The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Canon Robert Griffin at
the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 10, 2008, at the 8:40
am service.
One of the unique things about Matthew’s interaction with Jesus in
today’s Gospel reading is that there is a reminder that Jesus’ ministry was
always on the go. Jesus never stayed settled too long because he was on a
mission to spread the Good News. Jesus was busy visiting cities and
villages, proclaiming a new message, a new hope, and a renewed passion for
the presence of God on earth and through each person.
Jesus, by nature didn’t wait for the people to come to him; he took a
message of justice, compassion and reconciliation to the people. Jesus
fostered a message of not waiting until every situation was just right before
he entered because wherever Jesus was, wherever Jesus taught, there was often
discomfort. He didn’t wait for ease, he went to where there was dis-ease and
offered a healing touch.
The moment of dis-ease comes in this morning’s reading in three different
scenes: 1. Jesus calls Matthew, a Roman appointed tax collector, to follow
him. 2. After calling Matthew, Jesus decides to have a meal with Matthew and
his friends in Matthew’s home; and 3. The local religious leaders asking “why
does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and riff-raff?”
As was often the case, Jesus’ actions made folks uncomfortable. Jesus was
not acting the way that folks thought he ought to act as a religious leader.
Jesus was breaking the “rules and customs … established to support the good
order of an institution, community and society”[1]
Jesus, calling an unlikely person to come follow him and to join his
ministry and by then eating in the home of Matthew, the tax collector along
with the riff-raff, this was an act that made folks uncomfortable. Jesus was
performing out of the norm.
Through has actions, I believe that Jesus was establishing what noted
theologian Dr. Carter Heyward calls “mutual relationships”.
In this realm, Heyward says “mutuality is much more than right relation
between friends, lovers or colleagues. Mutuality is the creative basis of our
lives, the world, and God. It is the dynamic of our life together in the world
insofar as we are fostering justice and compassion.”[2]
I believe that in this particular setting this is what Jesus was doing,
reaching out to the Other in order to established “mutual relationships”. Like
Jesus, modern saints like Mother Thersa, Martin Luther King Jr. and modern
heroes like Reverend Elder Troy Perry, took on the task of changing the world
through mutual relationship by breaking down walls and building up hope.
Jesus took the time to reveal the presence of God, through his action, so
that it was felt at the point of human need. Jesus reached out to touch those
that society’s privileged had cast out and looked down upon. The message that
Jesus offered destabilized everyone. Our Gospel reading today finds Jesus
destabilizing not one but two communities, the Pharisees and the people whom
Jesus chose to eat with.
Jesus’ message was not one of divide and conquer, rather it was one of
building up communities so that their differences need not separate them from
being agents of God here on earth and from being agents of change.
For the past few Sundays, our readings, sermons and Spirit and Truth
reflections have been focused on the 8 Points of Progressive Christianity.
These 8 points are a set of values or principles that a lot of our
Metropolitan Community Churches have signed on to over the past years and they
have become part of their DNA, right along with their Vision, Mission and Core
Values Statements.
Our point today reminds us that we are to invite all people to participate
in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us
in order to be acceptable. I believe that to be one of the strongest
characteristics of the Metropolitan Community Churches as we invite people to
join us on our journey to make the world a better place through our
Inter-Religious efforts.
I also believe that statement affirms the action of Jesus in Matthew’s
reading today. Jesus invited people to be with him, regardless of their past
or current situation, regardless of their religious beliefs, regardless of
their political ties and that same invitation is extended to us today. I
believe that Jesus invites us to be in community with each because it is in
community that we can develop mutual relationship as we do our part to make
this a better world for all people.
To try to be Christ like and the hand of God in the world challenges me at
the very core sometimes. In some moments and situations it is easier than in
others to be Christ like. To be Christ like destabilizes my reality of what I
can and cannot do. To be Christ like destabilizes my perceptions of global
justice to the point of asking how is that we can spend billions of dollars on
wars and space travel when we can’t end something as simple as world hunger or
guarantee that a child has a place to sleep at night other than the streets.
For me to be Christ like means that I want to destabilize the norm. I want
to see more medical advancements. I want to see the issues related to
dislocated individuals resolved. I want to see every person in the world with
access to needed medication. I want to see the homophobic violence in Jamaica
ended. I want to see the Florida Anti Gay Marriage Act defeated. I want the
students at Ponce de Leon High School in Florida afforded the right to wear
pro-gay symbols, even if they are straight.
For me to be Christ like means that I want to destabilize the status quo by
challenging racism, sexism, homophobia, able-ism, transphobia, and other
oppressions. I want to work for justice, compassion and reconciliation, just
like Jesus.
I believe that we are the hands of God that reach out to touch those who
are hurting, just like Jesus.
I believe that we are called to be in community with those who are unlike
us, just like Jesus.
I believe that we are called to carry the message of hope to other places
like Jamaica, Miami and right here in Fort Lauderdale, just like Jesus.
I believe that we are the feet of God called to carry the good news to all
people.
I believe that we are people of God that believe as Psalm 46 says, “God is
our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not
fear, though the earth should be changed.” Because we here at the Sunshine
Cathedral have taken on the task of change by Sharing the Light with the
World. And when we share our Light, people’s lives are transformed and the
world is forever changed. Amen.
[1] Carter Heyward,
Saving
Jesus
, 137
[2] Ibid 62