Pentecost 4 A Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26

As many of you know for years I worked as a barista (that's someone who makes fancy coffee drinks) and then a supervisor for a Starbucks Coffee Shop. And while I know I am here in the land of Dunkin Doughnuts you’ll forgive my story about Starbucks as the king of coffee for a little while.

Starbucks as a corporation has been immensely successful. It grows faster than almost any other restaurant or coffee chain. The Starbucks Latte has replaced the McDonald's Big Mac in the economic world as an indicator of global pricing standards. Groups from churches to major banking and electronic firms have studied the Starbucks model to try to improve their own operation and appeal.

And how did they do it? What built this Starbucks craze? In very large part it was atmosphere. The atmosphere that they strive for inside stores is something that business advisers and training manuals call the third place. The entire job of a Starbucks employee is to create a unique welcoming atmosphere a place where the world stops. In the midst of the noise and commotion of daily life, in spite of all of the pulls and worries of the world around. Where you are looked at face to face, where your name is known and your needs are addressed where there is peace and quiet, relationships and joy. A place entirely different from the hustle and worry of work or home. A third place.

And this third place model works. People notice it without ever naming it. They feel safe, loved, understood and comfortable in the cafes. At least they did. As soon as the company started moving away from the “third place” model customers stopped coming back.

A third place. I think this is an amazing model for a church. To be a third place for people. A place of peace and comfort, hospitality, relationships and joy. But I don’t think that because I used to work for Starbucks. I don’t think that because I think churches should follow business models. I don’t think that because I’m afraid the customers will stop coming back. I think it because I think that whether we know it or not, whether we name it or not our Lord spent his ministry creating a third place.

A unique place, a place where every person in his midst even the least among them was looked at face to face, called by name and made whole. We call that third place the kingdom of God and this is what it looks like:

Our gospel lesson today has a LOT of commotion in it. The everyday hustle and bustle plus some. First Jesus calls Matthew to follow him. There is a great feast with sinners and tax collectors (who had a lot of money and knew how to throw a party). Then in the middle of this feast, the Pharisees come and question Jesus. He who claims to be a teacher from God is eating with all kinds of people who are ritually unclean. At that point Jesus stands up in the middle of the meal and tells everyone present that he came for the sake of the sick, of the sinner of those that society left behind. But this is just the beginning of the commotion because...

Then suddenly a leader of the synagogue runs in and says that his daughter has died and he needs Jesus to help him. All this commotion, imagine the scene everyone talking, eating, people yelling, pulling Jesus every which way and then suddenly they are off walking quickly through a busy marketplace with vendors and animals and lots of people buying and selling. And then, all of a sudden, everything stops.

Suddenly the focus shifts to a quiet woman who saw Jesus go by and thought to herself, "If I only but touch the hem of Jesus' garment I will be made well." What we didn't notice in all the busy commotion, what none of Jesus' disciples noticed in all the busy commotion was that, quietly without even a word this woman crept up and touched Jesus as he was walking by. And she was healed.

Jesus' companions didn't notice and we the reader didn't notice, but, Jesus turns around in the middle of all the commotion in the midst of some very important people and en route to a very important task. And asks who touched my cloak? Who was in need of healing. Who silently walked up to me believing that just my presence could do them well?

He apparently didn’t need to be told that she needed healing or why she needed it. He knew when he looked at her what was wrong and that she had already been healed. What he needed was to look at her. To see her face to face.

In the middle of all his concerns and all of the concerns of those who were with him, in the center of his “real” work. He stopped to see the face of someone who really needed to be healed. Someone quiet and afraid, someone otherwise completely unnoticed. And he called to her, welcomed her to him and made her whole.

This is the Kingdom of God this is our third place.

The presence of Christ among us creates a third place where all are welcome, rich or poor, happy or sad, well dressed or in rags, clean or dirty, healthy or sick, saint or sinner and we are all made clean in the same water and feed with the same rich food and held in the same loving embrace. Like the woman in the crowd, our needs are known and we are looked at face to face.

Unlike Starbucks or any business, our third place is not limited to these walls. The kingdom of God is with us always breaking into the world around us even as we welcome strangers and care for the least among us. We take it with us, into our homes, into our work places and just as Jesus followed the leader of the synagogue whose daughter had died out of love and mercy for this man, so the kingdom follows us.

This is good news. Thanks be to God. Amen