Sunday Homily - May 5th, 2019 - Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

The Restoration of Peter Icon

I.

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

It's a phrase we probably have heard more often than we can remember.
 And there is a reason why it's such a common phrase, right?
  It's because we judge books by their covers all the time.

We all judge based on the outside.
 We even do so without thinking about it most of the time.

And nothing is so easily readable
 and judge-able
  as a person with a book of tattoos
   written in black
    all across their body.

And that's the exact kind of reaction
 that a building full of 1000+ people have
  when a very tall and lanky man
   sleeved in tattoos across his arms
    shaved head
     with the name of the gang he is owned by across both sides of his head
      timidly walks up to a microphone.

Mario is his name.
 And Mario is a former gang member
  off of the streets of Los Angeles.
 
Mario is a man who was sought out by a ministry in local Los Angeles
 a ministry called Homeboy Industries,
  which, as of today, is the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry programs
   in the world.

And as Mario steps up to the microphone,
 he comes to that microphone to share his story.
  To share how gang membership is the only life that some people know
    because their is no escape when they find you.

Mario comes to the microphone with a horror story in his immediate past.
 Drugs,
  addiction,
   homicide,
    multiple incarcerations.
     An inescapable criminal record.
      And a now separated wife and children
       that he cannot see anymore
        because of his past.

And Mario shares his story,
 of how long and hard of a road he has walked.
  Of how he had absolutely no hope
   and how there were some days
    where he wished to die in a gun fight
     just so that he could be put out of his misery.

And yet, now because of the ministry of Homeboy Industries,
 Mario now sells pastries at their breakfast shop.
  Every day he works the counter
   stays off the streets
    and works with other former gang members
     some of whom would be pointing a pistol and shooting at him
      if they had not been given hope and a second shot at life
       at Homeboy Industries.

Mario finishes telling his story,
 and like usual at these events,
  the members now have question and answer time
   with the audience.

And a woman stands up and has a question for Mario.
 And she asks the following question:
  "If you could give one piece of advice to your kids,
    one bit of wisdom,
     what would it be?"

Mario clutches the microphone
 and begins to tremble a little bit,
  trying to hold back the tears.
   It's silent for a few moments.
    And Mario finally says,
    "I just don't want them to turn out
      to be like me."

And it is dead silent in the crowd.
 But then the woman who asked the question
  now also in tears,
   steps back up to the microphone and says,
    "Why wouldn't you want your kids to be like you?
     You are kind,
      you are thoughtful,
       you are caring.
        Why WOULDN'T you want your kids to be like you?"

And all 1000+ people in the room,
 complete strangers to Mario
  are all of a sudden standing and cheering and applauding.
   And the only thing that this tall tattooed former gang member can do
    is hold his head in his hands,
     overwhelmed by the kindness of complete strangers.

Because, in a lot of ways,
 it is so easy to read the book of someone's life
  and assume that the tattoos, the piercings, the color of their skin,
   or their life situation or criminal record
     tells you all that you need to know about a person.

And that is why phrases why "You can't judge a book by its cover"
 exists in our modern day speech.
  Because what someone looks like on the outside
   tells you absolutely nothing about the inside.
    And for people like Mario, in which the world looks at his outside in fear,
     miss out on the life-saving grace, mercy, wisdom, and love that are on his interior.

When God, our creator, created you and me and all people who live in this world,
 God didn't make any mistakes,
  even though the mistakes are often the only thing we see in each other.

Thank God that Jesus doesn't work that way.
 Because we have two people in our Holy Scriptures today
  who change the world by telling out the Gospel of Jesus's grace and mercy and love:
   St. Peter and St. Paul.

II.

St. Peter,
 The rock on which Jesus would build his church,
  is not in a good place
   even as Jesus was showing the disciples the proof of his resurrection.

Because, remember that before Jesus's trial and crucifixion,
 Peter swore to Jesus that he would follow him into death.
  And yet Jesus looks at Peter and says that he will deny Jesus three times
   before the rooster crows.
   [Luke 22:54-62]

And Peter does indeed deny Jesus three times,
 as the people come up to him and ask if he is also a disciple of Jesus.

As Jesus finished breakfast with the disciples this morning,
 Jesus has a conversation with Peter that has to happen.
  Which is why this Gospel is sometimes called the Restoration of Peter.

Jesus looks at Peter and asks three painful times,
 "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

Peter, facing his immediate past,
 his immediate failure to follow Jesus into death,
  now has his Lord and Savior asking him if he really loves Jesus at all.

But Jesus isn't doing this to simply bring up a painful past.
 Rather, Jesus is giving Peter a real second chance.

And this time,
 instead of the threat of crucifixion and the denial of Jesus three times
  Peter instead is given the chance to answer three times
   that he truly loves Jesus.

Jesus restores Peter in relationship with himself
 through showing that Jesus forgives Peter
  even for denying that he knows Jesus.

Jesus doesn't rub it in or judge Peter for what he had done in the past:
 rather, just like God does over and over again,
  Peter is given a second chance to follow.

But Peter isn't the only person given a second chance on life today:
 now we hear from someone who has never known Jesus
  and who would consider himself an enemy of Christ
   at the beginning of today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles:
    Saul of Tarsus.

Saul has been going from town to town
 attempting to stamp out these followers of The Way
  a sect of Judaism that believed in this suffering Christ
   and believed that this itinerant rabbi named Jesus
    was the actual Son of God.

As he was going to Damascus to attempt to stamp out the followers of Jesus
 perhaps once and for all,
  Jesus actually meets Saul on the road.

Saul hears a voice from heaven,
 "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
  I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
   But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

Even as Saul is going to kill people
 in order to stamp out what he sees as a perversion of the Holy Scriptures
  Jesus himself meets Saul and instead of passing judgment on Saul,
   he sends Saul on to one of his own followers, Ananias,
    in order to receive healing from the blindness he suffered.

And Saul's blindness was not just because of his physical blinding on the road.
 Saul needed to be given spiritual sight,
  the ability to see that Jesus has risen like he said he would
   and that he is seated at God's right hand.

And of all the people to call,
 Saul is perhaps the singular person that the early Church would be most suspect of.
  Saul was actively imprisoning and killing people
   to stamp out the followers of Jesus.

And yet, when Saul is commissioned by God
 to tell the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
  and when he receives his sight,
   he then immediately begins preaching in the synagogue
    that Jesus is the Son of God.

If the books of St. Peter and St. Paul's lives were already written,
 if these pillars of the church,
  the Apostles of Jesus Christ,
   were judged worthy or unworthy based upon their past failures,
    we would not be worshiping here today.

But instead, God doesn't look at the past failures like we do.
 And if Jesus can change the lives of Peter,
  a two-faced denier of Jesus,
   and Paul,
    a persecutor and killer of those who follow Jesus,
     then by God he can do a miracle in our lives as well.

III.

And that's why stories like St. Peter's,
 like St. Paul's
  like Mario's
   really challenge our preconceived notions
    of who is worth God's time
     and who isn't.

Jesus didn't call perfect people to be his disciples.
 In fact, Jesus NEVER calls perfect people to be his disciples.

Jesus didn't even call people who LOOKED like what people would consider
 ideal disciples.
  He called a bunch of fisherman,
   with a tax collector thrown in the mix,
    and an angry, dangerous persecutor
     to spread the Gospel of Jesus's resurrection.

And Jesus continues to call the least likely people
 to show by thought, word, and deed,
  the power of salvation in Jesus's name.

Mario,
 and all the former gang members of Homeboy Industries,
  are proof of God's unimaginable, unearned, unconditional love
   for even those who are the least desirable among all of us.

The founder of Homeboy Industries,
 Fr. Greg Boyle, a Roman Catholic Priest in the Jesuit Order,
  once said this about the gangs of Los Angeles:
   "Gang violence is about a lethal absence of hope."
    And Fr. Greg decided on a different approach to these gang members:
     instead of incarceration and caging them like scared animals,
      he instead began to treat them like human beings.

And when we begin to re-humanize each other,
 not regarding our past sins,
  or judging the books of our lives by their covers,
   that we begin to enter into the mystery of Jesus's love for all of us.

When we begin to see with the eyes of Christ,
 eyes that do not look on the tattoos,
  the piercings,
   the color of their skin,
    their life situation,
     or their criminal record
      we begin to realize that we might be looking instead
       at our brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, I want you to take a moment right now:
 look around you at the people here at church today.
  I mean it, look around at each other.
   I get to look at y'all each Sunday,
    so now it's your turn.

That person that you looked at?
 That person that you locked eyes with?

That person is imperfect,
 carries a lot of pain inside of them from their past,
  is perhaps burdened with their own lives weighing them down at this very moment.

But Jesus looks at that person
 and doesn't see them as a bunch of problems to be managed.
  Instead, Jesus sees a person made in the Image of God,
   a person who was beautifully and wonderfully made,
    and a person who Jesus died for.

The challenge now, friends,
 is to walk into the world
  with the eyes of Jesus.

Each person you see this week,
 each person you talk to,
  ask to see them with the eyes of Christ.

Ask God to see people like Jesus sees them.

Because the way that Jesus sees them is the only true way to look at someone.
 We so easily judge by the exterior.
   But God sees our hearts.

"Don't judge a book by its cover."
 Don't dismiss a person by their exterior.
  Jesus's kingdom is made up of people with tattoos
   piercings
    different colors of skin,
     and criminal records.

And Jesus invites you to be part of that kingdom, too.

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.