|
|
|
P.O. Box 25759 1411 Rim Road Fayetteville, North Carolina 28314 Office Phone: 910-868-5686 |
|
|
 |
If you desire to listen to the corresponding audio sermon
feel free to click here:
RealAudio Sermons
Web Page
I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice
Matthew 9:9-13
June 5, 2005
The Rev. Kong Namkung
A married couple was celebrating their 50th anniversary in a church fellowship hall. On the head table the couple was sitting, while the wife was smiling the husband had tears in his eyes. The wife asked, “Honey, why are you crying?” The husband replied, “Fifty years ago today, your daddy put a shotgun to my head, and said that if I didn’t marry you, he’d put me in jail for the next 50 years. If I had listened to him, I’d be a free man tomorrow.”
Most occasion celebrations are accompanied with meals, delicious food, soft conversation, a fireplace if it’s in the winter or in the shade of an acorn tree in the fall, to enrich our lives. When you have a candlelit meal with your lover and you fork a small piece of meat and give it to your lover, your relationship gets deeper and wider.
For a Jew, every meal was a kind of “religious” sacrament. The meal opens with a blessing in which the Jew acknowledges that the food on the table is a gift from God. In praying a prayer before the meal, the dinner table is claimed as a sacred space.
Genesis 43:32-33, “They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. When they were seated before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth the men looked at one another in amazement.” Why did Joseph eat by himself? He was following the laws of the Egyptians’ caste system. The Egyptians considered themselves highly intelligent and sophisticated. They looked upon shepherds and nomads as uncultured and even vulgar. As a Hebrew, Joseph could not eat with Egyptians even though he outranked them. As foreigners and shepherds, his brothers were lower in rank than any Egyptian citizens, so they had to eat separately too.
In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus invited Matthew, who was named Levi, a tax collector to be his disciple. Jesus had tax collectors and sinners at the sacred dinner table and was willing to identify himself with these sinners. No wonder the good religious folks of the day became outraged when Jesus called Matthew as one of his first disciples and was willing to have a meal with him and other sinners.
Today’s gospel, Matthew 9:9-13, contains different people- Jesus, Matthew, tax collectors, and Pharisees. Who would you be among these people? I want you to think about your spiritual location. Where are you sitting spiritually? Do you sit on the right seat where you please God and glorify God, or do you sit on the wrong seat where you feel good, but you are not pleasing God and God wants you to move to another seat? I want you think about these questions as God speaks to you.
First of all, you can sit on the seat of the Pharisees. They were extremely accurate and minute in all matters appertaining to the Law of Moses. Matthew 9:14, “Then John's disciples came and asked him, ‘How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’” Pharisees were a group of piety by keeping the Law and fasting. Paul, before he met Jesus, was very proud of being a Pharisee, when brought before the council of Jerusalem, professed himself a Pharisee (Acts 23:6-8; Acts 26:4-5). The problem was that their system of religion was a form and nothing more. They were noted for their self-righteousness and their pride. Matthew 9:11, “When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?’” Luke 7:39, “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner.’”
Because Pharisees have this kind of judgmental mentality and attitude, they were frequently rebuked by our Lord. Matthew 23:25, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” From the very beginning of his ministry the Pharisees showed themselves bitter and persistent enemies of our Lord.
My friends, if you holding on tighter to the Law of Moses than the mercy and grace of God, you are sitting at the seat of Pharisees. You will be rebuked by Jesus and will be bitter to Jesus and the enemies of the Lord, Jesus. Do you believe that to keep the Law, “Do this or do that” kind of mentality that leads you to right path, and ruling and teaching people by the Law of Moses are more important than the demonstration love and mercy? Then you are seated on the seat of the Pharisees. Please, stand up from the seat and move to another seat.
The second seat that you may be seated on is the seat of disciples. Jesus chose at least six disciples before he chose Matthew such as Peter and Andrew, John and James, (Matthew 4:18-22), Philip and Nathaniel (John 1: 43-45). However, the disciples in today’s scripture are silent. Two conclusions will be drawn from the disciples’ attitude. One is they may agree with Jesus. The other is they are not ready to accept “abnormal” people in their sight, not Jesus’ sight. They kept silent.
The Bible uses silence in several ways:
· As reverence to God in Habakkuk 2:20, “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”
· As a symbol of death (Psalm 94:17)
· As an expression of despair (Lament. 2:10). I think some wives know what I am talking about. Women, who are in despair, keep silent.
· Against evil can be interpreted as approval.
Ephesians. 5:10-11, “And find out what pleases the Lord. [11] Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” It is important to avoid the “fruitless deeds of darkness” such as any pleasure or activity that results in sin, but we must go even further. Paul instructs us to expose these deeds, because our silence may be interpreted as approval. God needs people who will take a stand for what is right. Christians must lovingly speak out for what is true and right.
It is shocking news for people that Jesus, the great physician, healer, and miracle performer for them, to have a meal with sinners. The disciples do not want to be involved in the issues about the way that God wants them to speak up. But they are silent. Are you like the disciples, so that when you’re a minority, you don’t speak what you believe and what is right?
The third seat is the seat of sinners, including tax collectors. Tax collectors were the ones who had a reputation throughout Israel for both collaborating with the Roman overlords and with cheating people. In Israel they were the lowest of the low and the worst of the worst. Tax collectors were regarded as sinners. “Sinners” in Greek means “The ones who gave their bodies to commit sins always as their habits”.
Do you collaborate with the world in order to receive your benefits while you lose your identity as the light of the world (Matthew 5:14) and the salt of the earth? (Matthew 5:13) Do you speak, “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.” (James 3:9) People know that you are hears of the word (James 1:22), but they also know that you are not doers of the word. People talk to each other behind you saying, “S/he is a Christian, but he is the worst of the worst. If that an example of the Christian’s life, I do not want to be a Christian!” Are you living this kind of life?
The fourth seat is the seat of Jesus. Jesus breaks the boundaries that are set up by the society. He meets and accepts the sinners and tax collectors, who are refused by “average people.” But Jesus wants to include outsiders. What Jesus said in today’s scripture lesson is, “You are all insiders, saved, among the elect, the well healed. Then I have nothing to give you. You don’t need anything from me. You think you are already in, so you don’t need an invitation. You think that you are well, so you don’t need a doctor” What Jesus says to us
If you feel well, you do not need a physician. You do not need Jesus, who is the great Physician. If you know you are clean, then you do not need a sanctifier. You do not need the Holy Spirit. If you understand that you are right and the other is wrong, then you do not need a judge. God is the judge.
So if the Cornerstone congregation wants to be like Jesus, Cornerstone UMC cannot stop reaching out to the people, whom we are not familiar to. A church that stops reaching out is not Jesus’ church. A people who hunker down with our faith, holding on to what we have got, timid and uncertain, unwilling to move out are not his people.
Each of us sits on one of the seats, Pharisees, the disciples, sinners, or Jesus’. With whom do we have a meal? Is Jesus at your table? Do not forget that the table or a meal is a representative of sacred religious practice. In other words, with whom do you have to practice what you believe? An elder of the Korean church put an extra spoon and a pair of chopsticks on her table every meal because she invites Jesus. Who should be on our table?
Today we had commissioning service. Our youth, Sue Todd and Dan Irizarry will go out of their comfort zone and reach out to people with Christ’s love. They never met them before.
What kind of conversation do we have? You will know who you are and whose you are according to what subject you carry in your conversation.
If you share the good news of Jesus Christ, you will have spiritual growth and walk on the right track on eternal life.
I went to a Mexican restaurant few weeks with one of my friends. I was there before him, and I sat apart from the main part of the restaurant because I wanted to carry a spiritual journey. A few minutes later, two women came and sat at a table next to me. As soon as they sat, they engaged in their discipleship and how they shared the good news with others for the last week. As I listened to their conversation, I was very blessed by hearing what they shared with one another. Do you know when you share a story in Jesus Christ, your blessings, weaknesses, and then your friends are also blessed and pray for you, but you criticize and judge others, your friends also criticize and judge while he is listening to you? My beloved, brothers and sisters, if Jesus were to spend his whole life for criticizing others, then nothing would happen. Jesus showed God’s mercy and love and gave his life for you and mine shorting coming, we, who receive his mercy and steadfast love, ought to reach out to the people, who has shorting comings.
How big is our meal table? The table in the house of Matthew was not big. It was only big enough for himself, his family, and maybe a few of his friends. But when Jesus entered the house, the size of the table became immeasurably huge. The table can seat all the sinners of the world, all filthy people, all sick people, and all who want to come to His table beyond race, colors, socioeconomic status, and cultures. Today we will have our monthly luncheon after worship. Please, sit at the table with the people whom you do not know well and carry a Christian conversation with them. The table is open to everyone. When you are sitting at the table, we are one and unified. Jesus opens the gate to heaven to all. Jesus’ table breaks our old boundaries. The Lord’s Table is as wide as the gates of heaven. However, if you have your own table, you cannot be at the table with Jesus and His people.
Here is the good news. What is the basic ingredient of the food on the table? The ingredients determine the taste of the food. The ingredients of the Lord’s table are Jesus’ body, his blood and his water that are mixed with His mercy and love. Today we celebrate his feast and all of you are invited to come to the table with Him. If you would be with Jesus, you must be servants of his expansive kingdom, moving out, reaching out, and inviting sinners to the gospel feast.
Matthew did this. He got up from his counting table and came to the table of the Lord. He opened the invitation to others and he was never the same again. What about you?
Matthew
9:9-13
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the
tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and
followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors
and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the
Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat
with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
NIV
Print
This Page |
Bookmark
This Site! |
Email
a Friend! |
E-Cards
Questions, suggestions and problems concerning the Cornerstone United Methodist Church Website should be directed toward the Cornerstone Webmaster at: webmaster@cornerstoneumconline.com
This Website Has Been Visited
Since Beginning
Operation.
Thanks for Stopping By!
