Groucho Marks said, "I’d never want to join a club that would accept me as a member. I guess he thought the standards would be too low and he wouldn’t want to associate with people like himself. But that’s the very nature of the Church from its beginning – a community of people of low esteem, made worthy by God’s grace.

   Jesus came to reconcile sinners with God and to set them free from their limitations.

That's what today's Gospel reading was about -- Jesus reaching out to people of low esteem -- sinners separated from God and also from those who were thought to be religiously acceptable by virtue of their notorious choices and lifestyles.

   It’s very interesting and not at all coincidental that every one of the writers of the synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – arranged three stories, which drive home that point. Two of them make up our lesson for today -- the call of Matthew to be an apostle and Jesus' subsequent meal with a bunch of professional sinners.

   First, though, I’d like to consider the story that immediately precedes our reading. Some people brought a man to Jesus, who was paralyzed. Presumably they thought that Jesus might heal the man, but He responded unexpectedly. He said, "Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven." Although the man hadn’t even asked for it, Jesus forgave him. That unusually bold assurance of God's forgiveness offended the religious leaders and devout people who looked on. They felt that Jesus was acting blasphemously. They believed that God alone could forgive sins, and then, only if a person had performed the prescribed rituals and sacrifices. But Jesus astounded them further when He told them that He'd prove that He had God’s authority to forgive. Then as a sign – as a sacrament -- an outward symbol of his God-given authority to forgive sins -- Jesus ordered the paralyzed man to get up and walk. And so he did. The point of the story was that Jesus was sent by God to forgive people for their sins and to liberate them from spiritual paralysis – from their confinement to sin.

   You see, spiritually, we humans can become habituated to our choices against God’s ways. People can become addicted to our sins of preference. We can lose our freedom to choose different ways of behaving. That's what 12 step programs have been so helpful in addressing. But people can also become habituated to guilt and shame. We can get stuck in our sense of being people of low esteem and often act that out by living guiltily, shamefully, or by avoiding and resisting God because we're afraid that God rejects us.

   Jesus came not only to forgive sins, but also to set us free for our habituation to unloving habits, from unworthy attitudes and feelings of low esteem. In the story of the paralyzed man Christ demonstrates that God's forgiveness can surprise and exceed our expectations. Nothing we've done, nothing we've been; nothing we've neglected to do or be is too great for God to forgive through Jesus Christ. Nothing can make us so unworthy as to place us outside the sphere of God’s saving and transforming grace. No state of mind or spirit, whether paralysis to change our own behaviors, or guilt, or shame, or fear of God is too ingrained for God to transform and liberate through Christ. He came to forgive and to liberate – to set us free.

   In order to drive the point home further each of the synoptic Gospel writers, then, tells the story of Jesus going out of his way to find Matthew to call him to be one of his closest disciples. We're not told much about Matthew or why Jesus decided to call him to be an apostle. Each Gospel writer only says that Jesus saw him, that his name was Matthew, alias Levi, he was in his tax office, that Jesus invited Him to follow Him as His disciple and that Matthew did. Incidentally, the name Matthew meant "gift of God". This story is about God's gift. Since the only detail that we know about him was that he was sitting in his tax office or tollbooth, we can assume that Matthew was a tax official. He was probably one of Rome’s or Herod's tax officers. As such, located on the main highway between Damascus and Jerusalem, Matthew was in charge of collecting tolls or excise taxes on agricultural produce and fish transported to market in both directions. People in such positions were appointed because they paid the king large annual fees for the privilege. To recoup the expense they customarily imposed higher taxes than required and enriched them selves in the process. That's one of the reasons that tax collectors were despised. They made life even harder for people than it already was. And so they were ostracized by neighbors and excommunicated by the local synagogues. Their only social connections were others of low esteem -- tax collectors and other people, shunned for their notorious immoral behaviors. Matthew was disreputable.

   In calling him to be an apostle, Jesus was giving Matthew the highest honor and greatest privilege of trust that he could. And that took God's attitude toward sinners to the next level. Jesus came not only to forgive sinners and to release them from the power of their own sins, but also to make them into His followers -- partners in God's mission to this world. Matthew's socially unacceptable occupation and morally repugnant lifestyle didn’t disqualify him from following Christ or serving God. Jesus came to accept sinners and to transform them into saints. You see Christ always accepts people where he finds them and then, as we're willing, leads us to new places. Nothing in our past can make us unworthy of that -- only our unwillingness can stand in the way. Christ can make even the most socially unacceptable, the most morally reprehensible, the most spiritually benighted and unworthy of us into his followers and partners in God's Kingdom.

   Naturally, it stands to reason, then, that two things should have happened in the wake of Matthew's call to be one of Jesus' followers. First, his friends and associates would want to meet the holy man who accepted Matthew. And second the moral and religious watchdogs of that time would object -- together with those whom Matthew had misused. What Jesus had done by calling Matthew was risky business. It lowered the standards for anyone to come close to God and gave them entrée to God’s grace, but more, to even to serve God albeit that they didn’t have the credentials for it. By treating notorious sinners as He did, Jesus also risked disaffecting the wider population who were scandalized by it. But then, Jesus never let other people's prejudices stand in the way of channeling God's grace to those who needed it. He hobnobbed with Matthew's acquaintances. When his religious opponents jumped upon this new scandal as fuel for their criticisms of Jesus, His response was clear and simple. "Those who are well don’t need of a physician, only those who are sick." God specializes in mercy and forgiveness, and Jesus came to make that real for all of us.

   Speaking of physicians, once there was a physician who was a devout member of a church I once served. A time came when he made a choice separate from his spouse. It was painful for him, for his spouse and children. Others didn't understand. He felt ashamed and guilty, but felt compelled to take the action he did. He felt that he was a hypocrite when he attended church. He felt so uncomfortable within himself about attending church that he considered stopping. "You work at a hospital, don't you? I asked. Hospitals stand for health and wellness, don't they? What do you suppose it would be like if your hospital had a sign outside, which read, "This institution stands for health; keep out if you’re ill."

   That's the way it is with Christ and the Church -- all people are welcome, especially those who are spiritually unwell, and that includes notorious sinners or those who feel guilty, ashamed, and of too low esteem to be members.

   Jesus came to forgive sinners; to set them free like that paralyzed man; even to call those whose lives are organized around unloving behavior -- who are habituated to sin -- to be his partners in ministry, like Matthew. Just imagine if Jesus hadn’t called Matthew or if Matthew refused the invitation – the hundreds of millions of people who’ve benefited from his version of the Gospel would have gone without it. There’s no limit to how far God’s grace can take a person in His service – to make a positive difference in this world. All that’s needed is the willingness to receive Christ's invitation and to follow where He leads. Nothing in our past or our present, in what we've done or been or neglected to do and be can stand in the way of God's mercy and Christ's power to make use of us.

   And it's never too late.