Sermon: Second Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, June11, 2023Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Sermon: Second Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, June11, 2023

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

There are certain verses of our ancient scriptures that echo through the centuries with clarity and power. Each of us probably has our favorite verses, and we have them memorized and call them to mind when we need a good word. One of those compelling verses for me appears in today’s gospel. Matthew reports that Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” These words of Jesus strike a chord deep in my heart and mind and cause my whole being to reverberate. Mercy, not sacrifice.

I have a sense of what this meant in Jesus’ day because he was quoting the prophet Hosea where a similar phrase appears in today’s first reading – the Lord says: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Both in Hosea’s day and Jesus’ day there was the custom of making sacrifices of animals in the temple as part of religious observance. Both the prophet Hosea and Jesus suggest that showing mercy and steadfast love are more important than making ritual sacrifices.

But we don’t sacrifice animals in church. So, what might all of this mean for us today, and why might this passage strike such a chord in us? “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

While we don’t sacrifice animals in ritual ways, there are other ways in which sacrifice is happening all around us.

We sacrifice a lot for our jobs, often toiling and taking years off our lives for something less than a living wage, losing our fair share of the profits of doing business.

Oppressed and marginalized people are effectively sacrificed and left behind, often as good as dead, when they are denied adequate health care.

By abusing our planet, extracting ever more from mother earth in unsustainable ways leading to ecosystemic collapse and extinction, we are sacrificing all sorts of life forms in the greedy pursuit of ever more wealth. The examples of sacrifice and being sacrificed go on and on.

Of course, there are positive forms of sacrifice, too, like when we make sacrifices for the well-being of our families or when first responders risk their lives to save other people’s lives in emergencies of all kinds. And soldiers too often make the supreme sacrifice of their lives for our country.

But a lot of what and who gets sacrificed ends tragically and sometimes in death. Jesus does not desire this kind of sacrifice.

In fact, the sacrifice of his own life on the cross leads to what Jesus otherwise desires: mercy, steadfast love. In the resurrection of Christ, mercy and steadfast love triumph over sacrifice.

Which is to say, Jesus wants the loving, merciful freedom of grace to supersede and overcome the burdens and demands of the law on us. Sacrifice often leads to sickness and death. Jesus wants and provides for all of us the mercy of health and life.

As the apostle Paul writes in today’s second reading: “[God] raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.” In other words, Jesus’ death and resurrection become the ultimate victory of mercy and love and grace over sacrifice.

Still, what does mercy not sacrifice look like today in the details of our daily lives? The beautiful words of Jesus desiring mercy, not sacrifice are introduced by a command from Jesus. The full verse is this: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”

Jesus beckons us to go and learn what mercy, not sacrifice means in our daily lives, in our current mission field. And these are lessons we are invited to learn again and again each and every different day, because what mercy looks like today may vary depending on our situation and circumstances.

But as usual, the scriptures give us a good sense of what mercy, not sacrifice looks like. We can go and learn what it means to be merciful by reviewing Jesus’ own witness in today’s gospel reading from Matthew. Jesus shows us there what it means to desire and pursue mercy rather than sacrifice in multiple ways.

Jesus shows mercy by inviting a corrupt tax collector, Matthew, to follow him. Jesus shows mercy by eating dinner with other tax collectors and sinners, breaking all the rules of ancient religion which were very clear about whom you could and couldn’t eat with.

The religious leaders made clear their disdain for Jesus’ choice to eat with the excluded which was what led him to say in the first place that he desires mercy, not sacrifice, and that he came not “to call the righteous but sinners.”

Moreover, Jesus shows mercy when he responds to the leader of the synagogue whose daughter just died by following him to his house to raise the stricken daughter to new life.

On the way, Jesus shows mercy by allowing the woman with the flow of blood to be healed simply by touching the fringe of his cloak.

Now let’s fast forward to here and now in this place. Because of Jesus Christ, his life, his ministry, his witness, death and resurrection, our life together here at Faith-La Fe is all about mercy, not sacrifice.

Every time we baptize someone at this font, mercy triumphs over sacrifice. Every time we gather at this table, mercy triumphs over sacrifice as we relive Jesus’ eating with sinners and tax collectors because everyone is welcome here to share in the feast. Every time one of us pastors pronounces that your sins are forgiven, mercy triumphs over sacrifice.

Mercy triumphs over sacrifice even in this sermon as I proclaim the radical claims of God’s mercy and steadfast love for us and all of creation.

And when we experience the mercy of God our faith is strengthened and we are emboldened to show mercy to others in our lives at home, at work, in our neighborhoods, and everywhere we happen to be.

We show mercy when we invite the houseless person who wanders in here at church to join us for coffee hour or convivio for a meal. We show mercy when we collect items to benefit those who participate this summer in the Heat Respite Program at Grace Church downtown. We show mercy when a significant percentage of our offerings goes to the wider church to support advocacy for justice and other works of mercy throughout the world. And more and more.

You get the picture. In Christ Jesus, and in our ministries in his name, mercy triumphs over sacrifice, and the world begins to be healed from the ravages of so many being sacrificed on the altars of injustice and oppression.

Thanks be to God. Amen.