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SERMONS

The Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 9, 2002

By David Christian

I went up to Camp Bratton-Green yesterday to visit. Tom Slawson's fifth and sixth grade session is going strong and the camp is filled with activity. I saw several familiar Chapel faces. Everyone appeared to be having great fun. I spent several years serving on the adult staff for summer camp sessions, and it was fun to go back.

One of the things that staff members do during camp is to receive reports of misdeeds. When that many kids are that active living that close together, things happen. When things happen the injured party often comes looking for justice. The injured party also, as best I am able to tell, is always innocent. It is always the other person who has sinned.

In this campers are no different from most of the rest of us. For most of us, most of the time, it is easier to see the sins of others than it is to see our own. We are acutely aware of injustice when it is being committed by someone else.

This blindness of ours is not willful. Most people I know really do try to live good lives. We really do try to do the right thing. We really do try to be follow Christ. We think that all of our hard effort should be worth something. There should be some recognition. And when we see others who don't seem to try, who don't seem to care, who may even seem to prosper by flouting the moral code, we are offended. They should be punished, or at the very least, they should not be encouraged.

So were the Pharisees in today's gospel offended. Their lives were centered on the effort to follow the Law. They worked constantly to do the right thing. So to see Jesus, this so-called teacher, eating and drinking with notorious sinners must have been difficult to take.

Now, if he were spending this time pointing out to them their failings and showing them where they needed to shape up, that might be one thing. But it is not apparent that that is what he was doing.

The gospel tells us that they came to him to sit and eat with him. How many of us search out people who we know will tell us everything that is wrong with us? How many of us want to share meals with them?

And so the Pharisees were offended. Offended that such people would be encouraged. Offended that such people would be rewarded. Offended that such people would not get the punishment that they so richly deserved.

Let me tell you a little story. This story comes from another group of people who worked very hard to live good, moral lives, a group of people called the desert fathers. These were Christians, men and women, from the fourth century. They turned their backs on the civilized world of their day and moved to the wilderness of Egypt and the Middle East. There they struggled to live according to the example of Christ. Many stories were recorded of their struggles and their teaching.

The story is told of a certain brother in Scete who committed a fault. The elders assembled for judgment and sent for Abbot Moses to join them. Moses, however, did not want to come. The priest sent him a message saying: Come, the community of the brethren is waiting for you. So he arose and started off. And taking with him a very old basket full of holes he filled it with sand, and carried it behind him. The elders came out to meet him, and said: What is this, Father? The elder replied: My sins are running out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I come to judge the sins of another! They, hearing this, said nothing to the brother but pardoned him.

If you are among the righteous then there is no need for you to be here. If you have come expecting your good living to be rewarded then I am afraid you have come to the wrong place. You may not be comfortable in the company you will find here.

But if you are a sinner in need of healing, then you are welcome. For the teacher waits to greet you. He waits to welcome you to his table. Here you will find good food. Here you will find companionship. Here you will find talk of God's love. Here you will find healing.

Here you will find life.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Hosea 5.15-6.6
Romans 4.13-18
Matthew 9.9-13