Page 1 of 8

Before I begin let me say that this is the third Sunday of a sermon series I’m giving called
“Discovering Jesus again.”
I have two aims for this series. First I want to help us see how the gospel writer Luke
viewed Jesus so all of us can discover Jesus again. At the end of his life Luke wrote what we
know as the gospel according to Luke. Luke spent much of his life immersed in the stories of
Jesus and at the end of his life he wanted to write an orderly account regarding the truth about
Jesus. Luke’s passion for Jesus just jumps off the page. I want us to understand Luke’s passion
for Jesus so that we can discover Jesus again.
I’ve shared that in this sermon I’ve taken the Sergeant Schultz approach to the Scriptures.
I’ve talked about this each week. S.S. was the guard in the TV show, Hogan’s Heroes. I loved
watching Hogan’s Heroes as a kid. The show was in a German POW camp and S was the guard.
He would find out that the Americans were doing things they shouldn’t be doing and S would
say.
“I know nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing.”

About the Bible I’m going to assume that “we know nothing, we know nothing, we know
nothing.”

I did a little research on SS this week. His name was John Banner. He was born in Vienna
Austria in 1910. He was a Jew. In 1940 he was touring with an acting troupe in Switzerland and
he couldn’t’ go back to his home country. They wouldn’t let him in. Because he was a Jew. So
he traveled to the United States to live. He couldn’t speak a lick of English. In 1942 he entered
the American army to fight the Nazis

The second aim for this series is to have us read through Luke. I encourage you to get out the
devotion that is in your bulletin. We’re reading through Luke as a congregation. This week
we’re reading Luke chapters 8 to 12. If you haven’t read the first seven chapters—just pick up at
chapter 8. We get to read some of the best stories in Luke. This week you’ll read about the
Samaritan, and the Gerasene Demoniac, and how Jesus healed a woman who had been suffering
from blood hemorrhages for 12 years. Can you imagine suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years
and then being healed? Jesus did this.
What an opportunity we have. Reading this devotion will take about ten minutes a day.
Let me ask you this—can all of us find ten minutes in our day to read the Scriptures.
Scriptures.
How many of us could decrease our TV watching by 10 minutes?
How many of us could decrease our Internet usage by 10 minutes?
How many of us could eat for 10 minutes less?
How many of us could sleep for 10 minutes less?

In this sermon we’re looking at the people with whom Jesus spent much of his time—the
outcasts. The title of this sermon is “A friend to outcasts.” I have a feeling if Jesus had done
ministry in the 1940’s he would have spent time with people like John Banner—a Jew, who
wasn’t allowed to go back to his country.
Page 2 of 8

On the back of our bulletin we’ve listed eight Core Values for Chain of Lakes Church.

I’d like you to look at them with me. Starting last September we had a group who developed

these. If you were part of that Task Force would you raise your hand? This group developed

these Core Values. They did such a good job that our Steering Committee voted to approve them

with only one minor change.

A Core Value is a principle, quality, belief and/or attitude that is foundational to our

community. The Core Values are in bold. We have eight. We’ve also included explanations

that the Task Force developed for each Core Values.

During worship last week Dave Nyberg shared how excited he is when he looks at the

back of the bulletin and reads our Purpose Statement and Core Values. I think he said he gets

chills when he reads them. I get chills too. What a thrill it is to create a church based on these

Core Values. How many people in their lifetime have the opportunity to start a new church?

Wow!!

The Core Value that I want to focus on today is Acceptance. This Core Value gives me

the chills. I so want us to be a place where “we accept people without judgment, regardless of

what has happened in their lives or where they are on their faith journeys.”

I have a feeling that we all want that for the church. I have a simple question for you?

I’m interested in your response to this question. Why is acceptance an important value for a

church?

Let me tell you why acceptance is important to me. Jesus accepted people without

judgment, regardless of what was happening in their lives or where they were on their faith

journey. The way Jesus lived out this value was one reason Jesus was so threatening to the

leaders of his time; it was a reason that he went to the cross. If Jesus accepted people this way,

then it seems to me that the community who is called the body of Christ is called to accept

people this way.

Page 3 of 8

On the surface acceptance isn’t a radical or threatening idea. Acceptance doesn’t become

radical or threatening until we reflect upon whom Jesus went out of his way to accept.

Jesus accepted the outcasts. Jesus intentionally established friends with people with

whom the leaders of his day didn’t want to spend time—the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers,

children, women, the sinners, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, those possessed by unclean

spirits. It was a group of ragamuffins.

Jesus’ friendship with outcasts was one reason Luke was so passionate about Jesus.

Jesus’ love for the outcasts just pours out of Luke. I want to show you this love by looking at

one story. We heard the story today.

The story starts out when Jesus saw a tax collector sitting at a tax booth. Jesus asked

Levi, a tax collector, to be one of his followers. “Follow me,” Jesus said.

Let me ask you a question. Who likes to pay their taxes? I’m not making a statement

about government, but who gets excited about paying taxes. When was the last time we woke up

excited because we got to make out a check to the IRS?

If we took a poll about respected professions, I doubt tax collectors would make it to the

top of the list. If we told our friends that we received a letter from the IRS saying we had to go

to a meeting at the local IRS office, our friends would probably activate the prayer chain.

Unfortunately there is hatred directed towards the IRS. Remember the story last month of a man

who flew his plane into an IRS office in Austin, Texas.

Our feelings about tax collectors don’t come close to the feelings about tax collectors in

Jesus’ day.

Let me set this up. Much of Jesus’ ministry was in Galilee. The Romans ruled Galilee.

As the occupying force the Romans received the taxes. The Romans worked out a system for

collecting taxes with the tax collectors. The tax collectors paid money in advance to Rome.

Then the tax collectors had free reign to collect taxes from the people. The tax collectors
Page 4 of 8

operated as independent contractors for Rome. As long as Rome got their money, the tax

collectors could collect their money in any way that they wanted.

Imagine a system where a group of people have the freedom to collect as much money as

they want in a way that they want. What kind of system do you think was developed? It was

corrupt system. The tax collectors were crooks

There’s one more piece to this. The tax collectors were from the local community. As I

said they were independent contractors for the occupying country—Rome. The people in Galilee

didn’t want Rome to occupy them. The tax collectors represented the occupying force.

Imagine if the Soviet Union occupied the United States and our neighbor down the street

—who was a citizen of the United States—collected taxes for the Soviet Union. And by the way

our neighbor collected taxes in an unethical way. How would we view the tax collector. They

were traitors.

Levi was a crook and a traitor. Can you imagine being more of an outcast? Here was

Jesus saying to Levi, “follow me. Be part of my community.”

Levi got up, left all that he had at the tax booth, and followed Jesus. Levi must have had

some excitement for Jesus because he threw a great banquet for Jesus.

Who did you think Levi invited to this party with Jesus? His friends—tax collectors—

other crooks. Levi wanted his friends to experience what he had experienced. All of a sudden

all of these tax collectors are at a party with Jesus.

This is a classic way of building a community. I’ve told you over and over again that the

best way to build our new church is for you to invite your friends and family. Research shows

that over 90 percent of 1st time visitors come to a congregation because of a personal invitation

by a friend or family members. We pastors have a terrible record of encouraging people to come

to a church for the 1st time. Visitors come to a congregation for the first time only 10 percent of

the time when pastors invite them.

Page 5 of 8

This makes so much sense when we think about what happened to Levi. We can imagine

Levi saying to his friends. “Something really special is happening, and I want you to come and

see it. I’ve met this man Jesus,” we could imagine Levi saying “and he loves me unconditionally

and he’s showing me a better way to live. You have got to come and check this out.”

This is the type of authentic passion that we’re called to have when we invite people to

our community. When we invite people it’s not like, “oh would you come to my church.”

That’s an invitation, but who’s excited about that. Invite people like Levi did. Something

exciting is happening in my life and I want you to come experience it.

I was so touched last week when two of you stood up during worship—unsolicited—and

shared how much the people in this new church mean to you. Wow. That’s the Holy Spirit.

That’s spiritual energy. That’s the energy that Levi used to invite his friends to the party.

Is it any surprise that a large group of tax collectors gathered at Levi’s house for a party

to meet Jesus?

Luke didn’t say exactly what happened at this banquet. I don’t imagine that the banquet

was a stuffy affair. I would imagine that people were eating and drinking and sharing stories. It

wouldn’t surprise me if people started dancing. Jesus and his disciples and Levi and all the other

crooks and traitors were having a rip-roaring time.

Then it happened. Somebody threw cold water on the party. Judgment. Judgment from

the Pharisess and the scribes. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had their arms folded. They asked

Jesus, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners.” Even hearing this story 2000

years later we can hear the scorn in their voice, can’t we? Just saying that other people are

sinners reveals that the Pharisees didn’t see themselves as sinners. It’s clear that the Pharisees

thought that Jesus should only associate with the good people and not go to parties with crooks

and traitors.
Page 6 of 8

All of a sudden there is this tension about who is going to receive Jesus’ attention. All

throughout Luke we’ll read of this tension. Jesus spent his time with the outcasts. With people

who need healing, with women, with people who had a mental illness, with widows, with the

crooks. Jesus loved them and healed them and helped fill the empty places in their lives. There

had never been someone before who loved this group of people live Jesus did.

It was just spectacular what was happening. But as is always the case—the forces of

judgment made their presence known. “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and

sinners?”

Jesus response was spectacular. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but

those who are sick.” He didn’t have to complete the sentence. We know what he meant. “I

have come to call not the righteous,” he said, “but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus didn’t mean that he only came to spend time with the outcasts; that there was no

place in his kingdom for the Pharisees. It’s just that the outcasts needed him so much.

I’ve spent all my life as a follower of Jesus. I’ve never had a conversion experience like

at a Billy Graham crusade where I dedicated my life to Jesus Christ. My dedication to Jesus took

place over time. Over time I chose to say that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. One of the main

reasons I chose Jesus is I just love to see how Jesus loved the outcasts. When I read some of

these stories in Luke I often want to stand up and just start cheering. I want to say, “you go

Jesus.” I especially love that Jesus resisted the forces that wanted to keep the outcasts as

outcasts. Jesus represented a movement of love—God’s love—that touched the emptiness of the

outcasts life. Jesus healed them and loved them and spent time with them. When he was

criticized for his work of loving the outcasts he stood his ground. I want to be on the team that

loves the outcasts and resists the forces of judgment.

It seems logical to think that if Jesus spent so much time with outcasts and resisted the

forces of judgment that the church would be a place that is known for loving outcasts and not
Page 7 of 8

being a place of judgment. Right? Is the church thought of this way? No. People outside of the

church often think of the church as judgmental—even though Jesus resisted judgment.

Why is this?

It’s much easier to judge than to love. For all of this. I find judgment rearing up in

myself all the time. I’m on the side of God’s love. Something will happen to someone and I’ll

think “that person kind of deserved that, or that pain is probably a consequence of the person’s

actions, or couldn’t that person have done better.” Judgment.

In the church it’s easier to take the moral high ground instead of going out of our ways to

spend time with outcasts. We think the church is a place for good people—people who look like

us and think like us and act like us and dress like us. If someone came to our church with rings

hanging from their nose—with tongue piercings and tattoos we might have an silent conversation

with ourselves that goes says something like, “I wonder what that person is doing here?” Even

though Jesus would be spending a lot of time with people with tattoos.

At Chain of Lakes we can say that we accept people, but we have to resist the judgment

that is in all of our human spirits.

At Chain of Lakes one of my goals is to have fellowship group for people who only have

tattoos. You have to show your tattoo to get in the door. I don’t have a tattoo, so when we have

enough people who do then I’m going to get one.

For us to have a fellowship group for people who have tattoos we have to be intentional

about loving the outcasts. We have to pray almost every day that we will accept people on their

journey no matter what has happened. We have to pray almost every day that we won’t have an

attitude that says, “why are we spending so much time with people who are outcasts.”

I want to close with a challenge. I want to encourage us this week to be intentional about

loving an outcast. I have a feeling all of us know of someone who the world would describe as

an outcast. Would we go out of our way to love that person this week? Maybe we can call the
Page 8 of 8

person on the phone, or send the person an encouraging E-mail, or maybe we can invite the

person out to dinner or perhaps invite the person over to our house. Maybe we can invite the

outcast to Easter worship at Chain of Lakes. Can we do that?

We do this not because I asked you to do it. We do it because that’s what Jesus would

do. This week I’m going to ask all of us how we are doing at loving the outcast.

Let’s be a place that loves the outcasts. Let me tell you—when we love the outcast each

of us will discover Jesus again.