SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Today's gospel lesson is a story in three acts.
SPEAKER_00: Its cast of characters is as diverse as they come, and it all begins with a single command.
SPEAKER_00: Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: First up, our gospel's namesake, the erstwhile tax collector and would-be disciple, the man named Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if he gave the command a second thought, if he considered the financial repercussions of his decision.
SPEAKER_00: Tax collectors, after all, were agents of the empire, interlopers among a people living under Roman occupation.
SPEAKER_00: They had a reputation for skimming money off the top, getting rich off of people who were already struggling to get by.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew threw caution to the wind in order to sit at the feet of the peripatetic rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: Ill-gotten games did not hold a candle to the offer of communion and belonging.
SPEAKER_00: Later in the story, we meet a woman in a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: We never find out her name.
SPEAKER_00: She has been suffering quietly for 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what you were up to 12 years ago in the year 2014?
SPEAKER_00: Can you picture in your mind's eye all that has happened since, the ups and downs and everything in between?
SPEAKER_00: Twelve years is a long time to be unwell.
SPEAKER_00: I bet she sought out doctors and experts.
SPEAKER_00: I bet she exhausted every option imaginable.
SPEAKER_00: She decides to chase down the Messiah in the crowd, not necessarily because she was moved by his words, but because she was desperate.
SPEAKER_00: If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.
SPEAKER_00: A leap of faith born of pain, anguish, and despair.
SPEAKER_00: The third scene is wrapped up in the second.
SPEAKER_00: It is a story that holds it in place.
SPEAKER_00: Here, a father makes his plea.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: But he also kneels before Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He begs for his attention.
SPEAKER_00: He does not care about propriety.
SPEAKER_00: He makes a scene, putting his needs in public display.
SPEAKER_00: He pursues the Messiah out of his love for his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: His need propels him forward in the face of and in spite of death itself.
SPEAKER_00: Here we have three different people and three different kinds of need.
SPEAKER_00: An unworthy tax collector, a desperate woman suffering in secret, a reputable community leader with nothing left to lose.
SPEAKER_00: And here we have a single Messiah holding them all together.
SPEAKER_00: In the face of their needs, their wants, and their desires, Jesus moves into action.
SPEAKER_00: Out of this motley crew, a new community is born.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, following Jesus is not a one-size-fits-all deal.
SPEAKER_00: We all come to the table with our own wants, needs, and desires.
SPEAKER_00: We all come seeking the words of life, but what that will mean for each of us on any given day will vary.
SPEAKER_00: They say that every sermon is a heresy.
SPEAKER_00: Every sermon emphasizes one aspect of the faith at the expense of another.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot sum up the whole of God's presence in just one idea.
SPEAKER_00: We must say this and we must also say that.
SPEAKER_00: Seemingly conflicting ideas painting a more faithful picture of the whole.
SPEAKER_00: The same goes for what a sermon means to each of us.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today you need to hear a call to repentance, like Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to remember that the treasures of this world are temporary, while what Jesus offers is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Store your treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy.
SPEAKER_00: Let go of the self-securing ambition and angst.
SPEAKER_00: Let go of your need for control.
SPEAKER_00: Refuse the temptation to prove yourself worthy in the eyes of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Seek first the kingdom and let the rest of the pieces fall where they will.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps today, however, you find yourself hurting, like the woman in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there is a hidden place in your life that needs healing.
SPEAKER_00: Only you know the burden you bear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus moves through the crowd, pulled in every direction at once, but rest assured he will stop everything to make time for you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what it's like to feel isolated and helpless.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today your heart breaks for the needs of another, like the Father in our story.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have done everything you can think of, everything you know how to do for the one you love.
SPEAKER_00: Into your despair, Christ speaks a word of hope.
SPEAKER_00: And this hope is not a mere feeling, this hope is a practice.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The activist and public theologian Ruby Sayles puts the matter bluntly.
SPEAKER_00: In the face of the world's need, we must ask a simple question.
SPEAKER_00: Where does it hurt?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus moves through the crowd and he offers not just a call to repentance, but healing.
SPEAKER_00: To one, that means letting go of worldly goods.
SPEAKER_00: To another, it means laying claim to a dignity that has long been denied them.
SPEAKER_00: Healing is not simply a physical matter, but a spiritual one.
SPEAKER_00: It is the restoration of community and belonging for those who have plenty as well as those with nothing left to lose.
SPEAKER_00: Something I love about the Gospels is the immediacy of call and response.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 9, verse 9, Jesus asked Matthew to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 10, he immediately leaves everything behind to do just so.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of response Jesus elicited from those he came into contact with.
SPEAKER_00: But rest assured, to follow Jesus means to follow him into the places where the world's greatest need beckons.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: To accept healing from the likes of Jesus means to become an agent of healing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot have one without the other.
SPEAKER_00: To take without giving in return is to miss the point of Christ's healing work in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: Elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus counts the cost.
SPEAKER_00: Foxes have holes, he says, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.