Skip to main content

Celebrate Forgiveness

I know that I just recently posted about Mary pouring perfume on the feet of Jesus. You can find it in Mark 14.

I want you to think about this story again. Even if you have heard the story before. But imagine, for a moment, in modern day settings, that you are invited to an upscale dinner party. It’s the kind where no one would dream of using a spork. There’s 3 forks, 2 spoons, a knife and some of those after-dinner mints that nobody eats unless you are at one of these parties.

You’ve had the formal invite on your fridge for weeks. You meticulously plan out what you will wear. You take extra time to iron your clothes and wear the special perfume or cologne. Maybe you even Googled dinner party manners, just to be sure.

You arrive and everyone is decked out. Waiters are in tuxes and everyone is being careful not to snort when a joke is told. And the guest of honor? Everyone is watching him, even when they are part of another conversation. You can see the host making sure all the details are perfect.

That’s when it happens. You stare in shock as a prostitute, dressed quite like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman before she gets to go shopping, enters the room. Despite not wanting to draw attention to herself, her thigh high boots echo across the floor with every step. Her attire makes it difficult to move, but all of the sudden you see her at the feet of the guest of honor. She’s weeping openly and crying thank you, over and over again.

You look around and all the other guests are just sitting there, shocked, not knowing what to do. So they just sit there, thinking, ‘Well, this is awkward’. 

The irony here is that the guest of honor has not done any more for this prostitute than he did for you. We don’t celebrate forgiveness the way we should. Our church settings are much like a formal dinner, where we intend to thank the guest of honor with a dignified thank you, spoken while looking into his eyes. Perhaps we will attempt to make a sizable donation to his cause. 

When we are willing to become a bigger fool than ever before, when we decide the stares and the whispers don't matter, when we come to the conclusion that the Giver must be thanked properly, that is when we are celebrating forgiveness the way it should be celebrated.

Are you celebrating properly?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...
5 comments
Read more

But I Wanted It

As I've said before , I'm looking for a new place to do youth ministry. Job searching in itself can be a full time task. Unfortunately, no one is paying me to look for a job. And when you haven't had to find a job in 15 years, the whole experience can feel brand new. And nerve-wracking. And quiet. So very, very quiet. I may spend a few hours here and there sending out my resumes and writing cover letters. But the churches I'm sending my information to have their own timeline. And sometimes that timeline does not involve acknowledging my presence. Which is fine, especially if one of the churches I've applied to is reading this right now. I understand those looking for youth pastors will have their own agenda and their own timeline. But it leaves me sitting here with a deafening quiet around me. I am choosing to walk by faith through these days, picturing God working behind the scenes (always behind the scenes) and holding His voice very still, until He is re...
2 comments
Read more