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Sermon for June 7-8, 2008
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Hos. 5:15-6:6 & Matt. 9:9-13
"Merciful Righteousness "
+Shine in our hearts, O Lord, Lover of humankind, with the pure light of the knowledge of God, and open the eyes of our hearts and minds that we might truly live in your Gospel of Life—Amen.
“Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness…” we sang just moments ago, for we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Knowing that is so important, and truly knowing means being transformed by what we know. Today’s readings from Scripture lay that out so clearly: full knowledge versus incomplete … true knowledge versus fake.
Last Sunday, we heard Jesus’ words from earlier in Matthew’s Gospel: ‘Not everyone who calls on me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven … only those who do the will of my Father’ (7:21). That’s why Jesus was always so harsh on the Pharisees: they knew the words of Scripture—they studied them and prayed them dutifully—but they didn’t really know them. They had the shell but not the contents. So when they ragged on Jesus for sharing the dinner table with the scoundrels of society, he said: ‘A healer comes for the sick, not the well. I come for those who know they’re unrighteous, not those blind to God in their midst because they’re so proud and self-righteous. You devote yourselves to the study of Scripture—go and learn what these words of the prophet Hosea mean: I, as God, desire mercy—compassion—not going through the motions and thinking you’ve satisfied God’s requirements. I, as God, desire hearts broken in loving concern for others’ well-being and salvation … hearts filled with the knowledge of God and compassion for the wayward and lost.’
That’s what Jesus was getting at in his answer to the Pharisees … and we do well to hear it and take it to heart, because inside every Christian is a Pharisee wanting to be noticed. If I ask, “Who wants to be a Pharisee?” no hands would go up—that’s a dirty word. Remember, they were the outwardly upright and religious of society, but they sought to look holy instead of be holy. ‘All the ways of a person are right in his or her own eyes,’ we read in Proverbs, ‘but the Lord weighs the spirit…. Being arrogant in heart is heresy to the Lord, but by merciful love and faithfulness, sin is righted and true change of heart comes’ (16: 2, 5-6). True righteousness and holiness come through Christ Jesus as pure gift.
Like Matthew, our Lord has called us away from the places where we’re so good and so comfortable at doing wrong. He has called us by the grace of his Spirit to be his followers. Saying that we are baptized and forgiven Christians means that we don’t just strive to know (or memorize) the words of Jesus, it means that we strive to live them out … that we devote ourselves to making his mercy, his compassion, his love visible in what we say to people, how we treat them, what we do to them and for them … that we will see all people, ourselves included, as ones Christ Jesus loved so much that he came not to condemn but to save; to redeem and bring back around to God.
We do well to ask ourselves: Are there people who instantly bring out the Pharisee in us because their sin is so obvious, while ours is so neatly hidden? Are we more ready to condemn them as hopeless instead of being humble in repentance and seeking to be Christ’s servants of healing? We too need to recall and apply those words of Hosea: God desires mercy and compassion of us, not simply time in a church building. One of the early Christians from the fourth century said, ‘Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is fighting some great battle that you cannot see’—good words to keep our hearts centered in the mercy of Christ.
What are we seeking: God’s kingdom and righteousness, or our own?
Early last century, the Congregational minister Washington Gladden wrote a hymn entitled “O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee.” The two stanzas that have been left out of every hymnal it has appeared in are, of course, the most pointed and challenging that we need to hear and sing:
O Master, let me walk with Thee
Before the taunting Pharisee;
Help me to bear the sting of spite
The hate of (those) who hide Thy light.
The sore distrust of souls sincere
Who cannot read Thy judgments clear,
The dullness of the multitude,
Who dimly guess that Thou art good.
May we learn our Lord’s patience and love! May we rejoice and revel in the merciful and righteousness that is ours as a gift through Christ Jesus! May we share it in humble and holy love … in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—Amen.