Gracious God, as we gather in community this day, may we be especially mindful of the ways your love manifests itself in our connections with others. As we turn our hearts to you in worship and listen for you call upon our lives, may your Holy Spirit continue to guide us in our relationships, our ministries as a church, and in our collective work in this world. Amen.
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So much of Jesus’ public ministry was centered in healing, teaching, and inviting – healing people physically, spiritually, relationally, and communally; teaching through both words and actions, and inviting others to follow him and join in this life-giving work. In all of these ministry activities Jesus was investing in the wellbeing of the community. Individual lives were transformed, but so were entire groups of people. And, as he traveled around teaching and healing, his community of friends and followers widened and expanded to include more and more people from all walks of life, including many folks who had been marginalized or excluded for various reasons.
As he engaged in this community ministry Jesus brought people help, hope, and tangible experiences of God’s love. For many, he brought a sense of purpose, direction, and focus. To some he brought challenging words and new ideas to wrestle with and consider for themselves. Through all of these activities, he was working to build up the community and bring people together. Jesus was doing the work of a community organizer.
The ninth chapter of Matthew is a great example of this community organizing ministry. It includes a little of everything. There are multiple healings (which also end up being teaching moments); there are debates with some scribes and Pharisees; and there is the brief (yet effective) call to discipleship of Matthew the tax collector. And the chapter concludes with a call to action from Jesus to his disciples when he says: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The disciples will be some of those laborers and it will eventually be their job to recruit and organize more laborers.
But first, we find Jesus back in his own town of Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
As soon as he arrives, some people bring a paralyzed man to him on a stretcher. We expect that Jesus will heal his body (and he does eventually). But that’s not his first act. Instead, he assures the man of God’s forgiveness. Often these stories of physical healings are accompanied by spiritual healing. And perhaps, in that moment, forgiveness is the message the man most needed to hear. Maybe he wasn’t even searching out physical healing that day. Who knows? Maybe his need for healing that day was within. Maybe he had other questions, doubts, sorrows, and struggles weighing on his mind and needed to hear a word of hope and grace more than anything else. Maybe Jesus sensed that.
And, of course, the message of forgiveness and grace Jesus offers in that moment isn’t solely for that man either. It’s for anyone who needs to hear it – anyone within earshot who was holding onto something that they needed to let go, anyone who had gotten stuck in guilt or shame over some mess-up or misstep, and for anyone who’d received a misguided message from the world that their misfortunes were somehow punishment for their mistakes.
This message of forgiveness is for all. But not all are ready to hear it. The scribes who question Jesus’ authority to forgive aren’t bad people. But they are stuck, it seems, holding on to old ideas that God’s forgiveness is not so easily attained and that only the religious institutions they approve of are qualified to speak for God and proclaim God’s forgiveness.
The scribes have enjoyed a comfortable level of privilege in their role within their religious tradition for some time and here comes Jesus to shake things up. And this shake up definitely causes some discomfort.
It is the job of a community organizer to shake things up sometimes. Human institutions of all stripes (religious, social, political, what have you) can get stuck in what’s conventional and comfortable. And institutions can become resistant (and even reactionary) to movements both from within and from the outside that challenge them to change and grow in new and positive ways. But these positive challenges, when grounded in love, are not a threat. They are an opportunity to grow deeper in purpose, wider in reach, and more faithful in service.
Jesus wasn’t out to abolish the religious tradition of the scribes. This was his tradition too. He was calling them to deeper faith in God’s healing, grace-filled, liberating presence in the world. It’s what prophets had done for centuries. And it’s what faithful community organizers do.
So, Jesus puts an exclamation point on his message of forgiveness and liberation by healing the man’s paralysis. For the receptive crowd, this act inspires renewed faith. And we’re left wondering how the scribes responded.
The next scene follows a similar pattern:
First, Jesus demonstrates God’s forgiveness by calling Matthew, a tax collector, to be his disciple. Matthew follows immediately and together they go off to have dinner with more tax collectors and so-called sinners.
This time it’s the Pharisees who are the established religious group that objects and questions what Jesus is doing. Not a tax collector! Gasp! Eating with the riffraff! Good heavens!
So, Jesus responds by saying he’s here to be a healer for those who are sick and quotes the prophet Hosea who told his people that God desires “steadfast love and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). In other words, if your religious rituals and practices are empty and devoid of love, compassion, and grace, then you’ve got your priorities backwards and you’re just going through the motions.
Once again, we’re left wondering if the Pharisees engage in any self-reflection, as Jesus suggested they might. And we might wonder if they realized that they too were in need of some healing.
In calling the unexpected person to join him, in sharing a meal with more unexpected and often excluded people, Jesus is expanding the notion of who belongs in the community and movement he is building.
Exploitation of people and profiteering within the taxation system in ancient Rome was prevalent. Tax collectors were often complicit and profited from this. And people did not like them for it, understandably. But rather than avoid them and dislike them at a distance, Jesus decides to try to get to know them, to include them, to see them as complex, imperfect, and yet whole, human beings (just like any of us).
We don’t know his motivations, but this also may have been a strategic move by Jesus the community organizer. If you want to expose the injustice of an imperial economic system built on exploitation and offer an alternative vision, wouldn’t it be great to get some tax collectors to quit their jobs and get on board with that alternative vision? Get enough of them to quit and it would become more difficult for the system to function as it had been.
I’ve always loved the Baroque painter Caravaggio’s depiction of the calling of Matthew, ever since I first came across it. And I had to go see it in person in Rome when I traveled there. It’s part of a series of paintings of Matthew in a little church side chapel. First, I love that it’s kind of ambiguous as to which guy in the painting is actually Matthew. And the guy highlighted by a shaft of light who most of us suppose is Matthew looks really surprised, as if he’s saying, “Uh, are you talking to me? Or to that guy? And are you sure you are in the right place? Not a lot of rabbis hang out here.” And the scene could easily be playing out in a dark, slightly sketchy 17th century dive bar. Caravaggio, like many Baroque artists, brought biblical stories into the present moment and painted the world he knew. If you’ve never seen the painting, look it up. It’s great!
(Here’s a great analysis of the painting if you are interested: https://smarthistory.org/caravaggio-calling-of-st-matthew/)
Jesus wasn’t looking for perfect people. He was looking for willing people. He was building a collective movement that could offer a collective witness to the healing and liberating love of God.
And you know, I wonder what might have happened if some of those Pharisees had sat down and joined Jesus and the tax collectors for dinner instead of criticizing from a distance. How might they have grown, had their perspectives broadened, had their eyes opened to the lives of others? How might they have experienced Jesus’ healing ministry up close and personal? Might it have brought them some healing too?
We know Jesus regularly shared meals with people. At tables in homes with a few. On hillsides with the multitude. The shared table became a central symbol and the shared meal a central ritual for the early church. And it still is central for us. Every time we gather at the communion table, we remember that last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. But we’re also invited to remember and honor all of the other meals he shared as well. And we’re invited to experience for ourselves the loving ministry of hospitality, generosity, grace, and healing that was extended to and experienced by all sorts of people at those meals.
These meals also gave Jesus an opportunity to engage in this community-building, community-organizing ministry.
When we sit down with others and break bread together, we tell our stories and listen to the stories of others. We find fellowship and friendship. We might discover common values and common concerns. We might learn of other’s struggles, joys, and passions. We might discover how we can help each other. We might discover that our collective voice has something to say to those in power. We might discover that we can offer something new, encouraging, and empowering to the people in our communities and to the broader world. We might realize that we can offer a life-giving, Spirit-filled, challenging-yet-loving witness to the societal, governmental, economic, and religious institutions that make up our world and of which we are a part.
I think Jesus brought people together so they could learn from each other and help each other, so they could experience God’s love in the presence of community, and so they could find common purpose and collective voice.
This can happen any time we engage in community!
And if you want to get to know some new folks, learn what they are passionate about, and get involved in some new ways, check out the volunteer fair this afternoon. There are so many good people doing good things in our community! Feeding people and reducing food waste. Helping ensure that every child gets a good education. Meeting the needs of seniors. Taking care of animals, rescuing, fostering, and finding them homes. Caring for our natural environment. Check out the list! Maybe you’ll make a new connection and widen your community.
When we gather together, we can find strength, encouragement, help, hope, joy, growth, and healing when we need it.
That’s the kind of movement Jesus the community organizer was building in his lifetime. And, as he told the disciples, he’s still looking for laborers because the harvest of love, healing, and liberation is plentiful. Are you in?
Amen.