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This chapter of Matthew is all about service, and it offers four important teachings: First, the assumption is that all of us are called to serve, to choose this as our basic orientation towards life. Second, we are to serve with some degree of detachment. Third, expect conflict as a result of your efforts to help others. And last, understand that when you serve, you connect the world together in God.
People use religion or spirituality for all sorts of reasons. For some, it provides comfort and peace when life seems too difficult to bear. For others, it gives black and white answers in an otherwise gray world. Still others use religion as a way of feeling secure, even superior to others. I’m mostly interested in religion and spirituality as a vehicle for transformation. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t have other legitimate uses; it’s just how I tend to use it.
The passage from Matthew today is a slice of life or one might say a-day-in-the-life-of-a-messiah piece. Jesus is described as calling one of his disciples, Matthew, from among the ranks of the scum-bag tax-collectors, eating dinner with not only Matthew but other disreputable folks while being seemingly indifferent about protecting his delicate reputation. Jesus deals with a rather pesky religious sort who wants him to explain himself and the company he keeps. Dinner is interrupted by a synagogue leader who is desperate for Jesus to do the impossible in raising his daughter to life again.
Many of you know that at least two of our members are running for public office. In light of what’s taken place in the last couple of months in the presidential campaign, I’ve suggested that they might want to reconsider their affiliation with St. Michael’s, given that all my sermons are available online.
End Document — St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church