Taste and See
I’m going to begin this evening with two short stories… There was a new Priest at a Parish who was very nervous before preaching his first sermon – and as he got up he could hardly speak. Before his second appearance in the pulpit he asked the senior Priest how he could relax, and the Priest said, ‘Well next Sunday it may help if you put a bit of vodka in your water glass and had some of that to settle you – after a few sips you should be fine.’
The next Sunday the new Priest followed the advice and felt really good, in fact so good he seemed on a real high – however upon returning to his house he found a note from the Senior Priest, which said,
‘Dear Father,
1) Next time sip the vodka rather than gulp
2) There are 10 commandments not 12
3) There are 12 disciples not 10
4) We do not refer to the cross as the ‘Big T’
5) The recommended grace before meals is not ‘Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub – yeah God !’
The second story is also in the form of a letter this time written by a girl in her first year in University to her parents :-
“Dear Mum and Dad,
Since I left for college I have been remiss in writing and I am sorry for my thoughtlessness. I’ll bring you up to date now, but before I do, please sit down. I am getting along pretty well here now – the skull fracture and the concussion I suffered when I jumped out of my dormitory window when it caught fire shortly after my arrival here have just about healed now.
Fortunately the fire in my dorm was spotted by an attendant at the petrol station. He ran over, took me to the hospital and continued to visit me there. When I got out of hospital I had nowhere to live because of my burnt out room so he was kind enough to invite me to share his basement bedroom with him – it’s small but we manage.
He is a very nice man and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven’t set the exact date yet but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show. Yes, mum and dad, I am pregnant ! I know how much you are looking forward to being grand parents and know that you will care for the baby in the same wonderful way you cared for me.
The reason for the delay in the marriage is the fact that his divorce from his previous wife hasn’t come through yet, and there is also it seems, a problem with his divorce from his wife before that, but these things should be sorted out very soon.
In conclusion, now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you that there was no dormitory fire, no concussion or skull fracture, no hospital, no pregnancy and not even a boyfriend…. However I am failing history and may well fail my first year, and I wanted you to get things in proper perspective !”
The two readings this evening were very much I think about perspective – firstly we heard from Paul’s letter to the Romans (8:18-25) as he wrote about the sufferings he faced whilst recognising that these were nothing compared to the glory that was going to be revealed to him in the future – a glory that he had seen in part, but was awaiting with hope and expectation.
And in the gospel reading (John 12:1-8) we have the account of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus – and immediately she is criticised by Judas for wasting such an expensive ointment when it could have been sold. Whatever reasons Judas may have had for saying this don’t really matter for this subject because it still highlights a fact that from time to time all of us lose perspective on what is really important in our lives.
The Cardiff Blues losing a rugby match may be hugely disappointing but in the overall scheme of things it has little effect on my life – even doing something slightly unusual or making a mistake in a Church service will make no difference to anybody in the long run.
We tend to get stuck at times on the trivial things and fail to see the bigger picture. So what is that bigger picture – well it is a picture of hope and vision and awe – because we have a God who inspires those things if we trust him. Psalm 34 (8) tells us to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good…’
But how often do we taste, how often do we really look to God to seek his will, to feel his comforting touch, to just sit in his loving presence… Instead we so often get distracted by these trivial things – but it is only by doing these things that we will keep a proper perspective on what really is important because if we do these things we will be filled with hope.
And that can be the only thing that can also take us through difficult times in our lives – the hope of something better, and that hope must be Jesus…
It may be simplistic, it may be naïve, but I don’t think so – 2000 years ago the lives of a small number of people were so transformed that they began to build a huge Church that goes on today, and will go on, not just in buildings or house or communities, but in heaven, as the family of God are gathered together to celebrate and worship the everlasting God who was won an everlasting victory over death.
A farmer lived on the same farm all his life. It was a good farm but as time went on he began to get a bit bored of it and he longed for a change and for something better. Every day he found a new reason to criticise something on the farm. Finally he decided to sell and contacted an estate agent who promptly prepared the advert for the sale.
As you might expect it emphasised all of the good points – ideal location, modern equipment, healthy stock, acres of fertile ground etc.. Before placing the advert the agent called the farmer and read this to him for approval.
When he’d finished the farmer said, ‘Hold everything – cancel the sale. I’ve been looking for a farm like that all my life…’
Let’s not miss out on the wonders and the joys God has prepared for us all by losing sight of what is really important in our lives – ‘Taste and see the Lord is good…’ AMEN
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