Introduction:

"Read my lips; no more taxes!" You all remember that familiar phrase, that one-liner which vaulted a presidential candidate into the White House. And well we remember another popular presidential candidate who had the audacity to suggest that we just might have to raise some taxes in order to reduce the national debt. And where did it get him? --one state out of fifty and not even his home state. Everyone hates taxes and it is only a half-step from taxes to tax collectors. If we get an unexpected letter from the IRS, our hands are sweaty until we get it open and find its only a rebate check.

The situation in Jesus’ day was much the same. The people of God were living in an occupied country and taxes were everywhere they moved: road tax, bridge tolls, sales taxes, import/export taxes, property taxes -- personal and real estate -- and we thought all these taxes to be rather recent burdens. The most despicable part of all was that these resources were siphoned off to a foreign country. And we thought taxation without representation was an American thing!

Into this tense situation steps Jesus and calls a tax collector? appointed by the Roman occupation to collect taxes. Matthew was his name -- and now you know the worst - a Jew collecting taxes from Jews for a foreign power. And, furthermore, he called this Matthew fellow to be his disciple and worse still he goes to his home and associates with other tax collectors and outcasts from society. Do you get the picture?

1. A Gospel that Separates.

It is pretty obvious that this is a gospel which cuts across the usual lines of demarcation of people and classes and groups. Here is a religious group which for thousands of years had understood that holiness meant to keep themselves separated from other people, from heathens, from foreigners, from anyone different from them in order to preserve the faith. Now here comes this Jesus fellow and he goes and calls a tax collector to be one of the twelve apostles! Can you just imagine how radical that was?

I The haunting question which the people were struggling with then and now is: "Does the will of God call for separation from sinners or association with sinners? Their heritage said "separation", now Jesus is associating with sinners. That would tend to separate the sheep from the goats pretty rapidly, would it not?

You begin to see how Jesus got himself in trouble with the religious leaders of his time and with a11 cu1tured, decent peop1e. You just don’t associate with people who are not "your kind of folks". Matthew, however, is living proof that Jesus called him, a tax collector, to be a follower, and Matthew answered: "Yes, Lord, Here am I; send me." This is no secondhand info. It is the "straight scoop" – "straight from the horse’s mouth." Matthew’s gospel!

Jesus is in trouble. This association with tax collectors; this table fellowship with sinners upsets the whole apple cart. What is going on here? What is he trying to say and do? He was trying to give them the message in the Sermon on the Mount. "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. . . for if you love (only) those who love you what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (love each other).

That kind of love is a gospel that separates.

II. This is a Gospel which Unites

Jesus’ call unites! It tears down dividing walls that separate group frail group, nation from nation, race from race, women from men. You are all one in Jesus Christ. Jesus called Matthew, and Matthew said "Yes." And that call and that answer changes everything. Here are the seeds of a new community of faith where there is little to no hierarchy. Where we are free to associate with any and everyone in order to build a community based on faith.

I see people getting real exorcised about things that come from the General Assembly of our church. We hear tell of a college women’s group are getting together and seem to be wandering off into strange doctrine and we want to cut off funds to the whole enterprise. It is surprising to me that people have not sniffed out a little document which was first delivered at the Dedication of the New Presbyterian Center in Louisville on October 28, 1988. Why the church didn’t take Walter Brueggemann out and tar and feather him, I don’t know. I suppose its because he is of another denomination (UCC), but that was the most radical speech I have read since Martin Luther spoke to the Diet of Worms (April, 1521), or his namesake Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the March on Washington in 1963. Walter boldly suggests that we awaken from our amnesia and remember our past. Remember that our forbearers lived by faith because they were fragile, sinful human beings but who by faith put their trust in God to help them through the evil days. They lived by the "dangerous memories" of God’s redemption from exile, they did not rely on the government to protect them from all evil. They sang dangerous songs of freedom from the bars

that separate us from other people. We eat dangerous bread - manna in the wilderness and eucharistic bread from the table of our Lord and not the bread which does not fill and which has a big price tag. And, finally, Brueggemann has the audacity to suggest that we depart from business as usual, letting the government be concerned for the poor and the marginalized; depart from complicity of right wing separatists who hold up on farms or who burn down African- American churches. This little pamphlet is radical stuff because it calls us Presbyterians to faithfulness in the gospel and to [boldly] build a new community of faith where no one, not even tax collectors, are excluded.

2. A Gospel that Challenges

The leaders of the people questioned why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners and he said: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." And then he adds: "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice." This is a direct quote from Hosea. Hosea is preaching, pleading with God1s people to faithfulness to the demands of the faith. They spend all kinds of time making sure that their rituals are done decently and in order and no time in acts of mercy and devotion to God, their creator. This is not an attack on worship. Hosea and Jesus are not calling on the people to abandon worship but to it on balance with acting on their noble convictions.

John tells the story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, coming to Jesus at night to get the word on salvation. My Old Testament professor was a great preacher. He preached once on Nicodemus.2. He called him Mr. Man, Mr. B.C. Man-a man whose faith had become peripheral instead of the directing core of his existence, who lived as if God didn’t matter. Bright called him "B. C. Man" because he lived as though Christ never came and died, and it made no difference to him if he did. And Bright rounded out his thought by the startling and disturbing statement: "Do not say that B.C. Man is dead, for I am B. C. Man." Do not say that we have no prejudices against folk because of their accent or the color of their skin or because they are not "our kind of people." Don’t kid yourself – that prejudice went out with the protests and marches of the sixties and seventies.

Jesus knew that we were not naturally an inclusive people. That is precisely why he concluded this message with the admonition: "Go and learn what this Beans. II Go and test it out j with your neighbors. GOI and experiment with relating to people who are different from you.  See what it feels like. Get over the strangeness of it all. Associate with "tax collectors and sinners;-- they need love just like you do. If you love only those who are like I you, however, what good is that? Go out and I learn how to love those who are not like you.

Conclusion: Well, what does all this have to do with us? It is an inescapable fact for us to see the world with new eyes. Jesus is calling us to see that as Christians we must view our world-- our nation, our county, our city, our schools, even our church with compassion and concern that all are created equal.  It demands that we see everyone as children of God whether they recognize themselves as such or not. If they do not, that’s their problem; if we do not, then it is our problem which we need to confess and be forgiven for and get on with the business of seeing our whole world with new eyes. It is not a thing we naturally do. That is why Jesus admonishes us to Go and learn how to do it.