When our family was serving as foreign missionaries in Zimbabwe for the UMC in the early 1990’s, one of our primary tasks was to help get the beginnings of the campus ready for the School of Theology to open at the new Africa University. One of the theologians who came to teach as the seminary opened was Paul Wesley Chilcotte (with his family). Having a middle name like Wesley undoubtedly contributed to Paul eventually becoming a Wesleyan scholar who has taught and written on many aspects of John Wesley’s perspectives of grace across his life…
In Paul’s book, A Life-Shaping Prayer, he writes about the delicious and savory aspect of God’s grace:
“The poet theologian George Herbert’s collection of poems entitled The Temple reveals his own personal quest for faith in and intimacy with God. In a poem built around the image of banquet, Herbert invites Christ to live and dwell in his heart and welcomes the delicious, sacred cheer that surpasses all other earthly joys. Using images common to the mystical tradition, he reflects upon the way in which God’s sweetness surprises and deluges the soul… God’s word are ‘sweeter than honey to my mouth.’ What a phenomenal description of God and God’s actions!
Recent studies demonstrate that most people conceive God as adversarial, critical, and distant. In terms of taste, it would probably be right to describe their ‘taste’ of God as bitter, sour, and acrid. But those who have come to know God in Jesus Christ have a very different conception. God’s Word is sweet. God’s law, God’s commandments, God’s words not only seem sweet but create sweetness. They sweeten everything they touch. In this unique way of thinking about our relationship with God. God delights in providing a banquet of sweet things for us. God invites all who are hungry and thirsty—all who seek mercy and salvation—to come, to drink, and to eat. God offers us the most nourishing food imaginable and shares the sweetness of Christ’s mercy with us all.”
While Paul observes that some people “conceive of God as adversarial, critical, and distant,” it is interesting that many in society describe Christians the same way. That is, Christians as being “against” a long list of things instead of being “for,” and in service to, a world of people whom God treasures and wants us to help reach.
It seems we can never get, nor share, enough of God’s grace. – Sonny –