9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
Matthew 9:9-13
September 21 is the day for remembering St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, in the Western church tradition. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew was sitting at a tax booth when Jesus walked by. Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me,” and Matthew followed. They shared dinner, along with other tax collectors, leading to criticism from Pharisees that Jesus would join a table filled with sinners. Acts 1:13, meanwhile, lists him among the disciples who witnessed Jesus’ Ascension. Witnessing this event marks him as an apostle. Later traditions tell that Matthew then shared his witness with the Jewish communities of Judea, and then later to other regions. His act of witness, then, marked him as an evangelist. As a tax collector, he would have been literate and able to speak Aramaic and Greek, allowing him to travel and preach widely.
As a congregation bearing the name of St. Matthew, how might that inform our call to live out our faith? How is our mission in Moorestown and beyond shaped by the legacy of St. Matthew? Certainly the theme of witness comes to the fore in considering his story. He was a witness to Jesus’ outreach to those considered unrespectable by society. He himself was a hated tax collector, seen as a collaborator with the tactics of the Roman Empire and thus a sinner to be shunned. Yet Jesus called him. Matthew also witnessed the resurrected Christ, who promised to fill the disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew then shared the transformative power of Christ, witnessing to the ways that his own life was changed by following Jesus.
As a congregation, then, witnessing to the work of Christ in our midst is central to our identity. We are called to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we may be witnesses to others of the ways that Christ has reached out to us and pulled us into new life and helping them to see God’s gracious and embracing love anew. In fact, the mission statement of St. Matthew Lutheran Church includes witness as one of the three ways that we are called to reach out to others, along with worship and service. I would like to suggest that this theme of “witness” is particularly appropriate to a ministry that associates itself with St. Matthew.