The feast day of Saint Matthew

I was sent the readings on the notice sheet for our LEP the other day and there are two alternatives to go with this week - 21 September is the The Feast Day of St Matthew, for the bits of church that do saints. Apostle and Evangelist, Martyr. Patronages – accountant, bookkeepers, bankers, customs officers, financial officers, money managers, guards, security forces, security guards, stockbrokers, taxi drivers and tax collectors…

I was driving down the A 1 last night in torrential rain delivering a missive for the folk at Boroughbridge to have to read out this morning. It turned into a long evening as most of Boroughbridge was flooded and after I’d left the missive in the vestry I went and used the necessary before coming home and I found water dripping through the vent and a lake on the floor. So I was there a while mopping up and placing a bucket to catch the drips. My work is varied! Driving there I was catching up with Radio 2 programmes and Michelle Visage on a Friday nightwho plays some upbeat stuff. She always begins by saying what the rules of the party are: “everybody is welcome, everybody is equal, and everyone single one of you is a superstar.”

In the Methodist safeguarding material, we are reminded of our purpose. The phrase ‘all are welcome’ is characteristic of the Methodist

Church: you’ll find it on Methodist noticeboards and notices all

over the place. It says something important about who we are as Methodists, and our experience and understanding of God. At its heart, ‘all arewelcome’ is a statement about God’s limitless love and grace and

it is therefore about so much more than human hospitality.

It speaks of the never-ending boundless love of God for every

person, no matter who they are, and God’s constant invitation to,

and promise of, salvation. It’s that assurance of God’s ceaseless

love and grace for us that guides, inspires and shapes our life

together as part of Christ’s Church.

 

The Methodist Church’s desire to welcome all is a part of its own

response to God and its witness to God’s love in Jesus.

 

This involves seeking to be a community marked by love and care

for one another and for all whom it encounters, especially the

marginalised and hurting and those who have been outcast in

some form.

 

Sounds alright doesn’t it? All are welcome. Really?

 

But we should mean that and embody that. “The church is a people called out of the world to embody a social alternative that the world cannot know on its own terms. The idea that the church is to be the body of Christ is not just something to read about in theology books and leave for the scholars to pontificate about. We are literally to be the body of Jesus in the world. Christians are to be little Christs—people who put flesh on Jesus in the world today.”

― Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals

 

Imagine Jesus were President or Prime Minister or King. Imagine Jesus on the council. I think Ripon City Council might need him at the moment. Would we cope with his radical and inclusive agenda that all are most definitely welcome and everybody is equal and everybody is a superstar.

So there’s the context Matthew comes into. He’s called Levi too, son of Alphaeus. Some scholars suggest that the tax collector simply had two names, one for each language in the region. “Matthew” might have been his Greek name, while “Levi” was his Hebrew name. This practice of having both a Hebrew and a Greek or Roman name was not uncommon in Jewish society.

To fully appreciate the call of St. Matthew, his background is a remarkable part of his story. Before embracing the path of discipleship, he served as a tax collector under Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee. Tax collectors, also known as “publicans,” were held in low regard within Jewish society during Jesus’ time. They were often seen as collaborators with the Roman oppressors who occupied the land of Judea. The tax collection system, fraught with potential abuse, allowed collectors to gather more than the prescribed amount, pocketing the surplus for themselves. This encouraged extortion and corruption, leading to the accumulation of wealth through dishonest means.

As devout Jews, association with Gentiles, like the Romans, rendered individuals ritually unclean, and tax collectors’ constant interaction with Roman officials further tainted their reputation.

Consequently, their income was considered impure, rendering it unfit for religious dues or temple offerings. These factors combined to socially ostracise tax collectors, categorising them among the “sinners” in many New Testament passages, reflecting their low moral and social standing. So note the religious muttering about this new preacher about: “he welcomes sinners and eats with them.” All are welcome? Yes but not him. He’s no superstar, he’s a cheat and not a nice person.

Understanding this context makes the call of Matthew remarkable.

St. Matthew’s church, Westminster has a statue of him holding a book and a quill pen. Is he about to make an entry in a tax ledger or write a gospel? The Jews had to pay taxes to the Empire. To make matters worse, collection was not the work of civil servants but of private contractors. So tax collectors were collaborators, traitors, part of a system of oppression. They were allocated a sum to be raised from their district. They received no salary, so they added their cut to the assessment. The wealthy would, no doubt, find ways of reducing their liability – a judicious bribe here and there – so the burden would fall disproportionately on ordinary people. Collection was backed up with force, so they had no choice but to pay up and see their hard-earned money go to support imperial armies or the grand building projects of the Herod dynasty.

Matthew knew what it was like to feel excluded. Although he was Jewish, he was shunned by other Jews, because his work as a tax collector made him a collaborator with the hated Romans. Socially, he was an outsider, and outcast. His fellow countrymen wanted nothing to do with him.

When Jesus encounters Matthew sitting at the customs house collecting taxes, he issues a simple yet profound call: “Follow me.” Matthew immediately arose, leaving everything behind to follow Jesus. Jesus dined at Matthew’s house with more tax collectors and sinners that night. This incident drew the ire of the religious leaders, prompting Jesus to declare that He came not for the righteous but for sinners, emphasising the importance of mercy over sacrifice.

Jesus’ choice to openly associate and dine with tax collectors and sinners, including Matthew, stirred controversy among religious leaders of his time. However, this association embodied Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost, demonstrating God’s boundless love and grace, even for society’s most sinful and marginalised. The Gospel may be in miniature in this call. The mercy of God is wide.

Our doors are open. But there are churches where the message still needs to be be preached and heard. And even here, where inclusivity seems part of the DNA, we always need to be asking ourselves: “Who are we excluding? Who is not made to feel welcome here? Who does not have a place at our table and in our ministry? Who are our tax-collectors and sinners?”

All are welcome? Including us! I like what C H Spurgeon has to say about Jesus finding the unlikely…

We do not know that, even if Matthew had wished to follow Christ, he would have dared to do so. He must have thought that he was too unworthy to follow Christ; and if he had dared to attempt it, I should suppose that he would have been repulsed by the other apostles. They would have snubbed him, and asked, “Who are you, to come amongst us?” They dared not do so after Christ himself had said to Matthew, “Follow me,” but certainly there is no indication that this man named Matthew was seeking Christ, or even thinking about him; yet, while he sat taking his tolls and customs, Jesus came to him, and said, “Follow me.”

 O my dear hearer, if you have been converted, it may be that something like this was true in your case! At any rate, this I know is true; you were not the first to seek Christ, but Christ was the first to seek you. You were a wandering sheep, and did not love the fold; but his sweet mercy went out after you. His grace made you thoughtful, and led you to pray; the Holy Spirit breathed in you your first breath of spiritual life, and so you came to Christ. It was so, I am sure; you did not first seek Christ, but he first sought you. Let us who are saved present the prayer to God now, that many here who have never sought the Lord may nevertheless find him; for it is written, “I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” See, then, the freeness of the grace of God, the sovereignty of his choice. Admire it in the man named Matthew; admire it still more in yourself, whatever your name may be.

Jesus says, it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. One of my favourite quotes about church is that a church should be a hospital for sinners and not a museum for saints. Jesus is making the point loud and clear that the reason he came into the world is the same reason he came into Matthew’s life that day – not to affirm the self-righteous but to heal the sick, which includes the sick of soul.

The call of Matthew should say to all of us that no matter how we think we stand with God nonetheless he is always there to heal and redeem us. No one is beyond the love and grace of God. In fact the sicker and further off we think we are the closer God stands to us and wants to heal us. And for those who may have been walking with God for a long time we should never allow ourselves to become self-righteous and Pharisaic about those who seem most unlike us or who seem most un-Christian in our eyes – for they are exactly the ones that Jesus may choose to sit and eat with.

What happened to Matthew?

Following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Matthew remained in Jerusalem with the other disciples, receiving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As an apostle of the Lord, he dedicated his life to spreading the Gospel and leading the early church. Matthew’s profound teachings and insights into the life of Jesus culminated in the writing of the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew designed his Gospel to establish Jesus as the Messiah, particularly for his Jewish readers.

Beyond his written legacy, Matthew’s apostolic journey is steeped in rich history and tradition. Early Church fathers like Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria suggest that Matthew initially preached the Gospel in Judea before embarking on missions to other lands, with Ethiopia often cited as one of his destinations.One notable tradition associated with Matthew involves his encounter with King Hirtacus in Ethiopia. Matthew’s steadfast devotion to his faith led him to confront the king for lusting after Ephigenia, a nun consecrated to God. Matthew’s rebuke, delivered at a Mass, ultimately led to his martyrdom, solidifying his commitment to his faith.

So what to learn from his call on his feast day? Methodist theology asserts that every person reflects God's image and therefore possesses intrinsic value that must be celebrated. All have to be welcome else we aren’t the church of Jesus. We live in a world this day that wants to say all aren’t welcome. We get a letter as minister from the Secretary of the Methodist Conference. He was reflecting on the rally of the far right in London last weekend.

 “Accounts of the numbers at the rally in London that day vary, but most estimates are something over 100,000. That is about the same as the number of members of the Methodist Church in Britain.

I was worried that afternoon on the train by the attitudes I saw displayed and the falsehoods that were being repeated, but I cannot despair because I serve a Church whose calling is to respond to the love of God in Christ. If the woman on the train was right, and 100,000-plus people listening to hate-mongers can make a difference, how much more can 100,000-plus people who listen to the gospel and speak words of grace change things for the better?”

 All are welcome. All are equal and yes Michelle, even the Matthew’s can be superstars!

God of mercy, you chose a tax collector, Saint Matthew to share the dignity of the apostles. By his example and prayers help us to follow Christ and remain faithful in your service. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.