Love and Sacrifice


Sunday, June 5th, 2005
Pentecost 3
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Hosea 5:15-6:6, Matthew 9:9-13

Hosea 5:15-6:6

15I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: 1"Come, let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. 1After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth." 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. 5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Matthew 9:9-13

9 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. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ 12But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

Yesterday, while driving up to Fredericksburg, I was listening to a program on National Public Radio out of Washington, and the program was ‘This American Life.” The program has a format that is infinitely variable. The producers apparently ask for people to tape their stories – the stories of their American lives – and send them in.

Yesterday’s was by a woman who had been raised in the Christian faith, and was visited one day by a couple of Mormon missionaries. In the course of their visit, she began to realize that some of the things they believed seemed a little “different”. That prompted her to begin to dig a little deeper into her own faith, her own scriptures.

Over the course of several months of attending Bible Studies led by her parish priest, the woman became less and less impressed with the stories of the Bible. As they delved into the New Testament, she began to find things in the life and words of Jesus that didn’t match the Jesus she grew up loving.

By the end of the piece, she came to the point of discounting scripture altogether, as well as the notion of God.

It was a terribly sad thing to listen to.

The truth of the matter is that there are parts of scripture that are difficult, to put it mildly. I think that’s why there has been such a controversy between people who WILL NOT take those passages literally and people who WILL NOT take the Bible as ANYTHING BUT literally.

Both sides of the issue have extreme and not-so-extreme proponents. I don’t really want to get into a discussion about inerrancy – a word that is nowhere in scripture and a term that the writers of scripture made no claim to. So let’s just leave it at this: there are passages of scripture over which we will disagree. Any two people in this room this morning, however much alike they think they may be, will most likely be able to find something in here (hold up the Bible) over which they disagree.

So my question to us this morning is painted with a broad brush: what is the overall theme of what we call the Bible, our Holy Scriptures? If you were asked to name the recurring theme of the Bible, what would you say?

Is it judgment? Is it the wrath of God? Is it genocide? Is it justification for slavery, or fraud, or rape, or the killing of women, children and babies, much less men? I’m asking because we can find each of those in the Bible.

We can talk all around them, and we can interpret them in figurative ways, we can dig into them and find the kernel of truth that still applies today on some conceptual level, and set aside the actual facts involved, sometimes. We can talk about differing cultures and changes in the understanding of the way the world works, and all kinds of things, but after all that is said and done, we still have the text. We still have the words. We still have the context and the passage, and the language that spells out on the face of it what becomes for us such a difficult thing to deal with.

So I guess my first question leads to this question: what is our Christian faith about? Is it about knowing the Bible inside and out? Is it about understanding it all? About being able to interpret it all? Is it about having all the answers?

I think Jesus was saying no.

Human nature hasn’t changed much at all, if any, in the two thousand years since Jesus walked among us. As we’ve seen in other passages on other occasions, Jesus was constantly dealing with people wanting to attain … whatever you want to call it – salvation, righteousness, redemption, holiness, by DOING something. At the time, it was meeting the letter of the law – following every jot and tittle and meeting the requirements of righteousness by offering sacrifices – animals, birds, grain, whatever.

Paul Colbert, an Episcopal Priest who serves two Filipino congregations in Las Vegas, says it this way:

Sacrifice is linked to judgment and correcting wrongs. At root, our theology shows us that while we were created good, we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Reconciliation with God is needed to restore our relationship. The ways and means of that reconciliation are what continue to trip us up and often lead us further astray.

Biblical sacrifice of animals or other offerings was intended to be atonement to restore broken relationships, restoring justice and righteousness. Those of us in a modern or post-modern mindset balk at this concept as outmoded and too bloody. We also use the word "sacrifice" in different ways in our language, ranging from the traditional sense, to a voluntary yielding of something we value, to forcing someone else to yield what they value. With disagreements rampant in the church, various factions appear ready to sacrifice the opposing point of view or party. Ignoring Paul's description of us all being part of the body, we would sacrifice a limb thinking it has caused us to sin.

For Christians, the death of Jesus on the cross is the sacrifice that restores our relationship with God. Too often we have a hard time accepting that gift to us and continue to try and make our own sacrifices to earn favor with God. By accepting that gift of love and mercy, we can continue to act with love and mercy in our own lives. We can accept the godly judgment that comes our way, knowing that the mercy of Christ has restored the relationship.

We as humans are fundamentally uncomfortable with not knowing. How many times have you heard, or even had the thought yourself – after having had some diagnostic testing done – the test was easy, it’s the not knowing – the waiting – that is hard.

We would much rather choose to DO something – occupy ourselves – fill our days with busyness – even business that is in an altogether Holy endeavor, than to sit down and heed the words of Jesus to “go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy (or steadfast love in Hosea), not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.”

Let’s break that down: when Jesus quotes the passage from Hosea, he is quoting God’s words – God is the one that is saying “I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice”. God didn’t say “I require that in order to commune with me you maintain yourselves pure by doing thus and such, that you not eat pork, that you not walk more than so many feet on a given Sabbath, that you cook your foods ‘this’ way, that you do not touch people who’ve done this and this and that … “ No. None of that. God uses a relational term. God wants our steadfast love. He just finished saying that the love he WAS getting from the people of Judah was “like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.” God loves us, and wants us to love back just as strongly – just as steadfastly.

So where does that leave Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

When we give up the idea that we can somehow attain that communion by SHOWING God how righteous we’ve been, or we are … by SHOWING God all the good we’ve done … we’ve missed the point. God wants our hearts to be fired by God’s love for us – and our love for God. God wants us to BE children of his. That’s all. Not that God wants us to STOP doing stuff – things get DONE that way – but God wants us to understand that he wants our hearts more, he wants us to BE in relationship with him MORE.

Let’s pray.