June 5, 2005
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
It has become a common request at concerts, plays, weddings, funerals, and worship services to silent cell phones and pagers before the event starts. We don’t like to hear these small musical interruptions on our special days. And when they happen because it never fails, we are amused and a bit irritated.
For the past three weeks, I have been interrupted. Now don’t get me wrong, I love having our grandchildren Evi and Gavin visiting us but my whole life was interrupted. When I was supposed to be eating my cold cereal and banana, I was watching Cinderella for the tenth time at 6:00 in the morning. When I was trying to read the morning Chronicle, I was putting the green Magic Key in the storybooks in Fairyland. Instead of keeping to my routine, my schedule was cast into the mercies of small interruptions. They went back to Boston on Tuesday.
Sometimes, the interruptions aren’t small at all, but huge, in oversized proportions. You get your life in order, once and for all, and then something intrudes to shake loose all that you have accomplished. It doesn’t take much at all. A rejection letter from the college of your dreams. A phone call in the middle of the night that sends you through the roof. Or perhaps a memo from your boss to come to her office in the afternoon. These unexpected interruptions to your well-thought out plans may become a huge jolt that does more than rearranges your furniture in the living room. They may be more like a hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake that changes everything you have known before.
And if you attend another college not of your choice or answer that phone call in the middle of the night or listen to that proposal from your boss or hear the doctor’s diagnosis, who knows where it will take you? We live with interruptions everyday. I’m working on a sermon with little time to spare but received a phone call from the hospital. I’m playing tennis and may even be winning but get a phone call to come into the city.
Who knows what an interruption may finally mean? And what does it mean to be interrupted? Since it is the business of Christian faith to talk about the meanings of life, perhaps we need a theology of interruptions. We need to ask, “What is the meaning of an interruption for people who understand themselves as the people of God following Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit?”
Matthew’s Gospel
If we look at the gospel lesson for today, we would see a theology of interruptions. Matthew the tax collector was just sitting at his tax booth. He has a solid job. He may not be the most popular fellow in town, but what tax collector is? Though some despised him as a lackey for the Roman authorities, someone has to do the crummy job of collecting taxes. Matthew is at his desk, doing his job, and suddenly without any warning and no explanation, Jesus says, “Follow me.” We might expect some elaboration on Jesus’ motives for calling such an unlikable guy or some response from Matthew himself, but we are told only that “He got up and followed him.” Matthew’s tax collecting life was over. It was interrupted by Jesus.
The ninth chapter of Matthew that we read today is a series of one interruption after another after another after another and yet after another.
Jesus was having dinner with many tax collectors and sinners. The Scriptures say that he was sitting in a reclined manner—very comfortable and perhaps having a good time showing that the Messiah does not discriminate with whom he has dinner with. When the Pharisees saw this, they interrupted his dinner by questioning why he is eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus takes this opportunity to show them that God loves sinners as much or more than the just because it is they who need divine mercy more than God needs their sacrifices.
No sooner than he has finished responding to the Pharisees, some disciples of John the Baptist interrupt him. “We have some questions about your eating habits,” they say to Jesus. “We fast, and the Pharisees fast, but these folks following you don’t fast. How come?” Jesus begins to take their question seriously telling them that this is not the right time to begin fasting before he was interrupted by Jarius, a leader of the synagogue, begging Jesus to come and attend to his daughter who has just died.
Matthew doesn’t tell us what Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue or about how Jesus might have felt about this dilemma, but only that “Jesus got up and followed him.” We can imagine Jarius, the leader of the synagogue leading Jesus through the streets of a small Galilean village toward his home, his disciples following behind them.
And as they make their way to the village, suddenly another interruption comes along. A woman who has suffered with a blood disorder for twelve years believed that if she can only touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak that Jesus would make her well. Jesus stops in his tracks and turns to the woman, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.” It seems that everybody wants a piece of Jesus’ attention.
When Jesus finally arrives at Jarius’ house, the mourners outside were already singing sad songs and the flute players were playing lamenting tunes. A crowd had gathered to weep, as people naturally weep when death interrupts the life of a young child. Now Jesus is the one to interrupt. He interrupts the flute players. He interrupts the laughter of the crowds who didn’t believe that the girl was not dead but only sleeping. Jesus interrupts death itself, takes her hand and the girl stood up very much alive indeed!
One interruption after another. This is the way it is with Jesus. Jesus goes into a synagogue to worship and he is interrupted by a person with an unclean spirit. Jesus goes out on a hill to pray, and the crowds interrupt his quiet time. He is teaching in someone’s house and people tear the roof off to lower down a paralyzed friend to be healed.
One interruption follows another, until Jesus’ life is finally interrupted by crucifixion and death. But even then it is not over, the women’s plans to anoint the body are interrupted by an angel’s announcement that Jesus is not there. Death is interrupted again by life.
God’s Plans
There’s a sign in an office that reads, “Life is what happens while we’re making other plans.” That’s a pretty good definition of a theology of interruptions. As Christians, we would say, “God happens while we’re making other plans.” When we read in Matthew’s gospel a story of continual interruptions, it would appear that at the heart of Jesus’ ministry is the vulnerability to interruptions. At the very heart of Christian life is a willingness to allow ourselves to be interrupted. We make ourselves vulnerable to God’s intrusion in our lives, in whatever unpredictable and unexpected ways that may happen. To refuse to be interrupted is idolatry.
Let me explain. If you take a real close look at your credit card statement, you will discover what you really believe in. You will know your passions and desires; your hopes and dreams. Your statement will show you every purchase you made and on what day you made them. Your credit cards can reveal whether the face of God is the Living God or perhaps a god of materialism and possessions. We have the faith to postpone payment because we believe that our lives would be predictable, that we would still have a job at the end of the week, that there would be no interruptions in making the minimum payment.
Now you might say, “I don’t use credit cards.” Then let me suggest we look at your planning calendars or blackberries. As you know, I am governed by my Day-Timer. Every day in every week for the entire year and in fact, I have entries in my 2006 calendar already, is guiding me to spend my days. I pray for no interruptions. When our plans and schedules become more important to us than God’s own plans for us which are trying to get our attention, in spite of all that we do, what we have is nothing less than idolatry.
To believe in the living God, a God whose grace and power are so great that they even interrupt death is to listen carefully for God’s invitation at each moment of our daily living. If God calls us to plan and schedule, God also calls and summons us beyond what we can do. We pray that God can use our plans and schedules, but we pray also that God may use us in spite of our plans and schedules as well.
No Apologies Needed
We live in a world filled with politeness and common courtesies. We say, “Sorry for the interruptions” when we call someone at home or come up to a coworker’s desk with a question or step over your traveling seatmate on a crowded plane. But when it comes to living in a world and believing that the living God wants our attention, there’s no need for apologies. God interrupts our carefully laid human plans with God’s own plan for us.
The Bible is filled with interruptions. Abraham and Sarah were living comfortably in Ur of the Chaldeans when he was 75 years old. They had plans, everything was settled except God’s plans. God calls Abraham and Sarah, promising them that they will be a blessing not only to each other, but by them “all families of the earth shall be blessed,” when they follow God’s plans instead of theirs.
Nothing is ever finally settled and planned out because God is not finished with the holy project of blessing this world. God is not finished with us either. After being settled for over 20 years in Malvern, Pennsylvania, God called us to San Francisco. After Lauren thought that she would become a creative writing professor, God called her while driving on the Schuykill highway in Philadelphia to go to seminary. After Jane Lam thought that she would be a radio reporter, God calls her to give up evenings to reach out to our community neighbors. After 125 years, longer than any of us can remember, God is calling us to remain faithful right here because he is not finished with us yet.
I know some of you have experienced near-death events that have changed your outlook in life. You may have had plans but they are different now. You are more vulnerable to allowing yourselves to be interrupted by life and to seek God’s plan for you. Some of you have been shaken by the downturn in our economy but now you are more vulnerable to trust in God’s plan for your life. Some of you have thought about spending this summer differently from what you are doing but because of unexpected circumstances, you are now more willing to allow God to speak to you and lead you according to his will.
God does not apologize to us when he interrupts us. He doesn’t need to. When we give up the idolatry of living our lives according to our plans and schedules and our addiction to materialism, we invite God to come into our lives and we are given new life. Jesus interrupted the stereotype of how people thought about tax collectors and sinners when he invited them to his table and told the Pharisees that they needed God’s divine mercies more than the just. You might think that you are too unworthy or filled with too much sin that God would not give his attention to you but if you are like the woman suffering with hemorrhages for twelve years who can be healed and made whole once again, God can do that for you too. God can interrupt your life and make it wonderful again!
Faithfulness
Faithfulness of the woman is her belief that if only she can touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak, she will be made well. Faithfulness is not something we do once upon a time and then it is done. Faithfulness listens continually for the Spirit’s calling. Faithfulness is to live vulnerably to the interruptions of the living God doing amazing and unforeseen things to us and in the world.
Our lives are in the hands of the living God who blesses us and makes us a blessing for all people. To do this, God summons us on a great adventure. Abraham and Sarah were living comfortably in their old age but God said, “Go from your country and your kindred…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Matthew was sitting at his desk counting tax money, Jesus interrupted him saying, “Follow me. “
We are busy people. We always have something else planned. Our schedules overflow with appointments and commitments. We couldn’t possibly do another thing.
But by the grace of God, God comes into our lives usually while we’re making other plans. God invites us to life, a surprising life, unscheduled life, life beyond our wildest dreams, a life filled with joy and abundance like having our grandchildren nearby for the past three weeks.
Sorry for the interruptions but there’s work to be done for God.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we invite you to interrupt us from what we are doing and help us to discover a life focused on your plans for us and through us a plan for a better world. Free us from our obsessions for things and over commitments that shut you out from our lives. Teach us to be faithful to your will and let us become a part of your unfolding plan for peace, love, and justice. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.