Pay-What-You-Can Christianity -- FPC sermon excerpt
If you walk into the One World Café in Salt Lake City, you’re going to be surprised by what you see. Or, more specifically, by what you don’t see.
There are no menus, and no set prices.
You price your own meal at the One World Café. You pay what you can afford, or whatever you think is fair. “Most people give what the going rate is,” says the woman who founded the café in 2003. “It’s the honor system.”
Pay-what-you-can restaurants have also appeared in suburban Seattle and New York City. According to Utne magazine (November-December 2007), these eateries mix together unselfishness and the pay-it-forward concept: Patrons who can’t afford much leave only what they can. Those who have abundant resources give a little extra, to cover for the less fortunate.
At the One World Café, everyone has a seat at the table. And this is true at Fairfax Presbyterian Church as well, where everyone is invited to come to the Lord’s Table. There are no menus here, and no set prices. Instead, you give what you can.
I think Jesus would enjoy a restaurant that tosses prices out the window, because he was willing to break with tradition in his own dining habits. In Matthew 11, Jesus criticizes the crowds for their inability to accept what he and John the Baptist are doing. He starts by saying that the generation of people all around him are behaving like children — boys and girls who criticize others for not joining in their games. “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance,” they say; “we wailed, and you did not mourn” (11:17).
Jesus sees that the people of his day expect a certain amount of conformity, with everyone dancing or mourning along with the crowd. But Jesus and John are following God in a different direction, like a restaurant that decides to abandon menus and prices. What Jesus discovers is that people cannot tolerate this lack of conformity, and they criticize both John and Jesus for marching to the beat of a different drummer.
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’,” reports Jesus; while I, the Son of Man, “came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (vv. 18-19). John is demonized because his self-discipline is too strict, while Jesus is rejected because his behavior is not strict enough. The generation of people around Jesus is behaving like Goldilocks, finding everything too hard, too soft, too hot, too cold.
In response to these insults, Jesus says simply that “wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” (v. 19). Divine wisdom is proved right by its results … or, to continue the Goldilocks analogy, you might say that “the proof is in the porridge.” Jesus knows that he and John are doing the will of God, and that wonderful things are happening: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (v. 5). These deeds prove that God’s wisdom is at work in Jesus, despite the criticism of the crowd.
There are no menus, and no set prices.
You price your own meal at the One World Café. You pay what you can afford, or whatever you think is fair. “Most people give what the going rate is,” says the woman who founded the café in 2003. “It’s the honor system.”
Pay-what-you-can restaurants have also appeared in suburban Seattle and New York City. According to Utne magazine (November-December 2007), these eateries mix together unselfishness and the pay-it-forward concept: Patrons who can’t afford much leave only what they can. Those who have abundant resources give a little extra, to cover for the less fortunate.
At the One World Café, everyone has a seat at the table. And this is true at Fairfax Presbyterian Church as well, where everyone is invited to come to the Lord’s Table. There are no menus here, and no set prices. Instead, you give what you can.
I think Jesus would enjoy a restaurant that tosses prices out the window, because he was willing to break with tradition in his own dining habits. In Matthew 11, Jesus criticizes the crowds for their inability to accept what he and John the Baptist are doing. He starts by saying that the generation of people all around him are behaving like children — boys and girls who criticize others for not joining in their games. “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance,” they say; “we wailed, and you did not mourn” (11:17).
Jesus sees that the people of his day expect a certain amount of conformity, with everyone dancing or mourning along with the crowd. But Jesus and John are following God in a different direction, like a restaurant that decides to abandon menus and prices. What Jesus discovers is that people cannot tolerate this lack of conformity, and they criticize both John and Jesus for marching to the beat of a different drummer.
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’,” reports Jesus; while I, the Son of Man, “came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (vv. 18-19). John is demonized because his self-discipline is too strict, while Jesus is rejected because his behavior is not strict enough. The generation of people around Jesus is behaving like Goldilocks, finding everything too hard, too soft, too hot, too cold.
In response to these insults, Jesus says simply that “wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” (v. 19). Divine wisdom is proved right by its results … or, to continue the Goldilocks analogy, you might say that “the proof is in the porridge.” Jesus knows that he and John are doing the will of God, and that wonderful things are happening: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (v. 5). These deeds prove that God’s wisdom is at work in Jesus, despite the criticism of the crowd.
posted by Henry Brinton | 10:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home