Notices
We’re going to be thinking in our sermon today about someone who invited his friends to a meal to meet with Jesus, and I’d like to ask you to think about doing the same.
Sermon
This week we’ve seen astonishing scenes of rioting and looting in London and elsewhere.
The kind of thing we expect from failed states in Africa or the Middle East has been spreading across England.
As far as I know, there was no looting in this parish!
But its still a shock to us that such things could happen in towns and cities we know well.
Commenting on the London riots, David Cameron said:
“parts of our society are not just broken, they’re sick”.
We live in a sick society.
In v17 of our Gospel reading, Jesus too talks about people being sick.
Jesus said to them:
“It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
So, let’s consider those comments from Cameron and from Jesus.
Are we sick?
What is the nature of our sickness?
I want to think with you about the symptoms, the diagnosis, the causes, the prognosis and the treatment.
Symptoms:
Plain enough.
Obvious something is wrong.
Peaceful protest à rioting, looting, criminal damage, arson, lots of other crimes, 3 men are dead as the result of a hit and run incident.
The death of Mark Duggan, which sparked it all, was quickly forgotten and we saw opportunistic theft.
Greed was rampant.
There was a casual disregard for the law.
Mobile phone theft: headlock - “oh, don’t bother” – walked off
More than 1600 people have so far been arrested
Daughter of a millionaire Company Director was looting too.
Student at Exeter University – an intelligent person.
Poverty is obviously not the cause!
Lack of education is obviously not the problem.
Diagnosis:
Parts of our society are sick.
But we need a deeper, more far-reaching diagnosis than that.
Ed Miliband (political balance!): “we all need to look in to our own souls…
We need to confront irresponsibility wherever we find it.
We need a sense of right and wrong.”
Soul
Heart
The actor and comedian, Russell Brand said he’d committed criminal damage during a previous anarchist demonstration partly because of the void inside.
He said the solution to the London riots must be spiritual.
At the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart
Later in this gospel Jesus says:
“What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.
For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
All these come from inside and make a man unclean.”
(Mark 7:20-23)
Sometimes we excuse ourselves when we read a list like that.
Well, I’m not a murderer!
But think about the list again:
What about evil thoughts, greed, malice, deceit, envy, arrogance, folly?
Can you see any traces of any of those things in your own heart?
I know I can.
Our sins? Our sickness?
Not just black youths.
MPs expenses – the amounts involved make some of the recent thefts seem trivial.
MPs had to repay over a million pounds in falsely claimed expenses, and there aren’t that many of them!
One MP broke the rules to get an £8000 flat screen TV and home entertainment system.
He did it by filling out forms, but it’s not so different from helping yourself through the window of Commet, is it?
The irresponsibility of the bankers – global economic crisis.
Phone hacking – influential people in our society.
Closer to home?
What would you do if you thought you could get away with it / if no one would know?
If there were no consequences, what would you do?
Would you be fiddling you taxes or your expenses?
Would you run from your responsibilities?
Gossip.
Thoughts of our hearts: murder, lust.
Pride, censoriousness, judgementalism (v16) – holier than thou attitude
In v17, Jesus speaks of the healthy who do not need a doctor, the righteous.
But the Bible says: “There is no one righteous, not even one”
Jesus hasn’t come for those who think their healthy and righteous.
They see no need for Jesus and so he has nothing to offer them.
Jesus is like a doctor.
And no one goes to the doctor if they think they’re in perfect health.
We have to admit our need, before we’ll come to Jesus.
Jesus came for the riotous not for the righteous.
There are no righteous people!
All of us are riotous by nature:
We’re in revolt against our maker.
All of us are sick within.
We suffer from a heart-condition that affects the whole human race.
We have a soul-sickness.
Causes:
What are the causes of our societies’ ills?
Government cuts.
The end of education maintenance allowance.
A consumer society.
The looters had bought in to consumerism!
They are being good comsumers.
A lack of responsibility.
Schools.
Families.
Ultimate cause: Our root disease: Rebellion against God.
Lawlessness.
A rejection of God leads to a rejection of all authority.
God has established the authority of the family, state.
Reject God, and its not surprising that the state and the family follow.
Atheistic Darwinism, why shouldn’t I help myself to designer trainers, jeans and the latest i-phone if I can get away with it?
After all, there is no God.
There’s no ultimate meaning to the universe, no objective morality.
We’re all just the product of time and chance.
Laws and private property are just human constructs.
Survival of the fittest is the name of the game.
Prognosis:
Society going from bad to worse.
Anarchy? Tyranny?
We will reap what we sow.
The Bible says: “The wages of sin is death.”
The judgment of God.
God putting the world to rights.
There is hope for all who will admit that they are sick sinners.
No one is beyond Jesus’ cure.
Don’t write off anyone.
In our reading, the religious crowd thought that Jesus shouldn’t be interested in Levi or his friends.
Surely he was beyond the pale?
But Jesus would heal and transform Levi and use him as his disciple.
Treatment:
Education, character, virtue.
Where do character and virtue come from?
Character and virtue don’t grow on trees!
Something must be done!
The government must do something.
Some good proposals might emerge.
But there’s a great danger of sticking-plaster solutions, of treating some of the symptoms but not reaching the root of the disease.
Jesus the doctor!
He is an expert physician, a soul surgeon.
He can make anyone healthy, whole, clean, righteous.
The only qualification for coming to Jesus is sin.
All you have to bring is your sin.
It’s those who know their need of Jesus for whom he has come.
Jesus is a Doctor for sick sinners.
He did not come into this world to congratulate the healthy
He did not come to condemn the sick.
He came to heal the sick – that’s what a Doctor does.
He did it by taking our spiritual sickness into Himself.
He deliberately contracted our terminal illness.
On the cross he died the death of sick looters, sick politicians, sick hypocrites, sick me and sick you.
That’s how much He is for the sick.
Then He rose up again and offers to meet you in your sickness – not with condemnation but with healing.
Communion
Did you notice the emphasis in our passage on Jesus eating with sinners?
The idea comes in v15 and twice in v16.
Eating with someone in Jesus’ day was a special sign of friendship and fellowship, of partnership and belonging.
And often it’s the same in our day.
How many of our occasions with family or friends or business associates involve eating together?
Our word “companion” literally means one with whom we eat bread.
As we come to the Lord’s Supper, Jesus welcomes sinners to eat with him.
Jesus shares his bread with us: he makes us his companions, his friends, his partners.
We share and participate with Jesus.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment