Beside the Sea
Mark 2: 13-22
Rev. Cynthia Huling Hummel
You are sitting down to dinner after a long day at work. The food is hot
and your wife has offered the blessing- and just as you lift the fork to
your mouth- the phone rings. Your son leaps from the table- yelling “I’ll
get it- I’ve been waiting for Fred to call”. You hear one side of the
conversation from the other room. Uh huh...Yeah...okay... yeah one minute. “Dad, it’s for you”...You say “who’s calling” and your son- says
“I don’t know- some man- who said it is important. You’re wondering- is it
your boss? Is it a relative? Someone from your church? Maybe the meeting
is canceled tonight. Anyway, your son thrusts the phone at you- and the
handle is sticky. You search for your napkin, which has fallen on the floor. You reach for it as you quickly swallow your food- which is a
little dry- and you signal your daughter to pour you something to drink, as
you balance the phone between your ear and your shoulder. She goes to the
sink to get you a drink of water- and makes a lot of noise- opening cupboards- and you put your finger in your exposed ear and you give your
family “the look”- which means that everybody better be quiet- so you can
hear. It’s not a great connection and all you hear is your heart is beating. You say “Hello” and a animated voice on the other end says “Is
this Mr. Smith”. You say, “yes” as you try and recognize the voice on the
other end of the phone. “Mr. Smith”, the voice continues, “I’m so sorry to
trouble you at home, and I wouldn’t but this is really important. My name
is Peter Jones and you’ve been selected to receive a special vacation offer
in Florida at the Palm Beach Time Share Association. I’d like to tell you
about a great weekend that has been reserved for you and the missus. All I
need is your credit card to reserve your space”. You politely tell Mr.
Jones that you are not interested in a time share in Florida- at which point the kids start to whine and your wife gives you the evil eye because
she’s had it with the snow and wouldn’t mind a weekend in Florida. It
takes you a few minutes to pry yourself away from Mr. Jones. When you finally get off the phone the kids are crying-(they wanted to go to Disney
World), your dinner is cold- and so is your wife. So much for a delightful
supper at home. I don’t know about you, but I hate getting phone calls
from telephone solicitors. And don’t they always call at supper time?
Surely, one of the most despised groups of people in our society today are
the telephone solicitors. Back in Jesus’ day, it was the tax collectors
who were the equivalent to the telephone solicitors of their time. And like the telephone solicitors, tax collectors annoyed and offended
virtually everyone.
The reading that we have just heard from Marks’s gospel is the story of Jesus’ calling of a tax collector to be one of his disciples. Let’s see
what we can learn and discern from this story that will teach us what it
means to be a disciple of Jesus the Christ. Mark tells us that Jesus went
out again- beside the sea. I have to tell you that I thought about this
all week- because just a week ago, Bill and I were out walking by the sea
of Galilee. And it was truly something to walk where Jesus walked (as the
choir sang earlier) There were twenty six of us on our tour- representing
7 different Christian denominations- and we would often stop and read scripture, sing and pray together as we visited the sacred sites. As I
mentioned during the announcements, Bill and I will be giving a presentation about our trip next Sunday night- at 7:00 PM and we do invite
you to come. And so my trip makes it easier for me to imagine Jesus, walking beside the sea and folks gathering around him- to listen to him and
to learn from him. Mark tells us that as Jesus was walking along, he saw
Levi- the son of Alphaeus sitting in a tax booth. Now the tax collectors
of the New Testament were usually Jews. They were generally not very wealthy and they were probably familiar with the people from whom they
collected taxes. There were several different taxes that were levied upon
the Jews. There were land taxes, a poll taxes and taxes on merchandise (to
name a few) Tax collectors determined what was owed by traveling merchants.
And most tax collectors increased their coffers by demanding more than the “required amount” As long as the tax collectors paid the Roman authorities
what was expected, they could keep any of the loose change- (so to speak).
Needless to say, this practice, did not endear them to their fellow Jews.
In fact, tax collectors were classified as sinners probably because they
associated with non- Jews and they pocketed the excess taxes. Moreover tax
collectors were hated, because their neighbors viewed them as mercenaries.
Tax collectors worked for a foreign oppressor. In other words, the tax collectors collaborated with the enemy. So when we read in Mark’s gospel
that Jesus, called a tax collector- we need to remember just how shocking
this would be: a tax collector of all people!? I don't think so...
And so perhaps one of the first messages that we can glean from the text
is that no matter what we do in life- that is :no matter what our job is,
that Jesus can use us to serve. No occupation makes us less of a disciple.
Sometimes folks will remark that they feel less “holy” (for lack of a
better word) than a friend or neighbor in what they consider a nobler profession. Some folks feel that because they aren’t in a helping
profession ( i.e. teacher, nurse, social worker) that they are exempt from
God’s call to service - or that Jesus doesn’t need them. But guess what,
Jesus doesn’t make those distinctions- and neither should we. There is a
funny story about a Presbyterian pastor who “goes home to Jesus” She
arrives at the pearly gates -St. Peter comes and notes her name on the pad-
and motions to her to sit down. St. Peter, invites all sorts of folk in to
heaven- and leaves the pastor waiting outside. The Pastor finally looses
it when she notices that a taxi driver- is admitted while she is still waiting to get in- and she complains to St. Peter saying: You know St.
Peter, I’m a Presbyterian pastor- and I devoted my life to serving Jesus- I
visited sick people, I officiated at marriages- why I preached nearly every Sunday- and here you let in this taxi driver- ahead of me- and I
don't get it. And St. Peter said - “its quite simple. every week when you
were preaching, folks were yawning, trying to stay awake- but when the taxi
driver was driving- they were praying to me like crazy. Some of us are preachers and some of us are teachers- and some of us are farmers and some
of us are fast food workers. Some of us are bus drivers, some are Jesus
needs each one of us- with our special gifts and abilities to serve. In
your profession, in your day to day work- you have a special connection that no one else may have. You may bring a healing word, or a message of
hope. If Jesus can call a tax collector, Jesus can call you and me. Mark tells us that Jesus went to Levi’s house - for dinner- and that there
were many tax collectors and sinners there. Again, this would have been
shocking for people- that Jesus and his disciples would hang with those kind of people. Let’s face it- many people define us by the company we
keep- that if you eat with those kind of people- that you must be one of
them. I’ll never forget the first day that I went to work as a chaplain in
the Battered Women’s shelter- and the director was going to give me an
orientation- but she was tied up and so she asked me to wait for her in the
kitchen- and so I sat there at the kitchen table and enjoyed a cup of
coffee. And it wasn’t long before a woman came in and sat by me- and we
got to talking- and she assumed I was there because I was being abused by
my spouse. At first I bristled. I was wishing that I had worn my clergy
shirt- something to identify me as one of the staff- and not one of the “residents”- because after all, I had come to help them (the poor abused
women). Well, needless to say, I learned many lessons there- and one of
the first was not to make assumptions about people - and another was that
the women in the shelter had much to teach me. Perhaps the question we need to be asking ourselves is can we learn to be around folks who are
different than we are and not be threatened by what other people think- in
other words about the company we keep. This is not just a problem that teenagers struggle with, we
all know folks who wrestle with “appearances”- they worry about what people will think. But Jesus didn’t. He hung out
with the wrong crowd -- those kinds of people. When I read this scene from
Mark, one thing that I notice right away- is that Jesus enjoys the fellowship of the tax collectors and the sinners- and he does so without
demanding that they first repent. He accepts them where they are- Jesus
shows us that his ministry is not exclusive- its NOT about making the circle smaller- but making the circle bigger and inviting everyone in. So
the question that comes to us today- perhaps is who do we need to be more
accepting of. Who are the tax collectors- the sinners- the people in our
lives and in our neighborhoods that we dislike and perhaps even despise?
Who are the people that perhaps we need to get to know? Hispanics? The
unemployed? Gays? (that will get us started). Jesus challenges us to be
more accepting- more loving. His ministry was to the people of the fringe-
the marginalized. Jesus says quite clearly: I have come to call NOT the
righteous- but the sinners. That includes us all. Now some of the folks who were watching were worried because of the
situation around fasting. The Pharisees fasted and John’s followers (the
Baptist) that is fasted too- but Jesus disciples weren’t fasting- and this
did not go unnoticed. In fact, it raised more than a few eyebrows. But
Jesus response to his critics showed that Jesus thought it more important
feast than to fast. He likened it to a wedding banquet and everyone is invited to the table to share in a celebration of God new era.
Finally, Jesus talks about new wine! A couple of months ago, when I was
preparing for a home communion visit- I opened my little black communion
case and discovered that the little plastic wine bottle was distended. The
wine had fermented and the little bottle had burst and made quite a mess.
Jesus says you can’t put new wine in old wine skins- they’ll burst. - the
wine is lost and so is the wineskin! Jesus understood that new ideas are
a lot like new wine. Jesus both challenged and warned his disciples that
new wine means new ways of looking at things. It means creative thinking
outside the box: who needs our help? How can we serve our community? What
needs aren’t being met that we as individuals and as a church could take on.
Jesus called ordinary people: fishermen and tax collectors to follow him-
and Jesus still calls ordinary folks in his service- even telephone solicitors; sinners like you and me. Will we follow him? Amen!
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