Ezekiel 2:8-3:11/Ephesians 4:7-16/St Matthew 9:9-13
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Lord Jesus has come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance; to heal the sick, raise the dead, to cast out demons. He has come to forgive sins.
And where does He find you? With what are you pre-occupied? What sickness does the Divine Physician need to heal in you, that you may not die but live? From what sin does He call you to repentance?
There is no one who is righteous, not one. The Law is not a ruler with which you compare and contrast yourself to others. You are not doing fine. You are not okay. You are not righteous. You shall not live by your cares and occupations in life; by your special interests and social causes.
But it does lead us to ask, how do we spend our time and energy? Where do you invest your heart, soul, mind and strength? What is it that consumes your attention? And why? Why do you do what you do? To make money? To win friends? To find security for your future?
Give it up. Whatever it is that dominates and drives you, that is your god. But it cannot give you life, real life. Our false gods and fake idols are lifeless. And so they create lifeless people, dead people. Where there is life, there is also the forgiveness of sins. Without life there is no forgiveness. Your idols cannot give you life; cannot give you peace and rest. They cannot prolong your days on earth or give you life everlasting.
And it is from all of your false gods that Jesus calls you to repent. He calls you to give them all up and follow Him. To take up your cross and follow Him; to die with Him, in order to live with Him. There is no other way. There is real life in no one else, in nothing else.
Now there are plenty of things in your life that you need to get rid of entirely: to get up and walk away from them because they are harmful to your heart, mind, body and soul and because they entice you and your love away from your neighbor whom our Lord gives you to serve. As St Paul wrote to the Ephesians, We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ, from whom the whole body is built up in love.
It is faith active in love that you are to remain in those stations in life to which He has called you. In faith you follow Him, for He has given you your vocations, your callings in life. No, you are not called to be an Apostle or Evangelist like St Matthew. Some of you men may be called to be a shepherd, some of you women to be deaconesses or church workers. Most of you, though, will not. And it is unlikely that you will be called to bodily martyrdom.
But each of you is called to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow Him in faith, in love toward your neighbor, wherever He has placed you in this world. That is where you bear the Cross, that is where and how you lay down your life.
Are you a son or daughter? Honor your father and mother. Are you a husband or wife? Love and honor and spoue. Are you a father or mother? Feed and clothe your children; teach them the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer; love them and serve them as your Father in heaven loves and cares for you.
Work faithfully and honestly in your job, or as a student, whatever your occupation in life may be. You work not to impress men. Rather you work in fear, love, and trust of God. And for His sake you love and serve your neighbor. This is the purpose for which our Lord has given you your job. And if you do not have one and are able to work, that He would have you put your hands to useful work, trusting in His goodness and mercy to supply you in your need as your love your neighbor.
For it is not away from your occupation, not away from your stuff, that our Lord Jesus calls you. Rather it is your heart that He calls. He calls your heart that you may no longer be preoccupied and consumed with self-desire, with your own works and the wealth of this world But that you would be consumed with Him above all; for He alone is your life and health and strength and song. He calls you with urgency and insistence to let go of your idols, forsake the false gods that reign in your heart and life.
He doesn’t do this out of pettiness nor to deprive you of life and happiness as if the Lord does not wish for you to have fun and enjoy life. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. He wishes that you may receive His gifts and have true joy and lasting peace and real life in Him forever.
It is in mercy and compassion that He calls your to Himself. He calls you away from your sin, as He did for St Matthew, for that leads only to death. But in Him there is life through forgiveness of all your sins. And it is for this reason that He sacrificed Himself upon the Cross, in mercy He atoned for your sin and reconciled you with God.
In Christ mercy and sacrifice meet; righteousness and peace embrace each other, as the Psalmist says (Ps 85:10). And they now embrace you. For it is by His Cross that you are brought near to God, not for condemnation, but for life. He heals you. He feeds you with Himself. His Word is sweeter than honey upon your lips. In the forgiveness of sins you taste the goodness of the Lord.
All of this, His calling you, gathering you to Himself in love and mercy, pardoning your sins on account of His sacrifice, and then placing you in your vocations as friends and neighbors to one another, all of this is by and from the Cross. And because it is so, it is often painful. And it is ridiculous in the eyes of the world. It is not, in this day and age, entirely out of the question that you may be put to death for this faith and confession of Christ Jesus.
You certainly are called to die each day - to yourself, to your sin, to the world - through contrition and repentance. Many of those you love and serve will return your compassion with criticism and contempt. It may be that your own children will one day forsake the faith in which you raised them. And certainly, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, the devil will constantly attack and accuse you with a fevered desire to destroy you.
Yet for all of that the Cross of Christ is your life and health. He is with you and blesses you, not “in spite of” the Cross, but precisely by the ways and means of the Cross. For your Baptism into His Cross has raised you with Him to new life in His resurrection. His Word of the Cross absolves you of all your sins. And the fruits of His Cross, His Body and Blood, sacrificed for you are your medicine of immortality. For it is precisely in this way that Christ is the Divine Physician come to call the sick to repentance and faith, to life in Him, by and from His Cross.
And is it by the crosses that you bear in faith and love that Jesus serves and supports your neighbor through you. This is true of St Matthew, called to be an apostle and evangelist. For our Lord called him away from sin to bear and follow after him. Through that former tax collector, our Lord and Savior not only preached His Word and ministered His means of grace, but also caused Him Word of the Gospel to be inscribed and published for the healing of the nations. Through the life and work of St Matthew the dear Savior of sinners has loved and served His Church on earth. For to this day and in this place the Church knows Jesus - and you know Jesus - because of this Word of the Apostle and Evangelist, St Matthew. Pastors and teachers preach the Holy Gospel, baptize, absolve, and commune sinners with that Word of Christ given by the hand of St Matthew.
My friends, it is by that Word that our Lord calls you to Himself, to follow Him, to die with Him, to live with Him. It is by that Word that He calls to you now to rise and follow Him to this house and to His Table, where He dines with you, where He continues to eat and drink with sinners, for here He gives you life. It is by this Word that He has mercy and compassion upon you. And it is with and through this Word that you speak the truth in love to your neighbor and grow up in every way into Him who is the head, even Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit be both glory now and forever. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Lord Jesus has come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance; to heal the sick, raise the dead, to cast out demons. He has come to forgive sins.
And where does He find you? With what are you pre-occupied? What sickness does the Divine Physician need to heal in you, that you may not die but live? From what sin does He call you to repentance?
There is no one who is righteous, not one. The Law is not a ruler with which you compare and contrast yourself to others. You are not doing fine. You are not okay. You are not righteous. You shall not live by your cares and occupations in life; by your special interests and social causes.
But it does lead us to ask, how do we spend our time and energy? Where do you invest your heart, soul, mind and strength? What is it that consumes your attention? And why? Why do you do what you do? To make money? To win friends? To find security for your future?
Give it up. Whatever it is that dominates and drives you, that is your god. But it cannot give you life, real life. Our false gods and fake idols are lifeless. And so they create lifeless people, dead people. Where there is life, there is also the forgiveness of sins. Without life there is no forgiveness. Your idols cannot give you life; cannot give you peace and rest. They cannot prolong your days on earth or give you life everlasting.
And it is from all of your false gods that Jesus calls you to repent. He calls you to give them all up and follow Him. To take up your cross and follow Him; to die with Him, in order to live with Him. There is no other way. There is real life in no one else, in nothing else.
Now there are plenty of things in your life that you need to get rid of entirely: to get up and walk away from them because they are harmful to your heart, mind, body and soul and because they entice you and your love away from your neighbor whom our Lord gives you to serve. As St Paul wrote to the Ephesians, We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ, from whom the whole body is built up in love.
It is faith active in love that you are to remain in those stations in life to which He has called you. In faith you follow Him, for He has given you your vocations, your callings in life. No, you are not called to be an Apostle or Evangelist like St Matthew. Some of you men may be called to be a shepherd, some of you women to be deaconesses or church workers. Most of you, though, will not. And it is unlikely that you will be called to bodily martyrdom.
But each of you is called to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow Him in faith, in love toward your neighbor, wherever He has placed you in this world. That is where you bear the Cross, that is where and how you lay down your life.
Are you a son or daughter? Honor your father and mother. Are you a husband or wife? Love and honor and spoue. Are you a father or mother? Feed and clothe your children; teach them the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer; love them and serve them as your Father in heaven loves and cares for you.
Work faithfully and honestly in your job, or as a student, whatever your occupation in life may be. You work not to impress men. Rather you work in fear, love, and trust of God. And for His sake you love and serve your neighbor. This is the purpose for which our Lord has given you your job. And if you do not have one and are able to work, that He would have you put your hands to useful work, trusting in His goodness and mercy to supply you in your need as your love your neighbor.
For it is not away from your occupation, not away from your stuff, that our Lord Jesus calls you. Rather it is your heart that He calls. He calls your heart that you may no longer be preoccupied and consumed with self-desire, with your own works and the wealth of this world But that you would be consumed with Him above all; for He alone is your life and health and strength and song. He calls you with urgency and insistence to let go of your idols, forsake the false gods that reign in your heart and life.
He doesn’t do this out of pettiness nor to deprive you of life and happiness as if the Lord does not wish for you to have fun and enjoy life. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. He wishes that you may receive His gifts and have true joy and lasting peace and real life in Him forever.
It is in mercy and compassion that He calls your to Himself. He calls you away from your sin, as He did for St Matthew, for that leads only to death. But in Him there is life through forgiveness of all your sins. And it is for this reason that He sacrificed Himself upon the Cross, in mercy He atoned for your sin and reconciled you with God.
In Christ mercy and sacrifice meet; righteousness and peace embrace each other, as the Psalmist says (Ps 85:10). And they now embrace you. For it is by His Cross that you are brought near to God, not for condemnation, but for life. He heals you. He feeds you with Himself. His Word is sweeter than honey upon your lips. In the forgiveness of sins you taste the goodness of the Lord.
All of this, His calling you, gathering you to Himself in love and mercy, pardoning your sins on account of His sacrifice, and then placing you in your vocations as friends and neighbors to one another, all of this is by and from the Cross. And because it is so, it is often painful. And it is ridiculous in the eyes of the world. It is not, in this day and age, entirely out of the question that you may be put to death for this faith and confession of Christ Jesus.
You certainly are called to die each day - to yourself, to your sin, to the world - through contrition and repentance. Many of those you love and serve will return your compassion with criticism and contempt. It may be that your own children will one day forsake the faith in which you raised them. And certainly, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, the devil will constantly attack and accuse you with a fevered desire to destroy you.
Yet for all of that the Cross of Christ is your life and health. He is with you and blesses you, not “in spite of” the Cross, but precisely by the ways and means of the Cross. For your Baptism into His Cross has raised you with Him to new life in His resurrection. His Word of the Cross absolves you of all your sins. And the fruits of His Cross, His Body and Blood, sacrificed for you are your medicine of immortality. For it is precisely in this way that Christ is the Divine Physician come to call the sick to repentance and faith, to life in Him, by and from His Cross.
And is it by the crosses that you bear in faith and love that Jesus serves and supports your neighbor through you. This is true of St Matthew, called to be an apostle and evangelist. For our Lord called him away from sin to bear and follow after him. Through that former tax collector, our Lord and Savior not only preached His Word and ministered His means of grace, but also caused Him Word of the Gospel to be inscribed and published for the healing of the nations. Through the life and work of St Matthew the dear Savior of sinners has loved and served His Church on earth. For to this day and in this place the Church knows Jesus - and you know Jesus - because of this Word of the Apostle and Evangelist, St Matthew. Pastors and teachers preach the Holy Gospel, baptize, absolve, and commune sinners with that Word of Christ given by the hand of St Matthew.
My friends, it is by that Word that our Lord calls you to Himself, to follow Him, to die with Him, to live with Him. It is by that Word that He calls to you now to rise and follow Him to this house and to His Table, where He dines with you, where He continues to eat and drink with sinners, for here He gives you life. It is by this Word that He has mercy and compassion upon you. And it is with and through this Word that you speak the truth in love to your neighbor and grow up in every way into Him who is the head, even Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit be both glory now and forever. Amen.
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