Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I had fun on Sunday!  It was fascinating to see how the text (Luke 5:27-32) fell open with all these parallels and connections to other Gospel accounts of Jesus' ministry.  A mircocosm of Jesus' ministry in 6 verses!

But, of course, in retrospect, I wonder a few things:

* In pushing back against the "holiness" myth (that holiness amounts to avoiding the world and all it's corruptions) I wonder if I sent the pendulum flying to far in the other direction.  So Jesus partied with "tax collectors & sinners" but he never was a participant in their sin.  He "made the beer run" for the wedding at Cana.  But he was probably also the designated driver. Holiness does, indeed, mean "set apart."  But not that we set ourselves apart but rather that, no matter where we are, God has set us apart. Preaching to counter-act a long-held, deep-seated assumption is balancing act.  Thoughts on this, anyone?

* I brought in the example from Chik-fil-a with some trepidation.  My point wasn't to have an opinion on either side but simply to point out the deep division that resulted.  On either side of the dividing line, folks came off pretty self-righteous and smug about their chosen ethic of eating/not eating chicken sandwiches.  And I certainly want us to think that holiness -- as Jesus demonstrated it -- requires more than an opinion about a chicken sandwiches.  Holiness -- as Jesus demonstrated it -- requires coming to the table with respect and love even when there are strongly divergent opinions held there.

* The final wondering whether I struck the right balance is that I never want to end a sermon with an ethical imperative, as though the Kingdom of God will come in all it's fullness if we simply learned how to play nicely with one another. I have far to dour opinion about human nature to think that if we all just tried harder, we'll get it right.  The sermon should always end on the grace of God.  God is active, sometimes through us, but far more often despite us.  God is active and we can choose to join in where God is already at work.  So it was important to me, as a preacher, to move us to the table.  Yes, we ought to share our tables and share our lives with others.  But only ever because Jesus Christ showed us how.  Jesus Christ shared his life, death and resurrection with us.  And it is at Jesus' table that we remember our deep connection with Christ and, through Christ, with one another.  That seems an altogether different motivation for kindness and grace toward one another.  Something that goes much deeper than "being nice."  This is such a remarkable, earth-shattering truth that I always leave Sunday mornings wish I could have done it better justice.  Ah, but then I suppose this preacher needs to practice her own words -- we cannot simply try harder to get it right.  We need to depend on the grace of God.