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Sermon for Proper 5A

June 9, 2002

At our Wednesday evening Bible study this week, we were looking at this Gospel lesson for today, and we were talking about how Jesus called Matthew to follow him, and how Matthew got up and followed Jesus without any question or any hesitation—and the question came up, “Why did Matthew get up and go so quickly? Why did Jesus call Matthew, and why did Matthew follow?”

Well, the text itself doesn’t really tell us enough to answer those questions. The text itself simply says: Jesus called, Matthew followed. The Gospel isn’t written like a novel: a novel would give us a whole paragraph, maybe whole pages, about Matthew’s inner life, all the things that made Matthew ready to hear what Jesus had to say. A novel might show how Matthew’s life for days or weeks or years leading up to this moment had made Matthew ready to go with Jesus when he called. But the Gospel isn’t a novel, and it doesn’t give us that kind of psychological detail that we 21^st century people would like to have.

So in a way the Gospel turns our question back upon ourselves. If we can’t tell what Matthew was thinking and feeling when Jesus called him, then we must provide that thinking and feeling ourselves, we must project ourselves into the story and ask, “If that had been me sitting there, if I were Matthew and Jesus had called me, how would I have followed?” And that leads immediately to another, even more searching question: “How has Jesus called me, not Matthew but me—and how am I following?”

And that is precisely the question I am asking you this morning. How has Jesus called you, and how are you following? And I mean that very specifically: You are here in church today because Jesus has called you here, because God has drawn you here. You might not be overtly conscious of that call, as if a voice from heaven spoke and said “Go to church today”; but somewhere in your heart and mind and spirit God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is at work in you and has drawn you to be here in this place at this time. And you have followed that drawing power, you have followed that calling of God—after all, here you are. So my question to you is to bring up into your consciousness the reason why you’ve come to worship today: How has Jesus called you here, now, today—and how are you following?

Some of you are here in church today because, well, because you’re always here in church. Going to church on Sundays is one of the things you do; you were brought up that way, you’ve raised your kids that way—some of you are here in church because your parents made you come—for you it’s just a matter of habit. And there is something to be said for habit. We usually talk about bad habits, but there are good habits, too. Habit is when you do something so much it becomes second nature to you, you just do it when you need to without having to think too much about it. My kids Aidan and Maggie both take kung fu classes, and one of the things they do is practice forms. Forms are long series of set movements that you have to memorize and practice over and over. All the moves are part of kung fu fighting—you use them all in bouts or sparring—but in the forms they’re just movements that you have to do over and over. The form isn’t very exciting; but the point is that when you’ve done it enough it becomes a habit, your muscles get used to moving that way, and when you need those moves for a bout you don’t have to think about them, you just do them. Maybe Jesus has called you here today to practice your spiritual form, so you can practice listening to God’s word and discerning God’s call and praying in God’s Spirit, so that those things become habits that are there when you need them, so that you don’t need to think too much about them, you just do them when you need to. Practicing our spiritual form is a way to be called by Jesus, and that’s a way to follow.

Or maybe some of you are here in church today because this is a good social connection for you: this is where you meet your friends, this is where you feel at home, this is where you know you will be accepted and valued and loved. And there is a lot of truth in that. When Jesus called Matthew in the story, and Matthew got up and followed, the very first thing Matthew did was call together all his friends, all the other tax collectors and sinners, and have a big meal with them, so that they could meet Jesus too, so that they could experience Jesus’ healing and Jesus’ forgiveness and Jesus’ love for themselves. The Pharisees thought it was a terrible thing that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners—but what Jesus was doing was creating a new kind of community for them, a kind of community that would be based on mercy not sacrifice, on faith rather than works of the law. It would be a community in which the people would come to know God’s love as they felt it reflected in each other, a place where the social life of the community would itself be the medium of the revelation of God. And our community can be that for us, too. As we worship together, and work together, and play together, and make decisions together, and disagree with each other, and get frustrated with each other, and forgive each other—as we go through all the business of living together, the love of God in Christ is made manifest in us, we experience Jesus’ own love embracing us through each other. Maybe Jesus has called you here today to experience God’s love made manifest in the person sitting next to you, or the person three pews away from you, or the person you’ll talk to in coffee hour. Maybe Jesus has called you here today to show hospitality and welcome to a stranger, or to learn what it’s like to receive hospitality so that you can show hospitality to others when you go out into the world when the service today is over. Discovering the community of love is also a way to be called by Jesus, and that’s a way to follow.

Or maybe some of you are here in church today because you feel a deep spiritual hunger, because inside you are yearning for a life in the Spirit that is deeper and broader and higher than you feel your life is now. In the story, Matthew was living a dubious kind of life until Jesus called him. Matthew’s tax-collecting had made him wealthy—the story implies that pretty clearly—but it had also cut him off from his neighbors, it had alienated him from his people, it had left him with the feeling that he had betrayed his nation just for his own gain. Matthew was rich but empty—he knew there was something out of joint, something out of true, in his soul—and when Jesus called him to follow, that opened up for Matthew a way into a life that was more whole than the life he had been living before. And the promise of the Gospel to us is that we can live a more whole life as well. Jesus calls us, like Matthew, beyond self-centerednesss and greed to a community of compassion and love. Jesus calls us beyond the religious rigidity of the Pharisees to a genuine spirituality of mercy and knowledge in Christ. Jesus calls us to follow him, through all the fear and doubt and confusion of our lives, as we grow in the process of discipleship. Matthew’s life in the story didn’t change all at once; it took time for Matthew to grow from being a disciple who followed Jesus, to being an apostle who preached Jesus, to being an evangelist who knew Jesus so well in his heart that he could write the story of Jesus in his Gospel. And it takes time for us to grow in discipleship, too, as Jesus heals us and Jesus forgives us and Jesus forms us through the Spirit to share his own righteousness in God. Being transformed in our selves is also a way to be called by Jesus, and that is a way for us to follow.

In the Gospel today, Jesus calls Matthew, and Matthew follows. And in our lives today, Jesus is calling us, and we can follow, in our devotion here in church, in our service out in the world, in the transformation of our very selves.

In the Name of God: the Holy One, the Holy Word, the Holy Spirit. Amen.