Third Sunday after Pentecost (proper 5): June 5, 2005.

Hosea 5:15-6:6

Psalm 50:7-15

Romans 4:13-25

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

First Reading

We can hear both the anger and the sorrow in the voice of Yahweh in Hosea's oracle (5:15-6:6). What Abraham Heschel described as "pathos" is clearly visible in the words of Yahweh through the prophet, perhaps more visible here than in any other prophetic passage. Scorned by Israel, which had turned to Assyria for security, Yahweh's anger boils over. God will be "like a lion" and "tear them to pieces," then "retire," literally "turn again to my place." Yahweh will shuv ("return") until the people shuv ("return"), that is, confess and repent. The basis of repentance for Israel is God's grace, sure as the spring rains, which come every year to water the land. However, repentance and forgiveness ought to bring both praise and "knowledge of the Lord" (6:3). This is clearly covenant language, and it is Hosea's favorite way of describing the relationship between Yahweh and Israel.

Paul insists that Law and Promise must be distinguished. "Abraham received God's promise not by the Law, but by faith." Abraham knew his impotence, and he was uncircumcised when God first came to him with the promise of many descendants. It was not because of anything that Abraham had done that God favored him. However, Abraham trusted God's promise in the face of the truth of his human weakness, and his faith received the heir, the fulfillment of the promise.

The story of Matthew's call is a "paradigm for Jesus' mission" (Mark Allan Powell, God With Us [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995], 14). Jesus calls sinners to repent and "follow me." In Jesus God's mercy resides, and God desires "mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). At "the house" (Matthew's? Jesus'?) Jesus eats with other tax collectors and sinners. By doing so, he breaks through the strongest barrier in all of Hebrew life. He dares to reach out to the unclean! The righteous have no need to hear Jesus' call. Jesus is calling sinners to repent and turn to the Lord.

Pastoral Reflections

Dinner etiquette does not carry the same weight in our society that it did for Jesus. Or does it? Who is invited to our "banquet tables"? Do we entertain only "family members," or do we serve all who seek God's grace? The religion of Jesus is a religion of joy! Jesus is "the Bridegroom" (Matt 25:1) at whose presence all rejoice and feast!

In Jesus God calls sinners to a banquet. Kalein is used also in Matt 22:3, 4, 8, 9 of inviting guests to a banquet. The word expresses the generosity of God, the God who cares even for sinners, even a tax collector, a traitor, and a cheat. In fact, Jesus has already told his followers that "Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 8:11). The heavenly banquet is not "for Hebrews only" (nor "for Lutherans only," nor for the ritually clean only).

One of the core themes of mission development in the ELCA is that no developer is looking to "convert" Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, members of the UCC, Missouri Synod Lutherans, or any other Christians. When I knock on the door or ring a doorbell, I invite all, but I am most concerned for the unchurched. I want to connect with people who do not know Jesus.

That may make worship a lot tougher--take more teaching, more patience, and more creativity--but it's the unchurched, those who do not know the Lord, those who may have fallen away from the church, that we are after as "mission developers" (and don't kid yourselves; we are all "mission developers"). Look at the ones with whom Jesus dined--tax collectors, outcasts, untouchables. Jesus comes to eat with us, too, and our "friends." For Jesus is the Friend of sinners. TCG