Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses ... Series

GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES

Matthew 12:1-13

(The first in a sermon series from Matthew 12 called “Words We Live By”)*

Sermon Objective: The church’s call to minister to the marginalized must not be marginalized!

Supplemental Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-9;

Preface

Today we are beginning a sermon series from Matthew 12 called “Words We Live By.”

Many creeds, pledges, and mottoes have shaped our country and culture, as well as its individual citizens. In many instances the words convey uplifting and presumably timeless messages. They embedded into our psyche and play an important role in creating an identity -- a consciousness – an ethos

Often the words have been taken for granted. Yet, the fact that we have taken them for granted is significant. It shows we have subconsciously assimilated them. It means the “Words We Live By” operate behind the scenes as a moral compass and a driving force.

Many of these “Words We Live By” are inscribed on buildings and national monuments. Most of these buildings still stand, and a significant few still manage to stand for something. A few we will not look at but which have shaped us are:

• “The commonwealth requires the education of the people as the safeguard of order and liberty.” (Inscribed on the public library in Boston)

• “...Let us see that the state is the servant of its people and that the people are not the servants of the state.” (Inscribed on the Robert A Taft Memorial in Washington, D.C.)

• “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” (Inscribed on the U.S. Post office in New York)

All of these are “Words We Live By” which can illuminate the “WORDS we live by” -- namely Jesus Christ’s.

Today we will find “Words We Live By” from Matthew 12:1-8.

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.

2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread - which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.

5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?

6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Sermon

NOT LIKE THE BRAZEN GIANT OF GREEK FAME, WITH CONQUERING LIMBS ASTRIDE FROM LAND TO LAND; HERE AT OUR SEA-WASHED, SUNSET GATES SHALL STAND A MIGHTY WOMAN WITH A TORCH, WHOSE FLAME IS THE IMPRISONED LIGHTNING, AND HER NAME MOTHER OF EXILES. FROM HER BEACON-HAND GLOWS WORLD-WIDE WELCOME; HER MILD EYES COMMAND THE AIR-BRIDGED HARBOR THAT TWIN CITIES FRAME. “KEEP ANCIENT LANDS, YOUR STORIED POMP!” CRIES SHE WITH SILENT LIPS. “GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE, THE WRETCHED REFUSE OF YOUR TEEMING SHORE. SEND THESE, THE HOMELESS, TEMPEST-TOST TO ME, I LIFT MY LAMP BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR!”

These words are contained on a plaque mounted in the Statue of Liberty Museum. Few Americans know the entire sonnet, or even the precise statement of its most famous line, but everyone knows what it stands for. It is hard to imagine an America without it.

I think Jesus would find it hard to imagine a church that did not know and operate from the most famous line of this speech in Matthew 12:1-8 too. Listen to it again:

7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice. What beautiful words. Will you say them with me?

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

THESE WORDS REVEAL THE VERY HEART OF GOD!

Three times God speaks these words; here, back in Matthew 9:13, and hundreds of years earlier in Hosea:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6

I wonder how many times God has to say something before we realize it is very important to Him? I’m sure that you would agree that three is plenty.

Three times God tells us that He wants us to be compassionate to humankind; TO HELP - NOT JUDGE, RESCUE - NOT CONDEMN, TO GET INVOLVED - NOT MAKE EXCUSES.