O Almighty God,Unsurprisingly, 21 September is the Festival of Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist.
whose blessed Son called Matthew the tax collector
to be an apostle and evangelist:
give us grace to forsake the selfish pursuit of gain
and the possessive love of riches
that we may follow in the way of
your Son Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of
the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The morning office readings this morning included Elijah's first encounter with Elisha, whom Elijah finds ploughing with 12 yoke of oxen - 24 oxen - no small outfit then. But when called by God, Elisha in addition to saying farewell to his parents (1 Kings 19:20), slaughters the oxen, boils their flesh and distributes the food to the people (v.21) WOAH!!
It's one thing to follow God with one eye on the past, or better still a career to fall back on.
It's another thing entirely to destroy the tools of your trade. What would Elisha do if Elijah turned out to be a charlatan, or if the road was too demanding and he tired of service?
What an utterly profound and challenging example!
Matthew (or Levi to his friends?!) did the same:
Jesus, "Follow me!"
Matthew, "Okay"
No conditional response, no pre-nuptial agreement, no mission statement or values to sign up to, no action plan, no insurance, nothing - he simply followed.
When we choose to follow Christ we are called to a life whole-heartedly devoted to Him. We are to step out in faith. And for many of us a life lived under the Lordship of Christ involves a life of sacrifice - we are asked to put aside our ambition, our life plan, our careers, our livelihood...
Which is why the collect today gets to the heart of discipleship - the way we follow.
"Give us grace to forsake the selfish pursuit of gain
and the possessive love of riches"
Ouch! - are we, this day, more concerned with personal financial gain, or the acquisition of stuff?
It's a simple question.
Do we trust God, or do we trust ourselves?
Do we follow with one eye on Jesus and another on our capacity to ensure we have a pleasant life, full of the nice things? Or instead, do we walk in grace setting aside ourselves and placing Christ on the throne - following Him wherever he leads.
As we vow in Marriage - "for richer for poorer"
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