10TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA CHURCH
GREENVILLE, SC – JUNE 8, 2008 8, 10, 12NOON
May our Lord Jesus give us His peace.
Religgy people, He’s able, an unexpected dinner.
Religgy people. The Prophet Hosea speaks to a people who have become very religious in the sight of others, making sacrifices on altars, lighting candles, doing all the required prayer gestures. He calls them fakes. Hosea speaks harshly to people who have become so religgy that they have lost the true call of worship. God asks His people through the prophet Hosea to love one another and seek a deeper knowledge of God. Don’t get all religgy, strive instead to know what God wants.
You and I know people who do the things that appear faithful, they go to church, are present at socials, funerals, are quick to offer a word at meetings like “we’ve always done it this way” or “we need to talk to those people.” In the meantime they are rude, get in lines first, separate themselves preferring a “club” to a temple of God’s diverse ones self offering. Hosea speaks for God, “Your piety is like a morning fog that dissipates in the heat of the day.” Religgy is not what I am looking for.
He’s able. Paul speaks to the Romans who struggle to remain faithful in the big city, so many lights contrary to God’s own. He raises the example of Abraham and Sarah – a husband and wife who had no reason to believe that they would bear a son, not to mention descendents as numerous as the stars or grains of sand on the beach. They believed God was able.
There are highly theological words in the reading – God credited Abraham and Sarah’s faith to them as righteousness. What does that mean? God made promises and Abraham was a man to take God at God’s Word. Because of this Abraham and Sarah were richly blessed. But more,
they are the type of person that hopes deeply and believes God is able.
We get stuck. We say, “I can never be happy again after what has happened, I am too broken.” “I am scared there is no life left in my marriage.” Or, “I have sinned the same way so many times there is no hope left for me.” Hah! Paul points to Abraham and Sarah, “Watch what happens when you hope!” Were childless Abraham and Sarah too broken in old age to conceive? Ask Issac their son. No life left in your marriage? Ask Sarah who felt a stirring in her barren womb. Even should your spouse have passed, that life remains real, or even deeper in the Spirit. She’s here, He’s here. Sinned many times? The same sin? Hah!
Ask the woman caught in adultery. Have hope, will you! God is able. Say it, “God is able.” “He’s able.” Say it like you know it. “He’s able.”
An unexpected dinner. But the best news is this. Are you ready? (?)
There’s a dinner sinner. You are invited to dinner sinner! I may be the least deserving of eating with Jesus, but Jesus calls to me, to you, “Follow me.” He goes to Matthew’s house and sits down for a meal. It is a quite unexpected dinner. And there is a chair for you sinner. Unexpected!
Hear the people outside, “Is that fool in there too?” “How can He eat with those people?” It is an unexpected dinner full of sinners. Why? Because the doctor is in the house, and the waiting room is full. “I have come not for the righteous, but for sinners.” This might include you and me. The unexpected dinner is Jesus setting the table for us to come clean. Eat with me, then follow me. I will show you mercy, then you go show it.
Beware of being a person standing outside looking in at the sinners when you may need the doctor too. Don’t get all religgy, get full of mercy and love instead. We’re all under construction! God is able to bring life where there was death! He’s able. Don’t weaken with doubt about that. Nothing will be lost with Him. Come to the table, full of hope. Eat mercy and love as food! This world needs witnesses to the truth - God is able. Say it, “He’s able.”