The Second Sunday after Pentecost (June 19, 2022)	Text: All Lessons

"Who's In? Who's Out?"

I.	The history of the church has included an ongoing debate about who could be regarded as a member.

A.	Today, there are many models of how one becomes a member

1.	In some churches, if you show up you are seen as a member.

2.	In other churches, membership requires months, maybe years, of participation and discipleship.

3.	In yet others, a course of instruction is mandatory before one can be considered for membership.

B.	But then, once in, there are certain expectations

1.	Some churches require you to tithe your income.

2.	Others demand some kind of missional, or service, commitment.

3.	In others, if you miss a certain number of Sundays in a given period, your membership is questioned.

4.	Some require attendance at communion at least once during the year.

C.	This is not a new issue, nor even a contemporary one.

1.	The question "Who's In? Who's Out?" goes back to the earliest days of the church.

2.	It almost split the fledgling church into two camps, which may well have ruined its survival chances.

3.	One camp insisted that only Jews could belong, since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.

a.	With that came the demand that, to belong, one had to be circumcised.

b.	And further, that one had to observe all the Jewish laws and ordinances.

4.	St. Paul was of the opposite position — one he insisted had been revealed to him by Christ Himself — that the new kingdom was indeed that: new.

a.	The old rules no longer applied because Christ had satisfied the demands of the Law in His death and resurrection.

b.	He debated with St. Peter over this matter at what is now called the First Jerusalem Conference, reminding Peter of the vision he had seen at Joppa that revealed the very same truth.

c.	That conference decided the matter in favor of a broader outreach (thank God, or you and I would be out on our ears!).

D.	Yet, as we hear in today's Second Lesson, the issue continued to dog St. Paul for many years on mission outreach.

1.	Paul would come into an area, set up shop in the local synagogue, preach the Gospel and welcome in converts.

2.	But when he left town, others would follow him, and announce that Paul was wrong at worst, incomplete at the very least, and not at all trustworthy.

3.	Which is why Paul begins this letter to the Galatian Christians as he does: "Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead ..."

4.	He had to be this forceful because apparently these others were saying things like: "Paul of Tarsus? Who is he? Paul was not with Jesus in Galilee. Why should you listen to him about what Jesus taught or expected of those who would follow him? You say he told you that you did not need to be circumcised or keep the law of Moses? Where did he get that? He was probably just trying to make things easy for you, to be popular. He sounds like a people pleaser."

5.	Paul retorts: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel . . ."

a.	Obviously these "Judaizers," as they came to be known, had captured the hearts and minds of the Galatians.

b.	Paul can hardly believe it, and he's not going to let it stick.

II.	Paul is by no means alone in this battle over who's in and who's out.

A.	The question, however, should have been settled already before Christ.

1.	Paul argues (as we shall encounter in subsequent weeks) that even Abraham, to whom the first covenant was given, had that covenant, on no basis other than that of faith.

2.	Yet the question keeps returning to the issue of worth.

B.	Note in today's Gospel how that focus keeps getting the spotlight.

1.	The Jewish leaders of Capernaum approach Jesus on behalf of this centurion because, they claim, "He is worthy . . ."

a.	What establishes that worth? Two things are cited:

b.	"he loves our people," and

c.	"it is he who built our synagogue for us."

2.	The centurion, however, send word about himself: ". . . I am not worthy . . ."

3.	So who are we to believe?

a.	Is the centurion just being self-effacing? Not generally a characteristic we associate with such a soldier.

b.	Is he schmoozing Jesus?

c.	Or does he honestly consider himself not worthy to have Jesus enter his house?

d.	If, as the leaders say, he loves the Jewish people, it may imply that he has gone to the trouble to learn about them and would therefore know, for Jesus to enter his house, that would render Jesus ceremonially unclean, thus limiting Jesus.

e.	But that would be conjecture.

4.	The joy is that we don't have to ask which assessment is right — worthy or not worthy — because Jesus ignores the whole issue.

5.	It is not a question of "worth" — if it were, then nobody would have gained anything from Jesus: no healing, no encouragement, no forgiveness, no touching, no nothing!

6.	As George Carlin once observed about news reports concerning "innocent bystanders": "There are no innocent bystanders; if you live on this planet you are guilty. End of discussion."

7.	If the message of the Gospel were to be limited to those who are worthy to hear it and be embraced by it, once again you and I would be out on our ears.

C.	Consider the prayer offered up by King Solomon at the dedication of the Temple in today's First Lesson.

1.	For whom does Solomon pray? Only for the "worthy" Jews? No!

2.	He prays also for the "foreigner, who is not of your people Israel . . ."

3.	[As an aside, I was struck by the comment of one author concerning this lesson. Cameron Howard wrote: "Have you ever heard a public prayer in a worship service do "double duty," announcing something to the congregation even while ostensibly addressing God in praise, confession, thanksgiving, or petition? 'Thank you, God, for opportunities for fellowship, including the supper coming up this Wednesday at 6 p.m., for which everyone will bring a dish to share…' 'Lord, please watch over our brother George, who was admitted to County Hospital Room 304 last night around 11 p.m. with chest pains…' While communal prayer necessarily and desirably communicates something to the participants as well as to God, there is a danger that we can allow our prayers to disintegrate into community announcements that we merely allow God to overhear." I had to ask myself, "Do I do that?" I'm afraid sometimes I do, and I need to take a hard look at that.]

4.	Back to Solomon's prayer (which, I'm happy to report, is not doing that "double duty"): The Temple was dedicated with the idea that it would be a place that would draw others into relationship with God, not keep that relationship parochially Jewish.

5.	By the time of Jesus, however, the Temple had become just that: the exclusive preserve of Jewish males (such that, later in the Book of Acts, when Paul brings Timothy [regarded as a Gentile because his father was Greek] into the Temple, he is arrested for inciting a riot!).

D.	So let me get back to the notion of "worthy"

1.	The sign board in front of Good Shepherd Christian Church on Shepard Road in Macedonia carries this message: "All are Welcome. All are worthy."

2.	Well no — the Good News is that God embraces us even though we are not worthy.

3.	If we are, in and of ourselves, worthy, we have no need of Jesus — we are worthy of whatever it is we want God to give us.

4.	The Jewish elders and the centurion get caught up in the "worthy game" because there is this notion that we have to preen ourselves to get God to like us.

5.	The elders basically told Jesus, "This is a good guy, you should help him" — as if Jesus was in the business of helping only good guys.

6.	If you look at His record, you will realize that Jesus helps people . . . period!

7.	There is no question about qualifying for God's love and grace.

E.	Pope Frances came under some criticism early in his papacy when he said on a broadcast from Vatican Radio: "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! And he is asked: 'Father, the atheists?' "Even the atheists. Everyone!"

1.	Bill Maher thought that statement meant that the Pope is an atheist (which is one of many things Bill gets wrong in the realm of religion).

2.	The statement was "clarified" by a Vatican spokesperson: "All salvation comes from Christ, the Head, through the Church which is his body. Hence they cannot be saved who, knowing the Church as founded by Christ and necessary for salvation, would refuse to enter her or remain in her."

3.	The Pope's message did seem to violate the longstanding position in the Roman Catholic Church: "Extra ecclesiam non salvatus est." "Outside the church there is no salvation."

4.	But the truth is what Frances declared.

5.	Who's in? Everybody!

6.	Who's out? Those who refuse to accept the fact that they're in!

7.	Who's worthy? Nobody?

8.	Who gets left out because the are not worthy? Nobody.

9.	Your worth, my worth, everybody else's worth has nothing to contribute to the equation. It is Christ's worth that matters — and it is everything.

III.	St. Paul was astonished at the Galatians because they had lost sight of that crucial concept.

A.	And it is crucial (which means "of a cross").

1.	That is the message of worth and of inclusion — the cross.

2.	Trust that Christ took care of everything on the cross and you're home free.

3.	But make sure that faith is not just head knowledge.

4.	What sets apart the centurion in today's Gospel is his faith?

5.	Dr. Eric Barretto asks that same question: "What then was the content of the centurion's faith? What did the centurion believe? What faith did Jesus see in him? The centurion believed and recognized Jesus' power over the forces of death. As a military officer, he likely understood well how powerful raw force could be. He knows how swords and masses of trained men can create massive destruction in their wake. He recognizes such power in Jesus, but there is a difference in Jesus' power, a difference the centurion believes can make all the difference in the world. Military might cannot heal the sick or raise the dead. An army can't heal his faithful servant. Imperial power cannot gain the affections of a people, but only their fear. Jesus' power is unlike that wielded by Rome or any other empire. Jesus' power heals peoples and communities; it brings the powerful down from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. That is, Jesus' power turns the world upside down and inside out. That a centurion would recognize this power is the very essence of faith; faith is seeing the world with God's eyes, to see the possibilities of a world renewed by God's love and God's grace."

6.	Such faith must be ours, as well.

B.	When we have that kind of faith, the concerns of in and out fade away.

1.	What comes in its place is a burning desire to make sure that everybody knows they're in.

2.	We gain a hope-filled joy that celebrates inclusion and seeks the welfare of the other.

3.	We delight to be with fellow-insiders to praise and glorify the God who has given us Jesus and called us into the realization of His kingdom in us.

4.	We generously give of our resources, our time, our abilities, ourselves to benefit others, to comfort others, to support others.

C.	One last word about the centurion: He never directly encountered Jesus.

1.	Ass Luke relates the story, they never met.

2.	Everything that came about came about because of intermediaries.

3.	Guess who serves that function today? You don't have to guess; you know: it's you and me.

4.	So spend some time in prayer this week asking God to reveal to you who might be a "centurion" in need of some help with a problem.

a.	It may be a problem that you have skills and insights to help solve; if so, help that person solve the problem.

b.	It may be a problem that requires some resource in the community of which neither you nor that person is aware; help find that resource.

c.	It may be a problem that only God can resolve; bring it to God in prayer (make sure the person you are praying for knows you are praying for him or her; better yet, pray with that person).

5.	Let your faith embolden her faith; let your faith spill over into his faith deficit.

6.	But do it all in the full knowledge and conviction that your worth or his worth or her worth have nothing to do with the matter.

7.	Christ is worth everything; and you are His.

Amen.