Last month, my son Ethan was in a play that had a run at the Expo Center over on Atlantic Avenue. It was called the Conjugated Beliefs of Usallica, written and directed by Denis McCourt of the Long Beach Shakespeare Company. It received great reviews but suffered from low attendance, which, it seems to me, is the situation of quite a few churches that most closely follow the way of Jesus.
Each act of the play began with the actors, all dressed in black, marching rhythmically onto the stage. Their footsteps were in sync, their clothing was in sync, and the words they spoke were even, at times, spoken in unison.
But then, not too long into act one, two of the characters began tooting their own horns. Literally. But not before discussing whether or not it is acceptable to toot one’s own horn. It is, after all, a daring thing to toot one’s own horn. However, eventually they decide that tooting one’s horn is, in fact, an acceptable thing to do.
In act two, another character began marching to the beat of her own drum. However, she is criticized and ridiculed for marching to the beat of her own drum, and her actions are condemned. She had thought that, since it was acceptable for the other two to toot their own horn, that it would be acceptable for her to march to the beat of her own drum.
She was wrong. Marching to the beat of one’s own drum is not acceptable.
In the first century, it was the Pharisees and the scribes who determined what was acceptable and what was not. It was they who said, yes, it’s OK to toot your own horn. It was they who said, no, you can’t march to the beat of your own drum. And, generally speaking, they were very firm in their ideas about what was acceptable and what was not.
Most of their ideas were fine. Most of their ideas helped make society better, more live-able. Most of their ideas were based on the torah, the teachings of the law and the prophets.
But they had a habit of interpreting the ancient teachings in a way that was oppressive, rather than in a way that was liberating….
They had a habit of following the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law….
They had a habit of interpreting the law and the prophets in a way that benefited those who tooted their own horn, and that placed a burden on those who marched to a different beat, those who didn’t even have a horn to toot….
They had a habit of interpreting the ancient teachings in a way that shaped and created a society in their image, and which marked as second-class or unclean any who did not conform to that image.
And look; there they are! Sitting with Jesus! Eating with him, engaging in fellowship with him: the unclean! The ones who walk to a different beat!
Scripture describes them as “tax collectors and sinners,” which is a somewhat derogatory code phrase used in the first century to describe anyone who didn’t conform to society’s rules. Yes, they were people who needed help, people who had made mistakes, even; people who you and I probably would not want hanging around in our neighborhoods.
Barbara Brown Taylor – author, college professor, one-time pastor – once said that today’s equivalent of “tax collectors and sinners” would be abortion doctors, child molesters, arms dealers, garbage collectors, young men with AIDS, Laotian chicken pluckers, teenage crack addicts, and an unmarried woman on welfare with five children by three different fathers.
All these are unclean, the “tax collectors and sinners,” although Jesus prefers to think of them as lost. Misguided perhaps, but certainly not beyond redemption. their lives are broken. The world in which they live is fragmented. They are in need of salvation. They are in need of wholeness.
The Pharisees and the scribes – those are almost code words themselves, aren’t they? The phrase is accurate enough; they were Pharisees; they were scribes. But all you have to hear about someone is that they are a Pharisee, and you’ve already formed an opinion about them. All you have to hear about someone is that they are a first-century scribe, and you’ve already judged them.
I suppose that among the tax collectors and sinners, if someone wondered why a person acted a certain way, and someone else said, “Oh, it’s because he’s a Pharisee,” that would explain it. That would be enough. You don’t expect much from a Pharisee or a scribe, if you yourself are a tax collector or a sinner, if you yourself are among the unclean.
And the reverse is also true: you don’t expect much from a tax collector or a sinner, if you yourself are a Pharisee or a scribe.
The Pharisees and scribes didn’t understand why Jesus often hung out with the tax collectors and sinners. It didn’t make sense to them that he would hang out with the unclean.
The Pharisees and scribes had no problem with Jesus hanging out with them, of course. I mean, why wouldn’t Jesus want to hang out with them? But to hang out with tax collectors and sinners?
What are you doing with those people, Jesus? Why can’t you send them away? Don’t you know what kind of people they are? If you start hanging out with them, you’re going to lose some of your followers. We’re not naming names, here, but some people just won’t allow those types to be among your followers. I mean, I’ve heard people say that if you let them in, then they are going to leave. Your church is going to start losing members, Jesus, if you don’t do something about those tax collectors and sinners. They’re just gonna drive people away….
Jesus responded by telling a story about a lost sheep. “If you had a hundred sheep but one was missing, one was lost, wouldn’t you go after it, search for it, until you found it? And wouldn’t you rejoice when you found it?”
But they still didn’t get it.
So Jesus told them a story about a lost coin.
“If your wife had ten drachmas, or if a widow in your neighborhood had ten drachmas, payment for ten days labor, and she lost one, wouldn’t she go to great lengths to find it, lighting a lamp, sweeping the house, searching carefully until she found it? And then, when it is found, wouldn’t she rejoice?”
But they still didn’t get it. They just cocked their heads to the side, and whispered and murmured to one another, and continued their discontented grumbling.
So Jesus told them a story about a lost son.
“Imagine a father who lost his son… lost him, because the son ran off with his share of the inheritance, so that he could live a wild and reckless life; a son who squandered everything he had in dissolute living. Everything this son had learned, everything his father had ever taught him, he ignored.
“He didn’t write. He didn’t call. He wanted nothing to do with his father or his family.
“Now it just so happened that a severe famine took place right when the son had spent everything he had. Tired, broke, and hungry, the only job he could find was feeding pigs. Of course, for a Jew, having contact with pigs was the ultimate indignity. The son found himself among the lowest of the low. He had become a tax collector and a sinner. He had become an abortion doctor, a child molester, an arms dealer, a garbage collector, a young man with AIDS, a Laotian chicken plucker, a teenage crack addict, an unmarried woman on welfare with five children by three different fathers.
“No one gave him anything; not even the time of day. No one paid him any attention at all. No kindness was shown to him.
“Finally, he came to his senses. He decided to return home, and – as humiliating as it might be – confess to his father that he had sinned, that he had made mistakes, that he was now broken and in need of wholeness. He would admit that it was all his fault, and since he had forsaken his family, he would ask his father to treat him like one of the father’s hired hands.
“So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now this father had another son, an older son, who always followed the rules, the law, the teachings of his father. This older son was in the field, working, when the celebration started, and when he came to the house he heard music and dancing. When one of the slaves told him what was going on, the older son became angry, and refused to go in.
“His father came out to talk to him, but the older son said, ‘What are you doing, Father? Why are you welcoming him? Why are you celebrating his arrival? Don’t you know what he’s done? Don’t you know what kind of person he’s become?... If you welcome him back, you’re going to lose some members of your family; you’re going to lose your other son. The type of person he’s become does not belong in the family. I can’t be in the same family as him.’
“The father said, ‘Son, look; you are always with me. All that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found.”
Are you familiar with Tony Campolo? Tony Campolo is a well-known sociology professor and preacher who one time was in Honolulu for a speaking engagement. Because he was on east coast time, he found himself inside a greasy old diner near his hotel at 3:30 in the morning, eating a greasy old donut and some bad coffee, when into the diner walks a group of prostitutes. It’s a small diner, so they kind of sit all around him, and they start talking, when one of them says, “Hey, you know, tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m turning 39.”
One of the others says, “Yeah? So? What do you want me to do, bake you a cake? Throw you a party?”
“No, no,” says the first one. “I don’t expect a party. I’m just telling you, it’s my birthday. Why do you have to hurt my feelings? I’ve never had a birthday party my whole life. I don’t expect to have one now. I just wanted you to know that tomorrow’s my birthday, that’s all.”
When they all left, Tony Campolo says to the manager, whose name was Harry, “Do they come in here every night?”
“Yes, every night.”
Tony says, “That one woman who was talking…”
Harry says, “Agnes. That’s Agnes.”
Tony says, “Agnes. Well, it’s her birthday tomorrow. What if we decorated the place with streamers and had a birthday party?”
Harry says, “Mister, that’s beautiful. Hey, Jane! This guy wants to throw Agnes a birthday party!”
Jane comes out of the kitchen and says, “Oh, mister, that’s brilliant. Nobody ever does anything for Agnes, and she’s one of the good people in this town. I know what she does to make money, but she’s a good person.”
Well, if you want to know the whole story, you can read it or watch Tony Campolo tell it on YouTube. But, to skip to the end, they threw the party. Agnes was stunned. Speechless. She couldn’t even blow out the candles on the cake.
When it was all over, Harry says to Tony, “You’re a preacher, aren’t you? What kind of a church do you preach in?”
And Tony Campolo says to him, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”
Harry says, “No, you don’t! No, you don’t. I would join a church like that!”
A church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning. A church that celebrates the return of a lost son. A church that rejoices over the presence of an abortion doctor, a child molester, an arms dealer, a garbage collector, a young man with AIDS, a Laotian chicken plucker, a teenage crack addict, or an unmarried woman on welfare with five children by three different fathers.
Is this really the type of church Jesus intended for us to be? A church that brings joy to those who have never known joy? A church that welcomes those who have never felt welcome? A church that is a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world?
That is a very challenging church to be. A church like that might lose some of its more prominent members. A church like that would require folks to step outside of their comfort zones. A church like that would require folks to get creative. A church like that would require folks to work hard. A church like that would require folks to make sacrifices.
Is that the type of church Jesus intends for us to be? Is that the type of church Jesus expects us to be? Is that the type of church Jesus calls us to be?
That is exactly the type of church Jesus calls us to be.
When we realize that, when we work to make that happen, when we become that type of church, that’s when we ourselves become no longer lost. That’s when we ourselves become found.
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