Cum Hospetes Amicos Fiant

Rev. Mark Curtis
Weddington UMC

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

On Sunday, 07/02/2017 we visited the Weddington United Methodist Church where “teaching pastor” Mark Curtis gave a sermon entitled “When Strangers Become Friends” based on the Call of Levi in Matthew 9:9-13 (also given in Mark 2:13-17 and Luke 5:27-32). Frankly, just seeing the title of the sermon in the bulletin passed out by ushers as we initially entered the sanctuary, I knew immediately where the talk was going to end and sure enough I was not (as the reader will soon find out) disappointed. Indeed, after the reading of the Holy Gospel this clergyman began with anecdotal stories of recent occasions when he and his wife visited “Bed and Breakfast” hotels, meeting new people and making new friends; such stories only increased my expectation of the inevitable. We congregants were told that in like manner a dinner was convened at which all manner of people attended, Christ having invited them without distinction. Emphasis was placed on the phrase, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice….” Then the finality: why can’t Trump supporters and Hillary supporters attend the table of the Lord in like manner? Everyone is invited to the Lord’s table – even LGBTQ people – just as everyone attended the Lord’s table in the Gospel reading.

Let us now examine the Gospel passage:

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 10 And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Nota bene: Jesus called Matthew (also known as Levi) and he left his tax collecting job and followed Jesus. In other words, he left his old life of sin behind. And it was only after leaving his old life of sin behind that he sat at table. In fact, St. John Chrysostom explains Matthew’s call in the following way in his Homily number 30 on that Gospel:

“But as you have seen the power of Him that called, so consider also the obedience of him that was called: how he neither resisted, nor disputing said, What is this? Is it not indeed a deceitful calling, wherewith He calls me, being such as I am? nay; for this humility again had been out of season: but he obeyed straightway, and did not even request to go home, and to communicate with his relations concerning this matter; as neither indeed did the fishermen; but as they left their net and their ship and their father, so did he his receipt of custom and his gain, and followed, exhibiting a mind prepared for all things; and breaking himself at once away from all worldly things, by his complete obedience he bore witness that He who called him had chosen a good time.”

Now certainly everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table: adulterers, fornicators, sodomites, lesbians, murderers, thieves, liars, drunkards, etc. But first we must repent and be in a state of grace. St. John Chrysostom says that Matthew broke himself away at once from all worldly things. Why must we break away from all worldly things as Matthew did before partaking of the Lord's Table? Because in His Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:22-59 Jesus declares that His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink, and he who eats and drinks will have eternal life. That's Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity up there on the Table! Thus, St. Paul warns us in 1st Corinthians 11:27-32 that we must discern the Body and Blood of Christ when we eat and drink, lest we do so unworthily and thereby eat and drink damnation unto ourselves, for which reason St. Paul explains many have gone sick or lie asleep in death.

Of course the objection is that it is unmerciful and unkind to point out such hard words to sodomites and lesbians because after all, Jesus declared that He desired mercy and not sacrifice. Yet under the inspiration of Holy Spirit St. Paul specifically condemned the pagan practice of same sex relations in Romans 1:18-32. In fact, he emphatically states in verse 32 that those who do such acts deserve to die, and not just they who do them but they that approve them doing such acts. And in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10 St. Paul is very explicit about those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God, including in his list of unrighteous people those whom in the original Greek he calls μαλακοι and αρσενοκοιται. The first term – μαλακοι – was used to denote male receivers of male penetration and the second term – αρσενοκοιται – was used to denote male givers of male penetration. The Greek is therefore quite specific: “…ουτε μαλακοι ουτε αρσενοκοιται….. βασιλειαν θεου κληρονομησουσιν.” It means, “Neither male receivers of male penetration nor male givers of male penetration…the Kingdom of God shall inherit.”

Amici, everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table, and the Lord did eat with sinners and publicans in the aforementioned Gospel passage. St. John Chrysostom explains it in this way:

“Now the publicans come together as to one of the same trade; for he, exulting in the entrance of Christ, had called them all together. The fact is, Christ used to try every kind of treatment; and not when discoursing only, nor when healing, nor when reproving His enemies, but even at His morning meal, He would often correct such as were in a bad way; hereby teaching us, that every season and every work may by possibility afford us profit. And yet surely what was then set before them came of injustice and covetousness; but Christ refused not to partake of it, because the ensuing gain was to be great: yea rather He becomes partaker of the same roof and table with them that have committed such offenses. For such is the quality of a physician; unless he endure the corruption of the sick, he frees them not from their infirmity.”

Nota bene care lector, that Jesus becomes partaker under the same roof and table that unless He endure the corruption of the sick, He frees them not from their infirmity, and such infirmity includes but is not limited to same sex attraction.

Yes, everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table, but we must repent and be in a state of grace prior to receiving the Holy Eucharist. That includes adulterers, fornicators, sodomites, lesbians, murderers, thieves, liars, etc. without distinction. And as St. Paul warns us in Romans 2:1, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.” Indeed, gossiping, holding grudges and resentments, being dishonest and selfish are evil also, and thus we must examine ourselves. However, we cannot gloss over the fact that sodomite and lesbian acts are specific sins that cry out to Heaven (Article 1867 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). It is therefore demonstrably unkind and unmerciful to fail to warn of God’s wrath against sin.

Yes, everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table, but Jesus Himself says in Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen,” and in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

I am no better than any sodomite or any lesbian (St. Paul’s warning in Romans 2:1 weighs heavily on me). Sadly I sin too, and I need to repent frequently. But when I am conscious of grave sin leading unto death (1st John 5:16-17), then I refrain from partaking of the Lord’s Table till I have repented, and repentance means turning away from sin. It means doing what Matthew did – leaving his tax collector job behind where he cheated and stole from those who taxed and those to whom tax was due. He stopped sinning or as St. John Chrysostom writes, “breaking himself at once away from all worldly things,” before sitting at the Lord’s Table and that is what we are all called to do.