A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

Matthew 11:19, “The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.  But wisdom is justified of her children.”  Residents in a downtown area of Tulsa, Oklahoma, have, on certain nights, heard unusual, frail sounds of music rising from beneath the streets. This went on for two years with no one knowing the source. Some thought it might be coming from a radio that a sewer worker had left on. Though, in reality, a group of Tulsa’s teens literally were going “underground.” They gathered together in groups of twelve to twenty-five and met there regularly on Friday and Saturday nights. Beneath the city is a maze of passages and tunnels and so the teens took advantage of it as a place to go to play music and relax. One Tulsa Junior College student said, “I do my best playing down there.” Playing in a twelve-foot-by-fifteen-foot cave gives their music an eerie acoustical melody, and a single guitar chord may reverberate for sixty seconds.  One young man commented, “There’s no other place we could get together like this without being hassled.”  These Tulsa teenagers went “underground” because they didn’t “fit in” above the ground.  If you’ve ever been a little “different” you know what it’s like not to “fit in.”  I really don’t think Jesus would fit in most of our societal circles today—especially the religious ones.  He didn’t “fit in” in His earthly era either—especially among the religious crowd.  I can envision this long-haired fellow from theback-water town of Nazareth, preaching what seemed to be a radical message, poking His finger in the eye of the religious establishment, and hanging around the outcasts of the day.  His reputation was one of being a friend of sinners—would that we had the same label.  So for all of us who don’t quite “fit in,” we are in good company.  We have a good example to follow.  It is an example that is never judgmental, or prejudicial, but loves everyone as God has loved us; not because of who we are, but because of who He is.  For I too was a sinner, and He became my best friend, and it is with this same mercy and grace that I will demonstrate to all with whom I encounter, with this and each new day.