There’s a bit of a nationwide phenomenon going on right now on Netflix.

I gotta tell you, I try not to sensationalize or speak in too much hyperbole, but after Season 1 I’m happy to announce....

“STRANGER THINGS IS THE BEST TELEVISION SHOW EVER.”

Stranger Things is a Science Fiction show set in the early 1980’s (which is 3/5 of the reason I love it in the first place).

The show is a tribute to a ton of late 70s and early 80s science fiction movies...but its characters (most of which are kids), its plot, and the truth it tells about friendship, loyalty, good, evil, and sacrifice are second to none.

As a disclaimer, its definitely PG-13 and there are some people that think its scary...

Now, I hesitate to give away too much of the plot to those who haven’t yet watched it, (and just to be clear, its not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea), but there is one particular part of this show I want to draw your attention to.

At one point, the kids in the show find this alternate dimension. They call it “The Upside-Down”.

The Upside-Down is an exact replica of our world...except its totally overcome by darkness and decay. In the Upside Down, nothing works like it should.

So, for example, if we were all in this room in the Upside-Down, it would look the same, it would just be much darker, colder, and would be covered up in vines and weeds.

This stage would look rotten, and none of the lights would work.

Not only that, in the Upside-Down, there is monster that lurks. Always looking for a meal...for someone to devour.

After I watched Stranger Things...I was asking a lot of questions.

One of which was this... “What world do I live in? Where exactly am I most at home? In the ‘real world’...or in the ‘Upside Down’?”

That’s the question I want you to ask yourself today... “Where am I most at home?” In the real world... or in the Upside Down?...

While we’re at it, think about this...Maybe what you have defined as the real world is actually the Upside Down a dark, decaying, place that is just a shadow of what the world is supposed to be.

In fact, what if you are lost in the Upside Down...and God has been trying to open up opportunities for you to get back to reality...but you are so used to the darkness, the death, the decay...that you think he’s taking something away from you?... But in reality...he’s trying to save you from the monster.

Here we go.

Exodus 19

On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

When Moses told the words of the people to the LORD, the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their

garments. And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.” And Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” And the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them.” So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Exodus 20:1-3

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 24:7-11

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

This passage paints two pictures of God, doesn’t it?

Exodus 19:12

And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.

Exodus 4:11

Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

On one hand, God sort of appears at the top of Mt. Sinai with Thunder and Lightning, Smoke and Fire, A big booming trumpet and he has Moses tell the people, “STAND BACK. COME CLOSE AND YOU DIE”

On the other hand, at the end of this encounter...Moses has taken up some of Israel’s leaders...and they look at God, while they eat and drink.

Ummmmmm, does this seem odd to you?

Its like having a tea party with a tornado.

It's like an earthquake takes you out to lunch.

How in the world do we go from a God that says “Don’t Come NEAR or you’ll die” to a God that says, “Come have Brunch?”

Today, we’re going to see how that happens...and why we desperately need God to be both scary and good.

1) In the Upside-Down, God is useful. In reality, God is scary...and you need him to be.

Whenever you get a glimpse of the Upside-Down world of Stranger Things, you always see these shots of stuff decaying and falling apart.

And you see vines covering everything. Slowly overtaking buildings and cars and swimming pools.

You ever drive down the interstate in West Tennessee and see the Kudzu covering everything...telephone poles, trees, buildings...its kind of like that. Kudzu vine is this plant that won’t stop...it just consumes everything.

And then there is the monster. He’s also roaming around. Looking for blood...trying to devour. Always feeding.

See, there is a culture of consumption in the upside down.
Life, (if you call it that), in the Upside-Down world is all about consuming.

The vines don’t look at all the structures and say, “Wow. This is a beautiful building. We shouldn’t cover this beauty up.”
The Monster doesn’t consider the person he’s about to eat and think, “Hang on. This person is important. I shouldn’t eat him.”

There is no thought in the Upside-Down. Its just about what can I consume. What can I destroy to please myself.

To the vines...the Taj Mahal is the same as a shack.

To the monster...it doesn’t matter if you’re the President or the Pope...if you find yourself in the upside down...you’re lunch.

So how do you know if you’re comfortable in the Upside Down?

How do you know if you’ve settled in to the broken and decaying ways of the world as it shouldn’t be?

Well, how did you react to this description of God on Mt. Sinai?

See, if this God is too big, too scary, too dangerous for you...there’s a good chance you have bought into the consuming culture of the Upside-Down.

To get a picture of this, look at Israel.

You remember the kinds of things Israel was saying in the wilderness?

Exodus 15:24

And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

Exodus 16:3

and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

When they are in the wilderness, they say to Moses and God, “Give us something to drink!”

They say, “Doesn’t God care about us? We’re hungry! Give us something to eat!”

Then again, they say, “We’re thirsty...if you don’t give us something to drink right now you are going to kill us.”

Israel is looking at God like a shopper looks at the mall.

“Give me what I want. I’m hungry.”

You can hear it in their cynical attitude. In their petty attempts at guilt-tripping God.

“In Egypt, we had everything we needed...we come out here and trust you and you just try to kill us.”

See, God isn’t really God to them...he’s just....well...useful.

God is a commodity to be consumed. He’s a genie in a lamp that can be controlled and manipulated to get what you want.

ILLUS: Christian Smith, a sociologist from the University of Notre Dame conducted 5 years of research regarding the spiritual lives of American teenagers a few years ago.

After his research project, he coined a new phrase to describe the prevailing attitude toward God among American youth: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Now that sounds like a big fancy word, but its not. Its 3 big fancy words (just kidding).

Listen to how Christian Smith explains this phrase.

“By ‘moralistic’ I mean being good and nice...By ‘therapeutic’ I mean being primarily concerned with one’s own happiness in contrast to focusing on glorifying God, learning obedience, or serving others. Finally, by ‘deism’ I mean a view of God as normally distant and not involved in one’s life, except if one has a problem on needs God to solve.

In other words, God functions as a combination divine butler and cosmic therapist.”- Christian Smith, Univ of Notre Dame (from The Divine Commodity, Skye Jethani)

When you become a mere consumer...seeking to feed your own belly....your own desires...God is just a device to be used. Consumed and thrown away when you get

what you want....instead of an All-Powerful Mighty Creator to be respected and worshipped.

The God of consumer Christianity will never cause you to stop in your tracks...will never cause you to stand back and say “WHOA!”.

Because he’s a God you can fit in your pocket.

He’s a genie in a bottle that if you are nice and good...he’ll be there to keep your belly full...or pat you on the back like a grandfather in the sky and say, “There there...its ok...just believe in yourself.”

See, if you live in the upside down...if you think of God as a butler or a therapist... why would you ever be silent before him? Why would you ever revere him, or respect him? Why would you ever sing his praises or stand back and say, “I don’t deserve to be close to someone this beautiful...this powerful...this wonderful.”

You wouldn’t...you’d just use him.

If you want to know if you have made your home in the upside down, the first question to ask is “Do I really believe God is so much bigger, and so much more powerful, so much better than me...that he’s dangerous?

Or do I believe God is here to help me get what I want? Do I just want a God who gives me stuff when I’m moral? Do you just want a butler, or a therapist, or an old man upstairs....

If you don’t believe in a scary God, a God who thunders and roars from the top of Mt Sinai...and causes you to stop dead in your tracks...then you’re already living in the world of the Upside Down...and you are becoming the same sort of consuming monster...that’s hunting right now to consume you.

The real God is scary. But you want him that way.

If he wasn’t...if he was tame...if you could just fit him in your pocket... and pull him out when you decided you needed him... He wouldn’t be worth your time...or your worship...

You would be his God.

... we would be destined for a world that was dark, cold, and falling apart...because that’s what happens when all we do is consume...

Remember how the world started.
Back in Genesis 1-2, before there was anything...God was there.

And in Genesis 1 we get this amazing poem about God creating the universe... galaxies...just by speaking a word.

And he arranges everything...he orders everything just perfectly. From the Sun in the sky to the single-celled organism writhing around in a mud puddle.

And everything is in perfect balance...right relationship...and then...a monster sneaks in.

Satan, in the form of snake, comes in and says to the woman, “Did God really say?”

In other words, “Do you really believe God is as big and powerful as he says? He’s just manipulating you? There’s a better way...consume. Get for you. Take what he says you shouldn’t have.”

Genesis 3:4-6

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

See, the serpent, the monster in the garden, turns God upside down.

He says, “What God says will kill you is actually how you’ll live. You won’t die...in fact...you’ll be like God...better than God.”

And so, the very first act of rebellion against God is an act of upside-down consumption.

The woman and the man, despite knowing this powerful God that created the universe from nothing...decide to just use him for the delicious fruit that he made.

And the result of this is a broken and dying world.

But did you ever pay attention to the curse that came from Adam and Eve’s disobedience and arrogant reduction of God?

Genesis 3:14

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

The serpent is cursed to EAT the dust for all of his days. That’s frustration.
Eating consuming something that never satisfies. Exodus 17-19

(bold every instance of the word “eat” or its derivatives)

Likewise, Adam, who represents all of humanity, his curse is to only ever EAT in pain...thorns and thistles...vines of pain...will cover the ground and even though he will EAT...ultimately...in all of his consumption...he will only find futility. He will die and return to the dust...the same dust that the monster, the serpent keeps on consuming.

Do you see the culture of consumption and death? See the thorns covering the ground?

See the monster on the hunt?
The truth is, right now we live in a world where we get glimpses of the Upside Down all the time.

A couple of weeks ago I read a news story of something a mother did to her daughter that I originally had written into this sermon but decided it was too ugly, too dark, too evil to even tell mention in public.

When I read it, I mourned.

It was a horrific act of consumption and self-indulgence that led to the daughter’s death and the mother’s arrest.

No doubt...the mother had been poisoned by some sort of sexual abuse in her past that caused her to see what she was doing as “good” and “desirable”.

Often, our immediate reaction to reading about that kind of evil is to tell ourselves “boy, I’m not that bad.”

But the truth is...all of us have that kind of evil in us.

That’s why we’ll destroy our family and our friends to get more sex, or money, or power, or fame, or drugs and alcohol.

Because all those little pocket gods make big promises about what they can do for us if we consume them...but all they ever do is have us eating dust. ...and wanting more.

All they ever do is consume us.

...and not a single one of those powerless gods could ever thunder from a Mountaintop...none of those powerless gods could create the sun, the moon, the galaxy...

You want a god you can’t fit in your pocket, you want a god that you can’t bottle and sell...because without him...life is futile, the world is upside-down, and we’ll eat each other alive.

But...despite how dark our world can be...he’s up to something. He’s showing the world what its going to look like when he turns it right-side up. See...

2) Light comes from strange people doing stranger things.

In Stranger Things, the heroes are kids.

They aren’t just kids, they are social outcasts.

They are the weirdos at their school.

They are the kids that get bullied.

The one’s at the bottom of the social food chain.

Of course, for a show that is a tribute to an early 80’s sci-fi genre...I’d expect nothing less.

Remember E.T.?

Elliot is always picked on by his brother and friends...

Remember the Goonies?

A bunch of kids that are the subjects of ridicule by the more popular rich kid that drives a nice car while they ride around on bicycles.

And just like in those movies, in Stranger Things...it's the outcasts that get a visit from something supernatural.

Whether its E.T., One Eyed Willie, or Eleven...

...the story is the same.

The supernatural comes to a weak and strange people...to do powerful and stranger things with them...and ultimately...to show everyone what love and justice and friendship....and redemption look like.

In fact, it is love & justice, friendship, sacrifice, & redemption that really are stranger things in the upside down.

Those things seem out of place in a world that is built around consuming. You realize...that’s what the whole Bible is about?

It's about the supernatural coming to a weak and strange people...to do stranger things with them...so that in their strangeness...the light of Love & Justice, Sacrifice & Redemption will flow into the darkness of the Upside Down.

IN fact, that’s exactly what’s happening in this chapter. Let me show you.

The first cities began in Mesopotamia around mountains.
Eventually, these cities stopped gathering around mountains...and started building these pyramid-type structures called Ziggurats.

At the very top of these man-made Ziggurats was a temple.

And if you climbed all the stairs to make it to the top of the Ziggurat, the top of the man-made mountain to make an offering...the gods would bless you.

In other words, if you could ascend high enough, you would prove yourself worthy of blessing.

In fact, you might remember The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.

It was a man-made structure that was built so the people could “make a name for themselves”. So they could prove they were worthy of blessing.

Well, I suppose that’s well and good if you are an able bodied person...but what if you’re a Goonie? What if you’re too weak to make it to the top.

What if every time you’ve tried to prove yourself...you’ve failed? Sound like Israel?

Constantly failing, complaining, grumbling, never living up to expectations... enslaved, beat up on, Israel is as weak as they come.

So look what happens.

At Sinai, God doesn’t say, “Ok, form a city and build a structure to prove yourself.”

Remember, at Babel, he rejected that.

This time, God is turning the Upside-Down, right side up.

He’s turning the Ziggurat on its head.

God is coming down to them, on a mountain, a God-made structure, and he is creating a city for himself.

He’s not saying “Prove yourself”

He’s saying, “I’ve already done what’s necessary.”

Exodus 19:11

and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Exodus 19:18

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

Exodus 19:20

God tells them he is coming down...and while he does call Moses and the Elders UP, its only after he makes the first move to come down.

And look at God create a city around the mountain.

Exodus 19:4

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
He brings all the people around Mt. Sinai, and he has them settle at its base.

And the first thing he does is tell them, “You didn’t get yourselves here.”

Do you see that?

He says, “You see what I did to save you? You see what I did to deliver you from the Egyptians? And how when you were weak and helpless...under the condemnation of that bully nation, I swooped in like an Eagle brought you here to myself.”

See, he is adamant that they know they didn’t ascend to God, but he descended to them.

He wants them to know he’s not requiring them to climb a ziggurat to get his blessing...instead, he has already come down and blessed them on his own.

By the way, at this mountain, they’ll get the law of God, the 10 commandments, and the idea that God was saying, “Keep all this law and then I’ll save you is crazy. In fact do you see the way the 10 commandments begin?”

Exodus 20:2

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

It starts with God using his covenant name, YAHWAY or LORD, and then he identifies as the God who already brought them out of slavery.

See, the 10 commandments were never about saving Israel...they were about showing off the God that saved them.

They were about making them strange.

Exodus 19:5

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

When God says, “I’m making you my treasured possession”, he is not saying, “Do all these things I tell you and I’ll accept you.” No. That would defeat the point.

He is making a point they are already accepted and loved. You know what he’s doing?

He’s giving them the marks of the supernatural.

This is about a relationship of a people to their king.

Think about when you love someone.

When you fall in love someone you do your research, don't you?

You start asking questions like, “What sort of movies do you like?

What hobbies do you have? What’s your family like?”

You are trying to figure out what makes the person you’re dating unique...what makes them special?

...and what are you going to do with that information?

Well, out of your love for that person you go to the movies they like...even if you didn’t like them before.

Guys go paint pottery...girls start asking questions about football...you start spending holidays at another families house...that’s NOT the family you always ate Thanksgiving dinner with.

...and what do your friends say?

“What’s gotten into you? You never liked these movies? You hate pottery-slash- football?”

See, your love for someone else is making you strange.

And its causing you do stranger things. Things you’ve never done before.

The 10 commandments are God’s way of saying, “I want a relationship with you..I know everything about you...I already showed you my love...now here’s my list... here’s what you need to know about me, my character, my ways.”

This is the way you reciprocate the love I’ve already given to you.

I’ve treasured you. This is the way you can treasure me.

Exodus 19:6

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

...that’s why this naturally will make them a Kingdom of Priests...and a Holy Nation. That word Holy means, “Set apart, distinct, different”...it means- STRANGE.

And nation means, a group of people arranged around some organizing principle. You know what the organizing principle is here.

Its God’s love of them.

The city at the base of this upside-down Ziggurat is strange because it is organized around the strange love of God.

It is not about achieving to get blessing.

It is not about a pocket-size god that helps you consume.

This holy nation is strange...they are different because they are the people of a massively huge God...who says, “The whole earth is mine”...at the same time he says, “I love you and want an intimate relationship with you.”

And that means, as Israel obeys this law, they become a people that don’t consume...instead they bless others.

That’s what a ‘Kingdom of Priests’ means.

A “priest” is someone who represents God to other people.

So a kingdom of priests is an entire group of people grouped around a King that represents God to other people.

If you take those 2 together, you know what you get?

You get strange people who do stranger things to bring right side up light to a dark upside down world.

Think about it.

Being a holy nation & a kingdom of priests means that when you see God has rescued you...when you know that he loves you before you could ever keep a single one of his laws...that the way you live once you find that out is going to so set you apart by loving others the same way.

Every part of your life changes.

The way you handle sex, money, power, will become something very strange to other people.

For example.

In these early pagan cultures, many gods were worshipped by the men having sex with prostitutes outside the temple.

Exodus 19:15

And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

But God says, “Don’t touch a woman at the base of this mountain.”

Don’t come to me consuming each other with sex.

That doesn’t mean that God is anti-sex.

In the law, he is protecting sex as a life giving, covenant-keeping act. So he will tell them in the law, “don’t commit adultery.”

I’m gonna tell you. This view of sex will definitely make you strange. You won’t be a consumer, living by the law of the upside down.

Instead, you’ll be a strange person, doing stranger things...bringing light to the darkness.

Or think about money.

In the law, essentially, God is going to tell Israel to give away 23% of what they have every year.

Isn’t it strange to be generous?

Isn’t it strange to instead of hold onto to money...so you can be more of a consumer...isn’t it strange to give it away.

To everyone around you, you’ll appear insane.

Don’t you want the American dream?

Don’t you want to get more, to have more, and then go get some more.

But see, God is saying, “Your generosity...the way you care for the weak and powerless...the way you give your money away..is going to be this strange reflection of who I am to everyone around you. To all the nations of the world.”

Matthew 5:14-16

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

This is what Jesus is talking about when he says “You are the light of the world. A CITY on a HILL. A Lighted City that has been SET on the top of a mountain!”

Look, a lot of people look at this verse individually.

They think it means, “If I do nice things, people will see it and think something nice about God.”

While that has some truth to it, its not what Jesus is getting at.

This is plural. Collective.

Y’all are the light of the world.

Jesus is talking about a city...a group of people.

A lighted city within a dark city.

A right-side up people in an upside down world.

He says, “People will see the glory...the bigness...the weight of God as they see you living strange lives.”

In other words, The way God thunders from the top of the mountain is no longer through gathered clouds and smoke and a trumpet...now...he thunders in the world through the people he makes strange and sets on top of mountain.”

YOU ARE THE CITY ON A HILL. YOU, church, ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

Listen, you can’t be a city without first knowing God has rescued you. Without first knowing that he loves you.

And then, you can’t be a city by yourself.

A city is a gathered people. A kingdom, a nation...that is a group of people...and so is the church.

Jesus is saying that when the upside down world looks at the way the church lives TOGETHER...

Inside the church people get along even when they have differences...inside the church people are giving instead of consuming...inside the church there is generosity instead of greed...

When we live like this...others will begin to close their mouths and WONDER...and fear God...just like Israel did at Mt. Sinai.

So, if you are trying to be a Christian by yourself...Well, its impossible. You aren’t saved to be light of the world.

You are saved to be a PART of the light of the world. A citizen in this right side up city.

Do you know, that’s why we named this church “City Church”. Because we are supposed to be an alternate city within the city of Murfreesboro...we’re supposed to be the light of this other dimension...this Kingdom of God...flowing into a consumer culture that is eating itself alive.

But if we are going to be a kingdom priests, we cannot forget to keep eating with the King.

3) In the Upside-Down, eating is about your belly. In the Kingdom of God, eating is about your heart.

One of the things that Jesus was most loved and hated for was the way he ate. I don’t mean his table manners...I mean the people he ate with.

The religious leaders of the day would ask his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

One time he was eating in the house of one of these religious leaders and a woman who had the reputation of a prostitute came in and began to clean Jesus’ feet with her tears.

And all the religious leaders said, “If he was this great prophet...he would not let this woman wash his feet.”

But Jesus welcomed her to the table.
See, eating at a table was more than about feeding your belly in Jesus’ day.

It was a way to say, “I am with these people. I am like these people I eat with.” It was to announce –“These people I am eating with are my friends.”

Eating was about acceptance.
So of course, when the religious folk saw Jesus eating with the lowest in their society...the outcast and the sinner...the Goonies...they thought it strange...and offensive.

But did you see what happened at Mt. Sinai?

Exodus 24:10-11

and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Moses goes up to the top of Mt. Sinai with the elders of Israel and they sit at the feet of God...they see God...this thundering, massive, scary God...but they don’t die...like all of God’s warnings said, “If you come close you’ll die...I’m too holy...you can’t take my glory.”

Instead, God does not lay his hand on them as they sit at his feet... Instead...they behold this massive God...and they eat and drink. Isn’t this the reverse of the curse from Genesis 3?
No more eating in futility...

In fact, eating isn’t even about consuming anymore.

You think these guys suddenly got hungry and microwaved a burrito as they sat in the presence of God?

NO!

This eating and drinking is not about filling their bellies. Its about filling their hearts.

This is not about consuming...its about relationship. They are fellowshipping with God

They have been accepted, even though they are sinners, even though they are outcasts who weren’t supposed even touch the mountain...God has welcomed them to his table.

But how?

Well, did you see the strange thing that Moses did just before this?

Exodus 24:7-8

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Moses reads the law to all of Israel and then all the people say, “YES! We love this God who rescued us! We’ll do everything he says.”

But that’s not true. They are going to break this law a thousand times in the next 30 days.

After they say this, they sacrifice some animals, and Moses collects all the blood in some jars.

And when the people make the promise to keep the law, he throws the blood on the people.

That’s strange.

But see, they didn’t sign their names to paper back then when they agreed to a covenant.

This was an oral and visual culture.

So instead, they acted out the consequences of breaking the covenant.

So when Moses throws blood on the people he’s saying, “If you break this covenant, you will pay for it with your life”

Its interesting, the monster in Stranger Things is attracted to blood. Because he knows it means that he has a weak and helpless victim that will be easy to consume.

See, in the Upside Down...in our dark world that is broken by sin, eating is about consuming. Its about getting what we want when we want it...and we are morbidly obese.

But on the night before Jesus died, he came to the table just before the meal...and HE washed his disciples feet.

He lowered himself...the God on Mt Sinai, came down to the sinners feet...and served them.

They were weak. Frail...about to betray him...but he washed them.

Then, he stood up at the meal and took a cup and he said, “This is my blood...not yours...and it's the blood of a NEW COVENANT.”

On the cross, the next day, Jesus’ blood would pay the price not only for Israel’s sin against God, but ours too.

See, because his blood was spilt, ours doesn’t have to be. And that is how God can invite us all to supper.

Because he washed our feet at the meal, for all eternity, we can sit at his feet and eat and drink with him.

In the book of Hebrews, it says, “A door to the Kingdom of God has been opened to us...a kind of door to this other right-side up dimension” has been opened because our hearts our cleaned by the sprinkled blood of Jesus”

We have access to the table of God because his blood covers us. LORD’S SUPPER

You see, in the Kingdom of God, eating is about relationship. And that’s why there will always be a meal in the New Heavens and New Earth.

It won’t be because we are starving and need to feed ourselves...it will be because we are filling our hearts with the presence of God.

And until he comes, with this meal, Jesus said, we will proclaim his death in our place to the world.

This meal, is another one of the Strange Things that this Strange People keep doing to remind ourselves and the watching world...that a very scary God invited us to supper.