Matthew - Following and Serving

A Vicar was taken ill and was lying in hospital when the Churchwarden came to visit. ‘How was the Church Council meeting last night ?’ asked the Vicar. ‘Well’ said the Warden, ‘the good news is that we passed a vote wishing you a quick and full recovery.’

‘Oh that’s nice, what’s the bad news ?’.

‘It was only passed by 13 votes to 12 !’

I suppose every Vicar or Minister likes to be liked and would love to have the sort of power that when you say ‘Follow me’, then people will do it – ‘Follow me’ could be translated into all kinds of different things – perhaps doing the service and kind of worship the Vicar likes and everyone being happy about it, or changing the church around as the Vicar wants and everyone saying how nice it looks, or asking people to go out and really genuinely love one another and everyone does it !

Of course these things are a little unrealistic – the human nature of congregations is such that they won’t like everything a Vicar does,and do everything he or she says; and to be honest, that’s probably a good thing, because sometimes clergy can be wrong – although they may very rarely admit to it !

But anyway back to the gospel reading for today as we remember and celebrate the life and example of St Matthew – Jesus saw this tax collector sitting in his tax booth and he said, ‘Follow me.’ And Matthew got up and did it. It’s an incredible response to a demanding call – to change his life, giving up all that he’s used to and live as a nomadic disciple.

The call of Matthew is incredible for a number of reasons. Firstly that simple fact that he was called is incredible. Matthew was a tax collector. Nowadays we may moan about paying tax at times, we may even make jokes about tax inspectors and things like that, but we’re generally ok with paying taxes, but in those days tax collectors were seriously unpopular people – and they were seriously corrupt people. They would get as much out of people as they possibly could and they were often quite wealthy as a result.

And yet when called by Jesus, Matthew didn’t hesitate to follow him. He was walking straight into long term unemployment – he didn’t having fishing to go back to like some of the other disciples – his was an absolutely life changing moment !

Giving up his job, perhaps his home, his comforts paled into insignificance as he walked away with Jesus. The history of Christianity has been one of people being called – people of all backgrounds and ages, people who seemed good and people who seemed bad. As we sit here this morning we can identify with Matthew as people who have been called by Jesus to follow him. I wonder if our response has always been as positive !

So Matthew was chosen and Matthew was immediately committed… Faith is hard sometimes and sharing our faith is very hard. We can make excuses about faith being private which Jesus told us it isn’t, or we can worry that we will somehow let God down if we try and talk about our faith…

Matthew would have understood these fears surely – his friends were probably tax collectors or other senior people in society tied in to what was then ‘the establishment’ and yet we are told that soon after he was called by Jesus and followed him, he invited people to a dinner party to meet Jesus.

He wasn’t embarrassed or worried or afraid – he had met Jesus and he wanted others to as well. Many people today talk about Jesus as a good teacher, offering a good example of how to live well, but the fact is that Jesus is more than a good teacher and more than a good example – he is good and life changing news for all people – the quote I’ve included on todays news sheet from the former Bishop of Durham N T Wright reminds us of this, ‘Jesus’ teaching isn’t just good advice, it’s good news !’

Matthew knew this – he had met someone who had changed his life for the better and he wanted to tell those close to him about it. How often do we recognise our faith as good news and want to tell people about it ?  

Matthew gave up everything in terms of material wealth but knew he was much stronger. Jim Elliott who was a missionary who was killed in South America in the 1950’s had said, ‘He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’

Whatever our material wealth and comfort may be means absolutely nothing when compared to peace and happiness and salvation for all eternity…

And so Matthew’s calling was a reminder to us all that God calls everyone – there is nobody that he doesn’t want to enjoy a relationship with… And Matthew’s response was a reminder that we all enjoy a call to mission – a call to share good news.

Our lives and our church must be visible signs of God in our community… Our diocesan vision has three G’s in it – recently I asked people at a service what the 3 G’s were and there were too many people that couldn’t think of them – this morning I’m not going to risk a test but those 3 G’s are incredibly important.

Firstly we GATHER as God’s people. Sometimes people wonder whether you have to come to church to be a Christian and I’m sure the answer is No – but I’m also very sure that we need church, we need fellowship, we need other people to support us and encourage us and share things with as a family. A Church that isn’t seeking to be a perfect family is a church that is happy to settle for too little from God.

And the second G is that we GROW more like Jesus. As we gather, so we also grow as we learn from each other and more importantly from God as we pray and as we read the bible. Prayer and bible reading are not something restricted to church – they are fundamental gifts of God that we are to enjoy…

I recently saw a sign, one of these big display signs and on it was a message from God – It said, ‘This week a large proportion of the prayers I have received from people are about finding spaces in car parks – People, you need to think bigger !’

I’m sure God isn’t really interested too much in us finding car parking spaces, but he is interested in our lives – he wants us to bring our prayers to him – prayers of desperation or hurt or need and prayers of thanksgiving. As we pray we talk to God and we listen to God and we grow…

And as we read the bible we see the incredible purposes of God for us – of how he loves us so much. Remember that verse from last week, John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but may have everlasting life.’

We grow as we gather together and as we read the bible and pray, and as we gather and grow we are given the strength to GO OUT in the power of the Spirit. GOING is the third part of our vision. We go, secure in the knowledge of God’s love for us, strengthened by the hope that he gives us and ready to share his love and his message of good news for all people.

We Gather, we Grow and we Go just as Matthew did in the early church. Encouraged by his example may we be ready to share God’s love with everyone we meet, and may we be ready to join together and lift up our prayers and praises to the God who has committed everything for us…

To finish I’d like to share a little story from St Augustine who said, ‘If I fall into a well, please don’t just peer over the top and ask me how I got in there. Just help me out !’ It is not for the church or for any one of us to look at the world or any individual person and say, ‘How did you get into that mess?’ Instead we must simply be saying, ‘What can we do to help you?’

Today we give thanks for Matthew, for his willingness to respond to the call of Jesus and for his gospel. We give thanks for his example but above all we give thanks to the God who calls people like Matthew and people like us into his family, and who offers life transforming love and strength for each one of us. AMEN