by Rob Caudillo
Pastor Rob Bell shares the following from his book, Repainting the Velvet Elvis:
“I was having breakfast with my younger son and father at the Real Food Café in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As we were finishing our meal, I noticed that the waitress brought our check and then took it away, and then brought it back again. She placed it on the table, smiled, and said, “Somebody in the restaurant paid for your meal. You’re all set.” She then walked away.
I had the strangest feeling sitting there. The feeling was helplessness. There was nothing I could do. I had been taken care of. To insist on paying would have been pointless. All I could do was trust that what the waitress said was actually true and then live in that – which meant getting up and leaving the restaurant. My acceptance of what she said gave me a choice: to live like it was true or to create my own reality in which the bill was unpaid.”
I would suggest that this is the central message of the cross of Jesus – yours and my bill has been paid, we’re all set! During the season of Lent, we hear words like “redemption, atonement and propitiation”, which at the end of the day means, “our bill is paid, we are all set!” It is hearing, knowing and accepting the truth of that fact - our bill owed to God due to our sin has been paid in full by Jesus Christ. This also means that you and I are left with a choice:
“…to trust that we don’t owe anything. To trust that something is already true about us, something already has been done…to trust that grace pays the bill” [Rob Bell].
As you and I continue the 50 Day Spiritual Adventure at MWPC and the Lenten Season’s journey to the Cross and Easter, they offer to each of us the opportunity to reflect and to choose, “to live like we trust what is proclaimed is true in God’s word and by the cross of Christ or to create our own reality wherein our bill is unpaid”. What’s it going to be – “your bill is paid in full - you’re all set!” or the alternative – you still have an unpaid bill? I hope we make the right choice in this season of God’s demonstrated grace, mercy and love. And we then live lives that demonstrate this truth in us as God’s people.
Peace,
Pastor Rob
P.S. Make sure to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ at the Easter Sunday Worship Service. Make sure to invite a friend or two to join you! – Easter is more than chocolate bunnies and candy!