Sermon for Proper 25

Video at www.theteachingsofmattday.blogspot.com

Jeremiah 14, 7-10, 19-22
Psalm 84: 1-7
2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18
Luke 18: 9-14
October 24th, 2010

In the name of Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us pray, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

Now promise not to laugh at me but one of my favorite political analyst is Steve Cobert. He appeared before congress about a month ago to testify on a number of different issues including immigration. While most of his testimony was entertaining to watch, he said something very propounding that made me scratch my head and even post on facebook. One of the legislators asked Cobert about why he was so focused on the issue of immigration. He said,

“It seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrate workers who come and do our work but don’t have any rights as a result and yet we still invite them to come and then ask them to leave. It is an interesting contradiction to me. What so ever you do for the least of my brothers and these seem like the least of our brother right now. A lot of people right now are the least brother but migrant works suffer and have no rights.”

Regardless of where you might stand on the issue of immigration, Cobert does have a point. Who stands up for people who have no voice--who have no rights?

It is the same question Jesus is asking his disciples in this parable. Who stands up for people like tax collectors? Tax collectors were not well liked and, as I learned from the confirmation class this past week, modern day tax collectors are still not liked. Many Jews and Gentiles sorely hated tax collectors solely because of their occupation. Tax collectors made their money by adding a surcharge to the taxes and they would keep the surcharge. Many people thought the surcharge was a form of robbery but they missed the giant white elephant in the room—the excessive tax charged by Rome. Instead of condemning the excessive tax, the people condemn the middlemen who were only trying to make a living.

They were seen as evil and horrible people because of what they did for a living. “God, I thank you that I am not like those people.” These men worked for Rome--they worked for the Government that oppressed the people. “God, I thank you that I am not like those people.” They were ostracized from the temple--from God and their religion because they were only trying to make a living. “God, I thank you that I am not like those people.”

But what about those “other people” this Pharisee is talking about? What about people who do not feel welcome or who are thrown outside a town, village or city because some do not think they worthy of God. What about those tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, sick, dying, blind, or lame. What about those people who are told by the society--who are told by their religion, “you are not welcome here?” What about those individuals who have had fists shaken at them and told, “God, I thank you that I am not like this person.” What about them?

How quickly we forget that we are all the crowns of God's creation.1 Each one of us has been gifted by God, created in God’s own image but yet we all still raise our fist at one another and say, “God, I thank you that I am not like those people.”

We have all shaken our fist at another group of people for one reason or another. We have all thought deep down and even said aloud, “God, I thank you that I am not like those people.” But those people who we shake are fist, like the tax collector in our parable, are the people who Jesus seems to always go after.

The Pharisees seem to always track Jesus down to ask him questions. But Jesus always seems to track down those who society shakes their fist at. He touches the unclean, he eats with tax collectors, he defends a women caught in the act of adultery, he raises the dead back to life, he gives the blind slight and the lame the ability to walk. Jesus helps those who are not able to help themselves or who society says are not worthy of any kind of help or love.

Robert Jensen’s quote really hits home the message of this parable. “Whenever you want to draw a line to mark who is outside the kingdom and who is inside, always remember: Jesus is on the other side of the line. Jesus is always with the outsiders." Whenever we shake our fists at someone else and say, “God, I thank you that I am not like those people.” or when we say “God, I thank you that I am not like those people in the middle in east, or those people who can’t find a job, or those single mothers, or those single fathers, or those who did not graduate college or even high school, or those who are of a different faith background”--whenever we rather shake our fist at someone else instead of opening our arms and embracing them as Christ embraces them for who they--a child of God--we are acting like this Pharisee in the parable.

Whenever we judge someone else for simply being different we miss the point of this parable—we miss the point of the gospel. It was God in God’s infinite wisdom that created us to be in God’s own image. We are all different for a reason. But we are all alike in one key area--we are all children of God. And even more than just children of God, we are all baptized into Christ. It is in our baptism that we are identified as followers of Christ—followers of a man who sought out the people who we shake our fists at. We might all not wear the same cross around our necks but we wear Christ on our bodies and in our hearts.

We might be very different from the followers of Jesus’s day but we all are still claimed and sent out by same man who we confess to be our crucified and risen saviour. All of us, at one time or another, have shaken our fist at someone and thank God for not being like them but how quickly we forget that we are all beggars--we are all beggars of God’s grace just like this tax collector.

Every week when we gather for communion, we become beggars looking for God’s grace just as that tax collector was begging for God’s grace. We come up with outstretch arms, unworthy of God’s love, hungry for something that can sustain us more than bread or water could ever sustain us. We come unworthy to the table, with open hands and open mouths begging for God and are fed with the body and blood of Christ Jesus.

It is this same Jesus that we feast on every week that seeks us out. He was deemed an outsider. Who became an an outsider. Jesus was an outsider. Maybe we should be one as well.

In the name of Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.