Give Thanks for Everything

I’ve been cooking for a long time.  It isn’t a new thing for me.  What is “new” is cooking a meal for just me!  I’m not a big “left-overs” enthusiast so it has been difficult to cook for just “one,” and avoid eating the same meal for the next three days.  I found a solution to this problem when searching through the cupboards last year.  I found the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine.  My mother-in-law gave it to us years ago, but it never got much use.

The George Foreman grill is a portable electrically heated grill promoted by two-time world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman.  Introduced in 1994, over 100 million grills have been sold nationwide.  Foreman didn’t invent the machine—he simply endorsed it.  According to some, Foreman was being paid 40 percent of the profits on each grill sold, earning him $4.5 million a month.  His estimated income from the endorsement has totaled over $200 million.  Not bad!

After finding the Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine my dilemma about cooking just for me has been resolved.  A kabob, a pork chop, a few shrimp, a piece of chicken, a steak, a hamburger, a cheese sandwich, vegetables (like asparagus),  a hotdog, etc. “for one” are easily done on the grill.  Cleaning the grill is easy because of its non-stick surface.  It takes just minutes to grill almost anything.  No leftovers. No pots and pans to wash and dry.  The Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine has been a great boon in cooking just for me.  And…if a guest shows up, I can cook enough for two!

The Apostle Paul admonishes us to “give thanks for everything.”  I’m thankful this morning for the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine!

Shun No One!

 “Shunning can the act of social rejection, or emotional distance.  In a religious context, shunning is a formal decision by a denomination or a congregation to cease interaction with an individual or a group…”. (Wikipedia)

Jesus shunned no one as best I can tell from the Gospels.  William Stringfellow discovered this same thing. “He shunned no one,” Stringfellow wrote, “not even adulterers, not even tax collectors, not even neurotics and psychotics, not even those tempted to suicide, not even alcoholics, not even poor people, not even beggars, not even lepers, not even those who ridiculed Him, not even those who betrayed Him, not even His own enemies.”  Jesus shunned no one.  

The Bible, when really heard, speaks of this world in which you and I live—not some make-believe world, not some “not yet existent” world, not some imaginary world.  The Bible speaks of this world, the world we know and the world we live in, with all its goodness and beauty, with all its ugliness and filth, with all its confusion.  And—if heard—the Bible tells us, that it is in this world (and its history) where God is present and evident.  It is this world into which God comes, this world for which God cares, this world where God is with us, this world where God resides. It is into this world that Jesus came.  It is this world where Jesus has already lived our life, already died our death, and has already risen from our death.  God is here and may be known in the bedlam, in the ugliness, in the greed, in the goodness of this world where you and I live.  

God was in the world and the world knew Him not.  Jesus, however, knew God to be in our midst and helped us see what he saw and experienced.  What is God like?  The best I know is that God is like Jesus.  God shuns no one—not in the 1st century and not in the 21st century.  God does not shun Democrats or Republicans, not Trump, Obama, or Putin, not even Hillary, not even immigrants, not even homosexuals or drug addicts, not even you and me.  God  does not shun those who betray God or those who are enemies of God.  God  is like Jesus, and shuns no one.

Jesus did not try to disguise anything about this world as it is.  He knew there was darkness and light, evil and good, and said so.  He knew there was war, suffering, peace, disease, security, pain, health, lust, hate, arrogance, forgiveness and love, and said so.  His followers know this too—for they are given the gift of Jesus:  the gift  to discern God’s presence in the world, to live in the grace of the Resurrection and to know the secret of life, which is all bound up in that unequivocal assurance that we are loved by One who loves all others.  This enables me to love myself, frees me to love another, any other, and every other.   Hard as it is to do—we who claim to be followers of Jesus are not to shun anyone!