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The Determined Chef

  • The disgusted Thanksgiving Table
    • When I started this week, the first thing that came to mind was my mom.
      • She was a planner
      • She loved to cook
    • Question: who prepares thanksgiving in your home?
      • What’s your favorite?
      • How long did it take?
    • The preparation for thanksgiving was intense, and it was more than just food
    • You’ve labored and created the best meal you can. Here comes the first bite of the family.
      • Spit it out!
      • Others are aghast
      • You’re trying to figure out what went wrong – but you did nothing wrong. You taste it and it’s good, you know it’s good. Somehow, they just can’t taste such a good meal.
      • They’re up and leaving – looking right at you.
    • The best meal by the determined chef tossed aside. You put yourself into those foods and people – your people – have left it to rot.
    • What would you want to do in that moment?
      • Invite your family to never return – so ungrateful!
      • Quit cooking? Give up? Walk away from the table, too?
      • Anything like that is completely reasonable.
  • John 6:56-71
    • I wonder if that’s how Jesus felt at the end of this discourse
      • Just presented the best of the best to a group of people – his people that he loved deeply – they were literally fed and then told that there was something more.
      • Over and over again, he’s met with the same grumblings – too hard, too much, what do we do with all of this?
    • Jesus then says “this was just the appetizer” – here, Jesus reveals who he truly is – God come to earth.
      • How do you even begin to digest that? Even today? God came to us here in Jesus Christ. God came down to be with us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
      • But that’s the main course! God showed up. God called us back. God continued to redeem.
      • They tossed their napkins on the table, got up and left.
    • But Jesus still persisted. This is what’s so miraculous even still – that in spite if we walk away, God is still faithful to us.
  • Joshua 24
    • Our OT reading is familiar to us
      • “Choose who you will serve” is a great poster passage – we have a plaque upstairs that says this exact verse.
      • It’s one that helps us feel agency – I get to choose or not to serve.
    • But God had already chosen us.
      • God chose God’s people
      • God had led them to the promised land, had been with them through battle, even through their own failings.
    • Joshua then is asking the people to acknowledge the truth in front of them – that it was no one else but God that had been with them.
    • That might not make the most exciting posted, but it is the reality that God has been choosing us, been faithful to us, and has shown us grace.
    • The people respond valiantly – yes! We will serve God! We’re witnessing the best moment we’ve ever known – the promised land for us.
  • Back to John 6
    • These are still people who God has been faithful to – good people. Leaders in the church. People who were willing to take time from their lives to listen to the itinerant rabbi that was the son of a carpenter.
      • But some of them didn’t choose Jesus this time.
      • Maybe the taste was too much for them, too.
      • Good people can walk away from the best.
    • But Jesus Christ still chose us.
      • Still healed us
      • Still fed us
      • And did it over and over again through death and resurrection.
      • 6:69-71: Jesus still chose us when Judas would betray him.
      • Jesus still chooses to be with us today.
  • God is still faithful to us today.
    • There is nothing we can do to run from God’s faithfulness, God’s grace, God’s mercy.
    • There’s nothing we can do we can do that will stop Jesus Christ from still telling us about the eternal life.
    • There’s nothing we can do that will stop Jesus Christ from offering himself as the living bread for us to feast on – to live completely differently.
    • The best feast will always be set.
      • Maybe we are like the disciples who don’t want to go anywhere.
      • Maybe we are like the people in Joshua who in the eyes of victory recognize who is faithful to us.
      • Maybe we’re someone who has walked away.
    • The table here – where we’ll gather next week – is a reminder of that. No matter who you are, where you’ve wandered, you’re able to come home again. Able to be fed.