Today (Sept 21) we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Matthew.

Not much is known directly about Matthew.

He was probably born in Galilee, northern Israel, into a Jewish family.

The name Matthew means= “gift of God”

Matthew was a tax collector for the Roman government in Capernaum, 

on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. 

Tax collectors were distrusted and unpopular because 

they worked as agents for a foreign ruler, the occupying Romans.

They were often excluded from the activities of the Jewish community.

They were wealthy, but marginalized: 

accused of cheating, skimming too much off the top 

when they took their duties, fees and taxes.

Because these collectors paid the state first, 

they had strong incentive to squeeze collections to turn a profit 

— which led to abuses, like extortion.

We don’t know whether Matthew was an honest or dishonest tax collector.

But he answered Jesus’ call to follow him immediately.

He is always included in the list of the 12 disciples, 

by tradition: he was the oldest of the apostles, 

he preached in Ethiopia and Persia and supposedly was a vegetarian.

Matthew is said to have been martyred either by the sword or by fire.

His relics are claimed to be in the Salerno Cathedral in Italy 

(near Naples), brought there in 954 CE.

Matthew is of course most famous for his connection with the first Gospel.

However the first Gospel contains no claim to authorship,

There is no mention of any author in the text,

But, as early as the 2nd century, 

it was ascribed, credited to Matthew.

Whoever the author really was,

He was a gifted scribe and writer, 

well knowledgeable of Jewish traditions

And wrote for a Greek Jewish Christian audience.

Because it was the most important Gospel

 in the early years of Christianity,

It was placed first in the order of the books of the New Testament.

In our current 3-year lectionary cycle, the first year, Year A, 

has a focus on the Gospel of Matthew, 

and that year will begin in two months on Advent 1.

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v9

In our Gospel reading this morning we hear how

Jesus was walking along a road in Capernaum 

when he saw a man, 

Matthew, sitting at the tax collector station.

“Follow me!” Simple and direct, 

Jesus called out to him.

And Matthew followed Jesus.

Matthew was a tax collector — socially despised, labeled a sinner.

Yet Jesus called him just where he was, at his desk: 

and invited him to join his band of followers and friends.

Jesus didn’t wait for Matthew to clean up his résumé. 

He called him at work, in the middle of the very thing 

that marked him as an outsider.

Jesus’ love was so great, his concern for the excluded and the marginalized so vast,

 all he did was a simple welcome. 

No prerequisites, no prior experience necessary. 

it was to these outcasts, these sinful and despised outcasts, 

to whom Jesus showed his love.

God continues to call us and others in the most unexpected places. 

God’s love prompts us to think of those who are hurt by prejudice, 

who are written off as colluding with the enemy, 

God sees us and all God’s children in unforeseen locations 

and shows an acceptance and a welcome that defies social norms. 

And this love and acceptance has ripples that extend. 

Just as Matthew experienced a welcome and love from Jesus, 

so he extended that message of grace to others in the words of his book.

And that message of grace was time and time again demonstrated 

by the fact that Jesus shared meals with outcasts. 

Jesus showed his love by breaking bread and eatingwith sinners like Matthew.

Here’s a small story.

The little café on the corner had a noticeboard where everyone pinned things: a photo of a lost dog, a flyer for a fundraiser, a crumpled card advertising a job. One Friday morning the owner tacked on a new note in a hurried hand: “Free lunch to anyone who sits alone between noon–1pm this Friday.”

The company bookkeeper, who usually ate at his desk, saw the note when he stopped in for coffee. He laughed to himself and assumed it was meant for the university kids who drifted in between classes. Still, something nudged him. That Friday he found himself walking back through the café door at twelve and sitting at the table next to the noticeboard.

A nurse joined him—she had finished a morning shift and wanted somewhere quiet to eat. A student dropped into the chair opposite, midterm papers stacked in a mess beside her tray. Then a retired mechanic came in, wiping grease on an old handkerchief, and took the last seat. Conversation started awkwardly, then softened into easy talk: complaints about the weather, a brief brag about a child’s exam, a story about a long-gone car.

When a lull opened, the bookkeeper, who had kept most things in neat columns for years, felt safe enough to say a small thing he had been holding: he worried, sometimes sharply, that he wasn’t “enough.” He spoke quietly, as if testing the sound of the words.

They listened. The nurse nodded, the student offered a shy smile, the mechanic hummed agreement. None of them tried to fix him or to offer platitudes. They simply said, plainly, “We’re glad you’re here.”

The bookkeeper left the café that day lighter than he had felt in months. After that, he came back. He brought a colleague one week, a neighbour the next. The table by the noticeboard grew into something small and steady—a place where people who might otherwise have eaten alone found themselves noticed, heard, and held. Over time the café table changed the rhythm of their weeks, one ordinary lunch at a time. 

You know just like that welcoming café table in this story,

Jesus’ table wasn’t fancy — it was a place where people were seen, accepted, and sent out lighter. 

That’s the Gospel Matthew follows and records.

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V10: 

When Jesus’ critics questioned how Jesus could sit at dinner with tax collectors and other imperfect people

Jesus answered:

“those who are well have no need of a physician

But those who are sick do.

I’ve not come to call the righteous but the sinners.”

Jesus reminded the pharisees that God’s intention is for the whole world, and that our mission is to help and save the sick and the lost.

To help people regain wholeness, 

one small conversation at a time.

—

According to William Temple :

“The Church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it.”

It may seem strange to think it, 

but our mission as people of St. Matthews is not to our membership!

Of course they are a major part of our activities, but ultimately,

sharing God’s love as a caring faith community needs to be directed to those outside our walls, people like Matthew, 

stuck in sin at their tax collector booth,

The sick who are in need of a physical and spiritual physician.

The church’s mission is to be a place where the excluded 

are invited to the table. 

Because hospitality is a sacrament of grace.

Perhaps on this Back to Church Sunday, 

as we open our doors for our Community BBQ,

One challenge is how friendly and welcoming we can be 

to people we don’t recognize who come inside our walls.

Will you sit and talk just with the friends you always talk to?

Or will you extend a friendly smile, hello, 

welcome to people you don’t know,

To people who might feel they don’t belong, 

but are here because they are hungry.

Now of course not all of us have gifts to be an extroverted greeter,

But perhaps this is a concrete challenge we can take on,

To extend a hearty welcome, 

to share God’s love with any strangers that come into our building, 

esp. during our BBQ after worship today.

Maybe there are other ways as well that we as a

congregation can widen the table,

Where we can proclaim our church is open: 

so that others can experience Jesus’ boundless love for all, 

even despised tax collectors like Matthew.

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Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, you called Matthew in the midst of his work and took him to your table. Call us, shape us, and make us bearers of your mercy. Teach us to welcome those whom the world ignores, and give us courage to sit at the table with the broken. Amen.

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Sources:

Festivals and Commemorations, by Pfatteicher

ChatGPT queries

Westminster Study Bible

*Hymn of the Day 421 (v.1, 20(Matthew verse) and Last) “By All Your Saints” 

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