Sermon for All Saints-by-the-Sea, Proper 5, June 8, 2008
by The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey L. Bullock

 “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.”

Did you ever hear about the father who was very worried about his son’s religious upbringing?  The father decided it was time for his son to start attending Sunday School so one Sunday, he dropped his son off at church, telling him he would be back to pick him up promptly at eleven.  When the anxious father returned to pick up his son, his son clambered into the car with a happy smile on his face.  When the father asked the boy what he had learned, the child looked at his father a moment and the said, “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
      
That story came to mind this morning when I read about this, the first encounter of Jesus with the Pharisees in this Gospel.  They’ve been mentioned before and surely the Pharisees were carefully watching Jesus.  But for the first time this morning, their curiosity and alarm won’t let them wait any longer.  Without approaching Jesus himself, they ask the disciples of Jesus, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Here’s the rub.  When Jesus tells the Pharisees why he’s friendly with tax collectors and sinners, they wouldn’t believe him.
      
Why indeed?  Now we all know very well that we are very often judged by our the people with whom we associate.  I cannot tell you the number of times my mother said to me, “Birds of a feather flock together.”  I can even recollect the first time I thought about her her saying, “Birds of a feather…” and thinking to myself, “Well, yea.”  Of course there are good reasons for being delicate about your associations.  We all know what a negative influence we can have with bad assicuates.  It’s not hard for us to think of friends over the years who having associated with troublemakers, get swept up into the trouble themselves.  The Las Vegas Board of Tourism understands this very well--”Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” means, well it means my Mom will never know what kind of birds you were hanging out with. 
      
So it is that when we are confronted with the lives and friendships of sinners, we find ourselves thinking we ought to keep them at arms length.  If we want to be considered righteous and moral, we ought not to hang with the immoral and sinful.  Right?  Right?  Wrong.  At least as far as Jesus is concerned, wrong indeed.
      
Just before this morning’s Gospel, Jesus has astonished the people watching him.  When a paralytic was brought to Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Now as it turns out some of the self-righteous were standing by, people who would never let themselves be caught flocking with sinners.  They fluttered among themselves, asking “Who does this guy think he is, forgiving sins?”  As the story continues, Jesus reads their thoughts and asks them, “Which is more difficult to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, ‘stand up and walk?’”  “Well, yea, forgive sins. Who can heal a paralytic?”  But Jesus turns to his pious detractors and says, “Just so you know we can forgive sins, watch this.”  And he tells the man to take up his bed and walk.  The people watching were in awe, not only that Jesus could heal but forgive sins as well.  So ask yourselves again: if you can’t heal someone, can’t you at least forgive them?
      
The story of both forgiving and healing the paralytic brings us to this morning.  The Pharisees consider the highest spiritual goal to be a pure and faithful life, free of the dreadful sins committed by others.  Now on its own terms, this is a laudable goal.  Who among us would even for a moment think we should live an immoral and sinful life?  No one, right?  But here’s the rub: does that mean we should exclude the sinful, keeping them at arms length?  Or should we include them, hoping to forgiven their sins?
      
If we were to listen to the pious cant of so many Christian preachers, we could easily come away with the idea that the job of Christians and more so, the job of the church, is to condemn and judge sinners.  After all, how will they know they are sinners if someone doesn’t yell, “Fire?”  The trouble with that attitude is that it’s not shared by Jesus.  Here’s an uncommon but critical fact you should know about Matthew’s Jesus:  not once in all the Gospel does he outright condemn and judge sinners.  Amazing, isn’t it?  Don’t you think if you asked the agonistic or atheists or detractor of Christians on the street if Jesus condemned sinners or welcomed then, how would they answer?  Wouldn’t they answer, “He condemned them.  He judged them?”  And where would they get that idea?  From watching espoused Christians and churches.  So very many Christians--and that includes a large number of Anglicans and Episcopalians--believe its our job to condemn and judge, holding people accountable for their sins.  But not Jesus.  He doesn’t condemn sinners, he eats with them.  He doesn’t judge them, he’s their friend and companion. 
      
Listen to what Jesus says, quoting Hosea:  “I desire mercy and not sacrifices.”  Jesus isn’t pointing at the sinner, he’s pointing at those who claim faith.  When he says he wants mercy instead of sacrifice, Jesus is telling us all the pieties we can imagine, including expensive sacrifices, pale besides the gift of mercy.  Mercy means we are in the position to condemn someone for their actions against it--and yet we don’t.  We practice forgiveness, we practice mercy, we welcome the sinners into our home.

If we really took Jesus seriously, wouldn’t that turn our church mission upside down?  We’d go from avoiding sinners, to seeking them out.  We’d avoid being self-righteous in order to be hospitable to those who are broken.  Perhaps you don’t think you’re good enough yourself to forgive others?  Well, it’s time to get over it.  Jesus doesn’t want empty piety, he wants mercy.  I have to believe if we were to rewrite the mission of the modern church in favor of mercy and forgiveness, we’d have to go to six services on Sunday.  What do you think?  Shall we take Jesus at his word?  Shall we start with forgiveness and end in mercy?  I would certainly welcome it.  Amen.