Sunday 21 September 2008 Matthew 9:9-13 St Matthew The Church Reaching Out in Christ Bruce

It was on 21 September 1995 that I was installed as vicar of St Michael’s. 21 September is the feast of St Matthew. He is almost certainly the man named as Levi in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, and we reckon that he manned a customs post at the frontier between the Tetrarchy of Herod Antipas and Philip, or with the Ten Towns region. Jesus recruits him as a disciple by interrupting him at work. I know how annoying it can be when we get an unsolicited call or visit, usually to sell us something. I wonder what Matthew’s initial response was?

There does not seem to have been much discussion: Jesus says “Follow me,” and that is what Matthew does. I notice two things. First, Jesus has been travelling about the area, teaching and doing notable healings and miracles. He is well known. It may be that Matthew is awed, excited, at the thought that Jesus, the rabbi, the teacher, has approached him; and he responds straight away. Second, tax collectors and customs inspectors were not respectable people. Shared meals were important occasions in the time of Jesus. People who ate together felt they belonged together. Pharisees used meals to meet like-minded friends, to express their devotion to God through the careful observance of food and purity laws. Matthew knew he would never receive an invitation to such a dinner, yet here was the Teacher calling him, and arranging to come and eat at his house!

Jesus is roundly criticised for reaching out to Matthew. Surely to have any claim to be godly, he should know better than to keep such company? To enter Matthew’s house is to be at almost certain risk of ceremonial defilement, mixing with those of doubtful lifestyle and lax regard for the dietary rules. Without doubt, in the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus is wrong.

It is all about Purpose. The Pharisees saw their chief purpose as being right, keeping the regulations. Jesus saw his chief purpose as helping people to encounter God and grow in him. It is all about people. A healer must get his or her hands dirty.

Jesus quotes Hosea 6. When he says “Go and learn what this means”, he is calling us to reflection. It is not about the surface meaning about the correct way to offer up a sacrifice, it is about the underlying concern, that religion can be merely external, relying on formal codes and observances, where ritual demands have taken the place of love.

So, Jesus was well known (Matthew was thrilled that Jesus called him), and there was a lack of shared understanding about his true mission (the Pharisees were not thrilled).

To tackle the first, how well known is Jesus today? Bonnie Appleton from the Diocese shared some research with the PCC recently, to the effect that only 8% of children have any contact with the church. The majority of the population live lives that demonstrate that Jesus is at best marginal, if he figures in their consciousness at all. Perhaps 10% of the population is in church once a month.

Whose responsibility is it to work at this? We rely upon the grace of God, but we also must respond in obedience. Faith is primarily individual; we each need our personal encounter. But faith is also public. We are called to live in community, demonstrating the love of God within and outside the church.

We do this by praying regularly for our families, neighbours, colleagues and friends. We do this by being prepared to answer their questions when they ask about Jesus. We do this by delivering a leaflet to every home in the parish. We do this by sponsoring events like the Brass Band Concert – funds for a popular and deserving local cause, but also an opportunity for strangers to visit us here. We do this by providing a building for public worship and community use. This was seen as a need in the 1840’s and the church opened in 1851. As Victorian society burgeoned and changed, so the building was altered and added to for forty years, to try to keep up with the needs of society – that it what it is here for. Today we are called to do all that we can to preserve this building, and enhance it so that it can continue to meet the needs of our community and make Jesus Christ known.

The second question is to clarify our understanding of the mission. We are to be Open to All. There is not a single person who is debarred from being a member of our church community. Historically the Church of England has been the church of the middle class and the gentry, but we should be concerned to reach out to everyone. We are called to have a care of the aged and the very young. We must labour to reach and teach the educated and those who have no confidence with written words and philosophical ideas. We must care for the abused and the abuser, the unforgiven and those who struggle to forgive. The evidence is that if Vue were to get their all-day alcohol licence, Jesus would have been in there till late at night (as well as spending hours in solitary prayer to his Father).

For the past 13 years I have tried to offer a leadership into a growing deepening relationship with God. We have tried to be Open to All. We aspire to be a Growing Community of Faith. Matthew was seized by a way of life where Jesus was central, his hearts desire was to be a disciple and a servant (minister) of the gospel, he served and built his community, and he shared in reaching out to others, whatever their background.

Questions to Stimulate Discussion
Where were you 13 years ago? Where would you like to be in 13 years time?
In what ways would you feel that you have encountered God afresh and are growing in him?
How good do you think St Michael’s is at making Jesus well known? What could we do better?
How “open” do you feel St Michael’s is to all? Are there people you are surprised to see here? Are there people, or groups of people, who surprise you by their absence?