Come and Join The Party, Every Day!
“The wrath of God
is his relentless compassion, pursuing us even when we are at our worst. Lord,
give us mercy to bear your mercy.”[i]
- Maggie Ross
We think we know some things about God because…well because people
have told us things like, “The God of the Old Testament is a wrathful avenging
God, while the God of the New Testament is a God of Love.” We accept such
facile descriptions until suddenly, one might say “by the Grace of God,” we
hear or read something that completely changes our experience of the divine in
our lives. These words by Maggie Ross, which, thank God, I read in 1983 just as
I was about to leave seminary for a life in the church. Maggie Ross changed my
understanding of the God of the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments.
Take the little scene from Genesis 32:7-14. No sooner
had YHWH rescued these people from a life of slavery in the Empire of Pharaoh,
and provided daily bread and quails, and water spouting from rocks, when, the
moment Moses ascends the mountain to get the rules of a relationship with God
and with our neighbors, they form a golden calf, an idol, and begin to worship
it. God is not pleased and suggests that he and Moses just leave them in the
wilderness and go find some new people. Moses, who until now claims not to be
much of a public speaker, suddenly becomes the world’s first defense attorney
and argues that 1) this will not look good on your resume, and 2) any people
you try to find to replace these folks will not sign up to be the next crowd
you decide to abandon at the first sign of trouble. Sure enough, it is as Jonah
proclaims in Nineveh, “I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow
to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.”[ii]
Our God, the God of the Bible, does not give up on us, which makes one wonder,
why do we do often give up on our God?
Then Jesus spending time with a crowd of tax collectors and
sinners, is criticized by some of his religious and cultural opponents: Pharisees
and scribes who claim to know more about God than Einstein knows about
relativity. Hear them sneer as they say, “This man welcomes ssssssssinnersssss
and eats with them!” Evidently, they are not so familiar with Genesis, Jonah
and every where else in the scriptures that their God is described as gracious
and merciful and abounding in steadfast love. Overhearing their concerns, Jesus
tells them three stories, two of which are about a shepherd and a woman who
have lost one sheep and one coin respectively in Luke 15:1-10.
Neither the shepherd nor the woman has a moment’s hesitation
as they abandon all other responsibilities to find the one sheep and the one
coin. After which they both throw a party. Not just a party, but an extravagant
and joyous party the likes of which has never been seen on earth or in heaven!
And it is safe to say that the party costs far more than whatever a single
sheep or coin was worth.
This, says Jesus, is what our God is like. Try to imagine
how his critics must have heard this. God is like a shepherd? Shepherds were
considered so unreliable and outside the boundaries of civil life that they
were not allowed to testify in legal proceedings. While women were barely
treated as second-class citizens – in fact not citizens at all. You had to be
male and a land-owner to be a citizen. We can assume the critic’s minds were
blown, all their assumptions swept aside like the woman sweeping every corner
of her house with her broom! How dare he suggest our God is like a shepherd or
a woman! People still have trouble with this to this day, despite every
Christmas accepting that the very first people in Luke’s story of Jesus are the
shepherds proclaiming the birth of the Christ Child! And so many other stories
in which God is depicted “like a nursing mother caring for her children,”[iii]
and like a mother hen gathering her chicks.[iv]
It’s like Maggie Ross says, God’s relentless compassion pursues us even when we
are at our worst! And when God finds us, God and the angels throw a party.
Which my late friend and mentor, Gordon Cosby describes like this:
When we hear the invitation to claim our membership in
God’s family, it’s like we’ve stumbled onto a Grace Party. We can hardly
believe our good fortune. The sights and sounds of it are pure delight.
Abundance characterizes the whole shindig. The most delectable manna is falling
everywhere, and wine overflows as though from an Artesian well. Everyone is
eating and drinking endlessly, yet not being harmed because this food and wine
are not of the world but of New Life.
And get this: Everyone’s invited! That’s the really good
news. No one has to crash this party, there’s no limit to how many of my
friends I can bring along with me. Or, my enemies for that matter. It’s such a
blast that I want everyone to come – those with wealth or not a penny to their
name; those who are down and out or who thought they had some power. I do
notice, though, that the so-called nobodies seem to be having the most fun. It
takes others awhile to lay down everything they brought with them and start to
play.
What are people doing at this party? That’s the funny
thing – We’re not ‘doing’ much at all. We’re just being. We’re being our real selves,
relaxed and eager to help out with whatever the host asks of us. Love is
flowing all over the place. Whatever you need, we’re ready:
Do you want someone to listen? We’ll hear whatever you
need to say.
Are you bleeding from wounds of the past? We’ll soothe
and bandage your wounds.
Do you need to be held for a while, just being quiet in a
safe place? Not a problem. We have all the time in the world.
Looking for respect, even reverence? You’ll get such a
dose of it you’ll wonder if you can take it all in.
In fact, there’s so much peace and joy at this party that
it can be hard to absorb. Some of us just aren’t able to let in this much
unimpeded Love and Goodness. That’s right. The host isn’t pushy. We can come
and go as many times as we need to until we can handle this much joy.
This is simply the nature of a Grace Party. None of us is
here because we deserve to be. We haven’t earned any of it. And although some
of us might keep turning down the invitation, the host will never stop
inviting. And neither will we who have decided to stay. We’ll be spreading the
news of this unbelievable Feast everywhere we go. Come to the party! It won’t
be the same if you’re not there.[v]
These three little episodes with Moses and Jesus are meant
to radically change forever how we understand our relationship with God and
others – all others. And Jesus says repeatedly, the time is now! Right now!
Come! Come and join the party, every day! It won’t be the same without you!
Amen.
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