“Mercy and Sacrifice”

Matthew 9:9-13

A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas m. Donley

June 12, 2005

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            I was at House of Mercy last Sunday evening.  This funky American Baptist Church made up largely of 20-40 year olds who love bluegrass music invited the Sacred harp singers to sing a song or two, so I went. That evening, the preacher was the Rev. Don Samuels, another American Baptist Minister and member of the Minneapolis City Council. I seldom have the chance to hear someone else preach.  As luck or grace would happen, his scripture was the same as the one I chose for this Sunday.  I listened with bated breath and a ready pen.  This is what us preachers do.  Some call it plagiarism, others call it sharing resources.  His sermon was entitled, “focus on the bastards”.

            His point was that it is so easy for us to vilify our enemies.  It is so easy to make fun of those we disagree with.  It is so easy to hate our enemies.  It is so much more convenient to see our adversaries as one-dimensional.  The “Publicans” can end up being anyone who is not like us.  Our hatred for the outsider, the publicans, is a hair’s breath from racism, which is prejudice plus power.  Our hatred or even the writing off of the outsider is a hair’s breath from a pathological phobia.  Jesus really must have upset a whole bunch of people for eating with publicans.  But it was worth it.  Because Jesus showed that the work of God is more important than our barriers. 

            Let’s look briefly at the scripture.  Jesus, we know, was in the practice of calling disciples to follow him.  And he came upon Peter and Andrew, James and John, probably upright working class folk—fishermen, the Bible calls them.  He said, “follow me” and they dropped their nets and followed him.  And almost no one noticed.  It was when he called Matthew the tax collector that Jesus got in trouble with the religious authorities. 

            Tax collectors were often thieves in the clothing of civil authorities.  They could easily make you pay much more than you owed, and make your life miserable while they shaved a healthy profit off the top.  No one liked a tax collector, except maybe some of the ruling elite or other tax collectors, although I imagine the ruling authorities saw them as a necessary evil in order to keep the people in line.  If you keep the poor poor, and fighting with each other, then they might not ask the vital questions of who profits from their state.    The tax collectors, pawns of the ruling elite were hated by the common people and publicly shunned by the authorities while they benefited from their thievery.

            But Jesus called Matthew the tax collector, who was sitting at his booth and he said to him, “follow me.”  The scripture says that he got up and followed him.   It would seem to imply that he left behind his tax collector’s booth just like the fishermen left their nets when Jesus called them.  The point is he accepted the invitation and began his life anew with Jesus.

            The fact that Jesus had tax collectors and women in his following looked to some of his critics like blasphemy and to others as simply pathetic.  But when he actually began eating meals with these people, the Pharisees, the religious authorities, the righteous in their own minds, felt it part of their religious duty to condemn Jesus and his followers.

            To the Pharisees’ world-view, Jesus in eating with tax collectors and sinners, publicly thumbed his nose at their religious custom while at the same time wantonly defiling himself.  To come into contact with an unclean person was to become unclean yourself.  Jesus knew that.  He also knew that he had had enough of the Pharisees’ scoreboard religion.  The counting of who is in and who is out.  In following Jesus, we need to watch our own tendency to keep doctrinal score, remembering that Jesus called not the righteous, but sinners.

            By letting in the tax collectors, Jesus is redrawing the social boundaries that the Pharisees are so desperate to keep in tact.  Jesus liberates us from this boundary. 

            What happens today when the boundaries get redrawn?  Do we side with the Pharisees or with Jesus?  To side with the Pharisees might make us feel more powerful and give us a sense of certitude.  To side with Jesus might be liberating, but it also means we need to hang out with people we don’t understand or trust.

Jesus said:  “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means.  “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners. “(Matthew 9:13)  Jesus was calling the Pharisees and the rest of us to look at the true meaning of religion.  It’s mercy, not sacrifice.

            “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” is actually a quote from the prophet Hosea (6:6).

            The full verse says, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  It’s the thesis statement of Hosea.  It’s also similar to Amos when he said, “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon them.  Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.  But let justice roll down like the waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21-24)

            It’s similar to the prophet Micah who said, “With what shall I come before YHWH and bow myself before God on high?  Shall I come before God with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  God has told you, O mortal, what is good; What does YHWH require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:6-8)

            “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  It’s so important that Jesus repeats it to the Pharisees again in Matthew 12:7. But for too many, it’s more comfortable to sacrifice than to have mercy.  There is a clear winner and loser in a sacrificial system.  In a mercy-based system things are a bit more creative, possibly even chaotic.  In a sacrifice system, you’re either in or out based upon what you do. 

            Sacrifice is something we do to appease a jealous and angry God.  Sacrifice is what the law was written for and it’s based upon a concept of God that’s brutal.  It’s tied to the need for atonement—as if we don’t and can’t ever please God.  Atonement theology implies that God wants and needs sacrifice so that “he” won’t send us to the hell we deserve because we’re such lousy sinners. 

 

 

            But Jesus said twice, what God really wants is not sacrifice, but mercy. God wants us to show mercy to our fellow human beings. That is so much more important than if we get this or that doctrine just right.  In fact, mercy is the doctrine that is the most important. Mercy is something that you give as a gift.  Sacrifice is something that is a means to an end.  Jesus said blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.

            Some in our denomination are seeking to sacrifice churches like ours in order to save their place at the elite table.  The General Board is meeting in the coming weeks to make the first of their decisions about how to either close ranks or to keep the church open to all people.  There is a plan afoot to bring a decidedly exclusivist slate of officers to the floor of the denomination biennial in July, designed to gain control of the structure of the denomination.  And it seems clear that this group is more interested in sacrifice than mercy.

            And yet, Jesus lived and died for them, too.  He called upon us to have mercy even upon those who want our hides.  Jesus ate with the publicans and it made the Pharisees angry.  Too many people find it too difficult to follow Jesus when he said, “You have heard it said, ‘love your friends and hate your enemies’.  But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who w\persecute you.”  Jesus said from the cross of sacrifice, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

            I don’t know how things are going to play out in the coming weeks.  I’m glad that we have six people going to the biennial.  We will use all of our allotted votes to do the right thing.  But at some point, we are going to need to show mercy to even those who collect taxes and fees.  If they choose to follow Jesus, then we need to welcome them with mercy.  Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

            Think of the publicans in your life.  Do you simply think of them as enemies, or do you see them as broken people in need of mercy?  Are you exercising mercy upon them?              Are you hearing their pain? Are you seeking to live with them as sisters and brothers? 

            This mercy stuff is a whole lot harder than the cut and dried sacrifice system.  Sacrifice is what we do to appease God.  But what if we appeased God mostly through mercy?  What would our world, our church, our lives look like then?

            Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  May we give and receive mercy and may we sacrifice our need to be in control.   When we do that, then we open the floodgates of grace to wash over us.  Who knows what can happen then?

            Forgive the military imagery, but we might not win a short-term battle, but we lay the groundwork for a more blessed and healthy future in the war for our souls. 

            Given the choice between a God who demands sacrifice and a God who desires mercy, I’ll chose mercy any day.  Jesus, Micah, Amos, Hosea, fisherfolk and even some publicans make good company.  May we give and receive mercy today and every day.