"Life Lessons" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 06.07.26

"Life Lessons" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 06.07.26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

We're reading from the Gospel of Matthew this morning, the ninth chapter, verses 9 through 13, then verses 18 through 26. Hear the word of God. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard this, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners. While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died. But come and lay your hand on her and she will live. And Jesus got up and followed him with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. For she said to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well. Jesus turned and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, Go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout the district. The word of the Lord. Well, life can be measured in days. Surely someone has a birthday today. Anyone in here? My friend, all right. Happy birthday to your friend. Yeah, that's life. Life can be measured in the awareness of a day. My dog reminds me of that when I take her for the morning walk. There's a trail in our neighborhood beside a creek, woods and water, and a park bench. And there she sits down on the park bench and tells me to sit next to her. My dog understands lots of commands. Sit, come, lie down, shake. But the one command that I like best in her repertoire is be still and know that I'm God. After ten or fifteen minutes, my dog is done praying. And she turns to me and smiles and says, Good boy. And that's life. We all know that life gets a grade. Words are often said at the end of life, words like, She led a good life. He had a full life. What does that mean? How do we judge? I think we who attend church in the summertime know best how to judge. We judge with the eyes of God. She lived a good life because of how she cared for us. Cared for others. He lived a good life because he was the glue that held us together. If he ever needed anything, she was there. He never had a negative word. He was a saint, stars in his crown, A plus in the life department. That's a good life. But even for those of us who attend church in the summer, those of us who know we've been born on third base, we're still haunted by something. There's a there's a thing that Jesus says, a line that's tucked away at the end of a parable. I'm not sure I understand the parable, but I do understand the line. He says this to whom much is given much is expected. To whom much is given? How much have you been given? Much is expected. How do you pay back? How do you pay back all that you've been given? Reminds me of that film Saving Private Ryan, that film about the bands of brothers who sacrificed their lives for the one, and the movie closes with that old private Ryan, an old man standing there in the Sea of Crosses on a Normandy shore. He gets down on his knees. His wife draws near. Tell me I've led a good life. To whom much is given. Much is expected. Tell me I'm a good man. Once upon a time, Jesus walked up on a bad man. We'll call him Matthew. Matthew was a Jew, but he worked for the occupying force, the unclean, the Romans. He collected taxes on his own people to give to the oppressor. These tax collectors have a history of charging more than what was owed in the taxes just to line their own profits and pockets. Now some folks seem quite comfortable living in the snake skin. They lie, they steal, they cheat, and it doesn't seem to bother them. They are their own God. Others, however, have a mirror. And every so often they take a good, long, hard look into the mirror, and they hate what they see. They have sold their souls. Morals sacrificed because they had to feed the family, make a living, make a living, make a living, though there are things that are worse than death. And that's going through life without a friend, I suppose. Jesus walked up to Matthew, a tax collector, and said, Follow me. Matthew got up and followed him. And let me pause right there. There's a traditional view that this tax collector, Matthew, is the same Matthew as the one who wrote this gospel. I don't know if it's true or not. If it were true, I would have liked to have Matthew tell me a little bit more about that experience and that interaction. This man came up to me and said, follow me, and I did because why? Because I had a feeling he was the Christ, because I knew he was God, because I believed, because he looked at me with the eyes of a friend. Why? Tell me I'm a good man. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I'm blind, but now I see. I was blind, but now I see. Life has this dividing line between the profane and the sacred. Blind on one side of the line, those who can see on the other. Some people stay lost, some people will never see. Once upon a time some Pharisees believed that there was a line. And what bothered them is that they believed Jesus crossed the line. Do you believe in the line? Do you have to draw a line somewhere? Where do you draw the line? That's life. I think it's safe to say that Jesus didn't even believe in the line. He is, after all, the great physician. Yesterday, in this room, I conducted a wedding for Ellie Moore, Rusty and Bethmore's daughter. I must say, I when she came into my office the first time for pastoral counseling for the wedding, for uh premarital counseling, a beautiful woman, lots of life, lots of personality. I was smitten. And yesterday she got married to some guy. I do not remember his name. I'm sorry. Grand Drury. Great guy, steady, has to be steady. He's married to Ellie. She has a free spirit. She's bright, she's beautiful, full of life. She has made it her career to work with children with special needs. As a teenager, she went down to Haiti and worked with My Life Speaks, an organization that works with Haitian children with severe disabilities. There is in that culture some belief that some children who have these severe disabilities are filled with a dark spirit. They drew a line. There is no line. She just cared for them, loved them, and now has made it her career to love kids with special needs. During premarital counseling, she and Grant came into my office one day and she smiled and she said I couldn't find a brush. Her hair was all over the place. It was like she just woke up. She came from work where one of the kids she worked with grab her hair and then headbutter, grab her hair and then headbutter. It was a hard day, she said, with a smile. On Friday this week, her dad called me up, Rusty, said, I don't know if you know this or not, but I thought you might like to know. When Ellie was born, she was born with a transposition of her aorta and pulmonary arteries. In other words, she was a blue baby. She had an eight-hour surgery at Vanderbilt, and then she developed a blood clot. They let us know that there would be a very slim chance that she was going to survive. Rusty said, I prepared myself. She said the doctors got together. You may know some of the doctors, Frank Fish, you may have known Tom Graham. They decided to go in for another surgery. Rusty said, I prepared myself. This is the day we're gonna lose Ellie. The doctors went to work, the healthcare workers went to work. This church, Rusty said, just surrounded us in prayer and love. When I came to Westminster, I heard a story about Dr. Tom Graham holding a little baby in his arms after a baptism and walking that child up and down this very aisle. Yesterday, she walked up and down this very aisle. And that's life. Jesus says to those who draw a line, go and learn what this means. I desire steadfast love and not empty religion. Steadfast love. It goes to the heart. Always believing in the good life. Tell me I've led a good life. And Jesus says, You are a good life. I couldn't find a brush, she said with a smile. It's a hard day, but it's a good day. It's a good day for a tax collector. It's a good day for a Pharisee. It's a good day for a surgeon. It was a good day for a baby in Haiti that she held in her arms. It was a good day for a man who got his daughter back from death. It was a good day for a woman who just knew that if she touched his garment, it was a good day for a child with a fistful of golden hair. It's a good day that the Lord has made. No lines. Steadfast love. Steadfast love. It's the life lesson.