In each of the three stories that were read today, the people who were upset with Jesus were not villains out of some melodrama. They were law abiding, moral, religious people. I can understand them. As a matter of fact, I have a lot in common with them; I think all of us church go-ers have a lot in common with them. Today I want to look at these stories from their perspective.

In the first story, a man who was paralyzed by sin was brought to Jesus by his friends. When Jesus saw the faith of the man and his friends, Jesus said to the man: "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."

If we were among those critics of Jesus that day, we would have had no way of knowing at this point that Jesus was the Messiah. To us he would have appeared to be just another rabbi wandering around the country. But we had just heard him claim to do what only God can do. He declared the man's sins forgiven.

And so we ask: "How does he know whether or not God has forgiven this man? Isn't this traveling preacher being a bit presumptuous claiming that he knows what only God can know? As all of us know, God is the only one who can forgive sin. This wandering rabbi, without any official credentials, is claiming to speak for God-this means he is using God's name in vain; he is violating one of the basic commandments God has given us through Moses. What would happen if we allowed just anyone who feels like it to declare he or she is speaking in the name of God? This is what blasphemy is, speaking for God when we have no right to do so, making false claims for God, pretending that we can control what God does. How dare this rural, itinerant rabbi claim to be able to do what only God can do?"

You see, these good, moral, religious folks were focused on trying to protect their neighbors from people who make false claims about God. They were also focused on trying to protect God from false prophets, and they were focused on trying to keep their understanding of God from being distorted.

But as Matthew tells the story, Jesus had a different focus. Jesus was focused on the man and his friends, and especially on their faith, their confidence in the grace of God. So, in the light of their faith, Jesus declared that the sins that had paralyzed this man were forgiven. When Jesus saw that good church go-ers like us were upset with what he said, Jesus confirmed his authority to forgive sins by telling the man to get up and walk, to leave behind the paralysis his sin had caused and to get on with his life. This is just what the man did. He got up and moved on.

In the second story, Jesus was socializing with persons who were known to be sinners and tax collectors, people who had violated their relationship with God and sinfully taken advantage of other people. The people who were upset with Jesus were upset because they were convinced it was not appropriate for someone who claims to speak and act on behalf of God to behave in such a way that he implies living a life of sin really does not matter. People who really love God live by the rules God has given us, and they do not allow their behavior to undercut those rules of morality. Good, moral people were upset with Jesus because, in their eyes, his association with these sinners seemed to imply he was not bothered by their sin. To the good religious people, it appeared that Jesus was condoning the way these sinners and tax collectors had abused their relationship with God and taken advantage of other people.

Jesus was aware these good church go-ers-who really did live by the rules-were upset by his friendliness to those who did not. His response was to say that it would be well for his critics to study what the prophet Hosea declared God had said: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."^[1]

Jesus' focus was not on the wrong these people had done in the past, but on the good they could do in the present and future. This is what a merciful perspective does. Rather than focusing on payment for past sin, mercy focuses on ways to make faithfulness possible. The religious folks were focused on morality and were concerned to protect faithful people from being influenced by sinful people; whereas Jesus' focus was on enabling sinful people to become faithful.

The third story in the passage we read tells about the disciples of John the Baptist questioning Jesus regarding the fact that Jesus' disciples did not fast the way they and other more religious people did. For them fasting was a spiritual discipline that was very important, if not essential. Jesus' response was not to deny fasting as a valid form of spiritual discipline, but rather to focus on the truth that each situation calls for its own form of spiritual discipline.

If we had read the next couple of verses, we would have heard Jesus tell his listeners:
16 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for [when the patch gets wet and shrinks] the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.^[2]

Whatever else Jesus was saying, he was telling us that in our striving to be faithful we cannot simply continue doing what we have always done in the ways we have always done it. When we are faithful to the Gospel, our goal is not that of preserving the meaningful ways we experienced the Gospel and lived faithfully in the past, but rather, our goal is striving to be open to the ways the Gospel is to be experienced and expressed today. What does God require of us in our new situation?

Dealing with changing situations and circumstances in life has seldom been easy for us humans, and it has been an especially difficult for us church go-ers. Like the religious people who gave Jesus a hard time, often we, too, find ourselves struggling with the same attitude and questions they had. "Why can't things remain the way they have been? Those ways have been meaningful to us. Surely, God does not want any changes made."

The fact of the matter is, some of us have heard, perhaps even heard ourselves, making similar statements recently: "Why can't Tarrytown be the way it used to be?"

Of course we all know the answer. It is because the needs of 2001, when there are almost 2000 members, the majority of the adults are under 45, and there are more children than we can keep up with, are not the needs of 1981, when the membership was approximately 1000, the majority of the adults were over 45, and the beds in the church nursery were seldom filled. And the needs of 1981 were not the needs of 1961 when the membership was just over 500 and not only the life of this congregation, but life in general, was much simpler and slower paced.

"New wine requires new wine skins," Jesus said. "We cannot simply put a new patch on an old garment; it just won't wash." The past has passed and remains past and is not and never will be the present again. The "way it was" will never again be "the way it is."

Today's passage contains three stories. The first has to do with the problem of church go-ers being so focused and busy trying to protect God that they are insensitive to human need. The second has to do with the problem of church go-ers being so busy trying to protect faithful people from the influence of sinful people that they fail to reach out to persons who need the merciful grace of God. The third has to do with the problem of church go-ers being tied to what was meaningful to them in the past. They try so hard to hang on to the way it was they become insensitive to the needs of the present and insensitive to what God wants them to do.

Three stories. Three stories we church go-ers need to remember.

God, rescue us from the temptation to try to protect you and the Gospel. Enable us to live by faith, trusting your grace and your guidance so that at all times, in all places and among all people we will be your servants, effectively sharing the Gospel. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:
God, on this Memorial Day weekend we remember those men and women who died serving this nation and those who are yet alive but carry physical and emotional scars of battle. We also remember the burden their sacrifice placed on members of their families. God, as we remember the high price so many have paid serving this nation, we experience both gratitude and grief. God, we pray for all these men and women and their families. Give them comfort, strength, and healing of body and soul.
God, we pray for the women and men who are willing to go in harm's way serving this nation. Help them be sensitive to your presence and enable them to draw upon the resources of your grace as they face whatever they must face.
And God, we pray that the leaders of this nation will make wise decisions and never waste the lives of these men and women. We pray that all leaders, not just those of our own nation, may be so guided by your invisible hand that they will be led to resolutions that will end warfare. God show them and us the way to peace and give us what we need to move in that direction.
This we pray in the name of the Prince of Peace who taught us to pray: "Our Father. …"

^[1] See Matthew 9:13 and Hosea 6:6

^[2] The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.