The Church of Saint Matthew - Saint Paul’s West Side

09.27.2020 Homily

The gospel passage today begins with Jesus telling a story about a father who asked his sons to go to work, go into the vineyard today, work. One said “Yes,” and didn't go. And one said “No” and did go. You see, to be a disciple of Jesus is not a spectator sport. We're not here just to watch Jesus, or just to be impressed by Jesus, or even to be overwhelmed by the works of Jesus. 
That's not what discipleship is all about. Discipleship is about work. It's about work in the vineyard of the kingdom of God. And that's what you and I are challenged to do, to bring our talents--the gifts we have--to proclaim that gospel, not so much by the words we speak, but by the deeds we do, the way we live our daily lives.
We live in a time where there are so many challenges--challenges of nature, challenges of illness, challenges of society. And it seems to be almost overwhelming. And it's very easy to say, “Well there's nothing I can really do about that. That's just too big for me. You certainly can't expect me to do something about all of this.” 
And what Jesus is saying to us is, yes, I do expect you to do something about it. But you've got to remember, you can't do it all, but you can do something. And the way you live your daily lives, you can, in some ways, proclaim the truth of the kingdom of God, the mercy of God, the justice of God, the goodness of God, the reconciliation that God brings. That's the work we're meant to do. We're meant to be proclaimers of the good news. And sometimes we are enthusiastic about it, and then the enthusiasm falls apart. And other times we are lackadaisical about it, and then we have second thoughts and we bring ourselves to do it.
I think the message of the gospel is whether you start early or you start late, whether you say yes and then no, or no and then yes, that's really not what's important. What's important is ultimately that you and I are called to get to work.
Well as we pray today, we bring before the Lord, all the concerns that touch our lives and the life of the world we live in. And we ask for the Lord to heal, to strengthen, to transform. But we don't do that as spectators. We don't do that as merely standing and watching what He's going to do. Because when we ask, He expects us to be part of the answer.
One of the great saints of the United States, Katharine Drexel, had a particular passion for the education of people of color. And this was at the end of the 1800s. And she and her family visited the city of Rome and they had the opportunity to have a meeting with Pope Leo XIII. And in the course of that meeting, Catherine said to him, "We have a huge problem in the United States. We have a problem about African-American people and about Native people who are receiving no education. They are not regarded as fully human. You need to do something about that. You need to send missionaries." 
And Leo looked at her and said, "You're right, so why don't you do it?" And that's what she did. She established a community that brought about the education of African-American young people and of Native people. The largest, most prestigious college that serves principally the African-American community was established by her. 
Leo looked at her and said, "You're right. You do it." Jesus says to each one of us, "Now you do it."
 

09.27.2020 Gospel Matthew Chapter 21

The Lord be with you.  And with your spirit The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Jesus said to the scribes and the Pharisees, "What do you think about this? There once was a man who had two sons. He went to one of them and he said, 'Go and work in the field in the vineyard today.' And the young man said, 'I will not go.' Later on he thought better, and he did go. The father went to the second son and said the same thing. And this son said, 'Yes, I will go,' but he did not go. So now I ask you, which of these two fulfilled the will of the father?" And they said, "The first one." 
And Jesus said to them, "John the Baptist came in righteousness and you did not believe him. And yet prostitutes and tax collectors believed him. And when you saw that, even then you did not believe."
The gospel of the Lord 
 

09.19.2020 Homily

Today we celebrate our patron's feast, St. Matthew. The gospel is a very short description of Matthew being called. Jesus ends up in Matthew's house. He ends up for a meal and He's there with His disciples, and sitting around the table are a whole variety of people, none of whom are the kind of people that your mother would want you to hang out with. Jesus is there with them. He's eating with them. He's sharing that time with them. And the Pharisees see this and it really wrecks their plan as to how life ought to happen. Now why is this man who's a teacher, who's a teacher of Israel, why is He eating with these people?
Doesn't He know that you're known by the company you keep, and does He want to have people think of Him the way they think of these people? And Jesus says, "I haven't come for the righteous. The righteous don't need me. You guys, the Pharisees, you really don't need me because you feel you've got it all worked out. I come for sinners. I come for people who recognize that there is need in their life, that there is the opportunity for them to do something different with their lives." 
You see, Jesus isn't there because those people sitting around the table are worthy. He's not there because they deserve it. He's there because they need it. And he's not just there as an act of kindness, that He's going to show kindness to these people who no one else will talk to. That's not why He's there. He's there to enter into solidarity with them. He's there to enter into an intimate relationship with them. He wants a place in their lives and He wants them to have a place in His life. He's there because He wants to make sure that both He and those people sitting at the table, that they understand how deep this connection is. He's there for solidarity, not for charity.
And that's what He asks of us as we come to Him. That He desires that we enter into His life, that we bring who we are. We don't have to dust it off. We don't have to shine it up. We don't have to do anything. You just come as you are. And we don't have to make any excuses. None of those people who sat at the table with Jesus felt a need to make excuses because everyone knew who they were. We don't have to make excuses. We need to recognize that there is a need inside of us. And we need to recognize that it's nothing that we deserve that we're going to get. It's just that we need it and we need it badly.
Well, today is the 50th anniversary of the dedication of this church. In 1968 on the day after Easter, the old church burned down. And two years later, a little more than that, this church rose in its place. And this church is very, very different from the old church. But then the world is incredibly different from the way the world was at the beginning of the 20th century. And there is a different understanding of what it is to be a member of the church, what it is to be a disciple of Jesus. And part of that understanding is that this discipleship is something that we share in a community. That there's no such thing as a lone ranger. That we're all linked to each other. And if we get to heaven, we're going to get to heaven with each other.
And that all are called into this community. You don't have to prove anything at the main door when you walk in. You don't have to dress up right, and smile right, and look right. You don't have to do any of that. Just come. Come the way you are. We're all sinners. We're all here seeking the mercy of God. And none of us has any reason to try to excuse ourselves. 
And this is the table. This is the dinner table, like in Matthew's house. I suppose that some might feel that I really don't belong at that table. That if my next door neighbor saw that I was in church, he'd be shocked. I don't know how many times people have told me, "Oh, I can't come in that building. You know, it's been so long. The roof would cave in if I walked in there." Well, come on in. The roof is strong. That's what the message of today's feast is. 
As we pray today, as we stand at this table, at this altar. As we enter into this meal with the Lord, let us know that He seeks solidarity with us. He seeks to identify with us. He seeks to walk in our skin, to live in and with us.
And He seeks for us to do the same with Him.

09.19.2020 Gospel Matthew Chapter 9

The Lord be with you.  And with your spirit The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
As Jesus walked by, He saw a man named Matthew at the tax collector's booth. He said to him, "Follow me." Immediately Matthew got up and followed Jesus. Now later that day Jesus was in Matthew's house with His disciples, and they were at table. And joining them at table were tax collectors and prostitutes and extortionists and sinners, and the Pharisees saw this. And they said to Jesus' disciples, "Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?" And Jesus heard them and He said to them, "Those who are healthy do not need a doctor. Those who are sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words: It is mercy I desire and not sacrifice. For I have come to call not the righteous, but to call sinners."
The gospel of the Lord.
 

09.13.2020 Homily

In one sense, the gospel story is about justice. We have the king, the land owner who has lent money out to servants, expecting a return on that loan and had a right to call that loan in. And he did, he was settling accounts. And there was one servant who had borrowed an extensive amount of money, so much money that he was clearly unable to repay. And so the King was going to ask that justice be done, that this man and his wife and his children, his property, that they'd be sold and the proceeds go toward meeting the debt. That's justice.
 
The man said, "I can't do it." He got down on his knees and he begged for mercy. And we're told that the King felt compassion. He forgave the debt and he freed the man. And that's the act of mercy.
 
You see justice in the teaching of Jesus is not enough. Justice is important and we owe justice to each other, but there's got to be something more than justice. And Jesus says it is mercy that always trumps justice. Mercy is always more important than justice. Mercy is the act by which the person who has offended me is not only forgiven, but that I take that person again into relationship with me. That whatever that is that stood between me and that person, that that be wiped away, that that person would be restored to the condition, to the place that he or she had before the offense was committed. That there be a restoration of the individual.
 
That's the work of mercy. And that's what Jesus says his heavenly father does. Every single one of us is a sinner. And every single one of us has come before the Lord God and has sought mercy. And in every single one of our cases, the Lord has poured forth His mercy upon us. He has restored us to relationship with Him. He's restored us as sons and daughters of the Father and sisters and brothers of Himself. Mercy before justice.
 
Toward the end of the Shakespearian play The Merchant of Venice, Portia is defending Shylock in the court, and she calls out for mercy. She says, "The quality of mercy is not strained. It drops like a gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. Mercy Is twice blessed. It blesses the one who gives and it blesses the one who receives. It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. His scepter shows force in temporal power, but mercy is above the sceptered sway. It is enthroned in the heart of the king. It is an attribute to God Himself. The earthly power then shows the likeness of God when it is mercy that seasons justice."
 
We face in our day, in our time, in this country, a tremendous call for setting right what has been wrong. And the call is for justice. And yet it is not just justice that is going to reconcile. It's going to be justice that is laced with mercy.
 
In South Africa, after the end of apartheid when it was necessary for that society, black and white to come together, they established a process, a reconciliation process, a process by which the truth could be told and people could acknowledge their share in the pain that had taken place, the injustice. But that reconciliation process was built on the principle of mercy. It was not an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but it was to restore a nation. To restore the fabric of the society that had been rent apart. And that called for the willingness on the part of people to move beyond justice, and to themselves and to others extend the gift of mercy.
 
Remembering in the sense, what Shakespeare put in the mouth of Portia: "Mercy is twice blessed. It blesses the one who gives and it blesses the one who takes."

09.13.2020 Gospel Matthew Chapter 18

The Lord be with you.  And with your spirit The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Peter approached Jesus and asked, "If my brother sins against me. How many times must I forgive him, as much as seven times?" And Jesus says, "Not seven times, but seventy-seven times." And this is why the kingdom of God can be compared to a king who went about settling accounts with his servants. One servant was brought in to him who owed a huge amount of money, far more than he was ever able to pay. So the King decided to sell him and his wife and his children and his property in order to cover the debt. The man dropped to his knees and said, "Have pity on me. And I will pay back all that I have borrowed." The king looked upon him with compassion. He freed him and he also wiped out the whole debt.
Now, when this servant left the presence of the king, he came up with a fellow servant of his who owed him a small amount of money. He laid his hands on the man. He began to choke him and he said, "Pay what you owe." The fellow servant dropped to his knees and said, "Have pity on me and I will pay you everything." But he refused. He handed the servant over to be in prison until the debt be paid. 
Now, when the other servants saw this, they were deeply moved. They were very much aggrieved and they went to the king and they recounted all that they had seen and the King called for the servant. And when the servant was brought in to him, the king said, "You are truly a wicked man. You begged me and I forgave you your whole debt. I showed compassion to you. Should you not have shown compassion to your fellow servant? As I showed compassion to you." And then in anger, he handed the servant over to the torturers until the entire debt be paid. 
And just so, my heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive your sister or brother from your heart. 
The gospel of the Lord.

09.05.2020 Homily

The gospel reading today and for the coming few weeks will be taken from the 18th chapter of St. Matthew's gospel. And the 18th chapter, if you will, lays out the order which should govern the life of the Christian community. It's in that chapter that Matthew records the teaching of Jesus about the community of faith, the church. 
We learn very early in the life of the church in the second generation after the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, that the church is to be described in having four characteristics. The church is the church of Jesus Christ when the church gathers for Eucharist. So to be a Eucharistic people is, if you will, the first mark of the church. The church is committed to the daily prayer, the morning and evening prayer, so a praying community. That's another mark of the church. The church is committed to the apostolic teaching. That is the church is committed to the gospel, that the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes the norm for the life of the church. And the fourth mark is that the church is to be preserved in unity and peace, so that the fellowship of the community must be maintained at all costs. 
Now, the first three of those qualities, the Eucharist, the daily prayer, and the teaching of the gospel, happen without an awful lot of dissension. But the fourth quality, the maintaining of the unity of the church, the unity of the community, that's where problems arise. And so the teaching today in the gospel is Matthew's reflection on Jesus’ teaching as to how the community is going to settle its differences. People are going to disagree. People will harm each other. People will do things that will cause pain to each other. Yet they are members of the community, and somehow the community needs to find and have a way of reconciling that and holding that community together.
So Matthew says that Jesus tells us that if there's a member of the community who's done some wrong to you, don't talk about the person behind their back. Don't stew over it, go and have it out with the person face to face. Put it on the line. And if the person will listen to you, then the problem is resolved. Then you've won this person back to you. But if the person will not listen to you, then take a couple members of the community and go with them to see the person again, because what transpires then will be able to be witnessed by a couple of persons other than yourself.And if the person will still not listen, then take it to the community of the church. And if the person will not listen to the church, then that person is to be treated like a tax collector or a Gentile. 
Now that doesn't mean that at that point, you can wash your hands of that person. That doesn't mean you can turn your back on that person. That doesn't mean that that person has no greater claim on you. Yes, the community has meant to do exactly what Jesus did. And Jesus, he just went out to the tax collector. Jesus went out to the Gentile. Jesus went out to the person who was on the edge. Jesus went out to those for whom no one would have contact. Jesus went out to see, to heal, and to reconcile with that person. And so if the person moves beyond the church, if the person is told you can no longer be with this community, that also means that the members of the community have a responsibility to continue to search for that person.
Now the very prayer of the church describes how all of this is held together. When we start the prayer of the Eucharist this afternoon, we will initially remember what Jesus did the night before he died. How He took bread and blessed it and gave it to His disciples and said, "Take this. This is my body." And how He took the cup of wine and blessed it and gave it to them and said, "This is the cup of my blood." And then we will pray that all those who share in the gift of His body and His blood, be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit. So we begin by praying for the unity of the church. We begin by asking God to guarantee, to strengthen that bond that binds us together. 
Then the next thing we will do is we will pray for the Church Universal. We pray that the church may live in peace with Francis, the Bishop of Rome, and with Bernard, our Bishop, and with the entire people your Son has gained for you. That there may be peace and unity in this large group, this universal church, those who share with us the church on earth. 
And then we pray for those who've gone before us. Those who share the church of eternal life, those who share what we're all called ultimately to share in--that mystery of union with God. And so we remember those who have died and we remember the Lord's promise to all people. We pray that all who have died may be brought into the presence of His glory. And finally, we pray for ourselves. We pray for those of us who are gathered here. We pray for this community. We pray that united with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Saint Joseph, and united with all the angels and the saints, that with them we may praise and glorify God, our Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ. For it is through Him and with Him and in Him that all glory and honor is yours forever and ever. Amen. 
So in the very prayer of the Eucharist, the church's prayer is essentially a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift, and a prayer that God will keep this community in union with each other, That God will preserve the peace of the community. Before we come to the Eucharist, what do we do? Peace be with you. Before we come to the Eucharist, what do we say? The Lord Jesus Christ said to His apostles, peace I leave you, My peace I give you. Look not upon our sins, but upon the faith of the community. Grant us peace and unity according to Your will. It's the very stuff of which the church is, and today's gospel reading is simply a three-step process seeking to find a way to heal the breach whenever it would occur. 
Well, that rule is as good today as it was 2000 years ago. And when differences arise between members of the community, that's a good rule of thumb as to how to come to some solution. That we do it up front, that we do at face-to-face, that we do it seeking a resolution, seeking reconciliation. We pray that that gift may be given to us, and that we may live out that gift in our lives.

09.05.2020 Gospel Matthew Chapter 18

The Lord be with you.  And with your spirit The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Jesus said to his disciples, "If your brother should do something wrong to you, go and have it out with him face to face. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother back. If not, then take two others and go to him, that those two may be witness to what goes between you. And if he will not listen to them, then bring the matter before the church. And if you will not listen to the church, then treat him as if he were a Gentile or a tax collector. Remember this: what is what you bind on earth is bound in heaven. And what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. And when two of you gather and decide to ask something in my name, my Father will grant that to you. Remember where two or three gather in my name, there I stand among them." 
The gospel of the Lord.

08.29.2020 Homily

This passage of the gospel falls immediately after the passage that was part of the gospel of last week. Remember, last week Jesus comes into the region and He says, "What do people say that I am?" And then Peter confesses, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." And then Jesus changes his name. He says, From now on you're Peter," and He gives to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And later that day or the next day, Jesus says, "Now what it means to be the Son of the living God is this. That I must go to Jerusalem. I must suffer. I must die. And I must be raised to life." All four of those pieces have the word must with it. That you cannot be the son of the living God without this happening.
Peter says, “Well it will never happen." The one who just almost hours before confessed, 'You are the son of the living God," now challenges Jesus. The Greeks have two ways of describing time. One word they use is kronos, like chronometer, and that's just ordinary time, regular time. It's like you would say, Oh, I had a wonderful time at the birthday party, or it's time to pay property taxes, or I really should see the doctor. It's been a long time since I've seen the doctor. That's the kind of time that is kronos, But then the Greeks have another word for time and that's kairos. And that means time that's transformational in life, time that makes the world stop and then move in a different direction. It is time that is suffused with the power of the spirit. The Transfiguration story in the gospel reflects that kind of time, that kairos time. And what happened to Peter, that also is kairos time, is transformational time. It's turning things upside down. He gets a new name and he gets a new mission. 
This time, this special time, this transformational time is really the time that makes the ultimate difference in life. When you're experiencing that kind of time, when that kind of transformational event occurs, you don't always understand it when it's happening. You know, Peter did not understand what he was saying. When he said "You are the Christ, the son of the living God," he didn't understand that until after the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus and the coming forth of the Holy Spirit. Then all of a sudden the light went on, and then all of a sudden he saw a life change.  There is a new heaven and a new earth. 
Well, my friends, I believe that COVID-19 is for us a transformational moment. I believe the time that we're experiencing is that kairos time. Transformational time always involves prophecy, and the work of the prophet is to point out the signs of the times. And the kairos time provides a unique opportunity, an invitation, a challenge. And the invitation is to live in a new future, not the future I dreamed about a year ago, but a new future. That there is something very new. People say to me, when are we going to get back to normal? And my answer is we'll never get back to normal. What we're experiencing is a profound change in life. We need a new vision of something more than just what was old and just clean it up. We need a vision of a new community. We need a vision of a new society.   And in the United States, we need a vision of a post-racial world. 
The old world is run off. It's run its course, it's going and gone. I just can't polish up things and straighten up things and say, okay now, now everything's going to go on like it was before, because it's not. What we do know is that at least at this point in this transformational moment, there are a number of realities that are held together. One of them is the experience that we are having with COVID-19, but linked to it very, very tightly is the experience that not only this country, but the world, has undertaken as a result of the events that were associated with George Floyd's death.
Peter ultimately realized what the Lord was saying and doing with him. But the way that you realize that transformational moment, the way that it makes sense for you, it's a hard thing to do. But it means going back and rediscovering your roots, rediscovering what are the ultimate facts of who you are, or the ultimate facts of what this society is, or the ultimate facts about what this community is. And then from that point to rebuild in a new spirit. 
The Germans have a word for it. Now this word is 26 letters long for Bergegenheistaufarbitung is what they call it. And it means the process by which we strive to learn from our histories, the process by which we strive to learn from our histories, the process by which we go back to our roots, a process by which we don't take anything for granted, the process by which we embrace the ultimate facts of our lives. That there is God, that human beings are made in the very image of God, that the love of God is inclusive and embrasive of all, that human beings are part of God's creation, and that there's a fundamental connection between the elements of the created universe, between me and the rest of the created universe. 
Those are some of the basic principles. There are others, but we go back and we grab onto those really tight. And then we say in light of that, how do we want to live it? How do we want to live it? And I would suggest we have to do the same thing with the society, the principles that undergird the society, the dignity of the human person, the value of the human person, the rights of the human person, the justice that is owed to the human person, the opportunity for a person to use their talent for their good and the good of their neighbor, all of those basic principles that we hold to. We need to grab on to those and then rebuild. 
Well, let's just say it's not easy to do. That's what Jesus was really saying to Peter. “Peter, you're thinking about this with human thoughts and you'll never get there that way. You've got to view this through the mind of God.” That's what's transformational. That is what is the new heaven and the new earth. 
And so I would suggest to you that ultimately the meaning of COVID-19 and the meaning of the death of George Floyd is found in the very presence of God.

08.29.2020 Gospel Matthew Chapter 16

The Lord be with you.  And with your spirit The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Jesus began to show his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and there He must suffer at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priests. That He must be killed. And that on the third day, He must raise from the dead. Now when Peter heard this, he said to Jesus, "Lord, this will never happen to you." Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan. You're thinking the thoughts of human beings, not the thought of God." And then He said to them, "Anyone who wants to be my disciple must take up his cross and follow after me. Whoever would keep his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will have it. What do you gain by giving up everything just to inherit the goods of the earth. I assure you that those who accept my word shall live forever. "
The gospel of the Lord,