Sermon from Jan. 7, 2024 by the Rev. Dr. Tara W. Bulger

Mark 2:13-22

Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And (Levi) got up and followed him. And as (Jesus) sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him.

When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (do); I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Seminary

When I went to seminary, you were required to learn the biblical languages to graduate and become ordained as a minister. I had to learn biblical Greek and Hebrew. And it was so hard! Learning those two languages was easily the most challenging part of seminary for me and many others.

The Presbyterian Church is one of the last denominations to require learning the biblical languages for ordination. And there is increasingly a discussion that maybe we don’t need to require the biblical languages any more. The reason for this is that (a) there are already lots of well-translated versions of the Bible, (b) there is a plethora of software that can help you with the translations, and (c) it is possible to be a really great pastor without knowing the original languages.

But every once in a while, when I hear talk among our denomination's leadership about ending the requirement to learn biblical languages, I get salty like one of the old curmudgeons on the balcony from the muppet show. I think things like, "I had to learn it. So should they! We have to have standards! How dare they?!" I become a worse version of myself, wishing a tough thing on others. Completely forgetting that God calls and qualifies people, not Tara, and that maybe, just maybe, God is doing a new thing. Maybe I should just wish them well and get out of the way.

Fasting and New Wineskins

In our passage from Mark's gospel today, Jesus is doing a new thing, and the religious establishment is not pleased.

The question comes to Jesus—-John's disciples and the Pharisees are fasting, why don't your disciples fast? At stake here is a religious tradition, for there were many times during the Jewish year when the faithful were told to fast. Most of those fasting days were to remember great disasters in Israel's history; for instance, you would fast to remember the temple being destroyed by the Babylonians. Fasting is what religious people did—why was Jesus not doing it with his disciples?

Jesus tries to explain that there is no need to fast because he is with them. He uses the language of the bridegroom and wedding party to show them that just as a bridegroom at the wedding means it is a time to feast, so does Jesus' presence change everything. When Jesus is present, it is more appropriate to feast than fast.

In fact, Jesus explains that a new thing is happening. This is not like what has happened before, no, this is the work of the kingdom, and it requires new wineskins and new ways of doing things. With Jesus in the world, it is no longer business as usual but rather a new thing being done. Like me, not everyone is gracious in the face of it.

Levi and the Kingdom

When Jesus came into the world, Jesus brought the kingdom of God with him. We see what the kingdom of God looks like in the person and work of Jesus. What we see is a widening of God's grace and mercy. We see less focus on doing things "right" and more on bringing spiritual and physical health to all. And we see this, especially at the dinner at Levi's house.

Jesus' dinner at Levi's is filled with sinners. It is a dinner without a righteous person to be found. In fact, when Jesus tells Levi, "Follow me," it is the same invitation Jesus extended to the disciples. How dare he?! He is treating these sinners as if they have some worth and should be included in the blessings of God.

Everyone is scandalized.

But these are God's beloved children, and by having this dinner with them, Jesus includes them in God's blessings. Jesus does show that they have worth. This is the new thing God is doing—widening the doors to show that in God's kingdom, we are all kin. Maybe that's why it is better called a kin-dom. Jesus is doing a new thing. Jesus is growing the family of faith.

And think of it for a moment from Levi's perspective. He has been hated by the community he lives in for collecting taxes for the empire—all those sinners who come to dinner, too, have been looked down upon. But now, this Jesus is welcoming them. Notice Jesus doesn't ask them to stop sinning or make their attendance at the dinner contingent upon anything. No, they are all just offered a welcome and a feast. They are invited into the kindom.

Nicole and the Sandwich Christians

Nicole Blue tells the story of being a San Franciso street kid when she was first invited in and treated like kin. Nicole said that, on the whole, living on the streets of San Francisco wasn't so bad. But when asked to recall her most meaningful Christmas, she remembers a Christmas Eve when it was bitterly cold in San Francisco. All her street friends had left for warmer climates, and she found herself alone and freezing. But suddenly, she saw the van across the street that she knew a local church ran and they served warm sandwiches and soup. And so she went to get a sandwich. While there, the "sandwich Christians," as she called them, invited her to church the next day, Christmas Day. And she said she was just alone enough to say yes.

The next morning, Nicole wrapped her old, dirty sleeping bag around her and headed to the church. She got there, and all of a sudden, she just knew she couldn't go in—she felt too dirty, too ashamed. The church had rejected her as a kid; why should this one be any different? But someone saw her standing outside and invited her in. She came in, and there was a beautiful table with many other homeless people. She was invited to sit, and the church members served her dinner. She even had three desserts. After the meal, she thought—uh-oh, here it comes. The sermon! Instead, the children of the church started to hand out presents to each of the guests. No sermon, not one thing was asked of her; she was just treated like a beloved guest, like a member of the family.

Welcoming the Kin-dom

Jesus' presence in the world shows us what the kingdom of God looks like. And that kingdom might better be called a "kin-dom" because it is where all people are invited in and treated as beloved family. And there is most likely someone Jesus invites in that you won't like—someone you are sure is wrong, unworthy, not your kin. But over and over again in the Gospels, Jesus shows us that God shows no partiality. 

Our job, then, is to greet the widening of the kingdom with the same grace given to us. Our boundaries will be stretched. We will be asked to accept sinners and tax collectors even as we have been accepted. May we do so with the love of Christ. May we be sandwich Christians.