The Company He Kept: Prostitutes

That day in the home of a judgmental Pharisee, an anonymous woman experienced profound acceptance by the only truly loving man she had ever seen and whom she would never see again. She completely abased herself before Jesus, and he did nothing to show disapproval of anything she did. He did not look askance at her, and his face and eyes displayed not one scintilla of rejection or revulsion. No one had ever treated her like that. He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Then, looking directly at Simon, Jesus said, firmly but without rancor, “I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

The Company He Kept: Tax Collectors

It is astounding that Jesus would choose a tax collector as one of his disciples. Matthew is specifically identified as a tax collector and as one of Jesus’ disciples in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but he is not mentioned at all in the Gospel of John, nor, for that matter, does John even provide a list of disciples as the synopticists did (although all three didn’t agree precisely on who the twelve were). A common complaint of the scribes and Pharisees against Jesus is that he openly ate “with tax collectors and sinners.” Each of the Synoptics specifically says that. Because they didn’t like the religious ideas of Jesus, they latched onto the widespread political disgust over tax collectors further to denigrate Jesus.

The Company He Kept: The Physically Afflicted

This Lent the Lenten sermon series is entitled The Company He Kept. Each sermon shall seek to address an unusual group of people with whom Jesus deliberately chose to associate in his brief three-year ministry. Most of these groups caused religious and political problems for him. The theological enemies of Jesus were strongly opposed to the attention he paid to these people. The scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and priests all thought that Jesus should have avoided these people rather than to spend a single minute in communication with them. Nonetheless, Jesus ignored their warnings, and he openly cultivated contacts with these types of people.

The Company He Kept: The Mentally Ill

Today I am beginning a series of sermons whose general theme is this: The Company He Kept. Each sermon will attempt to point out an unusual group of people with whom Jesus deliberately associated. All of these people would have been considered inappropriate by some of the theological and cultural enemies of Jesus, of whom he acquired a rapidly growing number. It is evident in reading the four Gospels that from the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus specifically chose to talk to and to minister to types of people whom Jesus’ detractors thought every respectable person should very carefully avoid. Today we will be thinking about the mentally ill.

Samson: Schwarzennegger With Even More Attitude

This is the fourth, and last, in a series of four sermons about the Book of Judges. I am sure no one is going to weep bitter tears over that fact. If it is any consolation to you, I decided to do this series about three months ago. It was after the Nov. 3 election last year, but before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol a month ago. That terrorist attack turned this series of sermons into something I never could have anticipated. January 6, 2021, is a major event in our nation’s history that will take years to sort out. It prompted sermon thoughts and ideas which otherwise never would have occurred to me. We might have imagined there would be universal condemnation of the attack on the United States Capitol building, but as we have since learned, that was not the case. It now appears there is strong support for both former President Trump and for the actions taken by the mob he clearly incited to do what they did on January 6.

Gideon: The Judge Who Wouldn’t

Yet, says the Book of Judges, God chose Gideon. Why? When God had so many other possibilities, why would He ever select someone like Gideon as His champion? It was precisely because Gideon was so unlikely! Gideon was Tom Thumb, he was a Lilliputian, he was Danny DeVito! Don’t get a midget to take on a giant! Don’t get David to take on Goliath! Is the Book of Judges approving those ideas, or is it really telling us that is not how God works?

Deborah and Jael: Two Femmes Fatale

When Deborah and Jael were alive, Israel was not yet a nation. Instead, it was twelve separate and unequal tribes. It desperately needed to coalesce into a unity if ever it was to become a recognizable country and a light to the Gentiles. From Genesis through II Samuel, Israel is struggling to become a nation, an ethnos. It wasn’t easy. It was painful and exasperating and difficult, and it took a long, long time until they had a monarchy which was fully functional. The patriarchs were long gone, Moses and Joshua had died, and there was nothing at the center - - - no Jerusalem, no temple, no institution of lasting significance. The century and a half of the Judges is the In-Between Time, between Joshua and the first of the kings.

Our Attempts to Discern God’s Will

How do we discern God’s will in what is going on around us when it is going on? Do we know what God wants of us as individuals or as people when it is happening? Do we ever try to figure that out? Or do we just go along with whatever happens, and whoever leads us, assuming that God has no part and no interest in it? Do we have a responsibility as citizens to try to participate in what we believe God wants us to do, or do we accede to whatever happens and to whoever makes it happen at any given time?

Things Fall Apart; the Centre Cannot Hold

January 6, 2021, like December 7, 1941, is a date that shall live in infamy. Four days ago American democracy was shaken to its very foundations. It happened in the United States Capitol building, the seat of government of a nation which proudly proclaims itself the strongest democracy in the history of the world. But on January 6, our democracy endured its most damaging test since April 12 of 1861, and it was prompted by the nation’s president.