Somewhere along the line, we connected the Christian message not with joy but severity and God must surely weep at the sadness of it all.

Such seriousness has led us in all kinds of terrible directions. From murderous crusades to boring sermons, our convoluted convictions have often made Christianity into anything but Christianity.

Matthew tells us Jesus didn’t teach anything without a parable, without a story filled with wondrous images and provocative symbols.

But what have we done?

No stories now, only systematic theologies. No tantalizing tales, only dreary dogma. No mystery and wonder, only explanations, rules and regulations.

What a shame. What a terrible shame.

When Jesus paid a visit to the home of Martha and Mary, impetuous Mary did a "terrible thing". Instead of working her fingers to the bone preparing supper for those thirteen hungry lads, she sat down with Jesus to play. Supper can wait, the chores will be there when this is over. This is more important.

And what does Jesus say? Does he put on his stern and sanctimonious expression and utter Protestant work ethic profundities like, "Idle hands are the devil’s tools"?

No. Instead, he says something far more shocking.

"Mary has chosen the better way..."

Why do we have such difficulty doing the same?

It is because we don’t believe in grace. We really don’t. We pretend we do, of course. We sing songs and pray prayers that have all the right words and all the proper theology but deep down we really don’t believe it.

We believe there is something we must do for God to love us. There is something we must believe or recite or confess for God to love us. We simply don’t believe that God can love us simply because that is the nature of God.

No wonder we have such trouble playing.