Eat

We are in the middle of a series called “Love Your Neighbor.” We are discovering through this series ways for us to interact with and bless those that are around us. With the point being, that we have been blessed by God in order for us to be a blessing for others.

We are using the word BLESS as an acronym to help us discover five practices that can help us on our mission to be a blessing. We have looked at two so far, “begin with prayer and listening. You can find these two sermons and many others on our You Tube channel.

This week we turn to something that many of us if not all of us love to do, EAT. We will see the importance of eating within scripture and how we bless those around us when we are willing to spend time in fellowship with each other.

Our scripture comes from Matthew 9:9-13. The words will be on the screen.

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ v For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Please pray with me…

Humanity, for the most part, enjoys the chance to get to hang out and get to know those around them. For many of us mealtimes  a time in which we will catch up on what had happened throughout the day.

We also know that eating is not only a social occasion, but it is something that each of us have to do in order for us to stay alive. Many times, mealtimes are a scheduled time to stop and take a break from what we are doing.

My grandfather was a farmer. Lunch and dinner were at set times in order for him to work as hard as he could while also allowing time for rest and conversation. This was also the case during Jesus’ time.

They had scheduled times throughout the day. A time to pray. A time to offer sacrifices. And also, time to eat. But it also mattered who you would choose to eat with. You were able to make a point, or you were able to understand where you stood in order of importance within society on who you chose to or were invited to eat with.

Eating with someone was a statement that you wanted to be associated with them. It would offer affirmation of that person’s value, dignity, and worth to you. A person was united or divided by who they chose to or not to eat with.

(Transition)

Our scripture for today has us focused more on who Jesus ate with than what he ate. Those that were Jewish would have chosen not to eat with a tax collector because tax collectors were Jews working for the Roman Empire. Most Jewish people considered them traitors. Some tax collectors made money by overcharging their own people. They made their wage by the amount they charged over the tax. Some took advantage of this practice.

That is why the Pharisees got so upset at Jesus during our reading. Jesus is walking along, and he sees a tax collector named Matthew at his tax collector’s booth. We have Jesus’ walking up to Matthew and saying two life-changing words to him: “Follow me.”

As far as we know this is the first interaction between Matthew and Jesus. But we can assume Matthew knew about Jesus because he immediately says “yes” He leaves work and starts following Jesus. But Jesus takes things a step further, he chooses to go to this now former tax collector’s house to eat.

Again, who you ate with said something about you and how you valued those that you were choosing to eat with. Who else does Jesus eat with? Even more tax collectors, along with a whole group of people specifically referred to as “sinners.”

Now, it’s worth noting that the term “sinner” in Jesus’ day was a catch-all derogatory term for anybody who wasn’t religious, or who was involved in an illicit lifestyle, like prostitution. We have Jesus, a rabbi, eating with the most despised and looked-down-upon group of people during his day.

(Transition)

This would have been an unforgivable act too the leaders of the religious establishment, this was absolutely shameful! The Pharisees, offended by this scandalous dinner party, try to undermine Jesus behind his back.

They ask his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” What we could miss from this interaction is that what they are really asking is “why are you willing to be the disciples of a Rabbi that eats with those people.”

We live in a society right now that tends to group people into the good group or the bad group depending on a person’s personal beliefs. Which means if you interact with someone in a group that a person disagrees with then let’s admit it, many times you are considered part of the bad group to that individual.

We as followers of Jesus are called to look at all people the same. We are to view all people as those that are loved by God and either have the potential to be or currently are children of God. We are called to love even the people that we may disagree with.

Therefore, you may find yourself in situations where you are speaking with or interacting with someone that your friends believe are “those people.” We are called to choose to not follow human divisions we are to live our lives focused on the love of God and God’s love for all people.

(Transition)

Jesus overhears the question, and I don’t know if this is the case, but it could be that he has a mouth full of food when he responds by saying: “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

Jesus isn’t listening to the will of society. He is eating with those his father was desiring for him to be with at that moment. He didn’t care how it looked. He didn’t care how those that mattered to society felt about it. He went and did what he was called to do.

Jesus was on a mission. A mission that made no sense to the Pharisees. For the Pharisees the first priority was obedience to regulations, but for Jesus it was a mission to people. Jesus knew that sometimes you do what you are asked by God to do--instead of what is expected for you to do.

(Transition)

Our scripture for today was not the only time eating was a part of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding feast. We have a party reaching a point where the host was running out of wine.

This would have been extremely embarrassing for the couple. We have Jesus with some coaxing from his mother end up turning water into wine. It was Jesus’ way of saying that the party must go on.

We twice have Jesus feeding thousands of people at a time with only a little bread and a few fish. Jesus didn’t want the people to go hungry. He turned this little bit of food into enough food to allow there to be leftovers.

(Transition)

We have Jesus just before he is arrested in an upper room with his disciples during the season of Passover. It is there that he announces he is about to be betrayed and arrested by one of them. He also offered the disciples insights into what they would do and needed to do and also included in the meal the words we recited last week by giving them the first communion.

After his resurrection, he shares breakfast on the beach with his disciples. He shared a meal with them and talked to Peter and filled him in on what he would do. These cases do not include the daily time that Jesus would have spent with his disciples during the course of his ministry.

What we see in Jesus’ life is that eating was important to his mission of helping people find their way back to God.  Jesus wasa missional eater. He blessed people by sharing meals with them. Eating was a big deal in Jesus’ culture, and it still is a big deal in our culture today. Many friendships are formed around the table.

Whose voice are you going to listen to? We can focus on how it will look eating with “this person” or “those people.” Or we can be like Jesus and hang out with those that we believe God has asked for me to hang out with. Obviously, choosing to follow the will of God should be the right choice for us to make.

(Transition)

In our first reading we find Peter making a similar choice to what we find in our main scripture. He chooses to be with someone he wasn’t supposed to visit. The reading would have been to long for the whole story so let me give you a quick synopsis.

The part of the story we missed begins with Peter receiving a vision from God that at first glimpse involves food that Peter couldn’t originally eat as a Jewish person that he is now able to eat.

We know from the remainder of the text that food was the example. The vision was to show Peter that he needed to ignore the societal constraints of who he could and couldn’t interact with.

We have God inform him that there were some men waiting for him to lead him to a man named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman soldier who along with his family were following the ways of the Jewish God. We have God speaking to both Cornelius and Peter in order to set up the text from our reading.

(Transition)

In our reading, we have Peter walking into the house and acknowledging that this is a place where he is not supposed to be. You see, a Jewish person was not allowed into the house of a non-Jewish person, even if they were as is the case for Cornelius considered a follower of the Jewish God.

Peter’s actions, just like in the case of Jesus would have been considered something that a good follower of the Jewish faith wouldn’t do, but it is what God has told Peter to do. Just like Jesus he decides to listen to God instead of following societal norms.

Peter next does what we had Jesus do last week, he asks a question. He is showing Cornelious that he wants to have a dialogue with him. He isn’t only going to speak he is also going to listen to Cornelious. In the end Cornelious and his household receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized.

We know that they also would have shared a meal together because we are told that Peter stayed there a few days. I tell this story because we might find ourselves being invited to someone’s house to eat. It might even be someone that society would desire for us to choose to ignore.

(Transition)

When we eat together, we’re doing way more than simply sharing a meal –We are offering ourselves to those around us just as they are also offering themselves to us. Christian author Henri Nouwen writes that…

“When we invite friends for a meal, we do much more than offer them food for their bodies. We offer friendship, fellowship, good conversation, intimacy, and closeness. When we say, 'Help yourself… take some more… don’t be shy… have another glass…' we offer our guests not only our food and drink but also ourselves. A spiritual bond grows, and we become food and drink for one another.”

I want you to think about the people and the places God is calling you to BLESS. Maybe the person that God is calling you to BLESS is a neighbor, a family member, a co-worker or a friend.

We can become what the person needs. We speak of many people feeling lonely. It may be our offering of fellowship with them that they are craving more than anything else. We need tobe open to who God may be guiding us to be with.

Or maybe you feel God is calling you to BLESS a specific place. It could be a nursing home or an apartment complex. A coffee shop or a local school. Or it could be an organization that focuses on the hungry, the marginalized, the hurting.

We need to have the faith to be willing to bless the people and places that God is calling us too. This is true not just individually but also as a church. As we seek more ways to serve those around us let us be open to the ways that God may be opening doors for us.

(Transition)

I also know that this may be something new for you to consider. It may place you out of your comfort zone. This means that we may be open to excuses which will lead to us choosing not to interact in such a personal way with those God places before us.

We may be worried that we won’t know what to say. We have talked about this a number of times before. This excuse is us showing an unwillingness to believe that God is with us. It is us believing that we are on our own.

God will not call us into a situation that he will not be a part of. That does not mean that the conversation will flow easily. What it means is that God will have the time together be as it is supposed to be.

It may be that no words need to be said. It is our presence that is needed. A person may just need someone willing to spend time with them. It may also be that through conversation some questions come up that we are not ready for.

We also talked about this recently. Saying that you “don’t have an answer, but you will try to find one” tells the person that you are human just like they are. It can lead those around us to be willing to even become more vulnerable.

(Transition)

We also may decide that we just don’t have the time in our busy lives to meet with someone. I believe we looked at this excuse during this series. We make time to do those things that matter to us.

If getting to know someone who does not have a relationship with God or a Christian community, we should make it a priority. Being a blessing because we are blessed should be something we make time for.

(Transition)

The BLESS practices we are looking at integrate together to help us develop relationships with those around us. We begin with prayer through asking God to help us discover those that he desires for us to be relationship with.

We spend time getting to know those around us not with a focus on leading them to Jesus but with a focus on being a blessing because we are blessed. One way we do this is by being with them to show that we see them as people who deserve our time and presence.

Jesus showed us what it means to care about those that others do not care about. Jesus spent time with those that as we see in today’s scripture his fellow Rabbis would prefer that he stay away from. Let us be willing to be the blessing that God desires for us to be.

Please pray with me…