James 24:7

Now I'm not saying that Jesus came for no other reason than to make us aware as an end in itself.  I say that because "awareness" is a big topic nowadays.  It's one of those things that we are supposed to be without reference to what it is we are to be "aware" of. 

Let us all grow in "awareness."

Ooo-kay.

As I've read and studied these "Dining with Jesus" stories I have become aware of several things that must become objects of our awareness.

First, we must become aware of the nature of God.   What is God like?  Well, in several of these incidents- like when Jesus ate with tax collectors and 'sinners'- Jesus showed God to be a welcoming God. 

God loves people...all people...but seems to really get a kick out of sinners and outcasts- people who are really messed up.

After worship on Sunday I went home, ate lunch and reclined upon the old couch.  I turned on the tube and watched Miami Ink just about all afternoon. 

Now you may ask yourself: "Jim's into tattoos?"  That's what Miami Ink is about- a tattoo parlor in South Beach Miami.

No.  Can't say I'm into tattoos.  Don't have one.  Don't want one.

Frankly, I never understood the appeal of that show until I sat laid down and watched it for a few hours.   That show is not about tattoos.  That show is about stories...real human stories...many told by people who would not darken the doors of a church...or, better...people to whom many churches are closed.

Stigmatized people.

I've learned some things watching that show.   Most folks who get tattoos (or who are into that) do so because they want to commemorate someone or some event. (Or they want to be reminded of something or some situation) Often those events are tied up with tragic circumstances.

Let's see...On Sunday:

There was this young guy who wanted to get a tattoo portrait of his son who died from SIDS...

There was this young woman who wanted to memorialize her friend who was killed in a car wreck three weeks after her friend's brother was killed in a car wreck

There was this guy, nicknamed "The Beard", who prayed to the guy who holds the record for the world's longest beard.  (He had his portrait tattooed on his back.)

There was this young mother whose baby died shortly after birth...She had the baby's name, Sage,  tattooed on her side.

There was this man with Brittle-Bone Syndrome whose forearms were almost too small for the 3 birds he wanted tattooed on his arm to commemorate his parents and his grandmother who raised him under such adverse circumstances.

Then there are all the stories associated with the "alt" people who run this shop and the other customers who come into the store. 

I gotta tell you...as I watched this show I thought that that kind of place may very well be where you'd find Jesus nowadays.  Hanging out in a tat shop where the strippers and bikers and freaks of all stripes gather.

I even wondered whether Jesus would more likely be in your average church or your average tattoo shop on Sunday.

You can be sure that if he didn't hang out there he sure wouldn't avoid those kinds of places or those kinds of people.

And all God's children would say, "This Jesus hangs out at the tattoo parlor."

I hope this gets you thinking....Because, when you get down to it, that's the Jesus the gospels seem to portray.

Jesus among the broken, beaten and battered.  Jesus among the misfits and outcasts.  

Jesus "welcoming sinners (i.e. regular and irregular and non-regular folks) and eating with them."

See...I kind of wonder if part of our problem is that we don't...see.   I wonder if there are not whole classes of people who are sort of "non-entities" to us.   People with whom we might associate if they would just clean up their act.

Jesus ate with folks...while they were yet sinners.  That included the tax collectors and the self-righteous Pharisees.

He didn't say to Zacchaeus, "When you get your act cleaned up I'll come home with you."

He didn't say to Matthew, "When you quit collecting for Uncle Charlie I'll let you follow me."

He didn't say to that bad girl: "When you quit a-whorin' you can wash my feet."

Nope he welcomed people right where they were.

Now think about it: What if we were more like that.  We would be free of the burden of judgment.  We'd be released from our fears of them.  We could relate to anyone- whether good, bad or indifferent- because they are the beloved of God and not because they measure up to our own self-burdening standards.

We'd be free!

And so would they!  Free to see who God really is and what God is really like and what God really wants for us and for God.

Jesus showed us a different kind of God than we might otherwise have imagined left to our li'l old narrow selves.

Jesus wants us to Wake UP to who God is! 

Here's a cool video about Waking UP.  (Now look I'm telling you now...I'm pointing to the video.  If you scroll down into comments you may be offended and rightly so.  But if you do...don't say you weren't warned!)

I've just completed a summer sermon series called "Dining with Jesus."  During that series we explored those times in scripture when Jesus went home with people and/or sat down and ate with them.

During the series I limited the study to actual "eating meetings", although I did fudge a bit (no pun) when I included the story of Zacchaeus.  The text doesn't say he actually ate with him but that he intended to go home with him. ( I also preached one that involved the criticism made of Jesus that he welcomed sinnners and ate with them. )

Yesterday, I looked back on those sermons and made some observations that I think are relevant to the discussion of the "life well-lived."

This week I will write about some of those observations.

One question that intrigued me throughout this series of sermons is the question of why it was important for the writers of scripture to tell us so many stories about Jesus eating with people.

I suggest that part of the reason may have been in the fact that the whole practice of eating together is a highly patternized, regulated and predictable affair.  (Unless you have 3 children under the age of 8!)

We know how to select our chair, where to sit, when to sit, how to ask for food, how to pass it, which fork to use and when, what to say, and what not to say.   (You can find some pretty interesting things when you "Google" the phrase "Table Manners.")

As far as I know, all cultures see the practice of eating together as a regulated, socially patterned, rule-governed affair.

I like to think that Jesus breached those rule-governed affairs as a way to open some space to teach.  (Whether that's what he was aiming to do or not, that was often what happened when folks sat down to eat with Jesus)

Here's Jesus going home with tax collectors and eating with them.   Here's Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath at the table while dining with Pharisees.  Here's Jesus allowing a woman of ill-repute to wash his feet with her tears while he reclined at the table.  Here's Jesus calling out the scribes and the Pharisees at the table.

In almost every instance Jesus breaks the rules, disrupts the patterns, and creates these wonderful "teachable moments."

Now, this is just me thinking about these matters.  However, it seems to me that what happens whenever our mind-numbing social patterns are broken we become intensely aware.

Perhaps Jesus did the things he did and said the things he said to create these moments of supreme awareness. 

Maybe one thing we can learn from Jesus about the "life well-lived" is that we must become aware. We must wake up. We must see.  We must hear. We must smell. We must feel.

Here's a quick and dirty take on how the great American psychologist William James understood awareness:  James believed that we all go through life on automatic pilot- that we sort of drift along on cruise control, unaware, barely consious, operating on habit, our minds drifting in la-la land.

Then some surprising event happens and we wake up, we become conscious, we become aware.  (Now, that's a quick take on a more complicated theory.)

Remember the days following 9/11?  Remember how conscious we became?  Remember how we suddenly noticed our neighbors and even found ourselves caring about them?  Remember how American we suddenly became?

The day before, if I remember correctly, we yawned as we watched the news about shark attacks on the coast of Florida.  Then on 9/11, the towers fell and we all became "aware."   (I later saw a cartoon: a family is dozing on the couch in front of the TV.  Then the 9/11 event is broadcast and their faces show terror and their hair stands straight up.  Then after 9/11 they sit there with the same terrified looks and their hair standing straight up but napping again.)

When Jesus did or said what he did or said at the table people suddenly became aware.  Perhaps they felt uncomfortable, perhaps they felt offended, perhaps they were elated.

What they were not was asleep!

In the presence of Jesus- this sometimes shocking Jesus- folks became aware.

I would suggest that part of "the life well-lived" is to live in conscious awareness: to look at what you are doing, to see who is crossing your path, to observe the looks in eyes and the down-turned corners of mouths.

Do this: decide that one day this week you are going to be aware.  You are going to see what (or who) is there in front of you.  You are going to notice them.

Ah, make it even simpler.  Go to the supermarket and this time actually look at the cashier.  Make a note of his or her name. Call her by name.   Note what you might surmise by the look in his eye.  See him.  Take her in. 

When you sit down at a restaurant actually look up at the waiter when he says, "Hi, I'm Bob. I'll be your server."  Maybe even speak to him and say, "Hi Bob.  I'm (insert name) and this is my (wife, husband, friend) (insert name).  It is nice to meet you."

These are just little things.  But then maybe the "life well-lived" consists of a million little things.

After all, before Jesus could call Matthew the Tax Collector he had to see him.  Before he could go home with the wee man, Zacchaeus, he had to lift his eyes toward the sycamore tree.  Before he could teach the Pharisees about how to invite people to a party, he had to notice all the wealth and power that grappled for the best seat at the table.

To become whole, to live the "life well-lived" we must become conscious. 

We must become aware.

First, a thought or two about "meaning."  It seems to me that objects or actions are meaningful only when located in some sort of context.  Or, at least I could say it the other way around...context determines meaning.

A lonely rock in my yard may mean something.  However, that same rock thrown through my window by an angry neighbor means something else.

An action- say the action of holding my hands up in the air- will mean different things depending upon whether I'm riding a roller coaster, being held up by a robber, or standing in an elevator.  In the first case I am "embracing the thrill".  In the second, I am doing "as I am told."  In the third, I am "acting nutty."

(Incidentally, humor can be generated by misnaming what seems obvious by an action in a particular context.  I remember once when I was at Six Flags Over Georgia with a friend and he pointed out the folks on the roller coaster and said: "Hey look... Pentecostals are riding the Scream Machine!")

To be meaningful, an action must be seen in the context that gives that action its meaning.  For example, a Christian who forgives is doing something that derives its rich meaning from the story of God as demonstrated and taught in the life of Jesus. 

A gang member who forgives may be seen as weak or even being a traitor.  (I saw a third baseman walk off the field in the middle of a game once because the pitcher would not hit the batter with a pitch in retaliation for a similar action by the opposing pitcher in the previous inning. Apparently, the willingness to retaliate was supposed to be evidence of loyalty or some such.)

As a Christian, I take the example and teaching of Jesus Christ to be fundamental to understanding what ideas and actions are fundamental to living well or to becoming whole as a human being.

I understand Jesus Christ to be the example par excellence of human wholeness.  I accept Jesus- his teaching and his life- as pointing to and exemplifying what a life well-lived looks like.

I am stating that out front for several reasons.

First, I think it is harmful to Christian teaching to simply lift practices out of the context of the Christian story and hold them up as good practices without regard to that larger story.  (e.g. some folks say you should forgive because it's a good thing to do for yourself.  What I'm saying is that it's a good thing to forgive whether it pays off for you or not.  It's good because it points beyond itself to the character and action of God.  Otherwise, forgiveness becomes simply a matter of pragmatic self-protection.)

Second, I want to be open about where I'm coming from in making the claims I am making.   I believe Jesus shows and tells us a way to live that leads to human wholeness.  I believe if you want to know how to be fully human, if you want to know the "life well-lived" then you can do no better than to look to Jesus Christ as example and teacher.

What does a "life well-lived" mean?

I do this to myself: I announce to the world that I am going to write about something.  I sit down to write.  Then, I realize I have no idea what to say!

Well..maybe that's not exactly true.  After all, I already live a certain kind of life and because I live it I must think it is better than other options. 

Perhaps the life I live is not exactly the "life well-lived".  However, it is a closer approximation to what that might mean to alternative lives I might live.

I think my suburban, middle class life is better than the thug life I read about in the papers.  I may not be living the "life well-lived" but at least I'm not dodging bullets or running from the police or always looking over my shoulder to see if a drug lord is on my tail wanting to collect his money.

Maybe the "life well-lived" is like quality.  I know what it ain't.  I know it when I see it  I'm just not sure I know how to describe it.

Part of the challenge of defining anything is related to the times we live in.  If I want to say "this is 'the life well-lived'" there will always be someone who asks, "How do you know?"

Here's a story about baseball umpire Bill Klem. The pitch was thrown, the ball whizzed past the batter and into the catcher's mitt.  Everyone waited for Klem to call the pitch.  The batter turned and asked: "Well, was it a strike or a ball?"   And Klem replied: "It ain't nothin' 'til I call it."

Is a strike or a ball a fact in the world (i.e. does it correspond to some predetermined standard that is seen as "THE TRUTH"?) or is a strike or a ball only because someone says it's a strike or a ball?

What is a "life well-lived"?  Does it correspond to some standard or is just whatever one wants it to be or what some community wants it to be?

All of this may seem like so much prattle.  (Is it prattle because it corresponds to some absolute as to what makes up 'prattle' or is it 'prattle' because you, dear reader, don't care or don't like it or because it is giving you a headache?  See the problem?)

However, isn't it the case that we are constantly shown competing images of what makes up a "life well-lived"?    Isn't that what much of the fight is about?

Is it the lifestyle of the rich and famous?  Is it the hip-hop life?  Is it country or urban living? 

What is the "life well-lived?"