The Reverend Kirk T. Berlenbach

Proper 5, Year A

June 8, 2008

A few months ago I ventured out to the old Khyber Pass bar to see one of my favorite bands. And after I had settled myself at the bar I was surprised to see a one of our parishioners coming towards me. (I know that it is shocking to learn that the people who go to this church might sometime go to bars!) Anyway, after a hug and an introduction to her boyfriend, she said, “It seems that you see me more in bars than in church.” with a kind of sheepish laugh. Although her statement wasn’t entirely accurate, I started to wonder what she was really saying. The implication seemed to be that because she went to bars more frequently than she went to church that she had something to apologize for, or even be ashamed of.

But I can tell you, that even as infrequently as I get to bars, I have discovered something extraordinary. Bars are full of who are looking for G-D. And more often than not I run into them when I go there. This is especially true if and when people learn that I am a priest. Now I can guess what you might be thinking… if they are really looking for G-D then they are looking in the wrong place- they should come to church and stop hanging around bars so much, right?

Maybe not. The people I meet in bars are indeed really thirsting to find a real connection to G-D, but for a variety of reasons, are not comfortable coming to church in order to meet that need. And that creates a very particular problem for those of us who go to Church on a regular basis. Today’s Gospel, the calling of Matthew the tax collector, deals with a similar theme. Although it is brief, it tells us a great deal about Jesus and what his ministry was all about. Jesus didn’t spent all day at the temple or in the synagogues. If the Gospels give us any sort of an accurate picture of how Jesus spent his time (and they are the only detailed picture that we have), we can see that Jesus was very different than the other religious leaders of this day. He didn’t even spend very much time in isolated in the temple, nor did he sequester himself away reading and discussing the scriptures and the law. Now to this you might argue that because he was a prophet who was devoted to reforming the system, he had to spend his time living and moving outside of it. Yet Unlike John the Baptizer, Jesus didn’t set up shop in one place and insist that people come to him. Nor did he cloister himself away in a closed community like the Essenes. What Jesus did was unique for his ministry took place outside the holy and sacred places like the temple and ministry and instead took place out in the ordinary world. In other words, Jesus spent his time being out with the people. This in itself was not so radical. But Jesus took it a giant step further. He wasn’t content to spend his time with just the decent, ordinary, good temple going folks. If he had, the Pharisees would have been far more tolerant of him. No, Jesus spent time with…. those people. You know the kind I mean, the dirty, the sleazy, the kind of people who’s profession or even very existence shuts them out of descent society. The kind of folks we wouldn’t dream of having into our homes or even be caught speaking to. To make matters even worse, the company Jesus kept wasn’t just socially unacceptable, they were religiously impure. It wasn’t just human prejudice that made them so bad, it was divine law. Given the absolute nature of the purity code that held sway 2000 years ago, what Jesus was doing was defying and defiling all that the religious establishment held to be sacred. How could Jesus, a teacher and perhaps even a prophet of God, freely ignore the very laws and practices that God himself had instituted? But that’s exactly what he did by hanging out with tax-collectors, prostitutes, the crippled and the poor.

In their disbelief the Pharisees question him (all the while making sure not to get too close because then they too might become defiled). Jesus’ answer to them is so simple, so concise… “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…. For I have come to call not the righteous, but the sinners.” that it takes a while to absorb all that it implies. What Jesus is doing is turning the priorities of his religion on its head. God is not just concerned about the good and the righteous (which is to say those who have somehow earned God’s love and forgiveness), No, God also cares deeply for the sinful and impure. This was a revolutionary and even heretical idea in a religion that had a complex system for atoning for sin through sacrifice.

Of course when Jesus says that he is concerned with the sick and with sinners he is by no means saying that God doesn’t care about those who are healthy and righteous. But what he is doing is acknowledging that there are entire groups of people who are shut out of the established religious system. Under Jewish law there were whole categories of people who could never be clean enough to enter the temple and thus make the necessary sacrifices in order to get right with God. And these weren’t just notorious sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes; they also included regular professions like camel drivers, pig farmers and tanners, not to mention those afflicted by skin and blood diseases. But why they were unclean is beside the point. This Gospel gets to the very heart of what Jesus’ ministry was about- making God accessible to all people, regardless of whether they were worthy or pure. And that has huge implication for how we understand and carry out our ministry today.

What it means is that the primary reason the Church exists is to bring people into relationship with God. Even though all of us who are gathered here today definitely have room to grow in our faith, we at least have some understanding of who God is and what that means for our lives. But there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of people in our immediate community who do not have a church home. They are un-churched or they are lapsed in the practice of their beliefs. Yet most are still looking for meaning and purpose in their lives and as I have found, many would even like to have a closer relationship with G-D.

So why aren’t they here? Easier to fit in, in fact bars and parties one is often shown more hospitality and welcome. No a long list of rules and customs. Many feel unable/unworthy/uncomfortable with the idea of going to G-D, yet when someone is willing to bring G-D to them, they are surprisingly receptive… many people are thirsty for G-D but, like the tax collectors, prostitutes and the woman with the hemorrhage of blood, are not comfortable going into a church in order to find Him.

But regardless of their reasons, they all deserve the opportunity to hear about the love that God has for them. They all deserve the chance to feel cared for and accepted for who they are and not for who someone else thinks they ought to be. And if we sit here and wait for them to come to us, we are going to have a very, very long wait. Even the most contemporary service and the best marketing will not manage to draw them all in. And so we have to change our mindset, because if they won’t come to Church, we have to take Church out to them.

The people who are in most need of God’s love are not in here, they are out there… they are out in bars or on the streets or on the basketball court. They are in the clubs, and in the park. They are your neighbors, and your co-workers and your friends. They are all around us. And so rather than lamenting the number of people in our pews (as churches are so wont to do), we need to go out and meet them where they are. If we really want to see more faces here on a Sunday morning then we need to take the Gospel and our ministry out beyond our walls.

In closing I want you to remember one thing. The vast majority of Jesus’ ministry took place outside the temple and away from the synagogues. He didn’t spend his time preaching to the choir. It’s not that he didn’t care about the good, temple-going men and women of his day, he loved them just as fully and completely as he did the outcasts and sinners. But he knew that the only way to bring the outsiders into relationship with G-D was by going out to meet them where they were. Think of his parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal’s son. They are all about bringing outsiders into relationship with God. Jesus committed his time and his energy seeking out and ministering to those people who had been shut out or who had gotten lost… the people who couldn’t or wouldn’t find God through the traditional system of temple and sacrifice.

So if Jesus came to Roxborough today, where do you think he would go? To Saint Timothy’s in order to hear this fine sermon? I don’t think so. He would be at the bike race. I can just see him down on the wall or along Manayunk Avenue, mingling with the crowds. Talking with people who haven’t set foot inside a church in years, if they ever did at all. Listening to them. Accepting them. Forgiving them. Loving them.

May we learn from our Lord’s example and may we take his lessons to heart. May God give us the courage to faithfully model our ministry after our savior’s. AMEN