“Him?” A Sermon on St. Matthew for St Matthew’s, Buffalo September 24, 2017

+So there are two things about St. Matthew’s story that I want to talk about this morning. First, let’s spend some time on who he was---Matthew was a tax collector----when we think tax collector we think of some disembodied IRS worker on the other end of the phone line, or the IRS address where we send our yearly taxes---but in Jesus’ time the tax collector wasn’t disembodied at all. He was your neighbor and he stood in the town square hand out-stretched, expecting—demanding---payment. What the payment amount was wasn’t found on some tax table published by the Roman Empire, no the amount owed was determined by the tax collector. And the amount varied greatly. You see tax collectors in the Roman Empire didn’t work for a salary or an hourly wage. No, they lived on whatever they could skim off of what they collected. The Empire had their expectations of what everyone should be taxed, and they expected that the collectors would charge each household more than what the Empire wanted so that they—the tax collectors---could make some money. It was an underhanded, nasty business and the Jewish people detested them. Not only because the Romans were a hostile occupying force, but because the way money was handled violated their principles.
So in and of themselves tax collectors were disliked. And then you have Matthew. He was doubly disliked….why? Because not only was he a tax collector, working for the Roman Empire, he was Jewish---he was a turncoat, working against his own people for his own distasteful gains. Matthew was hated.
And yet, Jesus chooses him—a turncoat, yellow bellied tax collector---to “follow him.”
And it wasn’t just Matthew---many of Jesus disciples, the men and women who became the apostles of Christ, were of questionable repute. Jesus didn’t care who his followers were on the outside, he didn’t care what people, what society thought of them, he cared about who it was they wanted to be and n some cases who he knew they could become. Jesus attracted the curious and the searching, the lost and the lonely, the reputable and maligned, the unacceptable and the unexpected.
Consider this: Jesus walks in here, right now, and asks if he and his friends can join us. Now his friends may not look like you and me, they may not act like you and me, they may not smell like you and me, they may not sound like you and me. We may know them—they may be notorious drug dealers from down the street, they may be prostitutes, gang-bangers. They may Carl Paladino, or Osama Bin Laden. They may be ---they probably would be---people who make us uncomfortable, uneasy or even down right mad. But Jesus has asked them to “follow him” and here they are.
What would we do?
I think, when we consider the story of Matthew, we have to consider just how radical a story it is. Matthew was not a rational choice for Jesus. Which makes sense because, frankly, being a follower of Jesus Christ isn’t rational at all.
Which brings me to my second point about the story of Matthew. “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And [Matthew] got up and followed him.” (Mt9:9-10)
He gave up what he knew, he gave up his livelihood, he gave up his profession, such as it was, his friends, his family, and followed Jesus. So did Peter and Andrew John and James and the rest of the 12. The dropped what they were doing to follow Him.
Now while I know that our baptism doesn’t demand that we drop all that is familiar to us to follow some itinerant preacher, to be true followers of Jesus, to emulate the likes of Matthew, we do need to take risks. We need to stand up while others stay back, we need to speak out while others stay silent, we need to reach out to those others would just as soon keep out, we need to give even though there may be more that we want for ourselves. In short, to follow Him, we need to let go of things that we find familiar and comfortable and easy. Why?
Because following Jesus means looking outside of ourselves, moving beyond our comfort zones, stepping away from the usual and the familiar so that instead of being focused on us, we can be focused on Him.
So..what does that mean for all of us, here and now? I don’t know exactly. It’s up to each of us to consider this question…both as individuals and as a congregation. What blocks us from doing the work of Christ here and now?
What stands in our way….worry? Fear? What others may say?
What stands in our way? Our building issues, the decline of our neighborhood, the loss of church membership?
What stands in our way?
Lots stood in Matthew’s way. He was despised. He was wholly dependent on shady business practices to make a living. He had turned his back on his own kinfolk in order to make a buck. He was hated. He was feared. And yet he followed Him.
What do we need to do to be like Matthew, to risk everything for Him? That’s a question each of us needs to answer for ourselves. But what I do is that When we do that, when we follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ---fully and completely, amazing things will happen:
Tax collectors will become our friends, fishermen will drop their nets and the Kingdom of God will grow, right here and right now.
Amen.