Homily for June 8, 2008, 10th Sunday of the Year

(The Gospel is Matthew’s story of Jesus calling the tax collector, Matthew, and tax collectors and sinners joining Jesus at table This was a scandal to the pharisees.)
Sometimes I begin my homilies by saying, "I don't like this Gospel," but this one I really like, and I want to start  with where it begins. "Jesus passed on from there." Well, passed on from where?
In the passages that are in between last Sunday's Gospel and today's Gospel, Jesus has finished the Sermon on the Mount; he healed a leper; he healed the servant of the centurion, a beautiful story from which we have the words we say before communion, "Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof"; he heals many sick people; he crosses the sea in a storm and calms the storm; he drives out demons; and there's the beautiful story where he's in a house and they bring a paralyzed man on a mat, and he says, "Your sins are forgiven."
We miss some beautiful stories between last Sunday and today. Today we have the image of Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners. First I want to ask what we don't know about this story. What we don't know is what they talked about at table. We don't know what the tax collectors and sinners said when they came to Jesus. We don't know what he said to them. We can guess, but it would only be reading our own prejudices into the story. We just don't know what they talked about.
We don't know what happens afterwards. We don't know if those tax collectors and sinners straightened up and flew right and whether they continued to be tax collectors and sinners. We can only guess, according to the way we would like to read the story.
What do we know? Well, they were really sinners. The Gospel doesn't sugarcoat it. It doesn't say, "Well they really were not that bad." What we do know is that somehow they felt comfortable coming to Jesus, that they felt welcome. We know that Jesus felt at home in their company. We know that when Jesus was challenged about that, he said, "Hey, being with people like this is what I'm all about."
Well, what can we make of that? Ever since I've been at Holy Cross, I've had the sense - and I think we all have it - that this Gospel should somehow be special to us, that in some way, we do try to live it out very literally. By way of explaining that, I'll share a story.
Shortly after I came to Holy Cross, I was at a meeting downtown at the chancery, and I mentioned to somebody that Mass never starts on time at Holy Cross. And this person, who was in a position of power, said, "That would drive me crazy."
And I looked at this person, and I said, "Well, you're not exactly the kind of person we invite to Holy Cross."
Well, who would be comfortable here, and who wouldn't? If you want the beauty of a traditional church preserved, I think you'll feel very comfortable here. If you want Mass to start on time, you won't. If you want organ music and traditional hymns, you won't feel comfortable here. If you long for the beauty of the Latin Mass, you won't feel at home here.
If you want to be ecclesiastically correct, you won't feel too comfortable here. If you can't stand quirkiness, you won't feel at home here. If you want things to be quiet so you can pray before Mass, you won't feel comfortable here.
But what we hope - and I think very intentionally hope - is that if you don't feel good enough to go to church, you'll feel welcome here. If you don't feel comfortable in some high church settings, we hope that you'll feel at home here. If you have issues with some things about our Church, we hope you'll feel at home here.
In a sense, I think we could say if you identify yourself as somehow being among the tax collectors and sinners, you'll feel at home here. And I think, over the years, we've tried to be somewhat intentional about living our life that way. There's a lot of ambiguity about that, there's some tension about that, but I think I can say that we have tried to embrace that call and try to continue living it out.
And in that sense, I hope not in a proud, not in a "see how good we are" way, but in a very humble way, I hope we can embrace today's Gospel as our own Gospel and feel good about that Gospel. I hope, also, we can hear its challenge asking us how we can do that better, how can we do that more intentionally, and how can we do that in a way that we grow and build on it?
And now, as part of that welcoming, we're going to turn to the back and continue with the baptisms.