Proper 19 :: Jeremiah 4:11 – 12, 22 – 28 / Psalm 51:1 – 11 / I Timothy 1:12 – 17 / Luke 15:1 – 11
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Sunday, September 11, 2022
“THROW-AWAY PEOPLE?”
(Homily text: Luke 15:1 – 11)
Let’s
ask ourselves this question this morning: “Have I ever encountered a ‘throw-away
person’?”
By
this question, I mean that, do we ever think of a person as one who is beyond God’s
ability to redeem and change? Such a person might be one whose life is an
absolute mess, perhaps due to their own, personal choices along the way of
life’s path. Or, such a person might be someone whose views and outlook on life
are radically different from our own. (After all, we live in a deeply polarized
and divided world these days, a world which encourages us to demonize those who
differ from us.)
We
might think that those who fit into either of these categories (or others we
might think of), as “throw-aways”, people who seem to have no redeeming
qualities or usefulness.
The
Pharisees had quite a long list of “throw-aways” during the time of our Lord’s
earthly ministry: Tax collectors, prostitutes, and other notorious “sinners”.
To
these self-righteous, intolerant types, such people were beyond any hope of
redemption. There was no way, according to the Pharisees, that anyone who was
in their group of “throw-aways” could ever become clean again, no matter how
hard they tried, and no matter how much they followed the requirements of the
Law of Moses in order to become ritually clean again. They were forever stuck
in their unclean, undesirable condition. They belonged on the human rubbish heap.
By the reckoning of these Pharisees, no one should care about these “throw-aways”,
and it shouldn’t matter if they simply died, for no one should ever even
remember that they had lived.
Let’s
ask ourselves this question: “Do we ever harbor such attitudes?”
To
the Pharisees’ astonishment, Jesus deliberately seeks out these undesirable
people. He eats with them, He heals them, He gives them hope and the chance for
a new and better life.
Seeing
this, the Pharisees said, “This fellow receives sinners and eats with them.”
(Remember that, to do so, was to make oneself ritually unclean, unable to enter
the Temple in Jerusalem to worship and to make sacrifices.)
The
contrast between Jesus’ behavior and the attitudes of the Pharisees might
present us with two challenges:
1.
To what degree are we guilty of some of the same attitudes as those of
the Pharisees? After all, one of the images we get of the Pharisees is that
they were blind to their own failures and their unwillingness to step outside
themselves in order to have a good, long look at their own attitudes and
behaviors.
2.
To what degree do we model our Lord’s behavior, deliberately breaking
down the walls that separate one person from another? To what degree do we
deliberately seek to bring God’s love and God’s power to change people’s lives
for the better to those who would, otherwise, be without hope?
Come,
Lord Jesus, and enable us to follow your example in word and in deed.
AMEN.
