The Flavor of the Day

On Palm Sunday Jesus was the Flavor of the Day.

I downloaded the app for the restaurant Culver's.  I like Culver's. They have their roots in Wisconsin. The Culver family is also Lutheran. I almost feel its my duty to like Culver's. The butter burgers are okay. The Reuben is really good. But for me, most important than butter on the burgers is that they have Wisconsin Deep-Fried-Cheese-Curds on the menu and yummy frozen custard... a Wisconsin dairy treat.

Frozen custard should be vanilla in my mind, but Culver's soups their custard to make all kinds of different flavors.  They have a "Flavor of the Day" at every location, so if there is a particular flavor you have come to enjoy you better keep an eye open for when that flavor will appear on the calendar. This is where the app is such a helpful tool. At the push of a button you can find out what is on the schedule at your closest Culver's location.

Today the flavor is Kit Kat Swirl and tomorrow will be Oreo Overload.  The problem is that, lets say I just adore that Kit Kat Swirl. (Which is a pretty good bet, because I enjoy a delicious Kit Kat.) The next time I come to Culver's there's a really good chance they wont have it.  For they have moved on to the next one: Brownie Thunder or Just Drummy.  "I don't want Just Drummy, I would like Kit Kat Swirl," you say with a air of disappointment.  It wont matter.  Kit Kat Swirl is old news... at least until the next time it comes around.  McDonald's has made a three decade odyssey out of the ever popular McRib sandwich: always appearing and disappearing for a limited time.

On Palm Sunday Jesus was The Flavor of the Day.  I'd say week, but by the end of that week, the people have long ago moved on.  Jesus was celebrated as the new king, enter Jerusalem in triumph. Here's a flavor that will stick.  Here's a man with authority from God. He will surly put and end to the Roman's reign.

It didn't take long for the crowd to turn.  Jesus was not going to be the new King David, because what the world needed was a King of Kings for all time.  While the crowds at "Just Drummy" just reigned on the cross: meeting humanity at the very worst humanity can dish or experience.  He was the Flavor of the Week when people didn't even realize that the flavor they truly hungered for was the Bread of Life with a side of Living Waters.

Part of the human experience is that we all have experienced being the Flavor of the Week at some point. We've been the "Kit Kat Swirl" admired and popular one day; sent out to pasture the next.

Jesus has been there. He meets us in our struggles and knows how it feels to be abandoned for something or someone else.  God reveals to us that we are all Children of God. Even as other may forget us and move on to the next, Jesus never does. He loves you and embraces you today, tomorrow and always. You are God's flavor of all time.

I'm sticking with vanilla.