CMLC 2026-06-07 Sermon

Have you ever walked into a room and wondered,

am I supposed to be here? A few weeks ago, I

was out with a friend and we were out line dancing.

And one of the wonderful parts of the place we

went to is it's good for everyone, beginners

included. It doesn't matter if you've got the

dances down. They'll show you a lot of the dances

there. And even for the ones that are more advanced.

It doesn't matter. You can be out there, have

a good time, try your best, and hey, maybe you'll

figure it out. But I went on a different night

of the week, maybe a week or two later, and when

I was there, I realized it wasn't line -dancing

night. It was West Coast swing. Little different.

But I thought I'd jump in. They had a class at

the beginning of it, and I caught most of it.

And I'm like, I could do this. This is OK. And

so I finished the lesson, and I stood on the

side. And this lady comes up and says, hey, would

you like to dance? Sure. Let's go do it. That

sounds wonderful. And after about maybe 30 seconds,

and she looks, and she says, have you done this

before? No, ma 'am. This is my first time. And

she said, you should probably sit this out. So

I went to the room next door and sang karaoke

instead, which I am pretty gosh darn good at.

So, oh man, piano man, always a favorite. Have

you ever had moments like that though? Maybe

the first day on a new job, maybe a wedding where

you only knew the one person who had you as a

plus one. Maybe a fancy restaurant where everyone

seemed to understand the dress code except for

you. Or maybe, unfortunately, it could have been

church. You walk in and immediately start doing

these quiet little calculations in your mind.

Do I belong here? Am I going to say the wrong

thing? Is everyone going to realize that I'm

out of place? Most of us know that feeling. But

something subtle happens over time, is that instead

of saying, do I belong here, people eventually

start asking, do those people belong here? And

those are two very different questions, and that

difference sits at the heart of the Gospel today.

Matthew was sitting in a tax booth, and everybody

knew what that meant. Matthew was a tax collector.

But you see back then it wasn't just a regular

everyday job with you know 401k and vacation

for a few weeks each year This was being a part

of the Roman occupation of the Jewish promised

land Matthew was a part of the compromise He

was a part of associating with people on the

other side In the minds of his fellow Jews. He

had aligned himself with all the wrong people

Matthew, we don't actually know that he was a

corrupt man in any way, but for them, it didn't

matter because he was labeled dismissed. Viewed

as unclean in the moral imagination of his community,

Matthew knew exactly where he stood and the Pharisees,

well they did too. In fact, to be fair, everybody

did. But Jesus walks up and says two words to

them, follow me. And Matthew gets up and follows

him. This is a shocking scene because Jesus does

not start where other rabbis would have expected

to start. Making sure to correct Matthew and

lecturing him on all the ways that he's gotten

things wrong, he begins by calling him. Not because

Matthew doesn't need transformation. He does.

We all do. But restoration with God begins with

the relationship. The call for Matthew comes

first. The transformation is what follows, and

that matters. Because if people have to become

perfect for Christ to welcome them, then nobody

will ever be called. If people have to be perfect

before we welcome them, will anybody ever truly

come to know Christ? Jesus calls people and then

transforms them. And that changes what we're

supposed to expect. Because Jesus then, he ends

up going to Matthew's home and he's reclining

at table with the tax collectors and the sinners.

What kind of a label is that? What kind of sinners

are we talking about? And people like to make

guesses and assumptions, but to be honest, that's

not even what's important. What's important is

that the Pharisees don't care. They're not trying

to investigate all those people and if they're

really bad people and what sins they actually

committed. For whatever reasons, those people

are now labeled. They are the ones categorized

as unwelcome in the kingdom for them. See, in

their box, they're asking, they're saying, why

does your teacher eat with tax collectors and

sinners? They're not actually asking the question,

have these people sinned? They're actually saying,

if Jesus were really holy, like he claims to

be, then why would he want to spend time with

the people like that? And that question, it echoes

for us today, because how often do we get confused

between respectability and righteousness. How

often do we get things confused with are you

a respectable member of society versus are you

right before God? Are you a person with a stable

job and a good house over your head? Do you have

a clean public record? Nothing on the internet

you ever need to worry about. You know, make

sure that there are no scandals, good church

attendance, and... Clearly, no traffic tickets

where you're driving from Abilene and you happen

to get stuck in a speed trap where they catch

you at 44 in a 30, and both of your parents happen

to be sitting right next to you. I'm sure no

one here has ever had that happen to them. But

you see, with all these things, we assume some

level of spiritual health. But then there might

be some other person with a messy past. visible

struggles that they can't or maybe won't hide,

a broken history and we assume, well that person

must be far from God. Look at what a mess they

are. But we sometimes do the same thing today

when we sort people into different tribes. Social

tribes, economic tribes, cultural tribes, political

tribes. You know who's in your tribe and you

know who's not. Someone says the right phrases

and we assume we know exactly who they are, someone

says the wrong phrases, well we know them too.

We hear the slogans, the talking points, the

moments in public life that reveal so much about

them. One of the jokes that came up was, After

the comedian Stephen Colbert his original show

had come to an end and he was famous on there

because he would talk with a persona that sounded

like one type of person but he was actually trying

to get at the complete opposite. What was ironic

though is that people could listen and watch

and think he agreed with them completely no matter

which way they were going. Because they were

listening for the phrases, for the words, they

weren't actually paying attention to the person.

The label replaced the listening. And that's

what we saw with the Pharisees. They heard tax

collector, and they think sinner. The conversation's

over before it even began, and that's the danger

that Jesus was exposing. Because once labels

are more important than people, we stop seeing

all the people that God is calling. Everyone.

Whatever might be this background, whatever they

might have gone through before, we start seeing,

here's a category for you. And then of course,

no wonder they start filling in the gaps. Because

somehow, we've put them in exactly what we expect

of them. But that distortion on our part, that's

actually sin. Jesus is responding and saying,

go and learn what this means. I desire mercy

and not sacrifice. He's quoting Hosea. That's

the one she was actually reading. But you know,

in Hosea's day, Israel was still very religious.

Sacrifices were being offered, festivals being

observed, worship services continuing on the

outside. It looked like everything was functioning

exactly as it should. Oh, the congregation's

full. Everybody's doing all the things we expect.

From the outside, they were happy. But God saw

something deeper. Their hearts were far from

Him. Devotion was shallow. Repentance was temporary.

Love of God was disconnected from faithfulness.

So God says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

Not because sacrifice is bad. God Himself commanded

sacrifices. Giving things up for God is not a

bad thing. The problem was they took the outward

signs of looking holy and confused it with the

inner reality of if they were truly turning to

God. they confused the religious activity for

the spiritual health. See, that's the piece here.

When we forget what it is to be merciful, we

are actually sinning against God. They thought

they had everything right, but God wanted their

hearts transformed, including the way they were

treating one another. Jesus says, that it is

the Kingdom of God that He proclaims. And is

that what our intention is? Do we want to promote

the Kingdom of God? But are we misunderstanding

the heart of God? Because the Kingdom of God

is not just saying, I know the sins that need

to be forgiven. It's also about restoring every

part of creation that has been broken. And in

order to do that, it means reconciling all people

to God. Calling sinners back into relationship

with the Creator. The Pharisees focused on their

boundaries, but they used them to exclude instead

of finding a way to restore. And that's why Jesus

is at that table. Not because sins don't matter,

but because the sinners do. Jesus was saying

those who are well have no need of a physician

but those who are sick. Physicians do not avoid

sick people. They move toward them. And that's

exactly what Jesus did throughout the Gospels.

He moved toward Matthew. He moved toward Zacchaeus,

a tax collector who did have some corruption.

He moved towards Samaritans, toward Gentiles,

toward a broken world. By the way, don't forget,

we are all Gentiles. And it is our place to know

how grateful we are that the Pharisees did not

have the last word on all of those laws. Because

the Kingdom of God is always meant to go outward,

to restore, to reconcile. But you see, the easiest

sins is to look at someone else's, not to notice

our own. Because that's when we start to be satisfied

that we can do everything on our own. It becomes

easy to ask familiar questions about who can

or cannot fail in God's eyes. Who is or is not

accepted? Who the real Christians are? But Matthew

presses deeper. Can someone be so convinced of

their own wisdom and clarity that they begin

standing in the way of other people finding Jesus?

And by doing that, sinning against what Jesus

was doing. You see, the irony though, is that

everyone needed a physician. I mean, could you

imagine how many times that a physician might

be telling someone you have an illness and they

say, I don't feel it. I don't see it, so therefore

it couldn't possibly be real. And how often it

is that we are doing that with God and our own

sin. See, oftentimes we take pride in who we

are before God, and we get that confused with

wisdom, experience, faithfulness. We think that

we've got it figured out when in reality, God

is reminding us the only one who is good. is

the one from God. But you see, He ends up taking

us to show there is a person that should have

made this point clear to everybody. See, if Christ's

mission is restoration, then what exactly are

we trying to restore? Are we trying to restore

the Kingdom of God? Or are we trying to restore

what we prefer to be the Kingdom of God? Because

those are not always the same thing. We begin

to take our expectations, our instincts, our

customs, and we make them the same as the Kingdom

of God. But what if we went backward in history?

Would all of our assumptions still hold? If we

went back in history before there were any parties

to join, would we still believe that only righteous

people belong to our group? when there was a

time when our group never even existed in the

first place? Of course we would. But what if

we went back before our nation even existed?

Would we still believe there are faithful people

in a world that didn't have our way of looking

at things? Absolutely. What if we went back before

our culture existed? Before our language existed?

What if we went back before all the assumptions

that we think are obvious and natural? would

God still call people His own? Absolutely. And

the same thing happened with Abraham. For all

the much that the Jewish people had looked up

to Abraham as their forefather, Abraham was there

before Israel was ever a nation, there before

there was ever a temple, before there were ever

priests, before dietary laws, before the Sabbath,

before circumcision, before the law. So was Abraham

still righteous before he could even follow all

of their expectations? Absolutely. Because he

had faith in God. So why did Abraham belong to

God? Not because he had it all figured out. He

was definitely not flawless by any means. His

story had so much uncertainty. So many things

delayed. Have you ever had those times when you

weren't sure and you wondered if God's plan for

you was a little delayed? That's the thing about

this as much as his reasoning might have said

Maybe my nephew will be my descendant. Maybe

my servant will be my descendant. Maybe the son

of my servant will be my descendant God wanted

him to turn to him and trust because that was

when God truly fulfilled Isaac in him. See, that's

the thing about righteousness. Righteousness

is never about making sure that we've gotten

it all figured out, we've got it all clarified,

and we've followed every single law that other

people might expect of us. So why can't it be

the same for us today? Why can't faith come first?

Before we look at our cultural belonging, or

our moral achievements, our alignment with someone

else's politics, or the way we try to perform

among all the other religious people. Why can't

we remember that it's always because of grace

and mercy? Because we are all guests in the kingdom

of God. Just like some clumsy person hoping he

would be allowed on a dance floor that he wasn't

sure he was welcome to. we have all been welcomed

as guests into a kingdom where the host wants

us all in there. So how can we possibly be standing

at the door trying to figure out who we want

to let in when we had to be welcomed first? There's

nothing wrong with the law. There's nothing wrong

with doing what is good and what is right, even

the things that make sense for our own context.

But that is not where we see our relationship

with God and that is not where we start in bringing

that to anyone else either The Pharisees saw

someone on the outside But Christ knew everyone

had been on the outside from the very beginning

The gospel does not leave any room for posturing

all have sinned and fallen short of the glory

of God and That mercy is meant for us all So

even for the times whenever we pause and we think,

maybe if I shame this person, if I ridicule them,

if I dismiss them, would they finally get right

with God? And that is never where we begin. Why?

Because we always begin with faith. And that's

where righteousness is. It's in Christ Jesus.

Because let's be honest, there are labels that

we tell ourselves sometime as well. The things

that we wish we could get rid of so we could

feel right in God's eyes. But the forgiveness,

the grace, and the calling of God is ours no

matter what label we continue to give ourselves

in our own minds. So when Jesus says, follow

me, he's not speaking to the qualified. He's

speaking to the sinners. And thanks be to God,

that's all of us. because we're finally willing

to admit what He's already seen. Because the

table, it was set for Abraham, for Matthew, for

the Pharisees, for you, and for me. So may we

come not as those who have it all figured out,

but as those who are being called by faith alone

to follow Him. Thanks be to God.