Ormond Beach Presbyterian Church - Sermon July 16, 2006

                                                               Turning Points
                                                         Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26
                                                               June 8, 2008

          Our life is filled with turning points - moments when the normal routine is disrupted and we must risk taking a step in a new direction. Every turning point involves an active decision on our part - a decision to do something that we have never done before. Even the decision to do nothing is a decision that will have lasting consequences.   Another word we could have used for turning points is transformations. Transformation is about change and it is about people who respond in faith to their changing world, trusting that God is active in the midst of all change holding out to us the promise of something new. Our text this morning presents us with three people who encounter a significant turning point that requires them to make a decision and take a risky step in a new direction. And after the decision and the risky step, their life is never again the same.   At the center of the turning point is Jesus who offers each of them a new way.

          For Matthew the tax collector, his turning point was the day that Jesus stood in front of his tax collecting booth and said to him “Follow me.” Matthew was not forced into becoming a tax collector for the occupying Roman army. You might say he volunteered. Roman governors often looked for citizens of the local population who did not mind selling out their values and their own people for a buck. As a result, his decision to collect the tax for the Romans made him very wealthy on the one hand and it made him the most hated man in town on the other. It was the proverbial slippery slope - once he started down this road there was no easy way of turning back or turning around. When Jesus saw Matthew behind his tax collecting booth, he saw a man who was trapped.

          For the woman who had suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years, her turning point was the day that Jesus was making his way through the crowds of people and she decided to reach out and touch the fringe of his cloak. Twelve years is a long time to suffer from any affliction, particularly hemorrhaging, which in her society was an affliction that had religious implications. As a result she was considered unclean. As a result she was forbidden to enter the temple to worship. And as a result most people avoided her. Thus she suffered not only the physical symptoms of weakness, lack of energy and of chronic discomfort - she also suffered the pain of alienation from her worshipping tradition that taught that this chronic condition was God’s punishment. And she suffered the pain of alienation from friends who talked about her rather than talking and listening to her. She experienced alienation from her own body over which she had no control.   So when Jesus was making his way through the crowds this woman, who knew what it was like to be alienated from everyone and everything, silently reached out to touch the hem of his garment.

          For the leader of the synagogue, his turning point occurred the day that Jesus came to his house. Instead of planning a funeral for a dead daughter, it was a day to celebrate a miracle. The leader of the synagogue was a prominent and respected man in town and you might even say he was a good man and a man of considerable faith in God.   Some might think that because he was a good man and a man with faith in God that his life was protected and no harm would come to him or his family. Yet his daughter, suddenly and without warning, dies and while everyone else is planning her funeral he rushes off and kneels before Jesus in the hope that, because he is a prominent man in town and a good man and a man of faith, Jesus will lay his hand on his dead daughter and she will live. Desperate moments in life can be occasions for turning points when we rush to find Jesus and beg him to come to our house.
What these three characters have in common and illustrate for us about turning points is that turning points are transformative in their meaning and power and potential when Christ is at the center. For Matthew, trapped in his world of sin, the possibility of transformation comes to his doorstep because Jesus draws near, sees him stuck in his world of sin and offers him a way out. That way out is Jesus’ invitation to follow him and is a sign of God’s grace that is freely offered. The decision that Matthew must make in light of grace freely offered is a decision to either stay stuck in his trapped world or make a decision to get up, walk away from a past that is filled with guilt and shame and enter a new world and a new way of life that is totally unfamiliar to him. Some people become so comfortable with their trapped world and so afraid to risk change that they never take the first step. Matthew took the step. It was a step of faith that flowed from God’s grace toward him in Jesus - he got up and followed him. For the woman with the hemorrhage, transformation comes to her because she was in the right place at the right time - Jesus was passing by and she decided to act on this strong desire for healing. What on earth made her think or believe that simply by touching the hem of his garment she would be healed? To our modern scientific minds it sounds strangely like religious superstition. Whatever it was, she took a risky step - she reached out - silently and unnoticed, and touched Jesus. Jesus immediately turns around, sees her and speaks to her. This turning point - this transformative moment touches much more than the hemorrhage. A woman who has experienced years of alienation and has more or less blended into the brokenness of her society is seen and addressed by Jesus. Notice the tender and life-affirming nature of Jesus’ address, “Daughter.” Notice also his empowering words to a woman who thought she was powerless, “your faith has made you well.” When Jesus is at the center of our turning points we know what it is to be seen and addressed by the love and grace of God. And almost as an afterthought we are told “And instantly the woman was made well.” And it is true that desperate moments in life can be turning points when we reach out to Jesus in prayer just as this man - the leader of the synagogue - asked Jesus to come to his home. It is hard to tell in this story if the leader of the synagogue understood the nature of God’s grace in this turning point. I fear that he may have been convinced in his own mind that Jesus went to his home because he was a good man, a faithful man, a prominent member of society and that this was payback for being good. The fact is that God’s grace is such that even if he had not been such a man Jesus would have come with him because he asked Him to come.

          Which leads me to one final thing that I want us to observe about turning points - turning points are learning points. In light of the changes that we experience in life we may learn important things about God’s grace and love and hopefully we may apply this learning to our future. When our turning points become learning points, everything is different and we are different as a result. That of course is true if we are paying attention and reflecting on our life. Sometimes the turning and the transformation is all at once. As the characters in our text this morning suggest:

                    He got up and followed

                    Instantly the woman was made well

                    He took her by the hand and the girl got up.

Often the turning and transformation happens over a period of time and we may be slow at first to comprehend that changes are taking place, our prayers are being answered and something new is happening.   When we read the gospel of Matthew perhaps what we are reading is his slow and deliberate reflection on what he has learned because of Jesus’ transformative call to follow. Could it be that what Matthew wants us to know and reflect upon is that God’s grace sometimes it shatters the status quo of our life and provokes us to make important life changing decisions - decisions that become turning points. Sometimes God’s grace does not wait for us to come to God - instead God’s grace comes to our doorstep and calls us to follow. Sometimes God’s grace is passing by on the street and is within arm’s length - all we need to do is reach out. Most important of all - God’s grace is not reserved for good and faithful church-going types like you and me. God’s grace is available to anyone who comes to Jesus and asks him to come to their house.