Devotional Musings from Pastor Kay Lynn

One of the things about preaching is that there are so many great ideas you come across in your preparation that not all of them can fit into one sermon.  Our Scripture passages offer so much Soul Food that we can't digest it all at once, so I try to focus on one or two themes at a time.  I'm sure my homiletics professors and English teachers would give me better grades for sermons that don't wander too needlessly. Not to mention the congregation seems to appreciate it if I don't preach all day.  So, every week, there are great concepts that don't make it into the final cut, which is always a painful process.

This week one of the leftover gems has to do with the fact that Matthew is responsible for producing the Gospel we're reading.  Sunday's text (Matthew 9:9-13) tells the story of Jesus calling Matthew to be a disciple.  That Jesus accepted and invited an outcast is the point that leaps from the page.  But what really struck me was that Jesus needed Matthew.  Jesus needed Matthew's skill set and expertise.  As a tax collector, Matthew had to be literate, unlike the first disciples Jesus had called.  The famous fishermen brought their strengths to the table, but Matthew's ability to keep records, to collect stories, and to write them all down turned out to be pretty important.  We don't get many other stories in the Scriptures about Matthew, but in fact his ministry still touches us today, perhaps more tangibly than the fishermen's ministries.


Jesus' perspective here excites and challenges me.  When he looked at Matthew, he saw all that was valuable about Matthew, and he saw Matthew's potential for service in his kingdom.  Everyone else who looked at Matthew only saw the sum of his bad choices.  Everyone else could see all the reasons why Matthew was unfit to be a disciple.  Only Jesus saw him with eyes of grace and forgiveness, so only Jesus offered him a fresh start.

How often do the negative tapes play in my head, reminding me of all my failures, all the reasons I am unfit to be a disciple?  Yet Jesus invites me to follow him, to serve him.  He offers me grace and forgiveness, and these enable me to say yes.

How often do I look at other people and see only the sum of their bad choices?  Sometimes we  have this idea that people whose lives are "really messed up" have such a lot of cleaning up to do before God could really use them.  That they need to get straightened out first, go to the altar, get baptized, go through our neat little discipleship program, stop smoking, faithfully attend Sunday School, hang out at potlucks.  Then maybe we'll think about letting them into leadership.

And here's Jesus, breaking all our rules.  He goes to Matthew right where he is, and calls him to be a disciple.  No altar call, no tears, no clear profession of faith.  Jesus understands that Matthew, in all his sin and sorrow, is somehow readier to follow him than all the religious insiders.  These tax collectors and prostitutes are nearer the kingdom of God, he said. 

As it turns out, Jesus has more use in his kingdom for someone with a heart to follow him than for someone who simply appears to have their life together.