“Mosaic: Rejection” Matthew 9: 12-13 Matthew 27: 27-31 1 Peter 5:7

Brokenness is often something that we do not think about celebrating. It is painful. It is hard to go through. And yet, we believe in a God who can make something beautiful out of our broken pieces of life. We are now in the third week of Lent and our second week in our sermon series Mosaic, based off of a Lenten study by Rev. Shane Stanford. 

Brokenness is not something that we talk about very much in our culture. When you ask someone how they are doing, many folks are unprepared if anyone gives them an answer beyond “fine” or celebrating all of the good things that are happening in our lives right now. We reserve the pieces of our life that are not going fine for close family and friends, in private. 

My dad made a comment at a family dinner recently that really struck me - we are naive to not realize how much brokenness is in the world around us. Church, we are naive if we think that everyone we interact with on a daily basis is truly fine. We celebrate that we have a savior that has come to bind up the broken hearted, yet we live in a culture that tells you that your brokenness is shameful. That is why as the Church, we need to talk about the broken places in our lives and in this world.

One of the places we experience brokenness is this world is rejection. We all experience rejection on so many levels throughout our lives. Maybe as a young child you are turned away from a group you used to be friends with. Or weren’t picked for a team. As an adult maybe you weren’t the candidate selected for your dream job. 

Jesus knew what it was like to experience the brokenness of rejection. On the night he gathered his disciples together for their last meal together on Earth, he told them that one of them would betray him, that Peter would deny him, and that by the end of the evening they would flee. Of course they all claimed that this would never happen. That they could never abandon Jesus and that they would be loyal to him to the very end. Yet, it happened just as Jesus predicted.

Some of the disciples hid in plain sight, like Peter, who denied when asked that he was a follower of Jesus. Others hid behind locked doors, fearing what was going to happen. But both were forms of rejection - they didn’t do as they said they would - standing beside Jesus until the bitter end and suffering the same fate as him. A fate of standing in front of the court, being stripped, given a scarlet robe and crown of thrones, being mocked and struck and spat upon. They weren’t crucified with Jesus on the cross the next day. Jesus faced all of that alone.

And perhaps that is what makes rejection so painful. It feels like we are going through life alone. The truth is, people hurt one another. Sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. That hurt can lead to anger. Or a desire to not want to be hurt again, so we become guarded. As humans we deeply disappoint one another, but that isn’t the end of the story.

We hurt one another because of the sickness of sin deep within our souls. But Jesus offers a word of hope in the face of such ailment when he said, “Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick… For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” In other words, Jesus has come to heal our brokenness. To heal that sin sick part of us that breaks others spirits. 

But the good news does not end there. Even if others reject us, Jesus will not. Jesus walks with us through whatever we may face in life, showing us glimpses of grace even in the face of pain and disappointment. In other words, even when we feel the most alone, God shows up. God cares for us, even when it seems like others do not. 1 Peter states that plainly. 

The problem church is that we are the representatives of God and when we don’t show up, at times folks think that is a sign that God has abandoned them, which is just not true. And that is not to say that we have to get it right, one hundred precent of the time, but we do need to ask ourselves if we have a way to show up at least most of the time. 

This is especially hard when folks go through long illnesses. How does the church show up after the initial diagnosis? How do we keep showing folks that we care about them so they don’t feel like they are rejected just because they can’t get to church as much any more? One of the churches I served did this so well. When people had long term illness, there were a group of ladies that would call at least once a week to offer to bring meals over - anything they wanted. There was another group in the church who would send card any time someone was on their mind. It wasn’t a one time thing. It was consistently showing up, so people knew when they couldn’t come to church, the church would come to them. 

Because I have heard far too many stories as a pastor about people who left the church because they thought the church had forgot about them. People who tried their hardest to pretend that rejection didn’t matter, but after a while it just ate at them, until the rejection made them feel so un-valued and forgotten that they left. 

But, as the church we need to bring the message that people are not forgotten to more folks then just those in our pews. I think we also need to be asking ourselves the question where Jesus would go if he was in our community? Where would Jesus go to bring the message to folks that they are deeply care about, are not rejected or forgotten. To the hospitals. To the prisons. To the coffee shops. To the schools. To so many places where people are trying to hide the shame of their brokenness ever day. If Jesus would go to those places, we are called to go there as well as the church. 

One year, while in college, two friends and I did something odd for vacation while studying abroad. While everyone else took 2 weeks of vacation to explore all sorts of places, we decided to give a week in service to spending time with children whose parents were going through divorces. It was a type of care group put on by the church, whose express purpose was to proclaim that these children were cared about and not forgotten. Now we still did travel a bit and during the evenings we explored the city where our college was, going to plays and museums and restaurants. But during those days we reflected the love of Christ to this specific group of kids.Where are the places that you are feeling the tug on your heart to go and proclaim that people are not rejected? Not alone. That they are cared about. 

Because the truth is as the church, we are still going to mess up from time to time. We may not always get it right, because the truth is we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. Rejection shows that. But we also serve a God who proclaims that the brokenness and messiness of rejection is not the end of the story. And God can use us to draw folks in to the message of love and salvation found in Jesus Christ. God can take the broken pieces of rejection and invite folks into a new community, the body of Christ, where we proclaim that you are welcomed and you are loved. Amen.