No one likes a tax collector Chiefly because no one likes paying taxes And with the end of the financial year fast approaching Tax and tax returns are something that will occupy many of us here today In this morning’s Gospel reading Jesus was “walking along” and sees Matthew sitting at his booth on the roadside, collecting taxes For he was a tax collector And Jesus calls Matthew Just as God calls Abraham in the earlier reading from Genesis And Matthew – as Abraham had done Got up and responded to that call – and followed And we go one to hear that Jesus and his disciples then had dinner with Matthew and his friends in Matthew’s own home Now, tax collectors were not very popular at the time of Jesus And not much has changed really; I saw a recent poll where respondents were asked to nominate the occupations they least trusted or respected And tax collectors featured in the top ten Although bankers and the banks were higher on the list As were used car salespeople And way ahead in number one – as the least trusted or respected occupation today were – no, not clergy (yet) But lawyers; The very fact that Matthew is a tax collector makes him a social outcast at the time of Jesus They collected taxes on behalf of the Roman occupiers And they did that by sitting at booths on the roadside Charging what we would call an excise or toll on all produce going in and out of a region They were collaborators with the Romans and traitors to their own people They were notoriously corrupt – charging much more than the set toll And, furthermore, because tax collectors handled money and dealt with Gentiles – the Romans They were perpetually in a state of ritual uncleanness according to the Jewish law They were banned form the synagogue and ostracised form the normal structures of community life; Jesus not only calls Matthew – the tax collector – to come and follow him But he shares a meal with him and his friends And so we read that “many tax collectors and sinners were sitting with Jesus” around the dinner table And the Pharisees, the devoutly religious people of the time, were astonished and offended at this And said to the disciples of Jesus “Why does your teacher, your Rabbi that is, eat with tax collectors and sinners?” the act of sharing food – of taking part in meals – is of great importance in almost all ancient cultures including that of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews to share a meal with someone is a significant social statement it implies full acceptance of that person it is an act of hospitality but also of friendship and of inclusiveness this is why the Pharisees are so outraged How can a Rabbi, a holy man, eat with sinners and tax collectors The law demanded separation from sin And by implication, separation form sinful people This is how the righteous maintained their state of holiness and purity By talking to and then calling sinners to be followers Jesus is threatening that barrier By eating with tax collectors and sinners he is demolishing it completely And that is precisely what Jesus is doing He is tearing down social and religious barriers He is defying convention This is an extremely provocative act in this culture Whereas the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day saw people in categories As either holy or profane As either clean or unclean As either Jews or Gentiles As either righteous or sinners Jesus is using the dinner table as a metaphor and the simple act of sharing food as a sign that No such barriers exist in the kingdom of God No one is outside of or lies beyond the call of God The Pharisees and others were incensed and outraged by this For good reason has Robert Karris, the Roman Catholic theologian, written that “Jesus finally got himself crucified because of who he ate with” Several times we read in the Gospels of Jesus and his disciples being accused of sharing meals with people who were on the outside of their social world Who were despised and rejected by most of their peers Tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, corrupt officials like Zaccheus, others Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton Of partying too long and too hard… In the early centuries of the Church the first generation of Christians continued to be despised for the same thing Celsus, an early opponent write in the third century in an essay that sought to demonstrate why Christianity was a deviant and unhealthy movement in Roman society - “That Christians associate with the very lowest and most uncouth of all in our society With men of notorious character And even with women of poor morals And not only this – but even do share meals with such as these” But how things have chosen today I don’t recall sitting down to a Maundy Thursday agape meal Or a Sunday School picnic Or any other Church fellowship meal With anyone of notorious character Or sharing lunch after Church with many prostitutes or indeed many people at all who would be looked upon as sinful and of poor character in our society Nor ever being accused of doing so Although I must say I have shared a mid synod lunch with a lawyer or two But such people are not generally part of the life of the Church The life and example and teaching of Jesus exemplified this morning in the calling of Matthew And in many other places in the Gospels Has this important lesson for us today - The meal table is the place where the radical inclusiveness of the Kingdom of God is both foreshadowed and proclaimed The early Christians knew and recognised this The first Christians we read in the Acts – broke bread together daily The Eucharist was initially celebrated in the context of an ordinary fellowship meal The Kingdom of Heaven was likened by Jesus to a great banquet at which all were invited And the images used in the Book of Revelation to describe the great reunion of all the saints in heaven is that of a feast Now meals today are – generally – not like this Even within families, people do not always or even often eat together And my household is no better than most Please don’t observe our meal times for an example of the family who lovingly eat together People who are strangers to one another do not very often get together for a meal There are not many places that fulfil the function of the Medieval monastery Where the pot was kept on the boil all night for the weary traveller passing by Hospitality is a dying art and skill in this individualistic world In parish churches, most of them anyway, the agape or friendship meal, has long since lapsed But for all of this – there is still one place where people who might otherwise have no connection at all – do eat together Where people of all backgrounds, of all social situations, and all ages Where sinners of all types and kinds Do still come together for a meal and share a table Albeit a symbolic one and in a symbolic way And that is in the Eucharistic meal of the Church Which is itself, a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet spoken of by the prophets and by Jesus In the call of Matthew – the tax collector, the sinner Jesus demonstrates one further thing that was shocking and hard to accept for the people of his time And remains so for many in the Church today Jesus is not interested in how good, how holy, how religious, people are or can be Not even in how many good works they have performed Or how many good causes they have pursued and supported He does not come, he says, for the righteous – for the good But for the sinners; If Jesus comes for sinners, then We ought to expect to find sinners in our Church community We ought to expect to share the Eucharistic meal with those despised and rejected by others Even by others inside the Church - And the fact that we do not normally do so Ought to worry and concern us’ And cause us to ask if why it is That Jesus attracted such people to him But the Church does not Why is it that a church door seems to be such a barrier to so many to walk through Why is it that the barriers Jesus tore down during his life time some 2,000 years ago remain today? Why do some feel unwelcome at the Lord’s table When Jesus shared his table, his food, his very life With all who responded to his call to come and follow me? “Love bade me welcome” the poet and priest George Herbert writes “yet my soul drew back guilty of dust and sin… Love took my hand You must sit down, says love, and taste my meat And so I did sit and eat” In the name of the Farther, and of the Son ,and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |