactions with us humans and God's plan for salvation and the redemption of the entirety of creation.
God's love is unconditional. Romans 5:10 tells us the God proved his love for us that while we messing up our lives and hurting others, before we even confess our love for God, Christ died for us.
We don't and don't have to deserve it to receive it. We can't and don't have to earn it. We can't and we don't have to pay for it. It is God's gift freely given, just because God want to give it.
Because God's love is unconditional, it is inclusive. "For God so loved the world... -- that's what John 3:16 says. The whole world, not just a chose few. There are no conditions attached to it. It doesn't matter who you are or the color of your skin. Where you were born, the language you speak, your politics or the faith tradition you follow are of little consequence to God. For every one of us, every man, woman and child on this planet are created in the image of God. We are God's creation and God's beloved.
God's love is self-sharing. God shared himself through creation and every time he broke into human history and into the midst of human life. God took on human flesh and was born among us, and shared his life and his death for our sake through Jesus Christ. Even today, God is pouring out God's love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5).
And that action of God pouring himself out, actively sharing God's unconditional, inclusive love with us through the Holy Spirit is what God's grace is.
So, that night long ago at Matthew's home, Jesus, the living God clothed in our flesh, turned a dinner party into a meal of grace for Matthew and his friends.
And we, who bear the living presence of Christ in this world, we should go and do likewise.
I John 4:8-10
"God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen."
One time I asked one of my confirmation students to define grace, her answer was, "It's the prayer you say before you eat."
Well, it is the correct answer -- I asked the wrong question. What I meant to ask was, "What is God's grace?"
Day after day, Matthew sat in his booth doing his job. It paid the bills, but only because the Romans looked the other way if tax collectors charge a little extra as long as they got their cut. And because he was a Jew and he was employed by the Roman Empire, the Pharisees and religious leaders called him, "unclean and a sinner," while his family and neighbors saw him as a traitor and a turncoat.
Until Jesus came along one day. Jesus looked him in the eyes, smiled and said, "Come follow me and be my disciple." For the first time in a long, long time, Matthew felt he was worthy and accept, and so he left the tax booth behind to go with Jesus.
That night, Matthew threw a dinner party for Jesus and the disciples. Matthew invited all his friends, people who like Matthew had been alienated and rejected by the community, people who were told every day in every way possible that they were the lowest of the low and not good enough to hang out with decent people.
When the Pharisees saw Jesus dining with those people, the riffraff and the disreputable, they became incensed, filled with self-righteous anger. They lit into the disciples and demanded, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?!?" (Matthew 9:11)
Why? Because God is great, and God is good, and most importantly God is love, and Jesus is the greatest expression of God's nature, a nature that governs everyone of God's attributes and characteristics: forgiveness, mercy, compassion, power, and even his justice. That loving nature is the driving force behind creation, all of God's interactions with us humans and God's plan for salvation and the redemption of the entirety of creation.
God's love is unconditional. Romans 5:10 tells us the God proved his love for us that while we messing up our lives and hurting others, before we even confess our love for God, Christ died for us.
We don't and don't have to deserve it to receive it. We can't and don't have to earn it. We can't and we don't have to pay for it. It is God's gift freely given, just because God want to give it.
Because God's love is unconditional, it is inclusive. "For God so loved the world... -- that's what John 3:16 says. The whole world, not just a chose few. There are no conditions attached to it. It doesn't matter who you are or the color of your skin. Where you were born, the language you speak, your politics or the faith tradition you follow are of little consequence to God. For every one of us, every man, woman and child on this planet are created in the image of God. We are God's creation and God's beloved.
God's love is self-sharing. God shared himself through creation and every time he broke into human history and into the midst of human life. God took on human flesh and was born among us, and shared his life and his death for our sake through Jesus Christ. Even today, God is pouring out God's love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5).
And that action of God pouring himself out, actively sharing God's unconditional, inclusive love with us through the Holy Spirit is what God's grace is.
So, that night long ago at Matthew's home, Jesus, the living God clothed in our flesh, turned a dinner party into a meal of grace for Matthew and his friends.
And we, who bear the living presence of Christ in this world, we should go and do likewise.
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