A Heart Three Sizes Too Big Psalm 118:13-24 ~ Matthew 9:14-17

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1 A Heart Three Sizes Too Big Psalm 118:13-24 ~ Matthew 9:14-17 Rev. Jeff Chapman ~ December 20, 2009 ~ Faith Presbyterian Church I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:13-24, NRSV) Everybody knows how the old Christmas story goes. We ve heard the words so many times, year after year, we can practically say them in our sleep. Try your best to hear them with fresh ears this morning. Every Who Down in Who-ville Liked Christmas a lot... But the Grinch, Who lived just North of Who-ville, Did NOT! The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small. 1 Everybody knows the Grinch, the iconic grump of Dr. Seuss fame many of us first met as children. Just because you grow up, however, doesn t mean that you still don t come across the Grinch from time to time. He doesn t only live on the pages of children s storybooks, you know. My guess is that you ve actually met him in person a time or two. Maybe he lives in your neighborhood. Maybe he goes to your church. Maybe he s even coming over for Christmas dinner this week. John Ortberg, who is a Presbyterian pastor and author, tells the story of a Grinch he once knew named Hank. Hank was a cranky guy. He did not smile easily, and when he did, the smile often had a cruel edge to it, coming at someone s expense. He had a knack for discovering islands of bad news in oceans of happiness. He would always find a cloud where others saw a silver lining. 1 Theodor Seuss Giesel, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, (New York: Random House, c. 1957).

2 2 Hank rarely affirmed anyone. He operated on the assumption that if you compliment someone, it might lead to a swelled head, so he worked to make sure everyone stayed humble. He was a ministry of cranial downsizing. His native tongue was complaint. He carried judgment and disapproval the way a prisoner carries a ball and chain. Although he went to church his whole life, he was never unshackled. A deacon in our church asked him one day, Hank, are you happy? Hank paused to reflect, then replied with smiling, Yeah. Well, tell your face, the deacon said. But so far as anybody knows, Hank s face never did find out about it. Occasionally, Hank s joylessness produced unintended joy for others. There was a period of time, for instance, when his primary complaints at church centered around the music. It s too loud! Hank protested to the staff, to the deacons, the ushers, and eventually the innocent visitors to the church. We finally had to take Hank aside and explain that complaining to guests was not appropriate and he would have to restrict his laments to a circle of intimate friends. And that was the end of it. So we thought. A few weeks later, a secretary buzzed me on the intercom to say that an agent from OSHA the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was here to see me. I m here to check out a complaint, he said. As I tried to figure out who on the staff would have called OSHA over a church problem, the agent began to talk about decibel levels at airports and rock concerts. Excuse me, I said, are you sure this was someone on the church staff that called? No, he explained. If anyone calls whether or not they work here we re obligated to investigate. Suddenly the light dawned: Hank had called OSHA and said, The music at my church is too loud. And they sent a federal agent to check it out. 2 How is it that a person, particularly a person regularly exposed to the good news of Jesus Christ, how is it that a person like that can become so sour, so cranky, so unpleasant? Truthfully, no one quite knows the reason. It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all, may have been that Hank s heart was two sizes too small. Wherever you look in this world you will always find individuals whose hearts, for whatever reason, seem to be contracting rather than expanding. You ll find them in storybooks. You ll find them in churches. You ll find them in your family. You ll even find them in the Bible. In Jesus day, for instance, many of the religious leaders he encountered were exactly the types of people who would steal Christmas from Who-ville or send OSHA to the church to get the music turned down. If you ve been here the past two Sundays, you ve listened to stories of these small-hearted people attacking Jesus because he dared offer forgiveness and healing to a paralyzed man, and berating him because he had the nerve to welcome a tax collector as one of his followers. This week, these same sorts of Grinches are in a snit because Jesus and his followers don t practice religion the way they re supposed to practice religion. Matthew 9:14 sets the scene: Then the disciples of John came to Jesus, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? A little background here. In Old Testament times, even though fasting was never explicitly commanded in scripture, Jews still would often go without food for spiritual reasons. 3 It was often associated with grieving. 2 John Ortberg, The Life You ve Always Wanted, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, c. 1997), p Often it was to help foster personal humility and dependence upon God.

3 In Jesus day, however, the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders had made fasting into an expected practice. On top of that, when they fasted they made a point of making sure everybody knew about it. They would intentionally dirty their faces and mess up their clothes, in hopes that other people, and even God, would notice and admire their sacrificial devotion. 4 A good Jew, then, was expected by the religious authorities to fast. It was a way one could demonstrate his serious devotion to God. 5 That s why when these people notice that Jesus and his disciples do not fast, they demand to know why. I love what a scholar named Dale Bruner says about these guys. He calls them The Serious Ones. 6 That is so perfect. Because these religious leaders are so serious, so stern, so no-nonsense. Whenever they show up in the Gospel stories, in fact, there isn t even a hint of playfulness, or light-heartedness, or joy in anything they say or do. With them, religion is serious business. God is serious business. This fraternity of Serious Ones, you know, is still alive and well today. Often, in fact, you ll find people like this in churches. You can spot them because they re the sorts of people who are more concerned, for instance, with the way kids dress these days when they come to church than they are happy that kids are even in church in the first place. They re the sorts of people are more concerned about the changes happening around the church then they are happy that those changes make space for others to join the community. You know the type. Incidentally, I don t really come across all that many Serious Ones here at Faith. From time to time some come around, of course. Every church has at least a couple. But the atmosphere here, frankly, isn t all that conducive for that sort of seriousness. It s too positive here, too joyous, too gracious. Ironically, in a community like this one, the pious rantings of the Serious Ones don t get taken all that seriously. Still, there are unfortunately enough of these Serious Ones around in other places these days that the world beyond the church can sometimes get the impression that all followers of Jesus are this way. Some of you remember when Billy Joel sang, I d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun. 7 American novelist, Ellen Glasglow had a similar view. She once wrote about her father, a well-respected Presbyterian elder, who was a man full of decency and rigid with duty, that he was entirely unselfish, and in his long life he never committed a [single] pleasure. 8 Again, how is it that people who are regularly exposed to the joyful good news of Jesus Christ can become so serious so much of the time and, in turn, give the Christian faith such a seriously misinformed reputation? Could it be that the most likely reason of all, is that the hearts of such people are two sizes too small? Whatever the reason, that day when Jesus was confronted again by the Serious Ones so upset that his followers weren t doing religion the right way, this is how he responded: The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. In ancient Jewish culture, a wedding was an extraordinary event. It was a feast that would go on for a full seven days. Think of it like a modern-day vacation you might take with your close family and your best friends where all week long you would enjoy the finest food, the finest drink, and the finest fun, with the finest people. That s what Jesus is talking about here. And his point is simple. Nobody fasts and mourns and goes around with a serious face at an event like that. To do so, actually, would be rude and selfish, an insult to the bride and groom. 3 4 Jesus speaks to this practice in the Sermon on the Mount. See Matthew 6: Did you catch how Jesus accusers, when they question him here, are quick to point out not only that they fast, but that they fast often? 6 Bruner uses this title all through his work, Matthew: A Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, c. 2004). 7 From the song Only the Good Die Young. 8 Cited by Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 2 nd Edition, (Downer s Grove: Intervarsity, c. 2000), p. 95.

4 4 My wedding day was probably the best day of my life. After the ceremony, Esther and I, with the generous help of our parents, threw a fantastic party. And as I look back, it would have been insulting if one of our guests would have skipped the buffet table and moped around the whole evening. An old boyfriend of Esther s who had realized he d now missed his chance, I could see him doing that, but everybody else had no excuse sit out the celebration. Understand, Jesus acknowledges here that there is a time for seriousness. Those immortal words from Ecclesiastes remind us, There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. 9 There are times when it is appropriate to refrain from feasting and celebrating. For instance, when somebody dies, particularly when the death comes as a shock, have you noticed what it is people stop doing? When you try to support somebody who has just gone through a tragic loss, what is the one thing you always find yourself trying to get that person to do? You re trying to get them to eat, right? People, at those times, just don t feel hungry. Yes, there are times even eating seems out of place. Grief is one of those times. So understand, Jesus is not saying here that mourning, or sadness, or seriousness have no place in life. Of course they do. Even Jesus was serious and sad on occasion. Instead, what Jesus is saying is that when the bridegroom shows up to the wedding fest, that time should be characterized by joy. He s saying to these perpetually Serious Ones, Listen, my disciples have me with them during these days. And so this is the time to celebrate and rejoice. There will come a time when I will be taken away. Then it will be appropriate for them to fast and mourn. But now is not the time. Listen to me; this message is for us. If you and I are walking through life with Christ, our lives, in the same way, should not be primarily characterized by seriousness. Our lives, instead, should primarily be characterized by joy. It s not that our faith is a light and trivial thing. Not at all. That s not what Jesus is saying. The call to be a disciple of Christ demands everything from us. It is a difficult road, a strenuous journey. But the road, again, is to be marked mostly by joy. And do you want to know why? Because Jesus walks it with us. The bridegroom is with us. And he will always be with us. By his Spirit, Christ is with us even now. And because of that, we live, we should live, as free and forgiven people. God s mercy, by the grace of Christ, is ours. God s kingdom, by the grace of Christ, is ours. God s future, God s promises, by the grace of Christ, are ours. If we have trusted and received Christ, if we have placed our lives in his hands, then there is nothing not a thing - we have to fear. If I run out of money, for instance, things will ultimately end well. If I get sick or hurt, things will ultimately end well. If I lose my job, things will ultimately end well. If temptation gets the best of me again, things will ultimately end well. If the painful memories of the past haunt me, things will ultimately end well. If failure seems to be the theme of my life, things will ultimately end well. If people I love are taken from me, things will ultimately end well. If and when death comes uninvited, things will ultimately end well. Once we are in Christ, we can be assured that no matter what happens, things will ultimately end well. Brothers and sisters, this is why we can and should live lives which are characterized primarily by joy. Even in times of seriousness and sadness, in fact, joy can be present. Pain and sorrow will of course still come, but they can never drive out the joy of the One who has given us hope. Now, this message this morning, even though I haven t yet said a thing about angels, shepherds or wise men, is really a Christmas message. Because it was at Christmas that God came into our world to make this sort of joy possible. It was at Christmas that we first saw that God s plan was to come down and be with us, to come down and become one of us! And not to condemn us, but to save us. Not to send us away, but to bring us home. 9 Ecclesiastes 3:1,4.

5 5 Because of what God has done for us in Christ, both at Christmas and at Calvary, the practices of our faith, whether they be worship, or giving, or fasting, or whatever, they no longer constitute a religion weighed down by burdensome tasks we must do to earn the favor of God. Instead, they constitute a faith overflowing with joyful responses to a God whose favor already belongs to us! This is very, very good news. Because religion, you see, leaves us with serious hearts which are too cramped and too closed. But faith leaves us with joyous hearts which are always free and ever expanding. As one writer put it, Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. 10 That s why this church is a community of joy. And when people come into this community for the first time, like some of you have this morning, joy is often the first thing that they see. When we gather for worship, for instance, the consistent tone of our worship is joy. The message is one of hope. The prayers are full of gratitude and praise. When we sing, we sing with delight! (Although some of you, to be honest, when you sing you need to let you face know that your heart is full of joy! Know what I m saying?) When we throw a party in this community, we throw a great party. Many of you here know how to have a feast. Good food. Good people. Good times. And when we are together, I notice, there is always plenty of laughter. Even at funerals, even when we mourn, joyous laughter is often present. Of course, there are plenty of times when seriousness and sadness are appropriate here among us. But even then, because Christ is with us and unites us, joy is still present. My prayer is that the joy of this community, and other communities like it, will be a light in our world around us. Because, frankly, we live in a joyless world. Even at Christmas, when smiles are pasted on people like wrapping paper, there is too often not much joy beneath the surface. People want joy, of course. They re looking for it, sometimes desperately. But too often in the wrong places. Lots of the time, in fact, people try to get joy through entertainment. Writer Eugene Peterson points out, We pay [people] to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another s imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. 11 If he s right then the problem is that though entertainment, like a drug, can distract and numb for a time, it eventually wears off. In a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most, it all evaporates. This is the tragic reality of so many people we know. What seems, for a time to be joy, is really just a temporary and artificial high. Understand that we possess, by the grace of God, that which the world longs for. And my prayer is that as we choose, each day, to remember that Jesus, the bridegroom, walks with us, that the kingdom of God is in our midst, that the promises of God are, even now, being realized as we remember these things my prayer is that the joy evident on our faces, and in our words, and through our lives, would be used by God to help others see that God has the same in store for them as well. This is, by the way, something we can choose, a way of life we can opt for. Remember the words of the Psalmist which began this message. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice [let us choose to rejoice] and be glad in it. He does not say, Yesterday was God s day how happy I was then. He does not say, Tomorrow will be the great day I ll just hang on until then. He says, This is the day. Let us rejoice now. Let us be glad in it now. 12 Because of Christ, joy is our daily choice. For the sake of the people around us, who have mistakenly taken the message of the Serious Ones for the message of God, let us choose joy that they might see the true message of God. 10 Peterson, p Peterson, p I m borrowing here from Ortberg, p. 68.

6 6 In his final comments to the Serious Ones, Jesus ends with these curious words. No one sews a piece of un-shrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. His point was this. A new patch doesn t work well on an old shirt. For when the shirt gets wet, the new patch will shrink and tear the shirt again. In the same way, old wineskins are not particularly good for holding new wine. For, as some of you know, new wine still needs to ferment. And when it does, it will expand. Old wineskins, however, are done expanding. They are, you might say, permanently two sizes too small for new wine. New wine, therefore, always needs to go into new wineskins, wineskins which are ready to be stretched by that which is within. Do you follow me? Jesus is teaching us here that the Gospel does not fit very well into hearts which have been made rigid by religion. In other words, if your life has been hardened by the idea that the favor of God is only earned by your piousness, your righteousness, your ability to please God, then the grace and freedom which Christ came to bring you will, in the end, never fit inside the boundaries of your stiff heart. The true message of Christ, then, can only be received and embraced by those who have hearts which are ready to be expanded and changed, by those whose hearts are ready to receive rather than earn. And those sorts of hearts, when they are full of Christ, full of joy, have marvelous power to transform the hard-hearted world around them. It was quarter past dawn... All the Whos, still a-bed All the Whos, still a-snooze When the Grinch packed up his sled, Packed it up with their presents! The ribbons! The wrappings! The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings! The trappings! Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mount Crumpit, He rode to the tiptop to dump it! "Pooh-pooh to the Whos!" he was grinch-ish-ly humming. "They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming! "They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do! "Their mouths will hang open a minute or two "Then all the Whos down in Who-ville will all cry BOO-HOO!" "That's a noise," grinned the Grinch, "That I simply must hear!" So he paused. And the Grinch put a hand to his ear. And he did hear a sound rising over the snow. It started in low. Then it started to grow... But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry! It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY! He stared down at Who-ville! The Grinch popped his eyes! Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!

7 Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small, Was singing! Without any presents at all! He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same! 7 And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! "It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" And what happened then...? Well...in Who-ville they say That the Grinch's small heart Grew three sizes that day! And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight, He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast! And he......he HIMSELF...! The Grinch carved the roast beast! In Christ, may our hearts grow three sizes this Christmas. And may the world full of Grinches around us watch in wonder and turn their hearts, as well, towards Christ. For this is the Day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen. The Next Step A resource for Life Groups and/or personal application ~ Read Matthew 9:14-17 again. What strikes you from this story? Why do you think the Serious Ones who accuse Jesus here are so uptight? What do you make of Jesus response? ~ Are you ever one of the Serious Ones? Is there ever a little bit of Grinch inside you? Would you know it if there was? ~ Writer John Ortberg says, Joylessness may be the sin most readily tolerated by the church. What do you think he means by that? Do you agree? How can the church encourage, rather than discourage, joyfulness? ~ Who is a person you know personally whose life is primarily characterized by joy? Not happiness necessarily, but joy. What have you learned by watching this person? ~ Theologian G.K. Chesterton s writings are filled with the centrality of joy. Consider this memorable passage: Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, Do it again ; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, Do it again to the sun; and every evening, Do it

8 again to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. What strikes you here? What do children teach us about God s joy? 8 ~ Challenge Question: Can you say, and say honestly, with the psalmist today, This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it? Why or why not? ~ Bonus Life Group Scripture: Read Nehemiah 8:9-12. What strikes you here about God s joy? What is one place in God s creation which gives you a profound sense that God is a joyful God and the happiest of all beings in the universe? Further Scripture Readings for the Week: Monday: Psalm 118 Let us rejoice! Tuesday: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 Time for everything Wednesday: Colossians 2:16-23 Freedom in Christ Thursday: Philippians 4:4-9 Rejoice always! Friday: Psalm 126 We laugh! We sing! Saturday: In preparation for tomorrow s message, read through Matthew 9:18-34.