"Eating Chicken at a Seafood Restaurant"
1 Peter 1:22-2:3
The summer before my Senior Year in high school I was asked to work as a Counselor at a United Methodist Church Camp in Upstate New York.
It was similar to, say, Camp Lookout.
As some of you who have seen old pictures of me on my Facebook Page can attest too, I was a bit of a party animal in high school.
Although I went to church every Sunday, and had a good relationship with my pastors and a strong faith in God...
...my friends and I were your basic, kinda rowdy teenage types.
So, serving at Camp Casowasco was a very "new" experience for me.
Casowasco was cool.
One of the neat things about it was that every area of the camp was named after, either a place in the Bible or something from Methodism.
For instance, I believe there was an "Aldersgate" building.
And there were some wooden steps set into a hill on a path.
Those were called "Jacob's Ladder."
And if you climbed Jacob's Ladder you would come to the top of what was called "Mount Tabor."
That's where the section of the camp that I was assigned to work was.
The kids we took care of must have been the youngest of the camp, they were probably either 1st and 2nd grade or 2nd and 3rd grade.
In any event, our campers were called the "Tabor Tots."
The other counselors came from other United Methodist Churches across the Conference, they were young high school kids like me.
And the person in charge of our area was a United Methodist Pastor.
So, we spent the summer swimming, canoeing, camping under the stars, leading the children in Bible study, meeting with all the other campers around a fire every evening for hymn-sings and "light" preaching.
It was an amazing experience--definitely one of the best memories from that period in my life.
Anyhow, I remember vividly, coming home after my summer at Camp Casowasco, and realizing the stark difference between life at camp and life with my friends.
I felt out of place for a while.
I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I had experienced something that summer which was way more glorious and fulfilling than just being a rowdy, wacky teenager.
I'm sure most of you can probably relate to experiences like that.
Perhaps it was an Emmaus walk.
Or maybe it was some other Christian retreat.
Whatever it was, I think we were part of what Peter wrote in our Scripture Lesson for this evening when he says, "you have tasted that the Lord is good."
And isn't one of the central things in all of life to "taste" that the Lord is good?
I mean, it's hard to describe--perhaps as hard as it is to describe the taste of a certain food to someone who hasn't experienced it.
For instance, I love deer meat.
I'm not a hunter, and I haven't eaten much deer meat in my life, but I do love the taste.
But for someone who has never tried it, how can you possibly convey the taste?
I mean, in my opinion, nothing else tastes quite like it.
It's not like frog legs or crocodile on a stick or snake...all those things that you can simply say "it tastes like chicken."
'Cause deer meat doesn't taste like chicken, and it doesn't taste like steak either, and neither does it taste like pork.
It just tastes like deer!!!
So, Peter uses the idea of "taste" as a key signal to describe what it is like to have an experience with God.
"Have you had that taste?" he basically asks.
"Do you know what I'm talking about?"
Of course, as so often is the case, Peter is quoting Scripture.
In this case he is quoting from Psalm 34:8.
"Taste and see how good the Lord is!"
As it is with most children, I don't know how many times I have tried to get Mary Ellen to try a food that she has never eaten.
It can be nearly impossible.
Not too long ago, we were at a Sea Food Restaurant, and I wanted so badly to for Mary Ellen to order something, not from the kid's menu which only offers the same old, same old...
...chicken fingers, hot dogs, hamburgers...etc.
But she wouldn't do it.
So, I ordered one of my favorite selections--Snow Crab legs.
Anyhow, when the waiter brought our meals, Mary Ellen was fascinated by the crab legs with their pinchers and so forth.
And that may have had something to do with the reason she agreed to try a bite.
Suffice it to say, after one taste of crab, Mary Ellen was smitten and I spent as much time pulling crab meat out of the shells for her as I did for myself.
She had "tasted and seen that snow crabs are good."
But if she hadn't given them a shot, how could she know?
The same goes with God.
If people don't give God an opportunity to work in their lives, to put love in their hearts--how can they know?
How can they know what they are missing if they don't know that there is something else, something better, something indescribable!!!
And this brings us to, in my opinion, one of the strongest assets of this Church.
You all are giving people a taste.
You all are willing to serve this community the finest of fare.
You all are being the hands and feet of Christ in a lost, lonely and starving world.
My wife Clair recently said something that really is about the biggest compliment a church can ever receive.
She said, "East Ridge United Methodist Church is the most evangelistic church in the entire Chattanooga District.
It is doing more for its community than any other church we have right now."
Whether that is true or not I have no idea.
But one thing I do know...
...God is working powerfully through you!!!
One of my favorite Scripture passages and the passage I quoted when I was explaining to a board at the very beginning of my candidacy process for entering the ministry comes from Romans Chapter 10.
Paul writes, "All who call on the Lord's name will be saved.
So how can they call on someone they don't have faith in?
And how can they have faith in someone they haven't heard of?
And how can they hear without a preacher?
And how can they preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who announce good news.'"
In our Scripture Lesson for this evening Peter says, "love each other deeply and earnestly.
Do this because you have been given new birth--not from the type of seed that decays but from the seed that doesn't.
This seed is God's life-giving and enduring word."
Many people, most people in our society in fact have heard about the Word.
They have heard about the message of Jesus.
But many, way too many have not tasted it.
It's kind of like looking at a menu in a Seafood restaurant and ordering chicken simply because you have never tasted crab.
Those who have tasted the goodness of the Lord, the followers of Jesus, as early as the Day of Pentecost, have discovered that this goodness carries with it an energy, a power which is beyond mere words.
Those who experience Christ, find themselves gripped by it, transformed by it, rinsed out by it and given a new sense of meaning.
In fact, their entire perspective on life is changed.
Yes, those who taste the Lord, allow God into their lives, allow the food of God to permeate their being desire more and more of that "pure milk."
As our Scripture states, they are "Nourished by it [and] grow into salvation..."
What could be better?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Amen.
