Sermon Tone Analysis
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When it comes to weird religions, there’s weird… and then there’s SUPER WEIRD.
For example, one religious cult - The Aetherius Society was started in the mid-1950’s by a taxi driver who taught his followers to appease “The cosmic masters” of the universe, who lived on the planets Venus and Saturn.
And within this ET goes to Hogwarts religion, you have to appease the cosmic masters through... obedience....
Obedience to what?
By spending their lives “spiritually charging the earth” to make way for their coming rulers, who will one-day descend to earth in a flying saucer, armed with magic that is more powerful than all of the armies on the planet.
Another weird religious cult is the "Ho No, Hana Sanpogyo”
Which if you haven’t heard of, is a “foot reading cult”
And this religion is based upon their founder who claims to be the reincarnation of not just one, but two people.
Buddha, and Jesus.
And within this bizzarro religion, you have to appease your master through... obedience....
Obedience to what?
Foot examinations.
Which is a life or death issue I guess, because without having the master read your feet, you fate would step in and kill you - or so he warned.
And according to his methods, short toes meant you had a short temper, while fat toes meant your life would be filled with good fortune.
Cuz hey, why not?
However, the movement has struggled a bit ever since the master started charging $900 for his life-saving foot readings.
Another weird religious cult are, and I’m not making this up, a group called the “garbage eaters.”
They also go by “The brethren” - which I personally think is the better of the two marketing strategies, and is an offshoot of the 70’s Jesus movement.
Why are they called the “Garbage eaters?”
Because, within this goat-like cult, you have to appease your cosmic master through... obedience....
Obedience in rejecting worldly goods by living homeless,
In avoiding looking at mirrors,
And rejecting money, dancing (there it is), and even LAUGHING!
NO LAUGHING - you’ll are already out of the cult!
Why so many rules?
To purify yourself for the coming end-of-the-world!
Which is pretty ironic since it’s a religion focused on purity that, get this, doesn’t allow BATHING - like, AT ALL!
Which actually explains their other rule I didn’t mention yet, which bars interaction between men and women.
now, there’s one more religious cult I need to tell you about,
This group goes by a A LOT OF NAMES
And while it has a lot of names, it has the same core beliefs.
Which is to appease the cosmic master through… obedience.
What kind of obedience?
Well, you have to say the right things and not say the wrong things,
You have to go to the right places, and avoid the wrong places,
Sometimes you have to wear the right things, and not wear the wrong things,
You have to act the right way, and not act the wrong way,
You have to pray the right things at the right times - not the wrong times!
Oh, and you have to hang out with the right people and not the wrong people,
because the wrong people are doing the wrong things and not the right things,
and since you don’t wanna do the wrong things too you need to completely avoid them if you want to do enough of the right things to appease your master...
And what makes this last one just as weird as the other ones is they something they all have in common, though in different ways.
And it’s this
It’s the idea that we can do enough of THE RIGHT THINGS to fix our greatest problem.
If we work hard enough
Do enough good
And just keep at it,
then we’ll be right with God and everything will be OK.
And sadly, professing Christians end up thinking this way, though this way isn’t further from the Christian truth!
Because when it comes to our relationship with God, there’s only one path that pleases Him,
and it is MERCY - NOT MERIT
In our passage this morning we find the calling of Matthew, who was the CHIEF LACKER when it came to religious merit.
Because Matthew was a guy who had basically perfected the art of doing all the wrong things.
Which tells us that our relationship with God must be based upon MERCY, not MERIT.
And so turning to Matthew chapter 9, verses 9-17, we are going to see 3 things the mercy of God does for us merit lacking sinners.
And here they are:
The mercy of God:
Calls
Celebrates
Changes
Let’s look at the first one:
The mercy of God:
Calls sinners
In verse 9, we see the mercy of God as the initiator of Jesus’s interaction with Matthew.
And how?
Because WHEN Matthew approaches Jesus asking to be one of Jesus’s disciples, Matthew explains how he sold all of his stuff, gave his possessions to the poor, and then promises Jesus that he’ll sin less, Jesus says:
“Alright, that’s a good start, but I’ll be watching you Matthew - one slip up and it’s back to the tax booth you go!”
Oh wait, that’s not what happened is it?
No, Matthew isn’t seeking after God at all, is he?....
In fact, it’s the other way around.
Jesus is the one who seeks out Matthew and simply says: “Follow me.”
Now, culturally, we don’t realize how big of a deal this actually was.
Because it was a big deal - since Matthew was a Tax Collector.
Which was an absolutely hated profession!
This wasn’t simply like being an IRS agent either
And we don’t really have a modern equivalent to compare this to,
So maybe think of the politician you dislike the most, and times that by about a thousand.
Tax collectors were considered the worst of the worst!
Worse than the prostitutes, the town drunk, the dishonest business workers,
All of those were saints by comparison to a tax collector.
Because a tax collector was seen as someone who was not only a dishonest thief, but a traitor to the people and country.
During this time the Roman empire ruled the world, and they taxed all the people who were under their rule.
But Rome was smart about it:
Instead of going in and making their Romans soldiers collect the tax - which would often result in uprising and violence, they would hire the locals to do their dirty work for them.
And don’t forget just how badly the Jewish people hated the Romans.
Which means, Matthew basically sold his national soul for money.
Now, to make matters worse, the Romans allowed these tax collectors to take even more money from the people in order to line their own pockets.
So they basically got rich by being societal leeches.
Also, tax collectors like Matthew were considered unclean, and if you’ve read Leviticus before, you know what that means.
This was a big deal for a Jew, since it meant they couldn’t enter the temple or synagogues,
Which led to them being despised and hated even more by basically everyone other than their fellow tax collectors.
And so when it came to other rabbis and teachers, Matthew never would have even been considered for discipleship.
But not so with Jesus...
For when Christ calls us to become His disciple, it is entirely by Mercy not Merit.
For Christ calls Sinners not Saints.
After Matthew got up and followed Jesus, they went to Matthew’s home with a bunch of other sinners and tax collectors - because that’s the only friends Matthew had - and then what happens?
Does Jesus preach at them for hours on end?
No, Jesus reclines at the table with them for a meal.
How scandalous!
Which is why when the pharisees find out, they are appalled, and ask why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners.
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