Matthew 9:9–13

9As 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.

10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Dinner with Jesus: At Matthew’s House

I read recently of a family that was attending a certain church, they’d been going there a while. One Sunday the husband sat on the center isle, his 6 year old next to him, the 4 year old in the middle, the two year old next to her mother all in a row. They got through the first part of the service all right, but then the daughter next to her dad leaned toward him with a, “Pssssst.” Being the spiritual head of his house, he ignored it and tried to focus on the message. Pretty soon she was tugging on his sleeve, so he bent toward her, she whispered, “Daddy?” she asked, “Why is that man yelling at us?”

He thought about it a minute then leaned back toward her and whispered, “I don’t know.” And he decided maybe they should look at their worshipping options.

Around Jesus there are always questions. By what authority does he work wonders? What is the source of his power? Why is he doing things this way, and not that way?

Some questions were asked sincerely in order to learn, “why?” or “what is that?” But what we read happening here with the disciples and the religious leaders is not a “please tell me” kind of question…what is happening here is “questioning.” The leaders were casting doubt on Jesus whole method of ministry…and not to him directly they addressed their questioning to the disciples. Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners? …and (I suppose) implied in their question is why doesn’t he eat with leaders like us?

It’s a fair question. If Jesus came to change the religious climate of the earth, why wasn’t he working with religious leaders?

Jesus takes the opportunity of this question to explain how he saw his role and purpose in the world. It’s the ill that need a doctor…and since he was in the soul doctoring business, tax collectors and sinners were his clientele. Now when the religious leaders called the people Jesus was hanging out with “sinners” they meant people whose moral problems were obvious to all.

I suppose some of those Jesus might try to get close to today might include those struggling with addiction, or folks who claim other gods. Maybe he’d spend time with those who were God fearing, but not religious in the usual sense. And he might not meet with pastors, priests, bishops or denomination leaders. If you want to get something done among the hurting people, you may as well go straight to them. That’s exactly what Jesus did. He took his teaching, his miracles, and his disciples to the streets. And there he taught those who would listen, he ate with tax collectors, he encountered sinners in their natural habitat.

I’m not sure when it happened to us Methodists, but at some point we changed from being out-goers to being invite-inners… We quit going where the people are, and started hoping they’d find us where we are. To do that, we become something that resembles religious hermits. You know hermits, they stay in, they don’t go out much, and when they do go out, they do so with a minimum of contact with others.

Methodism started with a rather unwilling street preacher named John Wesley. He didn’t really want to be a street preacher, but the churches would no longer let him preach in their buildings. And so in his journal he wrote, “I submitted to be more vile.” “I submitted to be more vile,” he said, because he decided to preach on the streets.

In other words, for the sake of this great love of God toward him—and for the sake of sharing it with others—John Wesley decided to do something that he once thought he would never do. But somehow, that didn’t matter any more. The embarrassment didn’t matter, the uneasiness didn’t matter, the raised eyebrows didn’t matter. Only one thing mattered, and what mattered was love. God’s love for people is so worth sharing that everything else pales next to it.

Now folks, I don’t think very many of us today would say that we want to become “more vile” for God. That really isn’t the kind of language we use these days. But what if we said instead that we resolve to allow God to stretch us beyond what makes us comfortable? What if we said that we resolve to allow God to pull us and challenge us into being a new kind of people? What if we said that we resolve to do things that make us feel uncomfortable if they allow others the same opportunities to fall in love with God that we have had? After all, none of us would be here today—this building wouldn’t be here—if someone somewhere along the way had not resolved to put up with a little inconvenience and a little discomfort and a little newness so that generations to come like you and me could fall in love with God too.

Do any of you know how Methodism first came to Missouri? I learned a little about that at annual conference last week. There were some Methodists over Illinois…this was back before Missouri was part of the US territories…before the Louisiana Purchase. Missouri was still part of the property of the French, and the official religion here was Catholic. At that time, it was against the law to bring other faiths into what would later become Missouri. But some Illinois Methodists rowed across the Mississippi to hold bible studies on this side. If they had been caught, they would have been in trouble. But they came and started studies, and churches.

Have any of you seen the Mississippi river? I grew up in Nebraska, the home of the Platte river…a river with a subtitle; “a mile wide and an inch deep.” You could cross the Platte any time you were willing to roll up your pant legs to mid calf or so. That’s not a river that’s a stream. The Mississippi is a river! How many of you have ever been down on the actual bank of the Mississippi and looked across there. It’s big, it’s wide, it’s deep and it’s dangerous. Now imagine it with no bridges, and no Evenrude to clamp on the back of your boat.

What would possess Illinois Methodist people to cross that water to have a Bible study with the folks in Missouri? They were risking life and limb, but they did it week in and week out. And so when the Louisiana Purchase was made, the Methodist church was already here in Missouri. Early Methodists were reaching out. They were out-goers.

Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” And in spiritual matters, it’s those at the margins of life who are most in need, and often most receptive to the positive difference Christ can make. Jesus mode of operation was to go to them, rather than hoping they’d come to him.

The second part of Jesus answer was a challenge to the Pharisees. He said, “But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' It’s a quote from the Old Testament prophet Hosea. Speaking for God he says, “what can I do with you, …your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. (That’s how their love for God seemed to the almighty, it was like a vapor) And the Lord says through the prophet, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” Then a little later in the chapter “…as marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests.” God was not very complimentary of their devotion, their practice or their leaders.

God prefers to be honored: acknowledged. God wants to be known. And he prefers being known over ritual obedience. So what Jesus was saying to the Jewish leaders was this. I’m out here with these folks…these tax collectors and sinners…because they acknowledge God. They want to know God.

I’ve often found this honesty with people at the margins…they know their own spiritual temperature better than many leaders. Jesus worked with folks on the margins because that’s where life change was happening. That’s where the ill were made well, the lost were found, the blind found sight.

Jesus was at dinner when the question came up. Why don’t you hang out with religious people, and why do you purposely spend time with those who are not religious at all. As you come to dine with Jesus today, I want to turn that question toward you. When was the last time you had a conversation about spiritual things with a person that is not an obvious part of a church? When did you join Jesus in focusing your attention one someone who is not yet a believer? You see we can get so busy doing things with churched folks, that pretty soon we may not know very many people who do not profess faith…we loose touch with the people Jesus spent most of his time with.

Jesus ate with those who needed him…(in this story) tax collectors and sinners…and he still is with those who need him today. Jesus heart is aimed outward…his love is given to be shared. And so as we come for communion today, we come as the kind of people Jesus liked to eat with…we’re not particularly important or popular according to the world. We come with needs, some obvious some held within our hearts…but needs that Jesus as our physician has ways to help. We come not depending on our own goodness, but counting on his grace.

As you come today…. Instructions about communion, etc.

BENEDICTION:

May the grace of Christ, which daily renews us,

and the love of God, which enables us to love all,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which unites us in one body,

make us eager to obey the will of God until we meet again, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Jonah 4 Angry Jonah

^NIV Jonah 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.  ² He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.  ³ Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."  ⁴ But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"  ⁵ Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.  ⁶ Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.  ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.  ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."  ⁹ But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."  ¹⁰ But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  ¹¹ But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

 

 

Jonah 4 — “Angry Jonah”

          We’ve been looking at the story of Jonah the last three weeks and we’ve seen Jonah hear God’s call to go East… and instead he takes to the sea going West to try to run from God’s call to go to Nineveh.  The Ninevites were tyrants…worthy of any fear and trepidation that Jonah felt…except God called him to go…at that point it wasn’t just about the Ninevites, but about Jonah’s trust in God.

          He boarded a ship hoping to get as far from Nineveh as possible.  Tarshish over in Spain.  But God sent a great storm to stop them, and in a desperate attempt to appease the LORD, the Sailors threw Jonah overboard, and God sent a fish to swallow him.  During his three days inside the fish Jonah prayed, and God delivered Jonah on a beach, not far from his home.  And again God called him to go to Nineveh.  This time Jonah went.  

          Last week we saw Jonah’s simple message “40 days and Nineveh will be overturned” was amazingly effective.  All of the Ninevites from the peasants to the King, repented.  They called upon God, they turned from their evil and violence.  They put on sack cloth (a symbol of repentance) and they even put sack-cloth on their herds and flocks. 

 

Jonah chapter three ended with these words: Jonah 3:10   ¹⁰ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

 

That sounds like good news doesn’t it?  If this story had taken place in the New Testament, they’d have lined them all up for a big baptism at the river.  What happened was a revival that changed the whole city.  It was great news!  The Ninevites turned from their wrong, they called out to God.  And in God’s mercy they were spared.  They were converted.  They were saved. 

 

Those of us who hang around the church have heard good news like this all of our lives.   A person gives their lives to God, they turn from a lot of bad things around, they turn toward God.  It’s all good.  In joys and concern time…it’s a joy right? 

 

 

But once again the story of Jonah doesn’t fit with expectations.  Rather than being happy that his preaching brought a response, we turn the page from chapter three to chapter 4 and find out that Jonah is angry with God. 

 

  God dragged him all the way back from his little cruise in the Mediterranean to Nineveh to tell people they were going to be destroyed…and then God decided not to destroy them.  And Jonah says, see God? 

·        I knew it!  You were planning on forgiving them all along!

·        Wasn’t this what I said at home?

·        That’s why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.  (what’s he doing? He’s blaming God for his previous disobedience)  He was disobeying because he knew God was good.  

·        Jonah complains, “I just KNEW you would be gracious”

·        I knew you were compassionate

·        You are a God who relents from sending calamity…what’s he saying…God you won’t even make good on your threats. And he sums up his anger like this: 

·        I want to die.

You know what folks.  This has to be a true story, because only real people can be so stupid.  

Now if we can try to bend our minds around the twisted logic of Jonah for a moment, what is his real beef?  Is it that Jonah hates the Ninevites…it could be that.  But I don’t think that’s it.  I think the basic problem is pride…Jonah’s pride.  A prophet really only had one leg to stand on, and that was whether or not his prophecies turned out to be true.  So God sent him to announce that Nineveh was going to be overthrown.  And then because the people repented, God chose not to destroy them.

So Jonah had obeyed in delivering the message…and then God embarrassed him by not making the message come to pass.

Jonah is basically having a little hissy fit.  So God asks him, “do you have a right to be angry?” and Jonah doesn’t even answer.

You know what it means when you don’t answer don’t you?  …he was way out of line. 

So Jonah decides to go sit on the hill so he made himself a little shelter…probably a few sticks leaned up together to make a little shade.  He sort of set himself up a little campsite.  Maybe put some coffee on a little fire…and there he sat.

God decides since Jonah isn’t talking to him, that he’d do something to get Jonah’s attention, so God caused a little vine to grow…and it sprang up and gave Jonah some shade… for a day.  And that made Jonah happy.  Then the next day the Lord sent a worm and it killed the vine and so it withered.  That’s how it goes when I garden too…so I know how Jonah feels.  

Then God decided to send a hot windy day and Jonah got himself cooked sitting out there on the hillside.  I’ve always thought that camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.  ….and that gardening is a good reason for there to be a McDonalds.

But at least demise of the vine does prompt Jonah to start talking to God again, because he decides wants to die again…so he complains to God that without his little vine, it would be better to die.

 

What’s he saying really?  “I’d rather die than not get what I want.”  God, if you are going to send me to tell the Ninivites they were going to be destroyed, then you’d better destroy them.  Don’t make me look like a fool!  If your going to give me a vine to shade me one day, you’d better give me shade on the next day too. 

 

We were in Wal-Mart the other day, and we overheard a mother patiently saying “NO” to her 3 or 4 year old in the toy aisle.  The little one came back with, “but I want it.”  Folks, if you can overcome “but I want it” syndrome in your life, you should write a book because there are a lot of folks who need to read it.  We didn’t stay to see the end of the fight, but I hope for the child’s sake that the mother won…it looked for the moment like she had the upper hand.

 

Jonah wanted what he wanted.  He was more concerned that the message he’d delivered come true, than that the people of Nineveh live.  And if the city was not going to be overturned, he wanted to die.  And then, when he lost his shady vine, he was ready to die all over again.  Jonah’s a bit of a drama-queen, that’s all I can say.

 

To me the history of Jonah poses a question we might not wish to think about.  And that question is not, “How do you feel about prophets?  …or sailors?  …or even whales…(actually “great fish.”)  The question Jonah’s history asks us is this, “Are you willing to live out of the loving nature of God?”

 

          We say we understand that God loves everyone, and what we may mean by that is God loves us…and ours…but what about when the ones God is loving happen to be our enemy? 

 

          If you’re all American Citizens here today, there’s a good portion of the world that hates you, simply because you are American.  That fact may not bother you much, nevertheless, it’s true.  And chances are, closer to home, there could be some folks who dislike you because of your family name.  And a few might hate you personally, for their own reasons, they could be good reasons.  All I’m saying is it’s likely that some of you have enemies…or you will soon enough that you may as well listen.

 

Politics can be a source of hatred, the mere mention of the names of certain politicians can send some folks into fight mode.  Sports rivalries …towns can hate each other over games.

 

Have any of these hatreds, strong dislikes, rivalries, feuds and grudges touched your life yet?  How about churches.  Some of you might be in this church today primarily because of something that happened to you in some other church.  Or you may have only cautiously come back to this congregation.  You may have chosen to be Methodist because you were done being named among another group.  And though you might not choose to call it hatred, church fights can certainly be hateful, can’t they?

 

          Let’s draw the circle a little tighter.  What about your family?  …that collection of in-laws, outlaws, X’s, various generations with cousins, uncles, great folks and awful folks that share your line or your name.  Surely you are at perfect peace with your own flesh and blood right? ….Right.   Even in the most important and primary relationships in our lives, we can have enemies.

 

          The question Jonah poses about the nature of God is a question to be answered by you, the community of faith.  What if God calls you to reach out to the hated ones, or to the ones who hate you?  And how do you really feel about serving a savior that calls us to “love our enemy” and meant it?  You see there was a time in religious history when a person would pray.  “Lord, I hate those who hate you, I hate them with a perfect hatred.”  And they would feel good about hating. 

 

          The story of Jonah would suggest to us that that idea of hating for God’s sake was never one of God’s ideas.  God was always concerned for the Ninevites…even when they were doing their worst.  God in love sent Jonah to them on the chance that they might respond, or at least to give them a chance to be spared.  And just as the ships captain said, “who knows maybe your God will spare us.  And as the king said, “who knows maybe the Lord will relent and not send this catastrophe upon us.”  God had sent Jonah with the idea of giving Nineveh a chance…who knows?  Maybe they’ll change if they hear the warning.

 

          Jonah’s having his fit, so           God gets the last word in the book of Jonah.  He basically tells Jonah he is goofy to want to die over the vine.  God says, You didn’t tend it, or make it grow, it sprang up overnight and it died overnight.  The vine was no big deal Jonah, and here you got all worked up over it!

 

          But Nineveh has more than 120 thousand folks in it…who cannot tell their right from their left  Should I not be concerned about that great city?  Actually God throws a joke in this last line…he mentions their sackcloth wearing and no doubt repentant cattle.  There’s a 120 thousand folks who do not know their left from their right hands, and many cattle as well.  Does God wonder if Jonah can’t have a little pity on the people, if he’s at least more caring about their cows?

 

          Should I not be concerned for this great city.  And the answer is …well, there is no answer given in the text.  (The answer my friend…)  The answer about who God should care for…and by inference who we should care for is left hanging out there in the scorching middle eastern summer breeze.  And an angry sunburned prophet Jonah is once again tight lipped about the obvious answer to God’s question. 

 

          Jonah makes it clear God does care.  He cares about lost Nineveh.  He cared about them when they were living in evil and violence.  God’s love for the lost is amazingly great.  God even cares for and loves lost Jonah who doesn’t know when to be joyful and when to angry.  God cares about the world gone wrong, and he cares when his own people go wrong.

         

          Jonah doesn’t answer God’s final question to him, at least not for us to overhear, but I believe it’s important for us to note that God is there, in conversation with his lost and confused prophet, and there is no indication that God is going to leave Jonah alone.  God in love works with us and at times asks us about the legitimacy of our feelings.  “Do you have a right to be angry?”   About my mercy…about the plant…do you have that right?  After all you’ve been forgiven is it right for you to resent the grace given to another?  God asks, “don’t you care about what I care about?”

          Jonah’s author leaves each of us in that conversation with God about our involvement and our concern for those who are far from him.  We are called, as Jonah was called, to take the message of God’s love across boundaries of race, creed, or even to an enemy or a cranky neighbor.  Jonah’s author leaves us with the ultimate question; will we join with God to love those he loves?  All of them?

 

Prayer: Lord show us the direction of your love.  Do not leave us alone till we move with you and until your heart is formed in us…so that we will love those you love, and be concerned where you are concerned, and till your joys are our joys.