Tellico Village Community Church Sermons

June 6, 1999

"The Day The Sinners Rejoice!"

Matthew 9:9-13

In just a few weeks, our second Confirmation class - consisting of nine of the coolest kids you'll ever meet - will come to the altar and declare their individual faith in Jesus Christ. They have been working with me for some weeks now, preparing for this moment. Learning about what it means to make a personal commitment to Jesus. Learning about God, and the Bible, and the Church, and even...the Apostle's Creed which is one of their memory work assignments.

I tell them that, in many Christian worship services, the congregation - from memory - recites this most famous of all creeds. In fact, just to prove this to the kids of the Confirmation class, why don't we say the Apostles' Creed together...right now? Okay? I'll start...

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead and buried
He descended into hell.
The third day, he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Good job!

Now, I'm sure that you'll be delighted to hear that I have been working on developing a creed of my own. Maybe one day, it will be as famous as the Apostles' Creed. Probably not. But in any event, it will be a lot easier to remember. It has only one article of belief. Here it is...you may want to write it down.

I believe... that God will win!

Now the reason I'm proposing this as a new creed for the Christian Church is because many Christians don't really believe that God ultimately will win. Why, if you listen to some Christians talk, you get the idea that most of the world is headed straight for hell in a handbasket. You get the impression that - when all is said and done - Jesus' miraculous birth, his fantastic life and teachings, his sacrifice on the cross, and his glorious resurrection will have accomplished nothing more than the saving of a pitifully small handful of people. Mostly Presbyterians, of course, but probably with a few Episcopalians and a couple of Methodists mixed in. Or, depending on your point of view, mostly Baptists with a sprinkling of Missouri Synod Lutherans. Or, mostly Congregationalists - like me - and a few...well, actually, just Congregationalists would be my idea of heaven! Only kidding.

You can forget about the Catholics, some of these Christians say, because they are not truly Christians. Catholics, by the way, comprise the vast majority of the Christian church in the world. The truly sad part of that news is that, if Catholics aren't on the Lord's team, then God - like an inept politician - isn't even able to win most of the votes in his own home state. So to speak. And, of course, there are all those non-Christians out there - Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, Star Trek fans...

How sad this is. God goes to all this incredible, sacrificial effort to save the world - and ends up winning fewer people than live in than the state of Rhode Island, our country's smallest state! The Jehovah's Witnesses, of course, quantify the number of people saved.144,000. No more, no less. I think you'll agree that, held up against the 5 billion, 990 million, 889 thousand, and 28 people who were alive in the world as of 6:39 PM yesterday evening, that's not even a tiny drop in the proverbial bucket. Not to mention the folks who've come before them in history, and the babies who've been born since.

I wonder what those numbers would translate out into as a baseball player's batting average? Not enough to keep him in the majors, for sure.

And, if this is true - that God, despite all his good intentions - can't make it in the Big Leagues, just can't pull off the salvation of the world, then our Scripture story in the Gospel of Matthew must be completely mistaken.

Jesus is walking along the road through Capernaum. A man named Levi - a turncoat Jewish collaborator whose Greek name is Matthew - is sitting at the side of the road collecting taxes for the Roman occupation forces and their leader, Herod Anitpas. Taxes on the people were onerous and many. There were road taxes, bridge taxes, taxes on trade items, taxes on caravans, even personal and household taxes. Levi-Matthew was about as low as you can go. Selling out his own people. Selling out the promises of God. Dedicating his life instead to Caesar who claimed himself to be a god.

Jesus approaches the table and looks him straight in the eye. "Come and follow me," he says. And miracle of miracles, Matthew gets up and follows him! Who would have thought?

And that night, Matthew invites his friends over for dinner with Jesus. The Bible says there are many tax collectors and sinners there. This is the Bible's way of describing people most of us wouldn't hang around with. Losers - unbelievers - spiritual zeros. The kind of people religious folks tell us don't stand a chance with God.

And yet, here is Jesus. Drinking their wine. Laughing at their jokes. Listening to their stories. Enjoying their company. Basking in some wonderful beauty of their lives that religious people - for some reason - just can't see. But he can see it. He treasures them as beautiful gifts. Bestowing upon them a friendship that some religious people - past and present - tell us is not possible with God. At least until they straighten up and live right.

Not long into the party, the religious in-crowd shows up. The temperature immediately goes down. The bright laughter becomes muted. They sidle up to the disciples of Jesus and try to instigate a fight. "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

And right there is the question of the hour. Right there is a question you and I need to take with us this week and ponder. Right there is a question that is a key to understanding who God really is. Why DOES Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And the answer is apparent. Jesus enjoys their company! Jesus takes delight in God's craftsmanship of their lives! Jesus treats them like winners-in-the-making and not as losers! Jesus clearly does not believe that - if they are lost - they will be lost forever.

Jesus believes that God will win their hearts!! And Jesus sees himself as a partner with God in that effort.

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus tells the self-righteous Pharisees. "I have come to befriend not the righteous, but sinners." And then Jesus tells them to go home and open their Bibles and study a quote from God that's recorded in the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

Fred Craddock points out that the Hebrew word for mercy is hesed, an extraordinarily rich and significant term used in the Old Testament to mean steadfast love, righteousness, and loyalty. The word is often used to describe how God relates to Israel - like a true blue friend.

And here, Jesus is telling us that our job in the world is not to offer sacrificial piety to God. God is not even interested in that. What God does want us to do - and this is the Christian's life-work - is to extend generous friendship to people who are apart from God. He is asking us to be true-blue friends to the lost, to the sinners, to the 5,990,745,028 people who - as of last night at 6:39 PM - were not among the 144,000 righteous ones who think they're the only ones going to heaven!

Why this is a story that literally hinges on one of the most important articles of faith you can hold! This is a story in which Jesus dares us to believe - as he does - that God will win!

And it makes a difference, you know.

It makes a difference in the way you see people. It makes a difference in the way you treat people. It makes a difference in how hard you work at your friendships with people who live apart from God. It makes a difference in how patient and how steady you are with your love.

And it makes a difference in how you see yourself!

One day, a company president needed to call one of his employees at home about an urgent problem with the main computer. He dialed the man's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whispered, "Hello?"

"Is your daddy there?" asked the company president.

"Yes," whispered the small voice.

"May I speak with him?"

To the president's great surprise, the whispered voice answered, "No."

So the boss went to option two. "Well, is your mother there?"

"Yes."

"May I speak with HER?"

Back came the hushed voice, "No."

"Well," said the flustered boss, "is there anyone there besides YOU?"

"Yes," whispered the child.

"Who?"

"A policeman."

Wondering what the police would be doing at his employee's house, the boss said, "Well, may I please speak to the policeman?"

"No," answered the child, still whispering. "He's busy."

"Busy doing WHAT?"

"Talking to daddy and mommy...and the fireman."

Now the boss was really concerned. Policeman? Fireman? And now, over the phone connection, he could hear a deafening noise in the background. "What's that noise I hear?"

The little child was silent for a moment, but then came a whispered, "It's a hello-copter."

"A helicopter?" the boss gasped. "Why is there a helicopter?"

"Its unloading the soldiers so they can search."

"My God!" exclaimed the boss, now extremely worried. "What in the world is going on there? What are they all searching for?"

There was another long pause on the other end of the line. Then came the child's whispered giggle, "They're looking...for ME!"

 And so, dear friends, is God.

God is looking for you. God is looking for your neighbor. God is looking for all his creation - no matter how broken, no matter how estranged, no matter how rebellious, no matter how anti-God, no matter how seemingly hopeless.

And Jesus taught that God will win! And one day even those farthest from God will rejoice in the kingdom of heaven. Philippians tells us that, in that day, "every knee shall bow - in heaven, on earth, and under the earth -and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

I believe...that God will win!

What do you believe?

Go this week, and live the creed! Reach out to others with mercy like that of a true blue friend. Go and eat with tax collectors. And sinners.

And believe that God...will win!