“Taste and See that the Lord is Good” – What Do You Taste? (Advent Part III)

Sermon Title: “Taste and See that the Lord is Good”

Good News Statement: God flavors our life with Christ

Preached: Sunday, December 17, 2023 at Dogwood Prairie UMC & Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSVUE): Psalm 34:8 Today’s Advent Scripture reading comes from King David, the author of several psalms. In Psalm 34, David invites all to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” The taste that David is talking about is more than tasting the flavors of food; it is about accepting the invite of the Lord to dine with him at the table. Taste is an invite, a relationship, a means to living life. Today we are reading from the Book of Psalm Chapter Thirty-Four, Verse Eight. May the hearing and understanding of the Word of God bring you hope and peace.

 

⁴ I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
⁵ Look to him, and be radiant,
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
⁶ This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord
and was saved from every trouble.
⁷ The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
⁸ O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
⁹ O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.
¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

 

Introduction:

Advent is a season of anticipation: a season of preparing our heart, mind, body, and soul as we await for the arrival of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word made flesh, who will be found lying in a manger in Bethlehem. But before we make it to Bethlehem, to witness what the angels tell the Shepherds as they were guarding their sheep at night, “This is a sign for you,” we must build up our anticipation by experiencing the season through our senses. We must experience the Advent Season through what we see, what we hear, what we taste, and what we feel. Have you ever wondered what the Christmas season would be like if you couldn’t see it, hear it, taste it, or feel it?

Together during the Advent Season, we are going to experience Christmas through our senses with the hope that through our senses we will receive a deeper meaning of what Advent, and Christmas, are all about. With the help of Matt Rawle, the lead Pastor at Asbury United Methodist Church in Louisiana, and the author of Experiencing Christmas: Christ in the Sights and Sounds of Advent, we will adventure, together, through the Season of Advent anticipating and expecting the arrival of Jesus Christ . Instead of just reading about the birth narrative of Jesus, we are going to live it out and be participants in the narrative of Jesus because we found the true meaning of Christmas this year.

Last week, I shared with you a quote from Author and Pastor Matt Rawle regarding the sounds of Christmas. Rawle stated in his book, “It seems impossible to imagine Christmas without music, [without sounds].” Following Rawle’s quote, I asked you all this question, “What do I hear?” During the Christmas season, we hear Christmas songs on the radio, attend Christmas concerts, are intrigued by the sounds of Christmas commercials, recite–aloud–famous lines from Christmas movies, and we hear so much more. Needless to say, how do these sounds prepare us for the new song that is to be sung when Jesus is born?

The Prophet Isaiah foretold of the coming Messiah, and he did so by composing a song. In Isaiah 42:1-4 we here of a Messiah that is here to serve, to be a gentle presence in our life, to offer grace and trust, to be our source of strength when we are weak and heavy laden, and one who will not cry out or become broken or crushed. Isaiah writes about a coming Messiah that will be for all people and by which will fill our hearts with a new song. “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth!” (Isaiah 42:10). The prophet Isaiah is reminding us that the coming Messiah is our new song: our new source of hope, peace, joy, and love; and is our new beginning. But are we listening to that song?

There are many sounds during the Christmas season—sounds that distract us and sounds that remind us of Christ. This is why God is asking you, “What sounds are you listening to: your own or the sounds of God’s new song in your heart?” What sounds remind you that Christ is in Christmas? What sounds of Christmas bring joy and renewal to the church? What sounds of Christmas urge you to “sing to the Lord a new song?” Advent offers us the opportunity to open our ears to the sounds of God—to hear what God needs us to hear, to hear the cries of the lonely, the less fortunate, the lost, and the voices of those near and dear to our heart, and to hear salvation lying in a manger scene. But we must be willing to listen to this new song. Are you listening for the coming Messiah? What do you hear?

Today, we continue our adventure of experiencing Christmas through our senses by asking ourselves “Do you taste what I taste?” The sights and sounds of the season are everywhere, but taste and its related sense, smell, are underrated. The Christmas story offers us a vivid picture of shepherds and angels, dreams and visions, but doesn’t really tell us anything about the sense of taste. According to Matt Rawle, “Our sense of taste is unique…Taste can offer a sense of wonder or comfort of home. Taste is a gift.”[1]

When we taste the word of God, we are given a gift. We are to remember and be thankful. The Psalmist’s advice to “taste and see how good the Lord is” isn’t about salty, sweet, or savory, but it is about what satisfies and what causes us to stop, breath, and be thankful for what God has done for us and for what God is sending us, to be thankful for his gift—Jesus Christ. So, “what seasonal taste reminds you that God is in your life and that Christ is in Christmas?”

Body:

At the end of Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille, a movie about an ordinary rat named Remy who loves to cook and who decided to pursue that dream, there is a fantastic scene by which helps us understand the significance of what the Psalmist is trying to convey to us. A food critic—Anton Ego, a cold, frail, no-nonsense kind of guy—comes into the restaurant to render his verdict. Of all the dishes they could serve, Remy—the rat—decides to make ratatouille, a French peasant’s dish. The decision to serve ratatouille makes everyone nervous.

Ignoring the apprehension from his friends, Remy dishes up the ratatouille. Ego is initially apathetic and unimpressed, neither surprised nor disgusted at the entrée. But when Ego takes his first bite of the dish, his mind immediately hearkens back to his boyhood home kitchen table where his mom comforts him with a warm bowl of ratatouille. The cold critic drops his pen. His life is forever changed by the meal.

We have all been like Ego. We can appear cold and frail and hangry, but when we are given that one particular meal that solves all problems, we change: we become who we are meant to be. There is something about that particular meal—the taste and the smell—that brings us back home, that soothes our souls, that brings us comfort, and administers joy in our life. During the Christmas season, much like any other holiday, we long to taste and smell a particular food item. We avoid it all season long until the time is just right. Do you have a particular food that only makes an appearance during the Christmas season that you savor  and long to taste every year? Maybe you are the one that makes it or maybe you are the who asks for it.

For every family Christmas gathering on my dad’s side, we usually have some sort of potluck: soup, sandwiches, meatballs, cheese and crackers, sausage, veggies, chicken, and tons of desserts and finger foods. And inevitably, every year, someone asks, usually the first person in line, “Who made what?” Now that question isn’t usually followed with a complement. Instead, that question is implying an answer along the lines of “Let me know who made what so I stay away from their food.” This question is a valid one considering that one year my Aunt Laureen made cinnamon sticks that her dog didn’t even eat. Needless to say, although the food at the Christmas gathering is mostly all good, it doesn’t offer the taste of Christmas that I long for every year.

Growing up, on Christmas morning my mom would make biscuits and gravy—the only time she made them—and then for Christmas supper she should make Cornish Hens along with either a glazed ham or a roast. Seeing the Cornish Hens lined up in the pan soaking in the sauce, taking note of the steam rising from the roast as my mom lifted it out of the crockpot, and smelling the sweet aroma of that baked glazed ham with a brown sugar crust as it left the oven, filled the house with the aroma of Christmas. Christmas was truly in the air! It wasn’t truly Christmas until the smells and tastes of the Christmas supper conquered my senses. And then for dessert we had fresh baklava…

What sort of taste or smell brings forth the season of Christmas in your life? Is it a baked ham, a roast, a fresh batch of sugar cookies, homemade Chex-mix, the smell of evergreen, a pie coming out of the oven, or something else? Christmas is filled with wonderful tastes and smells, but during the Christmas season we are invited to taste and smell the flavors of Christ, of how good the Lord is in our life. We experience these flavors through the gospels and through the hope, peace, joy, and love of the season.

Movement One: Jesus Cooks…

This may be a silly question, but “Did Jesus have a favorite meal? Was there a particular food that brought him joy? Did Jesus ever complain to Mary that he didn’t like her cooking? “Interestingly, Scripture doesn’t tell us much about what Jesus ate or didn’t eat. We know that Jesus ate the Passover meal, and Jesus ate bread and fish, but outside of that, Scripture really doesn’t detail what Jesus ate. We can assume that Jesus ate Mediterranean food. It’s fascinating to think that Jesus probably ate lamb and grape leaves and probably hummus. Did he have something like ham and beans on Monday, or Taco Tuesdays, or even pizza on Fridays? Scripture doesn’t tell us much about what Jesus ate or didn’t eat but Scripture doesn’t depict Jesus ever eating alone. We don’t know a lot about Jesus’ eating habits, but we do know two things: Jesus cooked and Jesus never ate alone.

After the Resurrection when the disciples had returned to fishing, Jesus was on the lakeshore cooking fish and invited them to breakfast, and that’s how they knew it was the Lord. Did the disciples know that it was Jesus because they recognized his style of cooking, or did they recognize Jesus because of his invitation to eat with him? I believe the latter: Jesus invited them to a meal. The disciples knew it was Jesus because he served them breakfast, he served them a meal. If Jesus came to today and asked to join him for dinner, how would you respond? Would you cook at home? Would you go out to a five-star restaurant? Would you keep quiet so you could maximize your alone time with Jesus? Would you take him to a food-truck? Would you look at your calendar and say, “Aw, geez, I have a super full day today. Maybe next week?” Maybe the better question is, “How many times has the Holy Spirit tried to get our attention at the dinner table, but we were consumed by anything but the food or the company in front of us?

Experiencing the taste of the season is more than physically tasting something. To taste the season means to not only know that Lord is good, but it’s to accept the invite to eat with Jesus and to extend an invite to those who might be eating alone this season. From Scripture, we read that Jesus ate with everyone. He ate with the tax collectors, the demon possessed, the sick, the hurting, the broken, the sinful, the pained, the grieving, the lost, the neglected, the poor, the wealthy, the disbelievers, and the unfaithful. He even ate with the joyous, the loving, the forgiving, and the believing. Jesus never ate alone because he wanted people to know how good the taste of the Lord is and forever will be when people are gathered together.

Just think about the Last Supper, the sacred Passover meal in the filthy upper room in Jerusalem. The people eating with Jesus were not perfect, they did not have all the answers, they left their family and friends to follow Jesus, and one of them was about to betray him; but yet Jesus didn’t excuse them from the meal nor from the table. Jesus ate and sat with them just like he eats and sits with us and everyone else. Scripture doesn’t tell us much about what Jesus ate or didn’t eat but Scripture doesn’t depict Jesus ever eating alone. How will you extend an invite, like Jesus did on the lakeshore to his disciples, with those in your life? How can the church extend an invite to all those who need a place to eat? To taste and see that the Lord is good is to accept his invite and sit at the table.

Movement Two: Flavoring the Gospels

Most of the time when we think about taste, we tend to think of food, but when Jesus thinks about taste he practices the act of inviting. Most of the time when we think about taste, we like to think about simply eating a meal wherever, but when Jesus thinks about taste he considers finding time to eat with others wherever they are. And most of the time when we think about taste, our minds drift toward those small jars that are labeled “garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper,” but when Jesus does his cooking he flavors and seasons his food with aspects of his life. The second thing to ponder about taste is the idea of flavoring and how the Gospels flavor our life with who and what Jesus is and does.

Have you ever noticed that each of the Gospels tells a different story of Jesus? Sure some of the miracles are the same, some of the places that Jesus travels are the same, the disciples are the same, and the overall mission and message of Jesus are the same; but when you really take time to read each Gospel, you will notice that each Gospel portrays Jesus in a different way. Why? Because the Gospel writers couldn’t agree on everything. Is it because each Gospel writer wanted to make sure their perspective was better than their predecessor’s perspective? Is it because they really didn’t know the exact truth or didn’t know everything about Jesus so they had to fill in the gaps? Whatever the reasoning may be each Gospel portrays Jesus in a different light—sort of like how we attempt to define God from our own perspective. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all offer us different angles, different perspectives, and different flavors of the one we call Christ, the Lord.

Mark, the oldest Gospel, says, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son.” That’s not even a complete sentence! There is no verb in this segment. However, it does highlight who Jesus is according to Mark: Jesus is God’s son. The way Mark tells the Gospel reveals Jesus to be constantly on the move. Jesus is not one to sit still: the good news should never sit still, it should never be idle in your life. As a matter of fact, Mark uses the transition word “immediately” twenty-seven times throughout his gospel to indicate that when one task was complete, when someone was healed, when someone was no longer demon-possessed, Jesus continued to the next place. Jesus knew there was more work to be done. Through Mark, our life is flavored, by Jesus, with this idea of wanting and needing to move. As disciples we should long for the taste of moving forward, of living out the mission of Christ and the church in all that we do.

Matthew’s Gospel offers us a different flavor. Matthew begins with, “A record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” In Mark’s Gospel Jesus appears out of nowhere with no backstory or history. Matthew wants to make sure Jesus is rooted in a real time and a real place so he offers the readers a genealogy of Jesus. Matthew’s flavor of Jesus is about being rooted: it’s about taking ownership of where we come from, where we are, and where we want to go. Jesus isn’t some made-up being. Jesus is real. Jesus is in a real place. Jesus exists today and every day. Hebrews 13:8 reminds us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Matthew wants us to take note that by having Jesus in our life, our life is flavored with something real and something that will never cease to exist and something that is rooted in tradition, reason, and experience. Jesus is the long lasting flavor in our life, the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) that is real today and every day.

Luke, the physician, finds himself writing to Theophilus, which means, “Friend of God”; so in a sense, Luke is writing to you. Luke is presumably writing to a Greek audience, those unfamiliar with the teachings; therefore, Jesus in Luke’s Gospel is very concerned with outsiders and outcasts and healings. For example, all of the Gospels record that Jesus was crucified with two other people. However, Luke is the only who remembers that one of them turned to Jesus and said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom,” to which Jesus replied, “I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). The flavor of Jesus that Luke offers is more than being concerned with outsiders, outcasts, and healings; Luke’s Gospel flavors our life with redemption. From this redemption we experience salvation, we experience freedom from our worries and stresses, we experience new beginnings, and we experience a taste of Jesus’ warm embrace. Most importantly, we experience a taste of what life is like without the constant weight of sin bearing down on us and temptation calling our name. With this redemption, we get a glimpse of the joy that comes in the morning. Allow Jesus to flavor your life with redemption so that you can be set free and soar on the wings of eagles and run and not grow weary and walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). Let Jesus become your friend. “Lord, remember me when I come into your kingdom.”

Lastly, John’s Gospel begins with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). John’s Gospel is less about where Jesus went and what Jesus did as it is about who Jesus is. The Gospel of John is famous for those seven “I am” statements that remind us of who Jesus is: I am the light of the world; I am the bread of life; I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the good shepherd; I am the true vine; I am the door to the sheep; and I am the resurrection and the life. John gives us a taste of who Jesus is in our life and what it means to know that Jesus is in our life. Jesus flavors our life with who he is so that we live according to the Word, so that we can see him in all things, and so that we can live according to his promises. How much flavoring does Jesus need to season your life with before you begin to realize who he is?

Just like how Jesus cooked a meal for his disciples, Jesus is cooking a meal for us today. This meal consists of the following flavors: being on the move and never ceasing to do the work of Christ, knowing that Jesus is real and located in real places, accepting the gift of redemption so that we can experience salvation, and allowing Jesus to be who Jesus is in your life. Without these flavors, we are not able to fully taste the true meaning of Christmas. We need Jesus in our life, in the world, so that we can experience a life made by him. We need these flavors because they help see that the Lord is good. Which of these flavorings could you use more of in your life?

Movement Three: The Flavors of Christmas

The Psalmist wrote, “O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8). Once again, the book of Psalms provides a poetic phrase used often in Christian literature and songs. The expression “taste and see that the LORD is good” combines several ideas. To “taste” means something more than a fleeting relationship. It means to feed on the Lord—to accept His truth deep into one’s self (John 6:53)—which involves reading the written Word of God, experiencing the Word of God, and reflecting on the Word of God. To truly know God, we need to absorb His message as if we were eating it just like Ezekiel does in Ezekiel 3 and John does in Revelation 10 when they are each presented with a scroll: the scroll tasted of sweet honey. We are called to taste the Word of God and to live out.

During the Christmas season, we get a taste of God’s word as we anticipate and expect the coming of Jesus Christ  when we read about the proclamations of a coming Messiah. We get a taste of Jesus Christ when Jeremiah calls the one to come “The Lord is our Righteousness” (Isaiah 33:16). We get a taste of Jesus Christ when Isaiah announces the name “Emmanuel, meaning God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). We get of taste of Jesus Christ when Isaiah declares that the one coming is to be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). We get a taste of Jesus Christ when the angel Gabriel appears before Mary and says, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you….Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:28, 30-33). And lastly we get a taste of Jesus Christ through the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love.

The taste of Jesus is hope. The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the people of Rome, “May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). Jesus flavors our life with his hope because he knows we are going to need him when life is not fair, when temptation creeps in, and when sin starts to find our ways. We hope so that our faith remains strong and our trust in Jesus doesn’t run dry.

The taste of Jesus is peace. Jesus tells his disciples in the Gospel of John, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Matthew notes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). Paul asserts, “Do not be anxious about anything…” (Philippians 4:6-7). And Isaiah assures us, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace” (Isaiah 55:12). Jesus knows we are going to need peace in our life. Jesus knows life is going to be worrisome and bombarded with anxiety. Jesus knows that we need to flavor our life with peace, so don’t pass it up when he gives it to you.

The taste of Jesus is joy. The wisdom of King Solomon tells us, “A joyful heart is good medicine…” (Proverbs 17:22). James tells us to count all things as joy (James 1:2). And Paul encourages us to “Rejoice in the Lord always…” (Philippians 4:4). Christmas is the time of year to flavor your life with the joy of Christ. Why? Because Jesus is the joy of the season. Jesus offers us a taste of joy when the hustle and bustle overcome the joyous sound of those silver bells ringing outside your window. Jesus offers us a taste of joy because joy is the medicine of the heart, the very place where Jesus lives today.

Lastly, Jesus is the taste of love. Scripture is filled with passages that talk about God’s love and the love that Jesus lived out while on earth. But the one passage that really highlights the taste of love is found in 1 John 14:18-19, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.” Jesus flavors our life with love because he loves us. We are called to maintain this love because it covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

During the Christmas season, God is constantly flavoring our life with who Jesus is, what Jesus will do, and with the hope, peace, joy, and love of what is to come. But more often than not, we allow the taste of our favorite holiday treat to trump the true taste of the season. We see that the Lord is good, but we don’t often taste that the Lord is good. We put aside his word so that we can spend more time shopping and baking. The time has come to both taste and see that the Lord is good because his flavoring is what leads to truly being happy!

Conclusion:

Cooking takes time, and it’s supposed to. The beautiful thing about Advent is that we are given permission to do the same thing, to slow down. When we slow down, we are able to experience the taste and flavor of Christ in our own life in ways that enhance the flavors of who we are. When we slow down, the flavors of Christ help us appreciate the people and things God has given us. Without the flavor of Christ in our life, our life would seem a little bland; but with Christ, our life is filled with just the right amount of flavoring to do what Christ needs us to do.

Tasting the Lord’s goodness is the recognition that we are hungry for his word—for his hope, peace, joy, and love—and that we need food to survive—the encouragement to keep Jesus’ message moving, to seek redemption, to experience him in real time, and embrace who Jesus is in our life. And the best part is, Jesus offers himself—flavorings and tastes and all—to us as a gift. We just have to be willing to accept it.

This Christmas season what are you longing to taste: a Cornish Hen, a baked ham, a savory roast, a fresh pie, sugar cookies or the goodness of the Lord? Savor the goodness of the Lord this holiday season as it flavors your life today and every day. How are you going to allow Jesus to flavor your life?

Let it be so…

Closing Prayer:

Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, flavor our life today with the presence of Jesus Christ. Flavor our life with his movement, his redemption, his grace, his concern for those not at the table, and with his hope, peace, joy, and love. May his flavor be what we taste in our life and may what we taste be the goodness of the Lord. In your name we pray, Amen.

 

Benediction:

What do you long to taste this Christmas season that will put Christ in Christmas? Allow Jesus to flavor your life today and every day. May the Lord bless you and keep you; May the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; and May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26). In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit go forth expecting the arrival of hope, peace, joy, and love this Advent Season. And all God’s people said, Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

[1] Food doesn’t have to taste good, but it does, and therefore reminds us of grace. Speaking of grace, grace is a fee gift according to Paul in his letter to the Romans (Romans 3:24-26). God doesn’t have to give us grace but He does. God doesn’t have to forgive but He does. God doesn’t have to be merciful but He does. God didn’t have to empty the divine and walk with us, use our language, or eat our food, but He certainly did. The simple joy of tasting something delicious causes us involuntarily to stop, breathe, and be thankful.