If You Knew What Goes On in this Church
Hosea 5:15-6:6
Matthew 9:9-13
The world is crawling with sinners. Everywhere you look—sinners!
What do we do with them? How do we clean up the vast refuse of humanity?
I was really thrown back on my heels this week by an observation from a Biblical scholar at a Lutheran seminary in Pennsylvania. He noted that in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus never directs a harsh word at sinners. Not once. He never scolds them, never criticizes them. He never even demands that they repent.
I read through the book of Matthew to see if what this guy said could possibly be true. He’s right. All Jesus ever does with sinners, including the lowest scum of the earth, is what he does with them in our Gospel reading for today, he eats with them, and he heals them.
And it’s not that Jesus is too nice a guy to rip into people who deserve it. He has some harsh words to say in this Gospel, and he even undertakes a few harsh actions. But all of them are directed at the very religious—the good people.
The gospel says “Jesus sat and ate with sinners and tax collectors”—tax collectors being the ultimate stereotype of the antisocial parasite of society. In modern culture, the equivalent would probably be, “Jesus sat and ate with sinners and drug dealers.”
This discovery makes me uncomfortable. I can see what all these sinners are doing wrong. I can tell them how to correct the problem, how to fix it. I can tell them what they need to do to get right with God. If I can do it, surely Jesus could do it. But he doesn’t. Not once.
Why? Doesn’t he know what these sinners are like? Doesn’t he know that they’re basically lazy, greedy, self-centered, undisciplined people who need a swift kick in the rear? Doesn’t he know that the more you give to people like that, the more they’ll take advantage of you?
Jesus eats with them, and that’s all. He justifies this action by quoting this Old Testament text from Hosea. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” “Go and learn what this means,” Jesus says. And he concludes, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
It makes a lot of us feel spurned. That’s the thanks we get for being devout, church-going folk? Jesus isn’t interested in us; he came for the low lives of society? That doesn’t sound fair; it upsets the basic foundation of justice, which is that people are supposed to get what they deserve. This is all turned upside down, and it makes you wonder.
Here’s where my wondering took me this week.
Siegfried and Roy were probably the most famous animal trainers in the world; their specialty was white tigers. Through a mixture of intimidation, love, punishments, and rewards, these two could get their tigers to perform better than any other trained tigers in the world. They often worked without a cage—nothing between the tigers and the audience. Siegfried and Roy achieved absolute control over these savage creatures in the circus arena, that they often worked without a cage
At least, that’s how it seemed. Until the evening that Roy Horn tripped. That’s all it took—one slip, and it all fell apart. The instant Roy hit the ground, a tiger named Montecore attacked. The tiger mauled him so badly few thought Roy would survive. He did, but the severe injuries left him permanently disabled—he could not longer work.
Contrast that story with a conversation we had last weekend with a woman from Texas who had a curious connection with S. Iowa. Many years ago, she stopped at the Osceola rest area. There she discovered a most pathetic little puppy. Turns out someone had abandon the dog and left it to die. When it was apparent no one in authority was interested in saving the animal, she took it home to live with her. The dog proved to be a faithful and affectionate companion for many years, to the point where she was grieving its loss.
I look at those two stories with this Bible reading in mind, and ask which is the way to treat sinners? Are sinners dangerous wild creatures who need to be carefully controlled and whipped into shape? Or are they pathetic, lost creatures who need someone to show them some love and respect?
The view of the Pharisees in this story is that God’s faithful are the lion tamers of society. Sinners are wild and dangerous and untrustworthy. They must be kept in line with strict rules and rigid routines--A proper mix of intimidation, love, punishments and rewards. Deviate from that for an instant and you’ve got disaster.
Siegfried and Roy slipped up only once in several decades and it destroyed their act. So it is with sinners. You can never let your guard down with them.
There are many in modern times who share the view of the Pharisees. Who see religion as a system of rules, laws, incentives, and punishments to keep the savages under control.
This is not the view Jesus presents here. When dealing with sinners, he doesn’t go the whip once. He doesn’t intimidate; he doesn’t even try to train them.
Instead, he finds the sinners. He eats with them. He opens their hearts and shows them love. And they respond.
“I came to call the lost,” says Jesus. That’s what Jesus does. That’s what Christians are called to do.
This is not saying that there is no place for lion tamers in our society. Of course, what Luther defines as the civil use of the law is necessary. To some degree that is the role of parents, of law enforcement, of all authorities. Parents can’t just sit down and eat with children and expect they’ll grow up fine. Police cannot just sit down and eat with criminals and expect they’ll reform their lives. Being a Christian does not mean letting yourself get walked over by con artists and deadbeats.
God desires mercy, not stupidity.
But the point of this Gospel is that there are two ways to influence lives; one through force and manipulation; the other through love. Humans are highly attracted to the first method and go there by default. God is highly attracted to the second method and will go there by default.
The people of Israel during the time of the prophet Hosea had messed up their society badly, and they knew it. In today’s Old Testament reading, they plead with God for a second chance. (Actually, they are into their 7th or 8th chance.) They think they can get right with God by getting the routine down right. This time, they promise to follow the rules and earn their reward.
“Come, let us return to the Lord,” they say. “Let us press on and God will come to us.” They promise to worship properly and to give the recommended minimum daily sacrifices—all the standard religious stuff.
“We’re truly sorry that we offended you, God,” they say. “To make up for it, we’re going to do all these religious type things that make you happy.”
As if demonstrating a mastery of rituals and routines is what makes God happy. As if that’s what the kingdom of God is all about.
No, the kingdom of God is about love, and sharing, and mercy. The rites of worship and the teachings of religion are there to help us learn that. If they aren’t teaching us that, then they aren’t really of any use at all.
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees echoed the sincere promises of the Israelites in Hosea. They tried to prove they were worthy of God’s love by adhering to a complex series of purity laws. In obeying this convoluted series of instructions, they believed they would earn God’s favor.
Jesus told them, “Rites, rituals and pious behaviors are not at the heart of the kingdom of God. God is not looking for people he can train to perform religious tricks; God is looking for people to live in God’s image. God is looking for people who understand, first and foremost, what love is all about, what mercy is all about.”
Because force and manipulation are still the default we use to influence behavior, Pharisees thrive in our world today.
I just finished a book called Shattered Lives. It was written by a woman who was one of 10 wives married to a Mormon fundamentalist. Everyone agreed that her husband, Verlan, was a fine, conscientious, upright man of God. He was genuinely driven to serve his Lord by adhering to the doctrine of plural marriage, and by obeying all the rules and regulations of this doctrine.
In so doing, he created a hell on earth for his family. Rigidly adhering to his doctrine, he showed not an ounce of mercy. Because of that, this sincere and obedient servant produced a world of incredible squalor and misery that destroyed the lives of the people he loved.
It’s a frustrating book to read. In every chapter, you just want to scream at all these people the verses from Hosea, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
How does God influence lives? Not by force and manipulation, but by the power of love.
If you ever doubt that, just think about what kind of stories bring us close to the heart of God. What kind of stories take your breath away and make you say wow? Have you ever been moved to tears by a story of how well someone followed the rules? By how technically sound their worship was?
The stories that stir our hearts are the stories of people of compassion. Of people who go out of their way to show mercy for the lost, the downtrodden, the poor, the sick.
Mark Hilmer, a pastor who some of you know from his days growing up in this congregation, tells a story of his days as a pastor in Davenport. He bought some rental property in the heart of the city and rented it to low-income people. He spent a lot of time getting to know these people well.
One woman who was struggling with a great many issues in her life had trouble meeting the rent. She could hardly provide for her family, and she fell further and further behind in paying the bills. Showing mercy, Mark forgave her debt.
But it just got worse and Mark reached the point where he couldn’t justify letting her stay.
He struggled with his conscience, and kept putting off telling her she had to leave, until she was thousands of dollars behind, with no apparent way of ever making it up. He often couldn’t believe he was so stupid as to keep letting her take advantage of him, but he did, until she eventually moved on.
Eventually, after many years of exhausting struggle working low-wage jobs, this woman finally got a break. A clerical error was discovered and she came into some money—several thousand dollars. Well, we all know what such people do when money comes into their hands. They blow it on some luxury.
That’s not what happened.
Did she take this opportunity to, for once in her life, give herself and her children something nice? No. This woman used her windfall to write out a check to Pastor Hilmer for the entire amount of unpaid rent throughout all those years.
Is this typical of what happens when you show mercy? Probably not. Can you count on that when you show mercy? No. But I get a lump in my throat telling the story, and I feel God’s presence right by my shoulder, and that never happens with the lion tamer approach. It happens only with mercy and compassion.
For so many centuries, ever since Constantine turned Christianity into a protocol-following institution, Christians have tried the Siegfried and Roy method of dealing with sinners. We have tried to win God’s heart by putting on splendid worship services and by demanding perfection from humans.
How many lives have been changed by doing that? Look around; the world is crawling with sinners.
According to our readings for today, that should come as no surprise. When you focus more on getting church routine down pat than in welcoming, when you focus more on training people to do what you want them to do than in eating with sinners, you don’t change many lives.
Maybe I am naïve, but I’ll tell you what encourages me about Salem. We try very hard to avoid the lion tamer approach to sinners. This is not a place for the elite of society, not a place for those who achieve a certain level of righteousness. This is a place where sinners gather. We eat with sinners.
We eat with sinners in the Fellowship Hall after every service, and we eat with sinners at the Lord’s Table at the communion rail. This is a place where we don’t judge, where everyone is welcome. Where we can hear the Good News that love is what God is all about and that Jesus took painful steps to make sure we can live in that love forever.
Where our understanding of God leads us to lives of mercy, and where mercy and love flow bringing new life to all who gather, and where mercy and love overflow into a river of compassion for the world.
As Christians, we get a lot of bad press. Most of it we’ve brought on ourselves. If only people knew what really goes on in this church. If only they knew that this is not a place for taming religious circus tigers, but a place where love and mercy and knowledge of God flow with such intensity that you can feel it, we wouldn’t be able to pack them all in. If only they knew that a worship service is not a painful requirement but a place where we encounter the love and mercy of God, a place where lives are changed, this place would be crawling with sinners.
We try to facilitate a competent worship service. But even that is in service of our main purpose here, which is to follow our Lord in eating with sinners. Because we recognize that we are sinners. We recognize that we are the people Jesus came to call. We are the people whose lives are changed.