Year C Proper 20 WED 2022 Of Soundboards and Funhouse Mirrors

Year C Proper 20 WEDNESDAY, 21 September 2022 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA “Of Soundboards and Funhouse Mirrors” Collect: Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Proverbs 3:1-6 My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you. Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them round your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favour and good repute in the sight of God and of people. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is* useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. Matthew 9:9-13 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner* in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting* with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’ When I would do parent-teacher-student conferences when I taught middle school, I often took the approach of letting the student lead the conversation. It was better for everyone. Most of the time, the student KNEW what they needed to do. The question was, what would it take for them to take the lead, to have the discipline actually, to do what needed to be done. I have found that in most of my life, will I have the will to do what needs to be done? I know what to do. Will I?

Matthew was a tax collector. Jesus did not tell him, “Hey, get your act together! Stop robbing your neighbors and serving the invaders who occupy our country. Behave like you were raised, and follow me!” No, he just said, “Follow me.” He met Mattthew where he was and as he was, and Matthew being Matthew was good enough. Jesus did it for Matthew, and Jesus does it for us. An analogy I often use is that of soundboard, with a lot of little knobs to tweak things so they are just so. It was always daunting for me when I so one. So many knobs! Too often we think of our spiritual welfare as an on-off switch. Yes-No. Saved-Lost. But most of us are not in the binary, up-down, yes-no, right-wrong situation. When Jesus steps in, he says, you are already on, now let me sit down at the spiritual sound board and begin tweaking. And on this side of heaven he sits at our spiritual sound board and has his way with us, IF WE LET HIM. Matthew did, and got up and followed him. As St. Paul reminded Timothy in his letter to him, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” You know what to do, like the student in the conference, now will you? Most of us know what we have to do, if we really think about it. Will you? Will I? The Pharisees that wondered why Jesus would not play their superiority game and shun so-called sinners were told clearly the heart of God. “I desire mercy,” says God, “not sacrifice.” We need to show mercy in our dealings with folks, like Jesus did with Matthew. He met him where he was and as he was, and called him to his best self, the self he was born to be. Jesus showed him mercy. And as we hear the call of God in Christ, we need to follow, and that begins with Mercy. We need to show Mercy most often to ourself. We need to forget the warped and wrong vision we have ourselves that has been given to us from so many unhealthy things, and see ourselves as God sees us. We need to step away from the funhouse mirror our society is that misconstrues our true selves, and do what the reading from Proverbs reminded us to do. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Amen