{"id":3513,"date":"2023-06-11T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=3513"},"modified":"2023-07-05T16:10:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T20:10:52","slug":"st-matthews-workquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2023\/06\/11\/st-matthews-workquake\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Matthew\u2019s \u2018Workquake’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to watch the full service<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew 9:9\u201326<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to hear just the sermon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good morning! I\u2019m so glad to be back with you at Marsh Chapel, and to participate in this sermon series on Matthew and the Cost of Discipleship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The writer Sue Monk Kidd reminds us of the root of the word \u201ccrisis,\u201d in her essay \u201cCrossing the Threshold.\u201d She writes:<\/p>\n

\u00a0“A crisis is a holy summons to cross a threshold. It involves both a leaving behind and a stepping toward, a separation and an opportunity.<\/i><\/p>\n

“The word crisis derives from the Greek words krisis and krino, which mean ‘a separating.’ The very root of the word implies that our crises are times of severing from old ways and states of being. We need to ask ourselves what it is we\u2019re being asked to separate from. What needs to be left behind?”<\/i><\/p>\n

~ Sue Monk Kidd, from the essay \u201cCrossing the Threshold,\u201d in \u201cThe Dance of the Dissident Daughter\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus encounters three people in crisis. For two of these, the leader of the synagogue whose daughter has died, and the woman with the hemorrhage that won\u2019t stop, these are health crises, and they are acute. Jesus is their last hope. The leader of the synagogue is in the middle of an emergency: his daughter is already dead, but he has faith that if he can just get Jesus to lay hands on her, she will live again. For the woman with the hemorrhage, we are told in the Gospel of Mark where this story also appears that she had seen many doctors, who had not been able to help her at all. For both the synagogue leader\u2019s emergency and the woman\u2019s debilitating chronic illness, Jesus is their last shot at healing. And he does raise the man\u2019s daughter from the dead, and the woman\u2019s touch of his cloak does stop her hemorrhages.<\/p>\n

These are such dramatic and powerful stories, that it would be easy to skip over Matthew, there in his booth. Matthew doesn\u2019t actually say anything to Jesus that is recorded here, or ask anything of him. Instead he responds, immediately and whole-heartedly, to Jesus\u2019 invitation to follow him. And that\u2019s how we know he is in crisis: because he just leaves his booth by the side of the road, and never goes back! He has one brief encounter with Jesus, and he leaves his old life behind, for good! There\u2019s a lot of talk in the media these days about so-called \u201cquiet quitting\u201d; this is \u201cloud quitting\u201d!<\/p>\n

Now we are reading the Gospel attributed to Matthew, and this is Matthew\u2019s story. It\u2019s just a few verses, and Matthew himself doesn\u2019t say anything in words. But walking off the job communicates a lot. Matthew has had what the writer Bruce Feiler calls a \u201cworkquake.\u201d Some of you may remember Bruce Feiler\u2019s bestselling book Walking the Bible<\/i> from a number of years back. He also recently wrote a book called Life in the Transitions<\/i>, where he coined the word \u201clifequake,\u201d to describe points of crisis where our lives seem to open up and rupture, as in an earthquake. In Feiler\u2019s new book, The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in the Post-Career World<\/i>, Feiler focuses on \u201cworkquakes,\u201d the crises or significant turning points that people have over the course of their careers. He urges his readers to examine their own \u201cwork story,\u201d and, for those seeking deeper meaning and purpose from their work, to ask themselves questions about their past, present, and dreams for the future that can help them to chart a new course in their careers.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Matthew is a good patron saint for these pandemic and post-pandemic times, when four and a half million people left their jobs in 2022, following a trend of what economists call \u201cquit rates\u201d increasing steadily and significantly for the past several years. Feiler argues that many Americans are now rejecting the narrow definition of success that was handed down \u201cby parents, encouraged by . . . neighbors, [and[ reinforced by\u00a0 . . . culture,\u201d\u00a0 questioning its values and challenging its assumptions. People are looking for other measures of achievement than \u201cmore, higher, better.\u201d And, they are resisting unjust, inequitable, and discriminatory systems and structures in the workplace that devalue and demean their contributions. We are seeing a resurgence in the labor movement, not just on the factory floor, but in corporate behemoths like Amazon and Starbucks, and also, it should be noted, among graduate students and non-tenure track professors, including at the School of Theology of this very University.<\/p>\n

What made Matthew walk off the job in the middle of his workday? It\u2019s clear that Jesus was not offering him a competitive salary with benefits package. Quite the opposite! What kind of internal crisis was happening in Matthew\u2019s life, that led to this abrupt and permanent break with his profession?<\/p>\n

Since it wasn\u2019t about money or status, it must have been about meaning and purpose. Maybe before Jesus showed up at Matthew\u2019s booth, he had heard about this wandering rabbi and wonder-worker who preached that his mission was to bring good news to the poor, to heal, and to set prisoners free. Had Matthew\u2019s toll booth become a prison?<\/p>\n

And yes, it\u2019s likely that Matthew was not, as the NRSV translates, a tax collector, but in fact a telones <\/i>in Greek, a toll collector. That helps explain why Jesus meets him on the road, and why he\u2019s in a booth! And for those of you youngsters in the congregation, there was a time when there were real live toll collectors inside the toll booths . . . and when you paid tolls with actual coins. Does anyone else remember manually rolling down the car window, in order to toss quarters into the toll booth receptacle?? Good times.<\/p>\n

I will not share all the scintillating details with you from the lengthy article I read on first century taxation, except to say that Matthew, as a toll collector, was probably more of a lower-level functionary collecting smaller tolls and taxes, rather than someone with more clout in the direct employ of the Roman empire.<\/p>\n

Which begs the question: \u201ctoll collectors and sinners\u201d??? What\u2019s with that recurring biblical phrase? Apparently, toll collectors were notorious for being dishonest. They were the used-car salesmen of the ancient world. And while they generally not big shots, it probably didn\u2019t help their reputation that they were functionaries in the Roman Imperial system.<\/p>\n

Matthew then has Jesus over to his house for dinner. (This is what the gospel of Luke says, in Luke\u2019s version of the story.) But the low esteem in which his former profession is held causes scandal, and the Pharisees ask Jesus\u2019 other disciples, \u201cWhy does your teacher eat with toll collectors and sinners?\u201d<\/i> And Jesus answers, \u201cThose who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. . . I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The counter-cultural thinker Alan Watts wrote, “See, I am a philosopher and if you don’t argue with me, I don’t know what I think. If we argue, I say ‘Thank You’, because owing to the courtesy of you taking a different point of view, I understand what I mean, so I can’t get rid of you.” <\/i>I am not a philosopher, but I am from New Jersey, and so I can relate to this. (pause) I grew up in a place where ordinary conversation can seem pretty combative to people from other parts of the country!<\/p>\n

And I think that Jesus is in a similar environment. In my years of reading the Bible and preaching, I\u2019ve come to see these ongoing conversations between Jesus and the Pharisees in this light. Their discussions or arguments can get heated, in the way that the discussions of philosophers or political junkies get heated. The Pharisees, Jesus and his disciples, and here the disciples of John the Baptist show up too: they are all working out what they believe in constant conversation and argument with each other. They are debating each other, criticizing each other, and ultimately challenging each other. I see them more as frenemies, than enemies, through much of Jesus\u2019 ministry. They have a lot in common.<\/p>\n

So Matthew\u2019s presence as a disciple causes scandal, and then John\u2019s disciples pop over to ask why Jesus and his disciples don\u2019t fast in the way that they do. And Jesus gives two parabolic answers, one pretty straightforward, the other not. First, he says they do not fast because no one fasts during a wedding celebration\u2014Jesus is the bridegroom, and when he\u2019s gone, his disciples will fast. Jesus\u2019 presence has ushered in a new age, and his good news to the poor, healing of the sick, and release of the prisoners is a Messianic celebration.<\/p>\n

And then he has two more sayings: \u201cNo one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Okay, what? [This teaching is obscure enough, that the compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary edited it out of today\u2019s reading; but I thought it was important enough to edit back in, and so you lucky folks get extra Bible to chew on today. Marsh Chapel, now with 20% more parables!]<\/i><\/p>\n

Jesus has been challenged as to the kind of person he allows to join his disciples, and to how they practice their faith\u2014and he gives this as an answer. Why, and what does it mean? And, what does it mean for us?<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s notice what Jesus does not say: he does not say that new clothes are better than old clothes; and that new wine is better than old wine.<\/p>\n

So here, Jesus is not saying that his new ministry and mission is supplanting or replacing the old. In fact, these are sayings about how to preserve the old garment, and the old wine.<\/p>\n

These are sayings about craft: about the choices that a tailor and a vinter would make. A tailor would not sew new, unshrunk cloth to old preshrunk cloth, because it would further damage the garment instead of mending it. A vinter would not put new wine, that would still be fermenting and so creating gasses and expanding, into old wineskins: because the old leather has already stretched as much as it can stretch, and the skins would burst and ruin everything.<\/p>\n

In other words, the new materials are flexible and elastic; they can stretch. They can adapt. The old cannot effectively receive the new, because the flexibility is gone.<\/p>\n

Jesus is talking about craft, and the tradition of craft. Tailors make new garments, and repair old ones: cloth is precious, and nothing is wasted. Vinters make new wine, and age old wine, and sell both, at different prices. And, new wine ages and becomes old wine, and the craft of winemaking continues.<\/p>\n

These sayings are not about replacing the old with the new. They are about carrying on the tradition and the craft.<\/p>\n

Jesus is saying, new movements cannot be contained in the systems and structures of old movements. They need their own containers. They need systems and structures that can still adapt and change and change shape as necessary. And that this is not a break with tradition, but an essential part of carrying on tradition. Jesus is saying that he is not the kind of rabbi that the Pharisees are, and he is not the kind of prophet that John is. His mission and his ministry are different. And so are his disciples. And it is best not to try to force them into containers that won\u2019t hold them.<\/p>\n

His disciples are people like Matthew\u2014people who have become dissatisfied, people who are searching for relationship with God, people who have come to a crisis point in their lives where they need to make a change. Who want to find purpose and meaning in their work and in their lives\u2014who want to be on the side of the liberators and not the oppressors. Who are no longer fine with the status quo\u2014because of who gets left out and left behind.<\/p>\n

And the religious communities of Jesus\u2019 day were not able to accommodate people like Matthew. In fact, they did not want those people around at all.<\/p>\n

We in the Church are also having a collective lifequake,\u00a0 a collective workquake. We are in the midst of a crisis\u2014of decline, but also a crisis of identity, and a crisis of formation. We are in a historical moment, made more acute and urgent by the pandemic, where it is not at all clear how our faith traditions will be carried on to the next generation. Churches are struggling and closing, longtime church members are dying and not being replaced, our church buildings are often too big and too old to maintain. Most of our congregations are in survival mode, with little energy for those outside their doors.<\/p>\n

And Jesus says to us: stop trying to sew a new patch on an old garment. Stop trying to force the new wine into old wineskins.<\/p>\n

Our systems and structures need to change. Completely. No more retrofitting; \u201credevelopment\u201d is not enough. You need new containers, for what the Holy Spirit is doing in your midst right now. We need to think differently about community, about formation and education, about worship, about mission and identity and purpose, about leadership and responsibility and governance\u2014and about buildings.<\/p>\n

Or, you are going to lose it all. The craft, the tradition, the gospel, will not continue in the places they have been.<\/p>\n

This is the cost of discipleship in our own day: do we hold on to what we know, and let nostalgia continue to corrode our congregations until there\u2019s nothing left?<\/p>\n

Or do we follow Jesus into a new way of being church? With new disciples, who weren\u2019t there before\u2014but who long for good news, healing, liberation\u2014and authentic relationship with God.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s our choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very root of the word implies that our crises are times of severing from old ways and states of being. We need to ask ourselves what it is we\u2019re being asked to separate from. What needs to be left behind?”\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll look forward to being back with you in August, to continue this conversation.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s name, Amen.<\/p>\n

-The Rev. Dr. Regina L. Walton, <\/em>Denominational Counselor for Anglican\/Episcopal Students and Lecturer, <\/em>Harvard Divinity School<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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