Healing for the Hurting

Psalm 33, Matthew 9:9-13

If you were here last Sunday, you know the lectionary suggested a "tough love" gospel reading. This week’s lectionary suggestion is a variation on that. This gospel reading is more along the lines of, "God loves everybody, no matter what. You don’t like it? Tough."

Let’s do a brief Bible review. I’m going to test your memory a little bit. Jesus was walking along and he saw Matthew sitting at the tax booth. So Matthew was a tax collector. What do you remember about tax collectors of that time? [Tax collectors were despised because they often lined their own pockets with extra tax money they collected. Their work put them in constant contact with non-Israelites. So they were considered unclean. They were thought to be on the level of thugs, sort of like the mafia.] Jesus saw Matthew, the tax collector hoodlum, and he said to him, "Follow me." What does it mean that Jesus said, "Follow me."? ["Follow me" means more than simply walking behind Jesus. It means following him, as in being his student, his apprentice, his disciple who learns from Jesus and tries to say and do as Jesus says and does. "Follow me."] Matthew got up and followed Jesus.

They went and sat down for dinner in the house. And it says many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down to eat with Jesus and the disciples. Now we know what it meant to be a tax collector, but who were the "sinners" with them? The word "sinner" means somebody who misses the mark, makes an ethical mistake, commits a moral transgression. We are all sinners in that sense. But here the word sinner is probably used in a technical sense to refer to people who made no attempt to follow God’s laws; as one scholar put it, they were "flagrantly immoral." Or it may mean people, such as herders and tanners, who did work that made them unclean. "Sinners" here really carries the sense of outsiders.

Now the Pharisees saw this big ole sinner party going on and they were upset. Do you remember who the Pharisees were? [They were religious folks who tried very hard to follow the law accurately, to the letter. The word Pharisee literally means "the separated ones." And they thought of themselves as set apart to be very observant of God’s laws.] The Pharisees were upset. Why were they upset? [They were upset not only because Jesus was hanging around with tax collectors and sinners but he was actually eating with them. Eating with them carried the implication of acceptance of them, these riff raff.] But instead of speaking directly to Jesus, which might have required courage and risk, the Pharisees complained to his disciples. They asked, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But Jesus cut through their evasions, and he said, "Healthy people don’t need a doctor; sick people do. Go and figure this out. (quoting from the prophet Hosea). ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ And Jesus concluded, "I haven’t come to call the righteous but sinners." End of Bible review. How do Jesus’ words and actions speak to our own lives? Let me suggest at least two ways.

As many of you know, before I remarried almost four years ago, I lived on the 7^th floor of an apartment complex that overlooked Lake Erie . The view was spectacular--the Cleveland skyline on a clear day, Lake Erie , with all her many moods, stretching into infinity. But my apartment was not exactly Donald Trump’s penthouse suite. In fact, the whole apartment complex was sort of messy--carpets that needed to be replaced, windows that leaked icy winter blasts, old window air conditioners that squeaked through the summer. You’d walk into my apartment and be greeted by a weight bench and a life-sized stand-up cardboard cut out of Dolly Parton. (I bought it at a church rummage sale before I moved up here. And, oddly enough, Beth disposed of it before we moved into our home). I’m kind of a mess, so the apartment seemed to fit me well. There were also some people living in the apartment building whom I would refer to as "hard-living people." They worked hard during the week, and on the weekends they partied hard too. At first, I was sort of anonymous to them, just one of the residents who’d drink a beer with them, but not twelve beers. But gradually people learned that I was a pastor. And then life changed for me. People acted a little differently around me, sometimes apologizing for cussing, that sort of thing. And they started asking me questions, lots of questions. In fact, I remember going to the pool to swim one evening and I never even got into the water, because people were talking to me and asking questions. Do you know what they wanted to talk about? They wanted to talk about God. Why do bad things happen to good people? What happens after we die? How does God respond to gay and lesbian people? How does God deal with sexually active single people? And though my hard-living friends talked about showing up here for church one Sunday, they never did. But they wondered and puzzled about God. I think they felt the same hunger we all feel. They felt a hunger for God.

As I’ve mentioned before, I help many of the Alcoholics Anonymous people complete their 5^th Step. According to the AA "Blue Book" the fifth step means admitting "to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." To complete this step, folks usually come to my office and talk to me for about an hour. Basically, I tell them in advance, "I keep everything in confidence, except if you’re planning to hurt yourself or another human being, or you’re hurting a child; I won’t keep that in confidence. And I don’t want you to come with a list of resentments about other people. I want you to talk about what your drinking and/or drug abuse have gotten you into–the hurts it has caused. And don’t worry about shocking me, because I’ve heard just about everything before." And do you know what often happens during these fifth step conversations? Many of these folks weep as they talk about their lives–the hurt they’ve suffered and the hurt they’ve caused. And what also happens is some healing as I talk with them about letting go, about "breath prayers" and "release prayers," about God’s unconditional love, about new beginnings, and one day at a time.

The Pharisees seemed to have been so concerned with appearances. But Jesus said, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I’ve come to call not the righteous but sinners." The living Christ invites us to see messy people, broken people, hurting people not as eyesores but as opportunities to practice mercy and love. Who are the people in your life and mine who need to know that mercy and love? How might we reach the people near this church with that mercy and love? It’s not always easy, but mercy and love are our calling. And that mercy and love go beyond our care for "hard-living people."

Frank Warren has written several books and he runs a website called postsecret.com. Thousands of people mail him post cards and/or emails with their anonymous secrets. And when people can be anonymous, they will also sometimes be more honest. For example, one person wrote, "Everyone thinks I want to change the world . . . really, I just want a comfortable life. (But I’m ashamed to admit that)." Somebody else wrote, "Sometimes I miss God." (Frank Warren, My Secret.) Another person wrote, "‘Reservoir Dogs’ is my favorite movie. But since I am a married mother of 3, I tell everyone it’s "Steel Magnolias." Finally, someone from Mississippi wrote, "Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be more compassion and tolerance in the world." (Frank Warren, The Secret Lives of Men and Women )

Isn’t that right? We walk around here trying to be strong, trying to "have our act together," trying to be cool and calm. But down deep we all have our brokenness. Down deep we know that none of us is so perfect. We all have at least one secret that would break your heart. Before God, none of us is righteous. We are all sinners. And that’s okay.

Jesus said, "Go and figure out this saying, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I’ve come to call not the righteous but sinners." Jesus is the doctor for all who are willing to admit their sickness, their brokenness, their need.

Another preacher wrote, "It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course, it’s a crutch. What makes you think you don’t limp?" (William Sloane Coffin, Credo, 137.) Someone else said, "I only pray when I am in trouble, but I am in trouble all the time; so I pray all the time." (Isaac Bashevis Singer)

So long ago, Jesus called a notorious sinner to be his disciple, and he accepted. The two of them sat down to dinner and were joined by all sorts of sinful, broken people. And miracle of miracles, Jesus has saved a place at that table for you and me and for all people who can admit they are hungry for God’s mercy and love. Amen.

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