A synopsis of the sermon delivered by the Rev. David L. Hicks at Saint Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church on Sunday, September 21, 2003, Trinity XIV (St. Matthew). Please read St. Matthew 9:9-13.

In addition to being the 14th Sunday after Trinity, today is also the feast day of St. Matthew (September 21st). Interestingly, we hear very little about Matthew from the Scriptures or from tradition. Mark’s and Luke’s Gospels refer to him as Levi, but they give us no more knowledge about the apostle than what we have here in today’s lesson from the Gospel that has traditionally borne his name. However, there is something to be learned from Matthew and this story of Jesus calling him to be a disciple, and the lesson involves “sitting.”

Jesus finds Matthew “sitting” at his place of business, collecting taxes. Matthew is not looking for Jesus, but Jesus is looking for him and comes to him in the midst of the man’s every day activity. Those of respectable, religious society did not hold this activity of Matthew’s in high esteem. Tax collectors as a group were well known for their dishonesty and greed, and serious adherents to God’s law considered such people unworthy of attention. Nevertheless, it is this sort of person to whom Jesus comes and finds sitting.

Next, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day, find Jesus “sitting” with a group of people just like Matthew - “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus not only finds someone like Matthew sitting, but he himself sits with Matthew and his friends. Jesus overhears the Pharisees’ objection voiced to his disciples. He responds, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mt. 9:12-13). Jesus sits with this group, not because he approves of their sin, but in order that he might heal their sin. He exemplifies God’s mercy toward those who have fallen short of his glory and have become subject to disobedience and death. The Pharisees did not understand God’s mercy or the mission of Jesus. They were also ignorant of their own need for the Divine Physician, as they supposed themselves righteous before God when they were far from it.

Jesus still call disciples to follow him, and he does this through the work of the Holy Spirit in the life and witness of the church. Thankfully, he does not wait for us to look for him, but he finds us sitting in the midst of our sins, cares, worries and concerns and calls us to “follow him.” He not only finds us where we are, but he sits with us, and he communes with us as the Great Physician of our souls. Thanks be to God who has such love that he would sit with us and raise us up into a new life of fellowship with him through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.