I desire mercy...

Sermon for St. Matthew’s Day

September 22, 2019 

Proverbs 3:1-6

Psalm 119:33-40

2 Timothy 3:14-17

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Today we are celebrating the fest day of Matthew our patron Saint.  Yesterday was the actual feast day.  We are allowed to transfer our patronal feast to the nearest Sunday.  The gospel lesson today is the simple calling of Matthew to be one of Jesus disciples.  It is a simple story.  We are told that Jesus was walking along and he saw Matthew sitting and collecting taxes – or tolls – in the tax booth.  Jesus simply says to Matthew to “Follow me” and remarkably he does.

I say remarkably because being a tax collector was a lucrative position – even if it didn’t earn you many friends.  Tax collectors acted as agents of the Roman occupation.  Tax collectors had to collect a certain amount of taxes, but they were also allowed to collect whatever they could get and keep for themselves.  Because they were agents of Rome and able to demand whatever money they wanted the people despised them.

After Jesus offers the invitation to follow the scene shifts into Jesus having dinner with Matthew and it says that “many tax collectors and sinners” where sitting at table with Jesus.  And the pharisee’s wondered why this itinerate Rabbi would be eating with people who are political pariahs and would make him ritually unclean. When they ask why Jesus eats with these people he says “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

The phrase “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” is well known.  And it has been used as one of those verse to put people down.  It implies that the people Jesus are eating with are sick.  It is easy for us to then come up with a theology that says that people who do things that we judge as sinners are sick people.  And if sick then we need to heal them.  It is interesting that beyond this phrase we do not hear Jesus telling those he is eating with to do anything different. Instead we hear throughout the Gospel of Matthew – and the other Gospels – that Jesus’ version of being a physician was to extravagantly heal the sick with no required “payment” and to dine with those society saw as outcasts.

Jesus told the Pharisee’s to go and learn what “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” means.  Jesus is asking them to remember the Prophet Hosea who said “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”  Jesus is reminding the pharisee’s that God is a God of love and a God of mercy.  He is asking the religions leaders to look into their hearts and see if they are practicing mercy. 

Jesus is enjoying his time eating and drinking with the Tax Collectors and sinners.  He is befriending those that society casts out.  He is providing mercy by companionship to those who have little.  He is not judging them as being outcasts and unclean as his observers are. No.  Jesus is having table fellowship with the outcasts – an intimate action in first century Israel.  Jesus is showing Mercy by welcoming “the other” to table.

Michael Cranford who manages the blog “One Steadfast” said “God desires mercy, not sacrifice. .....it's not just telling us that God wants us to love people more than he wants us to observe ritual holiness. It's telling us that his deepest desire, the thing that is most important to him in all the world, is that people come to him, experience his love, and find themselves washed clean. It's not only a message to us, it is a message for us. God is a God of mercy. He doesn't want perfection, he wants his children to experience his forgiveness and to draw near.”^[1]

We are invited to hear the same offer that Jesus made to Matthew when he said, “Follow me”.  We are called to follow a Jesus who offers healing and eats with those that society treats as unclean.  That society sees as outcasts.  We are called to learn what it means to desire mercy.  Not to judge others for what we see as their lack of purity.  Not to judge others because they don’t make the proper sacrifices to God.

We are called to find ways to offer mercy to God’s beloved children.  The first way we do that is by recognizing that all of God’s beloved children are indeed loved by God.  All of God’s beloved children are invited to the banquet.  We show mercy when we offer food to the hungry.  We show mercy when we offer clothing to those in need.  We show mercy when we eat at table with those that society judges as unworthy.

We also show mercy when we are good stewards of this creation.  We cannot advocate for policies that cause environmental destruction and say we are being merciful.  Climate change is threatening extinction to more and more of creation.  And while some do not agree with the scientific assessment that climate change is happening, we saw this past Friday that the youth in our world do understand it.

I was struck by the reports on the Climate Strike this past Friday. In Sacramento the leader is a 13-year-old girl.  She worked to secure a permit at the capitol and expected a couple of hundred people I hear, and more than a thousand young people and their parents showed up.  Thousands gathered in protests in cities all over the world.  A movement that was started by a young Swedish women Greta Thunberg who started protesting outside of the Sweetish parliament in 2018.  A movement that has grown to a worldwide protest calling on our leaders to acknowledge climate change and to do something to help. 

According the the Episcopal News Service The house of Bishop’s, meeting in Minneapolis took a break from their meeting “for a moment of solidarity with the strikers. About 100 bishops gathered outside their hotel to pray and sing, having released a statement in support of the strikes the day before, and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry spoke about the Christian responsibility to protect the Earth.

“We are bishops of The Episcopal Church. And we are leaders who share leadership with other clergy and lay people in the church. But we are not here today as leaders. We’re here as followers. We’re here to follow the youth mobilization on climate change. We’re here to follow and support what they are doing to stand in solidarity with them,” Curry said. “[Jesus] said, ‘God so loved the world’ – not just part of the world, but the whole world. This is God’s world, and we must care for it and take care of it and heal it and love it, just as God loves it.”^[2]

Cleaning up environmental harm and preventing environmental destruction is showing mercy to those who are growing up in our world today.  It is showing mercy to the creatures who are finding their habitats increasingly hostile to their very survival.

The good news is that we are being called to Follow Jesus.  We are called to open our hearts to those that society treats as “the other”.   We follow Jesus when we advocate for policies that provide dignity to those who are in need.  We do that when we advocate for simple human necessities for those who find themselves homeless.  Such necessities as bathrooms that are accessible to people living outside – a concept that our government seems not to understand.  Yes public bathrooms are abused by some folks but without them we find our rivers and environment polluted by human waste.

This congregation has a long history of being Followers of Jesus’ way of Love.  You have a long history of welcoming all to the table.  You have a long history of providing food to the hungry, clothing to those in need, and access to medical screening.  You all have a history of following the call to mercy.  A call that is transforming this neighborhood by creating the Center of St. Matthew’s.  A center that has this worshiping congregation at the very heart.  A worshipping community that invites all of God’s beloved children to the table.  A community that uses its resources to spread God’s love outside of these doors.  We are following Jesus command to follow.  This very day We are striving to love mercy.

Amen.

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^[1] https://www.onesteadfast.com/Blog/ScriptureStudy/I-Desire-Mercy-Not-Sacrifice-The-Limitless-Love-of-Our-God accessed September 21, 2019

^[2] https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/09/20/episcopalians-bring-spiritual-urgency-to-youth-led-climate-strikes/ Accessed September 21, 2019

Shining a light to dispel the darkness

Sermon for Epiphany 3A – RCL

Isaiah 9:1-4

Psalm 27:1, 5-13

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Matthew 4:12-23

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
have seen a great light,light has dawned.”

the people who sat in darkness 

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death 

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

For such a short passage from the Gospel of Matthew there is a lot going on!  Jesus has heard about his cousin’s arrest and leaves the population center of Nazareth and heads to the Sea of Galilee – where a whole lot of ministry will be going on.  Jesus picks up John’s call for all to “Repent, for the reign of heaven has come near”.   Followed by the calling of his first disciples.  Two sets of brothers. 

The geography in the story is important.  Matthew says Jesus is going to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali – places that do not exist now and did not really exist in Jesus time.  Jesus is going to the Promised Land.  Jesus is going to where two of the tribes of Israel settled and that has been the site of multiple occupations.  In Jesus’ time it was the Roman’s occupying the land.  Before that the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks – and many more have occupied this land.  So into this land of multiple occupations Jesus declares that the Reign of God is come close.  That in the most unlikely of places God’s love is trying to break through the darkness.  Matthew makes it clear that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of the prophet Isaiah.  Matthew makes it clear that God is doing great things in the most unlikely places.  In a backwater of the Roman Empire Jesus is lighting a fire that will dispel the darkness.  And that light is still working to dispel the darkness.

This week saw the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.  Looking at the popular vote one can see that the nations is deeply divided with about half the voting population voting for each of the two candidates.  So for some Friday was a time of rejoicing.  But for others the rhetoric of deportation, walls, and reversals strikes fear. 

There was also much debate in social media on how a church that claims she wants to be prophetic and show the light of Jesus in this land, and affirm the dignity of all people as children of God, should behave.  One thread I followed asked if we should pray for the President by name or just the office.  I for one land on the side of praying for the president by name – whether I agree with the current holder of the office or not.  My prayer – for all those in authority – is that the Holy Spirit will open their eyes to the suffering around them and lead them to take actions that will affirm the dignity of all of God’s children.  That is my prayer for both democratic and republican leaders alike. 

Yesterday many people in many locations gathered for the Women’s march.  A march to affirm the dignity of all people.  I know many who marched – in many locations – including my husband and many clergy.  Actions that affirm the dignity of people are subversive.  And I believe that we as a church are called to take action to affirm the dignity of all people.  I – partially because I needed the time to write this sermon – choose to go to St. Paul’s, which is only several blocks from the capitol, and open her up for anyone who wanted to stop in for prayer and meditation.  Because for some marching might be too much and for some marching could induce a need for prayer.  

Jesus’s call that the reign of God is drawing near is a call that we are called to practice.  We – each and every one of us are called.  Called to shine a light.  Jesus called two sets of brothers to shine lights into the hearts of people.  Jesus calls his disciples away from fishing for fish to be fishers of people.  Jesus called ordinary people – and dare I say fairly low on the socioeconomic ladder, to be his disciples.  Fishing was a major activity but it was controlled by the ruling elite.  Perhaps that is why the brothers where so quick to respond and leave the trade!   And Jesus is calling us.

Perhaps all to often the church uses the word “called” as it relates to people who are ordained.  Ordained folk are called to a church.  Ordained folk talk about our call to ordained ministry.  So sometimes it seems that being called mean going into ordained ministry.  Which cannot be further from the truth.  All of us are called by God.  And all of us are called to ministry.  And that ministry is to live out our baptismal promises.  To help shine the light and dispel the darkness.  To continue in the apostles fellowship – in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers.  To respect the dignity of all of God’s people.

And everyone’s call is different.  Some are called to provide hospitality.  Some are called to remind the church that we are to operate differently than empire – whether it be the Roman empire or any Government.  We are called to turn a world where respect is suspect into a world where all are treated as called and as beloved children of God.  All are called and recognized by God as important. 

Jesus called Simon, Andrew, Zebedee and John to a ministry that called into question societal norms.  A ministry called to provide healing to a people who where under occupation.  A call to subversion in an unlikely way.  Not with force but with love.  Not with name-calling but with respect.  A ministry that opens eyes to God’s loving reign trying to break in.  Jesus called the people to turnaround – repent – to see that things can and should be different. 

Jesus calls the church and calls each one of us to subversive action.  A subversion that does not call for walls to be built but for walls to be torn down.  A subversion that calls for ministry not just in the city centers but in the out of the way areas.  A subversion that feeds people who are hungry.  A subversion that clothes people who are naked.  A subversion that calls us to act differently!  A subversion that calls us to see all people as beloved children of God and worthy of respect.  And yes even those we don’t like and even those we feel are doing damage to our society we are called to treat as children of God. 

We are called – each and every one of us – here on this corner and in every place to continue Jesus’ ministry.  A ministry summed up in our Gospel reading as  “teaching …and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

Amen

Hate is not a Christian Value

Sermon for June 19, 2016

Proper 7C - RCL

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 42 and 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me" -- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

There is a lot of things about our gospel reading that just don’t make sense.  It is one of those stories that seem strange.  One of the questions that come up is “Why did Jesus go across the lake?” 

We missed the earlier part in the journey while Jesus was on the lake.  While on the lake a storm comes up and nearly sinks the boat – and the disciples – afraid for their lives wake up Jesus.  Yes Jesus was sleeping through a violent storm.  And when they wake him he calms the see – one translation says that Jesus “rebuked the wind and the raging waves”.  And this action left the disciples wondering “who is this Rabbi?” The very wind and waves respond to his commands. 

So why are they going across the lake from the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee to the gentile side?  They are going from a place of relatively safety and ritual cleanliness to a place where they are more likely to encounter situations that would leave them un-clean and unable to go to temple.  You see the Gentiles would not be following Jewish purity laws and dietary laws.  It will take a lot more work to keep ritually clean. 

Perhaps Jesus wanted to go the Gentile side so that he could get some rest.  He has been healing people and casting out demons.  He has been drawing a crowd wherever he goes.   And – from his sleeping through a storm – we can guess he is tired.  So perhaps he went someplace to escape the Jewish crowds who have been flocking to this itinerate Rabbi.

When they get to the other side of the lake they are not greeted by a welcoming committee.  They are greeted by someone very unclean.  They are greeted by a possessed man who the townspeople have tried to chain up only for him to break his chains.  And he is naked and living in the place of the dead – in a cemetery.  For his family and the townspeople it is the right place for him to be.  For the man they knew is possessed by demons and may as well be dead.

Unfortunately in our own society families sometimes act as if a member was dead.  This happens still all to frequently with gay, lesbian, transgendered and queer youth.  They are thrown out onto the streets.  They are thrown into a situation with few skills and little to survive on.  They are frequently exploited and many end up on drugs or alcohol to escape.  They end up with many demons inhabiting them just as the man in the cemetery.

When Jesus and the disciples are accosted by this man the demons recognize Jesus and are afraid that they will be thrown out.  It is interesting that Jesus allows the demons to negotiate with him to not be cast into outer darkness but to instead enter the pigs that are nearby.  And Jesus agrees to let them go into the pigs – where upon his command they leave the young naked man and enter the pigs.  And the poor pigs cannot take the demons and throw themselves into the sea and drown.

And in the very next scene we find the young man sitting by Jesus – miraculously clothed and conversing.  The cured man wants to follow Jesus but instead Jesus gives back the man who was dead to his family– Jesus in a resurrection like act gives the dead back to the living.

I have been amazed at the reaction I get when I actually treat someone who is on the street – sometimes possessed with a legion of demons – with respect.  On Wednesday during the midweek service at St. Paul’s I offered communion to a man who respectfully was sitting in the service and participating by reading the responses.  When I approached him he said “I am not worthy to receive”.  And my response was that I was not to judge and that in God’s eyes all of his children are worthy.  After all he had recited the confession with us.  His eyes cleared and he took communion – in a way that told me that at one time he was a churched person.

I don’t know what put this man on the street.  I don’t know his particular demons.  I do know that he sought refuge – if only for an hour – in a church.  I do know that he knew the service well enough to participate.  I do know that God can do amazing and healing things with people that we think and treat as unclean.

Our Gospel story tells me that God will pursue us anywhere to offer God’s Love.  God’s love is not just found in the church.  God’s love can be found in surprising places. 

And sometime evil tries to pervert the places where God’s love finds us.

That is what happened last Sunday.  A man full of evil and possessed by demons entered into a place of friendship, fellowship and dare I say God’s love.  Last Sunday Omar Mateen entered into the gay nightclub Pulse on “Latino night” and opened fire killing 49 people and injuring many more before he himself was killed.  We do not know the demons that drove this man – in the name of God – to open fire.  I do know that it was not God that drove him to do this.  But is was evil. 

And the church is called to not only pray for the 49 people killed and for those wounded.  We are called to pray for the soul of the one that was infected with evil too.  We are called to pray for the shooter.

I know this in not easy.  I am not even sure exactly what I should say about the shooter.  Perhaps only say to God “Oh God - Only you know how to reach into the grave and heal the shooter from the evil that infected his heart.”  

That is the same prayer I have for the Baptist pastor who praised the shooting here in Sacramento.  I pray that god will enter into his hard heart and show him that God loves all of God’s creation and desires nothing more than to show that love.  Praising the slaughter of innocent people and calling for the execution of an entire class of people is not Christian. 

 It is evil.

God doesn’t call for the death penalty for people who love.  God sent Jesus to remind us and to show us how to live a life where we love our enemies.  God crosses the river and calms the storm to find us in the cemetery.  God goes all the way to hell to find us and to offer to cast out our demons.  God goes to the very places we call unclean to find love and bring back from the dead those who society treats as unclean and dead.

In a moment we are going to pray a litany for those who have been killed in violence.  We are going to light candles to remember that in God’s eyes their light has not been extinguished.  We are going to light candles as a reminder that in the darkness that can inhabit human souls there is a light shining that will – if we only let it – cast out the darkness.

We will remember the 49 people who where killed by name.  And we will be invited to remember all of those who have had their lives taken as a consequence of violence.  And yes e will remember the shooter Omar too. 

Our Gospel story gives me hope.  Hope that no matter where we go God is pursuing us.  God desires to throw out the demons that inhabit our souls.  God desires to give us life – an abundant eternal life. 

And even when I don’t know what to say or how to pray I know that God is there listening.  God is there to comfort and heal us.  And we are called as followers of this Jesus – the crazy Rabbi who was willing to cross the sea in a storm – only to be greeted by a man possessed by many demons.  A man whose reaction was not one of scorn but who healed him.   

We are called to offer that healing love to all whom we meet.  Even – and perhaps especially when we think that it will make us unclean!