St. Matthew the Apostle/Trinity XIV- Matthew 9:9-13

This year the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity falls on 21 September which is the Feast of St. Matthew. The Gospel is from St. Matthew 9: 9-13 and gives the account of Matthew's call to follow Christ: Matthew also seems to have been called Levi (Mark 2:14). According to ancient tradition, Matthew may have collected Aramaic sayings of Jesus which formed the basis for Matthew's Gospel. He may have also been a missionary in the Jewish Diaspora and a martyr. In first century Palestine, tax collectors were despised as traitors, extortioners, and generally immoral scoundrels. Yet,  Jesus associated with such people. He called tax-collectors as well as all others to repentance and service for the kingdom of God. 

So on this day, we remember and give thanks that our Lord called people such as Matthew. God's grace extended to Matthew and allowed him to be a witness to the Gospel. Likewise, our Lord calls other sinners including us. He offers us His divine grace, and He can empower us, just as He did Matthew, to witness in word and deed to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Trinity XII- 2 Corinthians 3:5-6

 For this Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, my attention was drawn to the Epistle from II Corinthians 3. The Apostle emphasizes the true nature of the common Christian ministry that he and other believers share. In II Corinthians 5-6, Paul asserts, "not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Even the great missionary apostle who had been given great gifts and a strong will knew that he was not self-sufficient. He acknowledged that God was the source of all that was good and truly valuable. Certainly, the same must be true of every faithful Christian. In some sense, depending on our gifts and circumstances, every believer is called to be a minister (or servant) of the Gospel. From the greatest pastors and preachers to the humblest greeters, cleaners, and workers, we are all asked to serve the cause of Christ, and none of us is up to the task on our own. We all have weaknesses which can only be remedied by the grace of God.

This also means that Christian service must be spiritual. While we value the literal meaning of Scripture and Creed, we must not be literalists. While we respect the guidance of divine law, we must not be legalists. In other words, in serving Christ, we must seek to go beyond letter and law. We must be open to the Holy Spirit who makes the Word alive in our lives, and by grace, transforms us. The Spirit makes us truly alive and enables us to share the life-giving message through serving our Lord Jesus Christ. The ways that we do this are varied (a sermon, a kind word, a prayer, a simple unnoticed act, etc.), but through God's grace in Christ, every believer is asked to serve the Gospel.