I did something I’ve never done before the other day. I went to the grocery store. I don’t know why I went to the grocery store, I certainly don’t cook; I usually shop for food at Granny’s house, but for some reason I went to the grocery store.
You know I was really amazed at all that is in a grocery store. Did you know that they have a whole row of nothing but ketchup and mayonnaise? I know, I couldn’t believe it either.
They even have milk, cat and dog food, and even produce all under one roof. It is truly an amazing thing.
I walked over to the produce section out of total curiosity and started to pick up the cantaloupes and tomatoes and grapes and I was reminded of a story that started right where I was, the produce section.
Cathy was 32 years old, she was single and successful in her career. She had just moved from the noise, crime and headache of the city to the suburbs where life was slower and quieter.
She loved the smell of the honeysuckle that grew wild in her neighborhood and the sound of the ice cream truck as it drove past her house every evening at 5.
The town had a couple thousand residents, with a family owned grocery store and a pharmacy.
There was a library and a large fountain that all the kids would run through in the summer and the high school seniors would pour detergent into for homecoming.
The pride and joy of the town was the football team and whenever she drove past the school, the sprinklers were always busy getting the field ready for summer practice.
She bought a little Boykin Spaniel to keep her company and he would cuddle up with her at nighttime and would never fail to bark at the fireflies as they teased him in the backyard.
Life was so good for Cathy. One afternoon she ventured out to the little family owned grocery store to buy what she needed to make her favorite casserole and an apple pie.
She found her buggy and shivered for a moment as she adjusted to the cooler temperature in the store and walked to the produce section to pick the apples for her pie.
Cathy was concentrating on finding perfect apples as she was sifting through the Granny Smith’s and the Golden Delicious.
As she was focused hard on her task an odd looking man walked up on the other side and started to look at the watermelons.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him pick up the watermelon and thump it on the side. He then flipped it over and thumped it on the other side.
He held the watermelon to the light, he seemed to say something to the melon and then he kissed it right smack on the top!
By now, Cathy was looking directly at the man, watching him as he put the watermelon back while muttering to himself, ‘that one wasn’t ripe’.
That was kinda odd she thought. She then watched as he picked up the cantaloupe and began to squeeze it from all sides. He then asked the cantaloupe if it was ripe today and then bowled it down the international food aisle.
"Did you see that" he asked Cathy, who was now watching with large eyes.
"Did you see how it faded to the left? It’s not quite ready yet!"
"Did you know that fruit will tell you they’re ripe if you ask them?" He asked smiling.
"No, I didn’t" Cathy said very carefully as she eased away from the produce section to quickly get the rest of her items.
How bizarre! There was definitely something wrong with that man she thought. He talks to fruit and he believes that they talk back to him!
She quickly paid for the items, included the apples that she didn’t talk to or bowl down the aisle, and rushed home to make her casserole and apple pie.
She thought about that strange man during the drive to her house. She thought about all psychological problems he must have and how dangerous he could be, someone that talked to produce.
They out to put people like that in some sort of hospital she thought.
She even locked her doors thinking about her strange encounter.
Over the next couple of weeks, she began to see more of that odd man who converses with produce.
She saw him at the gas station, at the pharmacy, and she passed him on the sidewalk as she walked her Boykin Spaniel.
He tried to speak and make neighborly conversation each time they met, but Cathy just bowed her head and walked a little faster.
She didn’t know what might happen if she started a conversation with that man! Who knows what would happen?
She definitely wasn’t going to chance putting herself in any kind of danger, that man was crazy!
He was a certifiable, card carrying loon!
It didn’t take much for Cathy to come to that conclusion, after all, she was a perceptive woman who knew things about people, and this man wasn’t all there.
And she told herself to be very cautious.
Very cautious.
Two weeks later, the new doctor in that small town stepped outside and breathed in the pure, fresh air that came from the oak trees and roses that filled his yard and lined his street.
He loved walking in the afternoon, after seeing a day full of sick people it did him good to stretch his legs.
He hoped he would see that young lady walking too. He tried to get a smile out of her by rolling cantaloupes down the international food aisle at the grocery store. She seemed to need a good laugh, but his joke didn’t do it.
As he turned the corner of Dell and Oxford, he ran right into Cathy and her boykin spaniel. She was so frightened at the sight of the doctor that she began to choke on her Golden Delicious.
She dropped the apple and grabbed at her throat. As her breath was running out the doctor reached his arms out to perform the hiemleck maneuver.
Terrified and thinking that the doctor was trying to harm her, she instinctively ran, she ran in the road, she ran in the path of a car.
"WHO is this man?"
"Who is this man that is doing miracles and giving signs to the people? I command you to tell me who it is?"
He’s John the Baptist, he’s been raised from the dead!
No, he’s not John, I tell you he’s Elijah!
No, no, he’s not John or Elijah, he’s another prophet, like the ones that walked the earth long ago!
Isn’t it funny, well, maybe not funny, but isn’t awful how little we think?
I often wonder what the world would be like, I often wonder what South Carolina would be like, if all the people in it, would just think.
Now, I’m not talking about academic thinking, like adding up the items in the buggy while waiting in line at Wal-Mart, or the kind of thinking you’re doing right now – trying to figure out what’s going to be for lunch,
but actually thinking about real stuff, the kind of thinking that requires a little bit of effort, the kind of the thinking that we rarely do.
The kind of thinking that I’m talking about is the kind of thinking that looks for something more in what we see.
The kind of thinking that doesn’t look to categorize but to understand and encounter.
"WHO is this man?
"Who is this man that is doing miracles and giving signs to the people? I command you to tell me who it is?"
He’s John, He’s Elijah, he’s a prophet!
If they had only thought!
If they had only looked for something more instead of instantly putting Christ in a already known category, John, Elijah, or a prophet.
It didn’t fit! If they had only thought a little bit, if they had only looked for something more they would have found that this man Jesus didn’t fit in the box of John, he didn’t fit in the box of Elijah, and he didn’t fit in the box of another prophet!
He didn’t fit! By confining Christ to a mold that was set by someone else, they would not allow him to be what he was and is – the Son of God!
By merely saying the Jesus was John, Elijah, or a prophet, they closed their eyes to SO MUCH MORE!
He wasn’t merely a convictor like John, or a prophet like Elijah, he was SO MUCH MORE!
By merely saying that Jesus was John, Elijah, or a prophet, they built walls around the love, compassion, understanding, and peace that radiates from Christ.
By labeling and categorizing Jesus, they filed him away in the cabinet.
But there is SO MUCH MORE!
Sometimes it’s scary to think, to really and truly think.
It’s comforting for us to think and believe that everything has a place and a label, it certainly makes life a lot easier!
It’s easy for us to sit in the armchair of life and pass out labels and categories; guilty, innocent, crazy, intelligent, black, white, lazy, incompetent.
It’s easy for us because we don’t have to look for something more! We don’t have to look for something more within other people and we certainly don’t have to look for something more within ourselves!
For when we look deeper, when we think, I mean really and truly think, we may have to change. We may have to change the way we think or feel about something or someone, and that change may not be popular!
We used to categorize and label that person in line in front of us in dumb and ignorant for taking so long, but when we think; when we look for something more, we find out that they are dyslexic and have a hard time putting the words together so they can get their order right.
We used to label and categorize the woman at the dinner table as too sensitive and emotional when she started to cry at the sound of a certain song.
But when we think; when we look for something more, we find that her father just passed away and that was his favorite song.
We used to label and categorize that person who didn’t go to church and worship as a heathen and atheist.
But when we think, when we look for something more, we discover that no one has invited them and are too shy to go on their own.
We used to label and categorize God as a disciplinarian. Someone who punished us and took things away from us when we did wrong.
We used to label and categorize God as Santa Claus, someone who was all too happy to give us whatever we ask for, as long as we are good!
We used to label and categorize God like we would any other person, and we wonder why people are leaving the church.
But when we think, when we look for something more, we discover that God is not something we can just merely label and file away,
God is not something we can put our hands on and define,
God is not something that fits in a mold or most definitely not in a box!
God is SO MUCH MORE! God is so big and unlike anything else that exists in this world.
Trying to put God into something we’ve experienced or can explain is to limit the role of God in our life.
He is more than a prophet, he is more than a convictor, he is more than a friend, he is more than a protector, he is more than a defender, there is SO MUCH MORE!
You see what can happen when we think? There is a whole other world out there when we think about it!
There are countless possibilities of good and beauty happening everywhere when we look for something more!
When we think.
Cathy didn’t think about the doctor. She refused to look for something more, and because of that, she lost her life.
When we think, truly think, when we look for something more, we will not lose our life at all, but we will experience life like we’ve not thought possible.
Because there is SO MUCH MORE than we realize.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.