Life on God’s Terms, Part 2: Looking Like Jesus

 

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the parable of the wedding feast (Luke 14:7-14) and how, when we come into the banquet hall, we choose to be there on the King’s terms or we don’t belong—even though we’ve received an invitation. If we’re not there in the hall according to the king’s designation and his terms, our invitation means nothing.

 

His Way

The implication is that, to be a part of the Christian life, to say yes to the invitation of our Lord, to come and be a part of this enormous gathering, the very heavenly banquet of our God, is to be invited into a place—no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done or what we’ve come from—where we can be forgiven and included.

And God makes room for us. And there is no designation in the kingdom of God between rich and poor and economically advantaged or disadvantaged, between educated and uneducated. What matters is our loyalty and our willingness to live under his authority and according to his terms, to live life his way, not ours.

Otherwise, we can be very much in the position of expecting or assuming that we are fully included in the household of God, and yet because we’re living life according to our terms rather than his, he may stand before us at the judgment and say, “I never knew you.”

There is Scripture after Scripture to reinforce this point that while the grace of God invites all of us no matter who we have done, and the forgiveness is deep and profound, we are not without obligation to do what we can to live under the terms of the King in this life.

In other words, forgiveness, mercy, is never an excuse for rebellion. It’s instead an answer to rebellion. And that’s a very important distinction. I can come to God all I want and say, “God, I really need your help with this. There is a broken, rebellious part in my life. I may have the wedding garment on, but underneath is still a heart that wants to do what it wants to do.”

And because God is the One before whom all hearts are open, he understands that completely. He is more than willing to meet with us in the crucible of our own even tendencies to inner destruction. There is nothing inside us that is too big for God.

But that’s very different than saying, “I want what I want. I want the church to do what I want to do. I want people to understand what is important to me, and I want them to do what I ask.”

You see, that doesn’t look like Jesus. And God is committed to working within us the nature of Jesus: winsome, strong, humble, full of joy and laughter, deep and profound compassion, a life well-lived. The abundant life that Jesus describes has no place for me wanting to live life on my terms.

 

Not My Way

We live in a culture that says, in fact, you have a right to live life on your terms, and that’s exactly what you should do. Jesus says, “Absolutely not! It is the way of destruction!” What we’re doing as we gather together in the name of Jesus and pour ourselves into the Scripture, and kneel before him in mercy, and receive the undeserved grace of bread and wine, is completely contrary to the very voices that you hear on Good Morning America or from the highest level of government. There, personal accomplishment is exalted in a way that degrades humility.

As believers in Christ, we are part of the family of God, and that makes us very different from the world. We are meant to be—and Paul calls us this—aliens. We are strangers. If we follow the world’s efforts to get control, to make things go the way we want them to, it is noxious. If we do not treat each other in a way that looks like Jesus, we have nothing to offer. Nothing. There’s no blessing from God on a church that continues to exhibit power politics, preferences for the rich, kingpins who sit in the pews and tell other people what to do. It should not be so.

Why? Because it doesn’t look like Jesus. And what Jesus wants is a people who are saying, “Above all else, all else, even my way, we want your way.”

God says, “I want a church that looks like my Son, that reflects his sacrifice, his servanthood, his compassion, his kindness, his great generosity.” And that’s the church God blesses with conversions and miracles and extraordinary stories about how the mercy of God came yet again to another undeserving, disqualified person in the eyes of the world, and yet the Lord says, “You belong to me.” And he uses such humble, Spirit-filled, biblically informed people to mediate that message in a way that changes lives. Anything other than that is, to quote the apostle Paul, “wood, hay and stubble” (1 Cor. 3:12b, KJV).

So I urge you to be not those who look great but don’t have the wedding garment, who still want to live life on their terms, not on the terms of Jesus. May we be men and women who have not only been called, but chosen, to take up the wedding garment—and who will say yes to our Lord and to his service.

 

Does your life look like that of Jesus? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.

 

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on October 15, 2017, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Haines City, Florida.)

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.