We often hope for peace, don't we? We often pray that love will enter our land and transform the world, bringing an end to injustice and hatred, war and evil. We may believe like the late John Lennon that "All we need is love" or Desmond Tutu that "Peace is possible," but are we prepared for the realities of such radical transformation? Do we appreciate the cost and consequences of what we're hoping and praying for?

We see in this morning's Scripture reading an example of what God's reconciling realm really looks like: it's a diverse gathering of people coming together around Christ - people of different religious backgrounds, classes, and cultures. Like the familiar phrase from Paul's letter to the Galatians, it's a world where there's "no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female" (Galatians 3: 28) and that's what we witness in this passage. Jesus voluntarily places himself amidst a diverse crowd of people, welcoming the opportunity to bring God's Spirit of healing and love to the mix.

Clearly, this is not what some of his followers were prepared for. Questioned by Pharisees as well as followers of John, what Jesus models in this scene is the opposite of what they had expected from a prophet heralding God's new era of righteousness. To watch this man who called himself the Messiah break stringent dietary laws was bad enough but seeing him do so in the company of social outcasts was another. From the perspective of an orthodox Jew at the time everything about this scene was unclean and everything about this situation discomforting. Who's coming to dinner? With Jesus everyone's invited, including a tax collector named Matthew. To many, this was absolutely unacceptable.

To another man named Matthew in a more modern time it was perfectly all right. Matt Drayton, publisher of a large newspaper in San Francisco, was one who promoted diversity in his home as well as in the workplace, perceiving himself to be liberal and enlightened on all fronts. This Matthew was someone like me or like you who understood the need for reconciliation in a world devastated by the realities of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. He sought to model open-minded acceptance by supporting programs that helped bring about equality and change.

But then, one day love came knocking at his door and everything turned upside down. Matt Drayton, you might recall, is the father in the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Played by Spencer Tracy, the character's liberal convictions come crashing down around him when his daughter returns home from Hawaii with a man of color. Sidney Poitier, playing that Dr. John Wade Prentice, realizes Mr. Drayton may not be thrilled with the news of their engagement even though his fiancé repeatedly assures him otherwise. "My father spent his whole life fighting against discrimination," Joanna tells her husband-to-be. "He'll welcome you with open arms."

Oh, how we enlightened liberals want to change the world. How we hope and pray people will come together to live in peace and harmony. Do we really know what that means? Are we ready to embrace the consequences?

The character Matt Drayton thought he was ready. Created by screenwriter William Rose back in the mid-sixties, this central figure in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" opened the eyes of even the most accepting Americans, reminding them that the state of race relations in our nation depends upon the very practical choices we make in our every day lives - not just on our philosophical or political stances. There, in that liberal, middle class household and in that very progressive city on the West coast, fear and prejudice took over for an evening, filling that home with heated debate and potential division. The conversations between Drayton and his wife, between their daughter Joanna and housekeeper Tillie, between Dr. Prentice and his own parents, proved to be a powerful reminder of the complexities of race no matter what the age, bringing to the light of the big screen the truth that we don't really know what we believe until love comes knocking at the door, asking to come in for dinner, hoping to stay for a lifetime.

Jesus, of course, understands this kind of tense situation. It's in just this kind of circumstance he meets most people in the stories of the Bible, people at a crossroads who are given the chance to make choices that will alter the course their lives. Like his invitation to the tax collector in our passage today, Christ asks men and women to say "yes" to a life that breaks down the barriers of race and class, culture and creed so that they can be reconciled to God and one another. It's a decision we're asked to make individually, often in very quick and spontaneous ways. As in the Drayton's home, where according to the housekeeper all hell's broken loose, Matt furiously asks his daughter, "Are you telling me that you want an answer today about how your mother and I feel about this?" Joanna calmly replies, "Well, of course we do. We want you and Mom to state absolutely clearly that you have no objections and that when we do get married we'll have your blessing." It really is that simple. We can decide today to embrace love and offer acceptance.

Recently a member of the police force made a different kind of decision in Southern California. Officer Jeremy Morse chose to slam 16-year-old Donovan Jackson onto a patrol car and then punch him in the face, claiming the young man was resisting arrest. Any of us who have seen the home video taped by someone nearby can wonder how Jackson could have resisted anything in that moment. Surrounded by several officers and handcuffed already, the July 6th arrest brings back painful memories of the 1992 Rodney King beating showing once again white, uniformed, armed men towering over and pounding a single black man who was not fighting back. In that moment Officer Morse made a choice and the only good thing about the whole situation is that Mitchell Crooks caught it on tape. In this instance there will be federal, state and local investigations.

But how many other instances are never recorded? How many other times is a person of color verbally harassed and physically abused after being stopped for a minor infraction like the expiration of tags on a car? A 1999 Gallup poll found that nationally, 42% of African Americans believe they have been stopped by police because of their race, with 77% also convinced racial profiling is widespread. As described in a recent ACLU report, "No person of color is safe from this treatment anywhere, regardless of their obedience to the law, their age, the type of car they drive, or their station in life." Talibah Shakir, Donovan Jackson's cousin, puts it this way: "It was Donovan today, it was Rodney King yesterday, it's untold people in the graveyard that cannot speak out that have been abused by police for decades. It's time to stop."

Racism. Prejudice. Abuse. Finding ourselves at the start of the twenty-first century it might be easy for us here to think we've worked through all these problems but clearly we've only just begun. With racial profiling only on the rise because of the events of September 11th, with cases like Jackson's pending in California, and corporate scandals uncovered in companies like Texaco, it's obvious that "equality" and "justice" are words we need not only appreciate but also put into practice, personally as well as professionally and politically. As individuals and as institutions we must make choices that clearly, undeniably respect difference and diversity. Otherwise we best admit we're allowing fear and hatred to grow.

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus says to the men who question his choice of company. Through the metaphor of the wineskins he shows that the new model of faithfulness offered to the world is one that changes us not only on the inside but on the outside as well, transforming all of our relationships. God's grace in Christ is one that demands mercy and justice for all, not simply salvation for a single, self-righteous few. Both the wine and the skin are made new.

This is just what Matt Drayton finds himself struggling with in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." He's working to bring his outside actions into balance with his inside convictions so that he can live with integrity. Confronted by his friend, Monsignor Mike Ryan, he realizes the dilemma he's facing is one that will demand radical trust and change. Mike says to him,

"I think I know why you're angry, Matt, not with the doctor, whom your obviously respect, not with Joey or Christina, not even with me. You're angry with yourself. You're angry because all of a sudden and in a single day you've been thrown. You're the last man in the world I'd expect to behave the way you are. You're not yourself. You're off balance. You don't know who you are, what you are or what you're doing. That's the trouble: you've gone back on yourself, and in your heart you know it."

How are we putting our faith into practice? How are we ensuring our convictions make a difference in this world, showing family and friends, colleagues and corporations that we believe in equality and justice and won't tolerate discrimination of any kind? What will it take for us to find our balance and never go back on the love we know in Christ? Jesus called that tax collector Matthew knowing he was an imperfect man. Jesus said, "Follow me," fully understanding there would be times when this new disciple would have to learn the hard way by having his world turned upside down. But that didn't stop either one of them. It didn't stop Jesus from reaching out and taking a chance on someone who needed to grow and it didn't stop Matthew from reaching back and beginning to change. Here in this passage these two join together quite miraculously, ignoring the judgments of others and trusting that God's plan of reconciliation was enough for the day. This is the miracle of mercy and not sacrifice.

The other Matthew - that Matt Drayton - also learned to change. After an evening of intense consideration and debate he, too, decided to embrace reconciliation, realizing that the love shared between his daughter and Dr. Prentice was too strong and too beautiful to oppose. "I'm sure you know what you're up against," he says to Joanna and John in that film receiving the award for Best Original Screenplay back in 1967. "There'll be a hundred million people right here in this country who will be shocked, offended and appalled at the two of you," he says. "But you're two wonderful people who happened to fall in love…and I think that now no matter what kind of a case some [guy] could make against your getting married there would only be one thing worse and that would be if - knowing what you two are and knowing what you two have and knowing what you two feel - you two didn't get married."

Love. It changes the way we see the world, bringing compassion and understanding that crosses all divides, peace to places of mistrust, hope where there seems only fearful despair. God knows we need help in breaking down barriers that have existed for generations and so, guess who's coming to dinner. It is Christ, boldly leading us into a new place where we are all free to greet and care for each other as one united and loving human family.

Let us pray.

Eternal God, Author of life and Creator of all people, in this time filled with such destructive hate and war we pray for your peace. In situations of prejudice and discrimination we pray for your justice. In places within us, where trust and understanding still needs to grow, we pray for your mercy. Change us, O God, and challenge us to live faithfully, that divisions among people may dissolve through the love we know in Christ.

Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 9: 9-17