The Wrestling Match

When reading the parables of Jesus in the book of Matthew, I had no intention of getting hung up on the Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14), but I did.  Actually, I have been wresting with it all week.  This Kingdom of Heaven parable seems easy enough to figure out.  The King plans a wedding banquet for His son, but those who had a heads up on the invitation decided not to come so in their absence he invites the whoevers from the streets.  The chosen had no interest in coming, are judged as unworthy, and the least of the streets were invited.    

The wrestling match came in the final verses of the parable with a single uninvited guest showing up midst the celebration.  The King notices him because he is not wearing a wedding robe which had apparently been given to all the invited guests.  As I wrestled with his presence in the parable I kept asking "Who is he?  Why did he come?  Why did he make no attempt to hide his uninvited presence?"  None of my questions resulted in answers.  Finally, after several days of struggling with his presence in the parable, I came to a conclusion.  

It may not be the scholar's conclusion.  It may not even be the right one, but it is mine and so I will claim it.  The guy who shows up in verse 11 is a man who sings, "I did it my way." He is the man who sees himself as the exception. He is the one who does as he pleases with no regard for the consequences.  It sounds like a description of a person who has no regard for the ways of God which is what we all are expressing when we choose disobedience over obedience, sin over righteousness.  I started seeing myself as I saw him.  And I started thanking God for grace instead of separation from Him.  

Without Expectations

At first I thought maybe I had heard something that was not being said so I listened more intently to the one in the pulpit.  "Every grace comes with an expectation."  The theme of the sermon was spoken too many times to be ignored which, of course, was the intent of the one preaching.  I kept listening not really believing what I was hearing and then as the sermon reached its conclusion, he said, "God invests in us and He has expectations."  

My problem comes because of a definition of grace.  My statement about grace would be, "Grace comes with no expectations."  I have come to be who I am believing that God's grace requires nothing from us.  It does not require a certain moral lifestyle.  It does not require a disciplined spiritual life.  It does not require any act of service.  It does require expectations.  Grace comes with no strings.  No expectations.  It is freely and unconditionally given.  What I do, or do not do, or what I promise to do has no bearing on the grace of God.  

Grace is not about one gift being given with the expectation that one will be given in return.  It is true that the cross where Jesus died speaks of a gift of love from our Father God, but it also speaks about the grace in His heart which He gives to us.  Jesus' death upon the cross requires nothing from us to be a means of salvation.  Through our faith, that salvation may be experienced, but should we choose not to respond in faith, it would not change what God has done for us.  Because of His love and grace, a way has been made for us to be at one with Him again.  The choosing may be up to us, but the giving has always been His to do. 

The Practice of Exclusion

This past Sunday I worshipped at a Roman Catholic Church.  While I could never be a card carrying member of the Catholic Church, there are things about it which I wish could be found in my own denomination.  The church is not afraid of the Scripture which is to say readings are offered from the Psalms, both New Testaments, and the Epistles.  Any Methodist preacher who read that much Scripture in worship would be run out of town on a rail!  I also like the reverent attention given to the Holy Sacrament.  It is not a hurried addendum to worship, but the central part of it.  

What would forever keep me away from Catholicism is the practice of exclusion at the Table.  Of course, this practice of exclusion is not just a Catholic thing.  Other churches require denominational membership, or confirmation, or membership in the particular church the Communion is being offered.  While there are many things which trouble me about the church which ordained me, I am grateful for its practice of the open Table.  Anyone who shows up is welcome.  I have offered the Sacrament to the dying who claimed no church membership and to the young children whom folks said could not understand.  My only comment is that neither can I.   

The Table does not belong to a church, or to a pastor or priest, or to a set of requirements allowing for some and excluding others.  It belongs to Jesus.  Men and women may officiate at the Table but it is the Table of the Lord.  Long ago Jesus sat at a Table with His disciples, broke the bread, handed them the cup, and said "Do this in remembrance of Me."  Judas Iscariot was there waiting to be served.  If Jesus would serve the one who was to betray Him, how can anyone be turned aside?

Unfolding Seasons

Back in 2013, Ann Voskamp wrote a book entitled "1000 Gifts."  It was one of those books which really impacted my life.  One of the specific things which I did after reading her book was to start a Gratitude Journal.  The lasting lesson I learned from her journey through her personal darkness was that we can still live with gratitude.  As Paul wrote, it is possible to live thankful in all circumstances.  When I saw her next book, "The Broken Way," I immediately purchased it only to find that I could not even stay with it long enough to finish the first chapter.   

Books are interesting creatures for more than one reason.  Not only do they give us information, or entertain us, but they also have a knack for appealing to us at different times in our life.  Last week I pulled "The Broken Way" from the shelves and found it a book I had to read.  I wondered about the difference in then and now.  Why was it so easy to lay down unread years ago only to be something I have to read in the now moment of my life?  The book has not changed, but I have.  We are all constantly changing.  The ancient writer of Ecclesiastes said, "There is a season for everything under the sun..." and, of course, he was right.  

As those who trust in Christ, we believe that the Holy Spirit is constantly shaping us so that we are more closely resembling the heart of Christ.  Another factor of change are the years and the experiences that are a part of our lives.  As we embrace the changes and the Change Agent, we move into different seasons of our life where things of the past no longer fit and also where things dismissed in the past have a way of finding a place in the new season which is unfolding before us.

The Sweetest Gift

It is such a sweet moment, 

the sweetest of all, some say,

the moment just after here 

slips silently into sleep

where rampant thoughts

disappear and reappear

in a dark field of dreams.

 

Quickly comes the moment,

and no matter how long 

the mind's eye looks to see,

it comes and then is gone,

only knowing it has come

when the Spirit stirs within

making there, here again.

 

'Tis God's gift, this moment

when sleep gives release 

to the weary needing rest,

the troubled needing peace,

and the lost needing the way.

For a season, troubling things

go away into sleep's eternity.

 

But, always comes the moment

when light breaks on the morn,

sometimes here, sometimes there.

What is known as here is there,

what cannot be seen is seen.

The eye beholds the new day,

or the land beyond  the river. 

My Answer

The question I asked in my blog posting yesterday was a surprise to those who read what I am writing which might explain why there was only one reader who responded.  In retrospect it is not something most of us can answer on the spur of the moment.  As one person suggested it might require some reading and thinking.  If only one page from the Old Testament and only one page from the New Testament could be kept while the rest was thrown away, what would those pages, or chapters, or passages be?  Maybe it was not a fair question to spring on a unsuspecting mind and heart when I have been wrestling with it for years.  

If I could only have one page from the Old Testament it would be the one containing the creation story recorded in chapter one.  It has come to be a foundation stone for my faith as well as my understanding of who I am in this world created by God.  It is a passage that begins with the coming into being of the eternal light which then shines in and through everything else that was made and is being made.  The climax of the creation comes as "God saw everything He had made and indeed it was very good."  (Genesis 1:31)  I love the inclusiveness of those words, "everything...very good."   

My New Testament choice is John 1:1-14.  Known as the Prologue of John's gospel, it connects what was written about the beginning with the new beginning which came with the Incarnation.  The eternal light present in the creation is described by John as being present in the flesh of the Son of God.  Though darkness has taken hold of the creation since the beginning, Jesus has come to penetrate the darkness and overcome it completely.  As we read and know the Incarnate One revealed to us by the writing of John, we are reminded again that all life has come into being through the eternal light, the One known as the Light of the World.  Again, toward the end of the passage, we are swept away by that word which says, "But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God..." (John 1:12)

A Biblical Experiment

What is the most important page in the Old Testament?  What is the most important page in the New Testament? There is no reason to be afraid of answering.  There is no right or wrong answer.  It is a question which reflects personal choice.  There is another way of asking the same question.  If for some unimaginable reason it was only possible to have one page from the Old Testament and one page from the New Testament, what two pages would be kept?  What passages are the foundational and sustaining passages?  

The answer would not only reflect a personal decision which might be different from someone else, but is could well be an answer that would be different today from the one which might have been given during another season of our life.  Maybe it is not a question worthy of much pondering, but being retired provides time for pondering things never before thought to be ponderable.  What set me off on this Biblical tangent was remembering a story from my Asbury College days that had long been forgotten until this morning. A missionary was describing the church in China.  He spoke of Christians possessing not a whole Bible, but only a torn out page or two.  What the missionary was underscoring for those of us who had Bibles we never read was the value the persecuted church had for the sacred Scripture.  

Perhaps, this morning pondering will provide a different window for reading  the Scripture for a few days.  Maybe the place to start is to list the ten most important passages in the Old and New Testament and then to begin a slow process of elimination until only one is left.  Some might declare such to be a waste of time and maybe it is, but it might also be an exercise which would help us know what is really important about this faith of ours.  It might help us understand the core values of our system of belief.