Missionary Renegade: Daily Guide/Daily Devotion grow. pray. study. from The Resurrection United Methodist Church in Leawood, Kansas, United States For Saturday, 25 July 2015

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Daily Guide/Daily Devotion grow. pray. study. from The Resurrection United Methodist Church in Leawood, Kansas, United States For Saturday, 25 July 2015 - "The story of the doctor we all need"

Daily Scripture: Matthew 9:9 As Yeshua passed on from there he spotted a tax-collector named Mattityahu sitting in his collection booth. He said to him, “Follow me!” and he got up and followed him.

10 While Yeshua was in the house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners came and joined him and his talmidim at the meal. 11 When the P’rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, “Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” 12 But Yeshua heard the question and answered, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. 13 As for you, go and learn what this means: ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’[Matthew 9:13 Hosea 6:6] For I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous,’ but sinners!”

Reflection Questions:

Israelites, with some reason, saw their countrymen who collected Roman taxes as traitors and outcasts. Rome’s system enriched tax collectors by letting them overcharge people and keep the excess. But Jesus didn’t see Matthew as an outcast—he saw one of his “lost sheep” in need of his inclusive love. He called Matthew to “Follow me,” and Matthew left his predatory work and wealth behind to follow Jesus. The Pharisees were incensed, but Jesus asked them if a soul “doctor” should ignore the “sick.” The self-identified “righteous” needed him as much or more as the “sinners.”

Scholar Hans Küng wrote, “A Church that will not accept the fact that it consists of sinful [people] and exists for sinful [people] becomes hard-hearted, self-righteous, inhuman…. though it is true that the Church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinner at a distance.” Do you (a good neighbor, reading your GPS) ever feel left out when Jesus said, “I didn’t come to call righteous people?” In what ways do you sense that you (and all of us) were included when he added, “but sinners”?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. As I live in the light and life of your mercy, give me a heart that has a welcoming mercy for all my fellow sinners. Amen.
Family Activity:
Jesus was an incredible servant and expects His followers to be faithful servants as well. As a family, discuss your response to each of these scenarios:

A new person comes to your Sunday school class and doesn’t know anyone.
The person standing in front of you at the grocery store drops a dollar.
Your neighbor, an older woman, lives alone. A storm knocks all her trash cans over.Talk together about ways to serve in each of these situations. This week ask each other, “How did you serve someone today? Did you ignore an opportunity to serve? How can you more faithfully serve others tomorrow?” Pray together and ask God to help you be faithful in serving.

Insights from Rev. Steve Langhofer

Rev. Steve Langhofer is a Congregational Care Pastor, serving the 7:45 am and 10:45 am worship communities.
What continues to make me most uncomfortable about Jesus’ calling of Matthew the tax collector is not that Jesus wanted a social and religious outcast on his ministry team, but that Matthew so quickly said, “Yes!”
Matthew sacrificed financial security and went to work for free. He entered Jesus’ inner circle of disciples aware not everyone wanted him there.
But Jesus did! Jesus said, “I know you’ve played loose with your ethics. I know you’ve exploited the poor. I know all about you, and I want you still!”
Matthew experienced something in Jesus’ presence that moved him to radically change his lifestyle and behavior. He said, “Yes!” Fast.
My response to Jesus is seldom swift and less than total, I confess. I’m counting on Jesus not throwing in the towel on me while I dilly-dally around.