WEBVTT 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:57.859 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be holy and pleasing in your sight, O Lord, O Rock and Redeemer. 00:00:58.500 --> 00:00:59.140 Amen. 00:01:05.219 --> 00:01:09.620 Today's gospel lesson is a story in three acts. 00:01:09.859 --> 00:01:16.260 Its cast of characters is as diverse as they come, and it all begins with a single command. 00:01:16.579 --> 00:01:17.780 Follow me. 00:01:18.740 --> 00:01:27.780 First up, our gospel's namesake, the erstwhile tax collector and would-be disciple, the man named Matthew. 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:36.420 I wonder if he gave the command a second thought, if he considered the financial repercussions of his decision. 00:01:36.819 --> 00:01:44.420 Tax collectors, after all, were agents of the empire, interlopers among a people living under Roman occupation. 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:54.020 They had a reputation for skimming money off the top, getting rich off of people who were already struggling to get by. 00:01:54.819 --> 00:02:02.099 Matthew threw caution to the wind in order to sit at the feet of the peripatetic rabbi. 00:02:02.580 --> 00:02:09.780 Ill-gotten games did not hold a candle to the offer of communion and belonging. 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:15.219 Later in the story, we meet a woman in a crowd. 00:02:15.539 --> 00:02:18.180 We never find out her name. 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:22.180 She has been suffering quietly for 12 years. 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:28.819 Can you imagine what you were up to 12 years ago in the year 2014? 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:37.939 Can you picture in your mind's eye all that has happened since, the ups and downs and everything in between? 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:43.139 Twelve years is a long time to be unwell. 00:02:43.780 --> 00:02:46.740 I bet she sought out doctors and experts. 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:50.259 I bet she exhausted every option imaginable. 00:02:50.659 --> 00:03:00.340 She decides to chase down the Messiah in the crowd, not necessarily because she was moved by his words, but because she was desperate. 00:03:00.579 --> 00:03:05.060 If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well. 00:03:05.459 --> 00:03:10.579 A leap of faith born of pain, anguish, and despair. 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:14.419 The third scene is wrapped up in the second. 00:03:14.579 --> 00:03:17.219 It is a story that holds it in place. 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:20.819 Here, a father makes his plea. 00:03:21.379 --> 00:03:34.819 Unlike the tax collector and unlike the anonymous woman, this man is as reputable as they come, a leader of the synagogue, a man worthy of respect, honor, and attention. 00:03:35.139 --> 00:03:38.259 But he also kneels before Jesus. 00:03:38.579 --> 00:03:40.659 He begs for his attention. 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:43.379 He does not care about propriety. 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:48.019 He makes a scene, putting his needs in public display. 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:52.659 He pursues the Messiah out of his love for his daughter. 00:03:52.979 --> 00:03:59.699 His need propels him forward in the face of and in spite of death itself. 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:07.299 Here we have three different people and three different kinds of need. 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:17.220 An unworthy tax collector, a desperate woman suffering in secret, a reputable community leader with nothing left to lose. 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:23.620 And here we have a single Messiah holding them all together. 00:04:23.939 --> 00:04:30.579 In the face of their needs, their wants, and their desires, Jesus moves into action. 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:35.699 Out of this motley crew, a new community is born. 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:44.660 Friends, following Jesus is not a one-size-fits-all deal. 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:51.060 We all come to the table with our own wants, needs, and desires. 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:59.540 We all come seeking the words of life, but what that will mean for each of us on any given day will vary. 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:03.620 They say that every sermon is a heresy. 00:05:03.860 --> 00:05:09.860 Every sermon emphasizes one aspect of the faith at the expense of another. 00:05:10.099 --> 00:05:22.899 One day you preach a sermon about God's complete and utter transcendence, the majesty of God's presence, the enormity of the cosmic order, the extravagance of God's grace and mercy. 00:05:23.219 --> 00:05:39.540 On another day, you might speak about God's closeness to us, how God shows up in the very ordinary circumstances of daily life, in a stranger's kind words, in a fleeting moment of peace as you're walking to your car in between errands. 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:45.459 We cannot sum up the whole of God's presence in just one idea. 00:05:45.699 --> 00:05:48.980 We must say this and we must also say that. 00:05:49.459 --> 00:05:54.659 Seemingly conflicting ideas painting a more faithful picture of the whole. 00:05:54.899 --> 00:05:59.779 The same goes for what a sermon means to each of us. 00:06:00.659 --> 00:06:06.980 Maybe today you need to hear a call to repentance, like Matthew. 00:06:07.219 --> 00:06:14.579 Maybe you need to remember that the treasures of this world are temporary, while what Jesus offers is eternal. 00:06:14.899 --> 00:06:19.860 Store your treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy. 00:06:20.099 --> 00:06:23.219 Let go of the self-securing ambition and angst. 00:06:23.540 --> 00:06:25.699 Let go of your need for control. 00:06:26.019 --> 00:06:30.819 Refuse the temptation to prove yourself worthy in the eyes of the world. 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:36.579 Seek first the kingdom and let the rest of the pieces fall where they will. 00:06:37.699 --> 00:06:45.779 Perhaps today, however, you find yourself hurting, like the woman in the crowd. 00:06:46.099 --> 00:06:52.019 Maybe there is a hidden place in your life that needs healing. 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:56.659 Only you know the burden you bear. 00:06:57.620 --> 00:07:08.659 Jesus moves through the crowd, pulled in every direction at once, but rest assured he will stop everything to make time for you. 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:14.740 He knows what it's like to feel isolated and helpless. 00:07:22.579 --> 00:07:30.579 Maybe today your heart breaks for the needs of another, like the Father in our story. 00:07:30.819 --> 00:07:36.819 Maybe you have done everything you can think of, everything you know how to do for the one you love. 00:07:37.620 --> 00:07:42.339 Into your despair, Christ speaks a word of hope. 00:07:42.579 --> 00:07:47.060 And this hope is not a mere feeling, this hope is a practice. 00:07:47.219 --> 00:07:56.579 It is the work of God's people in season and out of season, an outright refusal to believe that death ever has the final word. 00:07:57.459 --> 00:08:03.379 The activist and public theologian Ruby Sayles puts the matter bluntly. 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:08.819 In the face of the world's need, we must ask a simple question. 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:11.139 Where does it hurt? 00:08:11.540 --> 00:08:13.779 Where does it hurt? 00:08:14.339 --> 00:08:21.139 Jesus moves through the crowd and he offers not just a call to repentance, but healing. 00:08:21.379 --> 00:08:24.180 To one, that means letting go of worldly goods. 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:30.019 To another, it means laying claim to a dignity that has long been denied them. 00:08:30.339 --> 00:08:35.540 Healing is not simply a physical matter, but a spiritual one. 00:08:35.779 --> 00:08:45.139 It is the restoration of community and belonging for those who have plenty as well as those with nothing left to lose. 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:55.060 Something I love about the Gospels is the immediacy of call and response. 00:08:55.300 --> 00:08:59.620 In chapter 9, verse 9, Jesus asked Matthew to follow him. 00:08:59.860 --> 00:09:05.379 In verse 10, he immediately leaves everything behind to do just so. 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:12.580 That's the kind of response Jesus elicited from those he came into contact with. 00:09:12.899 --> 00:09:21.620 But rest assured, to follow Jesus means to follow him into the places where the world's greatest need beckons. 00:09:22.180 --> 00:09:33.620 When the leader of the synagogue comes to him begging for his attention, it is Jesus who leaves everything behind to follow, and he brings his disciples with him. 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:42.420 To accept healing from the likes of Jesus means to become an agent of healing in the world. 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:45.780 You cannot have one without the other. 00:09:46.180 --> 00:09:53.860 To take without giving in return is to miss the point of Christ's healing work in the first place. 00:09:55.379 --> 00:10:00.900 Elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus counts the cost. 00:10:01.620 --> 00:10:10.260 Foxes have holes, he says, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. 00:10:10.740 --> 00:10:26.660 May we be a people who seek and accept Christ's healing, and may we join him on the road, following him where others dare not go, to be a healing presence in the world. 00:10:28.900 --> 00:10:29.540 Amen.