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Sermon preached
at Bradford Cathedral
St Matthew’s Day 21st September 2008 - 10:15 Holy Communion Loving God’s ways more than riches. 2 Cor 4:1-6 & Matt 9:9 – 13 |
| “The law of your mouth is better
to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.” Words from Psalm
119 and vs 72 which the choir sang earlier. Thank you choir, and thank you
too for not singing the whole of Psalm 119 – I think 176 verses would
have taken a little too long. Vs 72 again: “The law of your mouth is
better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.” i.e. God’s
teaching is more precious than riches, or… what God says to me matters
more to me than what I have in my bank account, my home or my garage. Is
that so? How high up our list of priorities does the teaching of Jesus really
come? Do we pay lip service to the ethics of the Kingdom or truly seek to
live by them? I confess that I don’t find these questions comfortable. I admire the sentiment of the psalmist, that “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver,” but I’m not sure I can say that for myself with 100% integrity. God’s word requires a change in behaviour. So it would mean that I put as much effort into building God’s Kingdom as I do in ensuring material comfort and well-being. And that’s what makes this morning’s Gospel so startling. Matthew is called to abandon the life of security and comfort that he knows well to follow a young Rabbi that he doesn’t yet know well. In fact Matthew was a little more like a customs officer. The toll booth at Capernaum was an important centre commanding both the sea route from east and north of the lake and also the great land road. So custom would be demanded for goods carried by water or land. Even the local fishermen may have had to pay taxes on their catch, so it’s likely Matthew knew them. But he was despised by most, working as he did for Herod Antipas under the control of the Romans. Yet Matthew had chosen to be socially isolated and scorned in order to make money as a tax collector – that is how important money was to him. So it’s remarkable that he walks away from that when invited to by Jesus. Not surprising then that this story is set in the middle of a whole series of miracles. (Chapters 8 & 9 are full of healing miracles and in the middle of them is the call of Matthew). And of course this is the Gospel which bears his name. So it’s as though the author is saying: “Yes, I needed to be healed by Jesus too. My healing came when he treated me differently from everyone else. His acceptance gave me both the confidence and the reason to leave behind a way of living that deep down I wasn’t satisfied with. Other religious leaders had shunned me. I understand why. Not only did they suspect I was creaming off more than I should in taxes but my regular contact with Gentiles made me unclean. And although this Jesus was from Nazareth he had been based in Capernaum so I knew something about him. What he said made sense, more than that, it had real authority as though it came directly from God Himself. So when he invited me to follow him, I didn’t need to think about it further.” Isn’t it fascinating that at the end of a week of the most extraordinary seismic shifts in the world economy the church happens to be remembering the disciple who worked in finance and walked away from it? What would Matthew make of our current situation? Well for a start, as a Jew he would not be comfortable with usury. Using money to make money, and on such a huge scale would leave him pretty bemused. Money was designed originally to be a tool for trading, to buy and sell rather than bartering. So it was a means to an end, but it has become an end in itself. Money has acquired a status it was never meant to have and elevated to a position which draws people to it in worship and adulation. That of course, is idolatry. And this week, we have seen the idol topple from its throne, where it should never have been. So maybe Matthew would suggest to us that we check our attitude to money and riches, and everyone one of us here IS rich (by global standards). I imagine that Matthew would point to His Lord and Master, reminding us that Jesus had more to say about the dangers of wealth than any other social disease. They say that the last part of a person to be converted is their pocket. And most of us don’t realise that we are making decisions primarily on the basis of cost. Over the Summer I witnessed a conversation between two very committed Christians which went something like this: Person A: Where are you going on holiday this year? Person B: To the south of France Person A: How are you getting there? Person B: We have booked to go by train, via Eurostar then down on the TGV Person A: But there is a regular flight from Leeds-Bradford airport and it must be cheaper and quicker Person B: Yes, but we wanted to avoid flying for eco reasons Person A: But the plane is going anyway, you might as well use it Person B: It’s only going because people chose to use it. If they didn’t it wouldn’t fly. Person A: But they will fly if continues to be cheaper. And people don’t tend to make ethical decisions over cost. What ARE the ethics of the Kingdom? What is the law, the teaching that the psalmist loved even more than silver or gold? What was Jesus teaching that caused Matthew to leave his earthly security. Is it pie in the sky when we die? Promise of riches in the afterlife? No! It is the conviction that this world can be a better place if one or two, then three and four, then more and more, catch the vision to live differently, to chose not to put their personal comfort at all costs before the wider good. And if we believe that our Creator intended that all people on planet earth share its resources, not just a lucky third, then we cannot be content with living selfishly. We will be uncomfortable choosing the cheaper option if it increases global warming because that hurts the world’s poorest most. Or if we know that the cheaper bananas, or wine, or orange juice are cheaper because the producer is not being paid a fair price we will look for the Fairtrade mark. In a recent address in London, Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged churches to be “the hands, feet, eyes, and ears of Jesus in the fight against local and global poverty.” And the challenge is now greater than two weeks ago when he said that. In this new phase of economic depression with all the anxiety that goes with it for all of us, the challenge for the churches and for individual Christians is to fight even harder against poverty. The temptation might be to look after ourselves first, to cut down our giving to charity, to reduce our giving in order to ensure our comfort is maintained as much as possible. That would be disastrous. Let me finish by citing the example of the Soroptimists. It is very good to have you here and congratulations on 80 years. Founded on the 14th September 1928 as a Venture Club the Bradford group soon became the first Yorkshire club to become a Soroptimist club. What did the club do in those early years, which were in the middle of the economic depression of the 1930s? They raised considerable funds for the poorest in the city of Bradford. Food parcels, blankets and even coal were distributed to needy families. Holidays for children were funded and then, in the 80s the club helped to establish the Calcutta Project. These are just some of the many worthwhile projects undertaken by the Soroptimists over 80 years. The club started when Britain was suffering hard times. And here we are again, in another serious economic downturn. Keep up the good work! In fact, the right response for all of us is to do just that, to follow the example of Matthew, to refuse to allow concern for our own material well-being to hold us back from the higher and more pressing priority of supporting this world’s poorest. “Follow me” says Jesus, listen to my words, and let them be to you more precious than thousands of pieces of gold and silver, than stocks and shares, bonds or savings, mortgages or pensions, because where your heart is there will your treasure be also”. Amen. |