Scripture Lesson: Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon Transcript for June 8, 2008

By Pastor Bob Coleman

As Ellis was sharing with me last night after his day of helping to clean up the basements of certain buildings at Franklin College, he also shared that they had dorms that were available in the residence hall for people who might need shelter. And that’s one way of expressing how you respond to a circumstance that we all experienced together this last weekend. It also points to the issue that he wrote that prayer mostly before the flood and we do change when we experience things in our lives. A couple of weeks ago I told you that I started on Monday with one theme and it changed by Tuesday and Wednesday was sort of rotating around ended up coming back around to basically first base.

Well today’s message is something along that line also. You can not have what we have had in the last couple of weeks and ignore it. Twelve tornadoes and a flood! And yet the message still has relevance to us. It’s the message of the Scripture for the Lectionary; it’s the scriptural base of Jesus telling us something that we need to listen to. I want to start with that and it’s based upon the theme and I gave it the title “Who has the right to be here anyway?” Who has the right to attend Grace United Methodist? What right do you have to be here?

Now that wasn’t meant to be an angry question, but a pointed one, yes? Is the church a place for those who have it all together, for those who set some image on the outside of the way we live? Is it just for nice people or those without blemish? Jesus gives us a clear understanding of what we mean by “who has the right”? When He is in the account of Matthew, Chapter 9, in fact where Matthew is recording the calling of his own life to follow Jesus Christ. Matthew records it this way in Chapter 9:9-13, “As Jesus went on from there He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me’, he said. And Matthew got up and followed Him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples. The Pharisees saw this. They asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinner?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy not sacrifice. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Well first, the word sacrifice Jesus would have meant in the setting of the Temple sacrifice. Do you claim your righteousness by what quality of sacrifice you make? Do you bring the right animal or the other type of offering that was described in their day? Jesus says, “That’s not what I’m asking you here. I’m asking you to be merciful with the people that you have right in your midst.” Now Matthew, being a good man, I believe by the fact that he did not go any further than to say that Jesus said, “Come and follow me.” And he doesn’t deal any more about that point, but moves on instead to point out Jesus has identified Matthew among the group of people that Jesus very clearly says, “I want these people with me.”

For Matthew continues in his account about his own calling by saying that while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, an honorable thing to do. You are invited by a person, one of prestige and leadership abilities. You want to invite them to your house, to impress. But who else could Matthew invite but the friends that he has and the connections that he has with these other tax collectors and sinners? They are at his meal. And that is what his challenge concerns. Jesus is challenged because those who have made the right sacrifice, who have earned the privilege of being in the Temple, who earned the status of being righteous in the eyes of the rules of the faithful, those people are challenging Jesus who is saying, “You are not the ones I am here for. I am for this group, the tax collectors and sinners, the people who you disdain.” It would be like a hospital, Johnson Memorial Hospital, had said, “We only want healthy people to come here.” How much business would they have? Why would healthy people go to a hospital? A hospital is a place where you go when you are sick, when you are injured, when you have a need—even when the emergency room floods. You still will choose to go to a hospital or some place close to it because you see that as a beacon of hope and light and a place where you can have your needs attended to. And people who are healthy don’t have needs.

Jesus says, “I’m not coming for the people who think they are so all together, the healthy, the ones who look so good on the outside. Another place He said, “You who look lighted sepulcher, your clean and bright and beautiful on the outside but you are filled with old, dead bones on the inside.” No, I’m coming for people who want what I have for them, who know they have fallen short, who know they need my grace and my love and my peace.

I went to Annual Conference this week. Most of you know basically what it means; it’s the annual gathering. Some of you as retired pastors and spouses, you’ve been there before; and some of you were there. Annual Conference is a time for doing business but thanks be to God that Bishop Coyner as our leader is helping us to see to do things differently. Annual Conference is where I was reappointed to come back here formally. Or at least I guess I was. I came home Friday evening because I don’t go down and stay in a motel. And I saw the weather report Saturday morning and I was planning on going back. I’m glad I didn’t because apparently Bishop Coyner and some of the Cabinet and other pastors are still stuck in Bloomington. Maybe they are out by this morning. If I had gone back, you would have had to hear somebody else preach this morning.

So I went down and I was reappointed and Andy Kinsey will be the new Associate. He’ll start July 1 and that’s part of the business. But somehow in the midst of all of that, were the continuing needs being raised? Twelve tornadoes hit Indiana; over a thousand in the United States since January. The storms, the tornadoes, and one flood. Water—ten, twelve, who knows how many inches all together, coming down so quickly. What else can you do but go to higher ground? And in a sense Jesus is saying, “I’m the higher ground, but you’ve got to know the flood is coming. You’ve got to know you are under a threat. You can’t believe you are safe from all things and have protected yourself because you have provided for your life.

There is a theology that is out there and Garrison Keeler has made it popular, it’s called “Lake Woebegone Lutheran Theology”. It goes something like this. The beautiful sunny sky we had on Friday, it was beautiful here, I guess. I know it was, it was very pleasant and nice down in Bloomington. Lutheran’s would say, “We don’t deserve that; we’re not good enough to have that kind of good weather. No, we deserve a blizzard or flood.” So Lutheran theology would say, “We know we’ve fallen far short, we know we are merciful with God’s help. Sinners! We don’t look to have God bless us by the sacrifices that he made. In fact, this weather is too good; we deserve something worse like tornados and floods.” We know also that Jesus gave a response of, “Who are the ones to be saved and ones who are to be clearly received?” And He said, “Well, the rain falls on the just and the unjust.” And the rest of that story and the way I have always completed that not quoting Jesus is to say, “And it is up to us to learn who are the just and who are the unjust.”

Because you see, we are all affected by yesterday whether we had water in our house or not. You were affected because it could have been us if it wasn’t us. Or maybe we had some. And there are those who were out actually being rescued from places. And the issue is, “What do we do in these circumstances?” So we ask for a survey from you. Who do you know? How can we help? Take up an offering – yes, because there will be financial need. We do that because we are called to do that not because we think it is going to make us look better, that we are a more righteous church in town because we can raise the money. We do the right thing at the right moment. No, most of us tend to say, “There but for the grace of weather God.” Notice I didn’t say for the grace of God. For God’s grace is with those who are hurting not those who think they’ve got it.

Bishop Coyner has asked us to do some studying together. I hope to go a little bit more in depth on some of these items because I think they do tie in with what we are hearing from the Scripture today. The title of the book, well, it actually has five parts to it. I’ve gotten the title of the book; it’s back in my office. But I’ll give you the five points and that’s what I want you to hear. I’ve also forgotten the author’s name too. Radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk taking mission and service, extravagant generosity. Now all of these are based upon not the side of “are we going to do it so right, we provide the best sacrifice and God will love us because we do all this.” No, it is because our hearts recognize we are on the sinner side. And it is out of the love response for what God has done to us that we want to provide radical hospitality.

And simply put, let me tell you a story that Roger reminded me of last night. It’s Mike Roberts who we had as an old friend. I’ve known Mike back in the Terre Haute days. He was serving at Henryville at the time. He said he had this one gentleman; name I do not know. But he was always complaining about things. And if an issue came up, he usually took the opposite side maybe just to be contrary. So he was sort of a pain to everyone, an old crotchety guy. One time a young man, maybe adolescent, came to the church and he was wearing a baseball cap. Nobody’s wearing a baseball cap that I can see from up here. But it was not accepted in the culture of that church for you to wear a hat in church, at least not men, and definitely not a baseball cap. But he was a young guy and didn’t know any difference and he came on in. And as a lot of young men and women today wear baseball caps no matter where they are. This old man is a crotchety old man, got up out of the church. Mike said, “Oh, what is he going to do now?” He went out, got a hat and put it on and came and sat down by this young man. He didn’t ask him to take off his hat; but wore his in. That’s radical hospitality. That is when you are willing to change yourself to make another person feel comfortable in your setting where they may feel a stranger. You are willing to go and adjust yourself to make them feel at home. Are we willing to do that? I think so in many cases. But radical hospitality is what we are called to do when we recognize we are not here to gain the favor of God. We are here out of gratitude because God wants us to display that and our sinful nature.

Another statement is passionate worship. Passion means having a sense of emotional connection. We are going to talk more about that in other ways as we explore this in future worship service in other settings. The third area was intentional faith development. I met with the Education Council, that’s what I call it, just basically the people who have an interest by either teaching or leaders and staff and volunteers with education at our church. We met last Tuesday and talked about the what-ifs and possibilities of expanding and growing the number of opportunities that would feel open, welcoming, where you can feel an opportunity and experience an opportunity to grow in faith by small group education.

The fourth area is risk taking mission. That means the bucket you see here. The valuable asset of Christian discipleship is taking up the bucket and helping to mop up. This is going to be a long-term process, most are. We did this down in New Albany. Went in three or more weeks after a flood, fourteen inches of rain in about two days, and places got flooded and we had to go in and help tear out the dry wall, smelly, stinky stuff. Get right down there and do it with this lady who could have said, “Why are you living here? Why don’t you move out of the flood plain?” And there was only that one every hundred year flood and this was the year she had the hundred year. But we helped fix up the house because she really had no place to go. We could have judged her for making a dumb decision for being there in the first place or not leaving when she had the chance, but we fixed it up anyway. But we took the buckets and the rags and we cleaned it up and we helped her repair. That’s where you do God’s work on a first hand basis. Not for your own sake or your own glory but simply because a person has a need you can respond to.

And extravagant generosity is true too. You will give generously. You will use the money the best that you can to help people locally or wherever it is needed. You’ve got the passion so you do it. But it is more than the generosity of money; it’s the giving of who we are outside of the office place. Are you generous in the giving of your love and your time? Or do you hold it just for the special need? Pastors sometimes are caught. We are expected to love everybody here. Let me tell you, it’s not easy. We don’t; we’re human. We fall short from time to time. Reality says and Jesus says, “I’ve talked none to those who think they are so good and easy to work with. I’ve come from a problem church. I’ve come from those who got up yesterday and fell down again today. And I will get up again tomorrow and may fall down again. I come for the people who probably don’t feel like they should be here but this is the place for them.”

So who does have the right? Everybody! It’s just right to accept all people. I came across a thought and I’m going to say it. I probably will get in trouble for it but it is okay. Don’t over-read or under-read what I am going to say. It doesn’t matter; it’s here at Grace. Because you see, I wonder whether Barrack Obama is a black son of a white mother or a white son of a black father. It just doesn’t matter! Is it right that McCain is over 70? It just doesn’t matter. You see, the church of Jesus Christ says the doors are open and it just doesn’t matter who comes through there. In fact, as Jesus would do, we won’t wait for them to come to us, we will go out and get them. Maybe they won’t follow. When we say, “Come and follow us.” We want to show you, we want you to know something greater because it’s what I know also and I don’t bring it to you because I am better than you, but I have the good news of Jesus Christ and I believe it will make a difference in your life. Some will follow and some will not but you’ve got to go out there. The safe churches keep their doors shut. Well, occasionally we open them wide and let a few in. But the churches that are truly of the faith of Jesus Christ say that door is not something to close at all but to open and to go through and to take risks. Maybe some of you will help to clean up somebody’s house and you’ll get down on your knees to scrub or to tear out or maybe you will do that part of it or you will have some other way. But don’t go in feeling as if you are doing something good for them because you don’t. But think of how Jesus would serve. Serve them just because they are who they are. It doesn’t matter who we are. Because otherwise, how would you be. For Jesus Christ, looking at your past, says “It just doesn’t matter”. But now you do the command of Jesus, “Come, follow me.”

Let’s bow together in prayer, “Lord we simply and humbly are here with you today. There are people who are still being rescued but not just from the rain. There are people who need to be rescued from lack of self worth; they don’t think they are worthy to come to this church or any church because we have some how given them the impression that just the good people come here. Only those have a right to be here. But thanks to each of you, gracious Lord, that you have said, “It just doesn’t matter.” We all have a right because we call you Lord. The need will be often, the need for forgiving, saving grace. And let us receive others here. In the name of Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

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