The Vineyard Church of North Grand Rapids, MI

Can God Really Cook?

There is amazing controversy stirring about The Shack. Some people are burning it (or refusing to read it). Others are setting it on the shelf next to their Bible. The biggest criticisms are coming, not surprisingly, from professional religious guys; ordinary folks seem to be buying this book by hundreds of thousands of copies (over a million sold now). We're exploring it this fall at the Vineyard because its a cultural phenomenon. And we really enjoy having a spiritual conversation with people outside the church. Have you given this book to any of your friends? I've passed it out to about a dozen of my friends at our neighboring businesses, and the book seems to have everyone talking.

Frankly, we're not too concerned about controversy. Controversy kind of goes with the territory, both in the Vineyard, where we wear jeans to church, and in the Christian church, which was started by the deeply controversial claim that God himself came to earth, suffered and died (and then rose again). That's still pretty controversial in most circles. We've been mired in controversy ever since! I figure, since we can't very well fight the controversy, we might as well make friends with our constant companion. So, I give you The Shack series at the Vineyard, let the controversy come.

Well, if you haven't yet read the book, I'll give you a few snapshots this morning so you can get up to speed. But, seriously, you might want to pick up a copy today, because every week we're going to ruin more and more of the story for you.

The novel is based on the fictional story of Meckenzie Phillips, or Mack, a normal family man, a dad & husband in his 50's. Born in the midwest, a farm boy, Mack lived through a lot having come from a dysfunctional family, but when we meet him, he's an average guy. Five kids, a great wife, some kind of sales/consulting career in the tech industry. His friends say he's a straight shooter, he's clearly a deep thinker, but all-in-all he's just an average family man - a kind, gentle soul as his friends put it. He goes to church occasionally, but its obvious to most that its not his thing.

When we meet Mack at the start of the book, he's in a dark and oppressing season of his life. The book begins just a couple years after tragedy began to rip Mack's life apart. Just two years earlier, tragedy strikes during a family camping trip. Its an average camping trip, just Mack and his kids in a mountain campground in the Pacific Northwest, just a few hours from home. Toward the end of the trip, Mack's happy life begins to unravel. Mack's youngest daughter, his 6-year-old Missy, just as sweet as can be at that innocent young age, goes missing during during a brief rescue on the campground lake. Mack and his friends begin a calm search, but it quickly turns to a frantic and desperate hunt. Missy is simply not in the campground. Nowhere to be found. By the end of the day, every police squad and agency in the region has descended on the campground and surrounding area for the manhunt. The scene is something of a whirlwind, but for Mack, time seems to stand still. The prospects are not promising. As the days turn into a week, we discover the unthinkable, Missy has almost certainly been murdered, but neither her murderer nor her body are ever likely to be found.

Its the kind of story that makes every parent's heart sink. For those of us that have experienced tragic loss, the story hits close to home. For a lot of us, its a scenario we'd rather not imagine. A few of my friends have mentioned that it altered their summer camping trip: watching the kids closer, holding them tighter. The day I read it, I held my son against his two-and-a-half year-old will and held him tight.

The tragedy sends Mack into a downward spiral of grief. By the time we meet him in the book, he's become a shell of his former self. His life is marked by, as he puts it, this Great Sadness.

The author writes, "shortly after the summer that Missy vanished, The Great Sadness had draped itself around Mack's shoulders like some invisible but almost tangibly heavy quilt. The weight of its presence dulled his eyes and stooped his shoulders. He ate, worked, loved, dreamed and played in this garment of heaviness, weighed down as if he were wearing a leaden bathrobe."

"If only he had decided not to take the kids on that trip; if only he had said no when they asked to use the canoe; if only he had left the day before, if only, if only, if only. And then to have it all end with nothing. The fact that he was unable to bury Missy's body magnified his failure as her daddy. That she was still out there somewhere alone in the forest haunted him every day.
Now, three and a half years later, Missy was officially presumed to have been murdered. Life would never be normal again."

Now, Mack has never been close to God. He's a moderately religious guy, at least he acts the part. But the tragedy ends the illusion. But two years after his daughter's disappearance, Mack gets this strange note in the mailbox. Its a short, typed letter addressed just to him: "Mackenzie, its been a while. I've missed you. I'll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. Signed, Papa (the name only his wife uses for God). In fact, outside of his family, no one else really knows the significance of the name, "Papa." This is either some diabolically cruel joke, or Mack is losing his mind. In a state of emotional instability, Mack is living like a man who has nothing to lose - he arranges a secret expedition to the Shack, the scene of the tragedy.

Young writes, "In spite of his anger and depression, Mack knew that he needed some answers. He realized he was stuck, and Sunday prayers and hymns weren't cutting it anymore, if they ever really had...He was sick of God and God's religion, sick of all the little religious social clubs that didn't seem to make any real difference or affect any real changes."

He tells his best friend, "I guess part of me would like to believe that God would care enough about me to send a note." Not such a bad thing to wish for. Could God really miss me?

So Mack heads off for the Shack, and after that, nothing is as you'd expect.

A few hours later, Mack is standing face-to-face with a large African American woman, who calls herself Papa, knows his name and his personal history, and is cooking up a gourmet dinner in the next room. In a few short pages, he's dining with Papa and his friends: Jesus and mysterious Asian woman.

The author writes, as Mack first encountered Papa, "Instinctively, he jumped back, but he was too slow. With speed that belied her size, she crossed the distance between them and engulfed him in her arms, lifting him clear off his feet and spinning him around like a little child. And all the while she was shouting his name - "Mackenzie Allen Phillips" - with ardor of someone seeing a long-lost and deeply-loved relative. She finally put him back on the earth and, with her hands on his shoulders, pushed him back as if to get a good look at him.

"Mack, look at you! Here you are and so grown up. I've been looking forward to seeing you face to face. My, my, my how I do love you!" Suddenly he was overwhelmed by the scent emanating from him, and it shook him. It was the smell of flowers with overtones of gardenia and jasmine, unmistakably his mother's perfume that he kept hidden away in his little tin box. He had already been perched precariously on the the precipice of emotion, and now the flooding scent and attendant memories staggered him. He could feel the warmth of tears beginning to gather behind his eyes, as if they were knocking on the door of his heart.

The story of the Shack centers around this experience, maybe a dream, maybe a deeper reality than the waking world - we can't be sure. Mack encounters God in a form none would expect. The God of his encounter is three people, essentially a loving family with big appetites, great senses of humor, and a warmth, an embrace, a deeply healing presence that begins to lift the veil of darkness in Mack's life.

When we meet Papa, he/she is hard at work in the kitchen, singing while she works, carrying on with warm-hearted jokes, cooking up a meal.

And anyone who reads it has to ask, could God really be like that? That is so far from what we think of God! I didn't grow up with a God like that.

Earlier in the book, Mack says, "maybe he's a really bright light, or a burning bush. I've always sort of pictured him as a really big grandpa with a long white flowing beard, sort of like Gandalf in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings."

So what is God like; how does he like to spend his time? Well, strangely enough, one look at the Bible reveals that God is in fact really into food (hence the spread today). That's not a hot topic in most theology books, but its true.

We can look at the Old Testament, where God meets Abraham the Father of civilization thousands of years ago, and it happens over food, some kind of beef stroganoff sounding concoction and dinner rolls.

In the hungry days of the wilderness wanderings of Israel following the Exodus from Egypt, God shows up with chicken (or quail to be precise but I think it all tastes pretty much like chicken).

In the prophetic book of Isaiah, God says, "...you who have now money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." Is it troubling to you that God's welfare program includes milk and wine?! Geesh, here comes the controversy again!

Seriously, we look at the New Testament, and same thing.

Whether its Jesus showing up to a wedding and turning water into wine (about 600-900 bottles worth), or dining in the homes of ne'er-do-wells, or Jesus reclining with his best friends around the Last Supper table, Jesus is really into meals, parties, banquets - all manner of feasting.

But its not just parties, Jesus is also feeding the poor. In the familiar story told in Matthew's gospel chapter 15, Jesus looks out at the masses and says, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way. Then he miraculously multiplies the fish and bread.

When Jesus talks about his Father God and his Father's kingdom, he actually compares it to a feast, a wedding feast for the king's son. In Matthew 22, the king issues the invitation: "My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!" Now, this isn't a dutch conservative wedding party with punch and catered Swedish meatballs. This is the party for the king's son. Can you imagine it? Think, Las Vegas buffet, think luxury cruise ship ice sculptures. And do you think the wine is flowing? Its hard to imagine that its not. The Baptists among us can only hope Jesus doesn't show up with his 6-900 bottles of wine, or there might be a little religious problem.

(see references, Gen 18, Exod 16, Isa 55, Matt 15:32, reference mistake! Matt 22:2-4, Luke 22:14-20)

So, what is it with God and food?

All we can really determine is that God probably likes food (food being his idea after all) and wine. We can't say with any certainty that he likes beer. But we can be really sure that God loves dining with his friends. He likes to visit us in the ordinary stuff of life. And in the ancient world when this was written, food was not fast and speed-eating was not a sport. God evidently likes to linger over a long bottle of wine and long meal.

But the meal isn't really about the food. We don't hear too much about the cuisine, the meal is always the occasion for something else.
The God of the Bible loves a good time with his closest friends.

That's so far from our typical pictures of God, isn't it? Distant, far off, a clockmaker, a force, or maybe like Gandalf or the old man in the sky, the Almighty, the boss, the big guy upstairs (okay, the big guy kind of fits with the food theme).

But the stories about Jesus reveal something totally different - God is not too lofty to enjoy his friends, you could say he's a down-to-earth kind of guy.

Let's look at one of these stories up close:
Jesus and his friends
A timeless story Great Failure and Great Sadness: introducing Peter

When we meet Simon Peter in the gospels, he's making a living on a fishing boat. He's a young man with an attitude, a bravado, a fiery passion that gets in his way. But if he's anything, he's devoted to Jesus - right from the start. Over three years, he becomes one of Jesus' closest friends, recognizing before the others that Jesus is the Messiah sent from God. The night Jesus was betrayed, Peter risks his life by raising a sword and cutting off the ear of a soldier sent to arrest Jesus.

But earlier that evening, Jesus and his disciples are relaxing together, lingering over their last meal together, the Last Supper. You've seen the pictures. At the end of the meal, he begins to talk about the difficult hours that are ahead (he's looking ahead to his arrest and crucifixion). He tells his disciples, "all will fall away." And Peter declares, "Even if all fall away, I will not." Jesus answers, "truly I tell you today-yes tonight-before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times." But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." Mark 14:27a, 29-31a

Later that evening, Jesus is arrested...

Luke writes, "Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him."
But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said.
A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them."
"Man, I am not!" Peter replied.
About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."
Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.
The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" And they said many other insulting things to him.

At Jesus' hour of greatest need for a friend, Peter chokes. Within a matter of hours, Jesus would beaten savagely, and sentenced to die a brutal death. As Jesus carried his own cross to the hill to be crucified, he stumbled and it was another Simon, a complete stranger, who would be there to bear Jesus' cross the rest of the way to the hill. As Jesus breathed his last breaths, Peter is nowhere mentioned. Its likely that he wasn't even there. He had failed in the ultimate way. He had lost a friend that was closer than a brother, and the only thing left for Peter were bitter tears.

No one was expecting Jesus to return. This was simply the end of the road. And Peter had failed. Their was one other disciple who betrayed Jesus for money, Judas. And Judas, rather than go on living, hung himself from a tree.

Peter dealt with his grief as many do, he tried to go back to the way things were, his old life. He goes back to fishing. As rumors begin to spread that Jesus is alive - we hear nothing of Peter. He might have even seen Jesus when Jesus came to the disciples gathered in Jerusalem - but we don't hear anything of him. As far as we know (as far as he knows) his failure has ruined everything he loves. When we hear of Peter again in the gospels, he's back at the fishing docks - right where he'd met Jesus three years earlier.

FOR SLIDE ONLY: Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymusd), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.

"I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"
"No," they answered.
He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. [This is the exact sequence of events by which Jesus had introduced himself at the beginning, and Peter and John recognize it.]
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. [!] The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

[Jesus is cooking breakfast]
In the dark night of Peter's soul, Jesus shows up with breakfast.
What is is with the food? Well, he could've showed up in another burning bush, or a face in the clouds, but this is hardly the time for something like that. In the dark night of Peter's soul, in Peter's Great Sadness, Jesus shows up with breakfast.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.
You're still on the team (feed my sheep because Jesus calls himself the shepherd). All I really want to know is, do you love me? That's what is has always been about. What else did you think I wanted from you?

Really! You think of all the questions Jesus could've asked. What do you think God is asking of you? Ask most religious people in churches: what do you think God is asking of you?

Most of us think God is looking for us to serve him. Or get our lives in order. Or clean up our act. Most of think God is interested in upholding some moral code. Or that his deepest desire is to control our lives. I mean, what exactly do you think God wants from you?

Oh, but I've failed big. Bigger than Peter?
God has impossible demands! Does he?

Sometimes it takes a tragedy for us to see God as he really is. Friends, I want you to know that this is more than a novel, more a Bible story, in the darkest moments of our lives, of my life, hearing the words of Jesus has made all the difference in the world. His words have been the healing of my life - and they continue to be. With every crisis, every season of fear or depression or doubt or insecurity that rolls into my life - I have found that God knocking at the door, ready to refresh my heart and satisfy my soul.

Maybe you're life is more like Mack from The Shack: I'm not even sure want to know God, what's he ever done for me. Look at all this trouble in my family, all this tragedy in my story, couldn't God have stopped it?

The fact is I'm not sure. I'm not sure why God lets each of stories unfold as they do. But I'm sure that he paid a great price to heal our hearts. He's done everything possible to reach out to us in our pain.

In our Great Sadness, Jesus stands at our door and knocks.
In last book of the Bible, the final word, Jesus says to each of us, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me." Revelation 3:20

He's standing at the door and he knocks...
Have you considered meeting Jesus for breakfast? His offer stands for you, wherever you are today.

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