Taste and See

 

Nov 7, 2021, Muncie IN

Psalm 34:8  O Taste and see that the Lord is good…

If you come to my home, I will offer to make you coffee. Coffee is part of my culture.  So when we had guests, I offered and they accepted. Our guests knew I was a coffee aficionado and was looking forward to a cup. I had coffee from Ethiopia Sidamo and Mexico Chiapas on hand. In my opinion, Ethiopia is better, so I decided to use it. I was looking forward to sharing this with them. I filled the electric kettle with filtered water and turned it on. I measured out 42 grams of Ethiopian beans and placed them in the burr grinder. The grinder was set for medium course, making the grounds similar to table salt. I stopped the kettle before it boiled because that affects the taste.  Next, I measured out 700g of water for a 1/16 ratio. I poured the remaining hot water over the filter into the chemex to warm up the glass. Using a gooseneck kettle, I slowly saturated the coffee grounds until the scale read 30g. The wet grounds began to bloom releasing trapped carbon dioxide. After 30 seconds of degassing, I then begin the methodical pour of hot water to the center of the grounds, careful not to blow-out the dome of coffee. In about 3 minutes, the process is complete with the final dripping of coffee from the filter to the decanter. Finally, I poured a cup of steaming coffee into a ceramic mug and gave it to my guest. 

The great thing about coffee is it bends to your will. How you like it is how you should be. If you like it with cream and sugar, then you should drink it that way. Another way that coffee is part of my culture, is that it is a safe way for me to share myself, be vulnerable. I have trust issues. Making a cup of coffee for someone, especially someone I do not know very well, is a way for me to drop a wall, and open a door of conversation I am comfortable having. There is a danger in this. I view this as a somewhat intimate act I am performing. There is always a chance of this going sideways, but in this particular case, I am usually willing to try. The bottom line is, in wanting to make a cup of coffee for you, I am sharing a piece of me.

My guest asked what kind of coffee it was. I told him it was Ethiopian but I have Mexican if he preferred that. He stated that Mexican coffee would be considered inferior. He then poured cream into it and placed the cup in the microwave. All without tasting it. I did not say anything. 

J.I. Packer wrote in Knowing God, “we do not know another person’s real quality till we have tasted the experience of friendship. Friends are, so to speak, communicating flavors to each other all the time, by sharing their attitudes both toward each other and toward everything else that is of common concern. As they thus open their hearts to each other by what they say and do, each “tastes” the quality of the other, for sorrow or for joy.” Packer goes on to say, “the same applies to the Christian’s knowledge of God, which, as we have seen, is itself a relationship between friends.” Makes sense right? We use flavors to describe people’s personality. Sweet, fiery, salty, bitter, tart, dry, icy.

Just as you can’t know how good the coffee is until you taste it, you cannot know how good God is until you taste His quality. If you add cream or sugar to coffee or microwave the coffee, you alter the coffee’s true quality to fit your desire. Attempting to alter God’s quality or “flavor” will damage your relationship with God. You will not know God’s true quality, His true love and friendship with you.

How do we add sugar, milk and microwave the gospel, how do we alter God? There are several answers to this. 

1. We do not believe in certain subjects, or doctrines. For example, soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, which includes justification and repentance. Hamartiology which is the doctrine of sin. Pneumatology which is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Eschatology which is the doctrine of the end times which includes the second coming and the final judgment. Sometimes it also means we do not preach on subjects that are controversial or hard to understand.
2. We alter God's quality when we assign or take away certain attributes of God. Maybe its hard to believe in God’s wrath, anger, or jealousy. Romans 1:18, Romans 2:5, Proverbs 6:16
3. When we do not prioritize God we miss out on his quality. Prioritizing refers to the study of scripture, spending time in prayer, resting in God, taking all things to God, tithe/offering, and practicing communion. Our highest priority should be knowing God in every way.
4. If you do not obey God, you will not truly know God. Obedience is trust. If you do not obey, you do not trust God. If you do not trust God, you cannot be His own. If you do not trust, you cannot love God, you cannot worship God. Romans 12:1
5. If you continue to engage in your sin, you do not know God. 1 John 3:6
6. Believing certain things about God or the Gospel that aren’t scriptural. I.e. “We are all God's children” John 1:9-13

I was talking to Jean about this topic and I love what she said, “That’s what I thought you were going with and I do agree. My only consideration is it feels more divisive than edifying. Though that is your point, I believe, we modify or avoid passages based on comfort level and that is microwaving it.” Yes, when we are not tasting the true quality of God, we are dividing ourselves from Him.

Let’s go back to our verse. Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that God is good” The Hebrew word for “taste” is ta-am, טַעַם. Figuratively it means to perceive. In other words, to discern, to understand, to assess, to consider. To "taste" means something more than a fleeting relationship. It means to feed on the Lord—to accept His truth deep into one's self —which involves reading the written Word of God voraciously and mulling over it as part of our discipleship. To truly know God, we need to absorb His message as if we were eating it. 

To go with our analogy of coffee. It is not to accept the cup, take a sip and then doctor it to your taste. It is to smell the odor, pick up the faint scents of the plants that grew around the coffee tree. To look at the color, even the color from coffees can be different.

To drink the cup and allow the coffee to run over your taste buds, allowing it to splash against the roof of your mouth and the back of your throat. Did you know that as coffee cools, its flavor changes? It is to drink the whole cup as is. And then to take a second cup and drink that. Then you will know its true quality.

How do we “taste and see” God? How do we taste His true quality? Answer: Disciplines. Spiritual discipline is training that produces biblical character or pattern of behavior. We should stick with spiritual disciplines that have a clear scriptural basis. 

What are the disciplines? Here are two:

1. The Word of God: Reading, study, memorization and meditation of Scripture in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 55:11  God’s Word promises to accomplish what it sets out to change in us. Romans 12:2  We renew our mind through the Word of God which is truth. Colossians 3:16 Christ used scripture to defend Himself against Satan in the desert. Scripture is meant to sustain your spiritual life and sustain your soul.
2. Prayer: spiritual communication with God. thanksgiving, adoration, supplication, petition and confession. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Ephesians 6:18, James 5:13, Matthew 5:44, Romans 12:12, Philippians 4:6, Colossians 4:2, 1 Timothy 2:8  

Where the analogy breaks down. Some people will never like coffee. Personally, I do not care if you like coffee or even drink coffee, I do care if you know and are known by God. When we taste and see our God, we taste and see His goodness. We taste and see His excellent quality. We taste and see that He is good for us; spiritually nourishing our hearts, minds and souls and in Him we take refuge. I don’t want you to be a connoisseur of coffee, I do want you to be a connoisseur of God. May His cup be always delicious and satisfying to your soul.