A very special Mother’s Day Sunday worship service is happening on May 12 – both in-person and hybrid. Join us as we welcome Jonathan Oh and his family at West Tokyo Union Church for worship and fellowship. Please note the change in time; we will begin at 11am.

Date: May 12 (Sunday)

Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Tokyo Time)

Place: Mitaka Lutheran Church (Rm 105)

Style: Hybrid (online and in person)

Speaker: Rev Jonathan Oh

Liturgist: Esther Yomoah

Organ: Kazuko Sacon

Slides: Rev Jonathan Oh

Children’s Sermon: Rachel Oh

Sermon Title: Christ, Our Only Hope
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

Opening Hymn: The Church’s One Foundation (v. 1, 2, 4, 5) – UMC Hymnal 545
Hymn of Response: Blessed Assurance – UMC Hymnal 369
Closing Hymn: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken – UMC Hymnal 731

Zoom log in information

ID: 840 9415 4793

PW: 583756
We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

Please join us in an online worship service on May 5 (Sunday) at 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Tokyo Time). Our speaker this Sunday will be Rev. Tim Boyle. The liturgist is Steve Eskildsen; our organist is Kazuko Sacon; and the slides were prepared by Misae Urata.

Sermon Title: The Gospel According to the Life of Peter – (Transcript attached below.)

Old Testament Reading: Ps 145:1-12

New Testament Reading: Luke 5:1-11

Hymns: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken — Ah, the Look in Jesus’ Eye (from Japanese hymn “Shu no Hitomi”), Amazing Grace

The Gospel According to the Life of Peter

Text: Luke 5:1-11

The last three zoom messages I’ve given at West Tokyo Union Church have been about what we can learn about God’s message to us from the lives of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and so the next in line would be John if I did them in order.  But instead, today, I want to focus on Peter, the disciple Jesus chose to be his chief apostle. As a jumping off point for what we can learn from the life of Peter, I’m going to refer to a book written in 1969 by a man with the last name Peter.  Laurence Peter was his name, and he entitled his book “The Peter Principle.”  It’s a book about how organizations operate, and this “Peter Principle” that is described in the book is formulated as follows: “People are promoted in an organization to the level of their incompetence.”  In other words, when a person does well in one job, he tends to be promoted to a higher level, until the job becomes something he can’t handle well, at which level he then gets stuck.  Mr. Peter also points out that because of seniority and tenure, a person’s promotion is not always based on talent and expertise.  The book was no doubt meant to be satire, but we’ve all seen enough examples of this “Peter Principle” to know that there is some truth to it. 

Incidentally, this same Laurence Peter wrote another book entitled “Why Things Go Wrong” in which he provides even more examples of the “Peter Principle.”  My favorites in that book are the public laws illustrating that principle.  For instance, according to Mr. Peter, there was, at least when he wrote the book, a law in Danville, Pennsylvania that stated that to make sure all fire hydrants were in working order, they must be checked 1 hour before a fire!  Hmmm!  And in Seattle, there was a law on the books that stated that it is unlawful to carry a concealed weapon that is more than six feet long.  It is not only unlawful; it is also rather difficult to pull off!  How could you conceal a six-foot-long weapon on your body?  Another was that in Los Angeles, there was still a law on the books that stated that it is unlawful to shoot jackrabbits from the back of a streetcar!  I wonder when the last time was that law was used!  I’m sure that you could find good examples of such silly laws in countries all over the world as well.  Mr. Peter’s thesis, of course, is that incompetence is still with us in full bloom.  Another writer once said that stupidity did not give way to science and technology; it just progressed right along with science and technology.

Now, what these theories are telling us is that there is an innate imperfection in human nature.  We can’t get rid of it.  No matter how high we climb in life, we take that same human nature right along with us.  We have the ability to learn from our mistakes, that’s true.  But it is obvious that we do not have the ability to avoid making new mistakes.  

One thing that I like about the Bible is its realism about that.  The pages of the Bible are filled with people who have to live with their accumulated past mistakes.  Isaiah, when he was confronted by the vision in the temple, said, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.”  Now, that is not just morbid self-belittling.  It’s honesty about the human condition.  It says that when we measure ourselves against the highest that we know — when we stand before almighty God — we must confess, “I am not worthy.”

The Bible is filled with people like Isaiah.  They are real people, and we recognize them in those around us.  They are people who are disarmingly honest about the human condition.  My favorite of all is Peter.  Good old Peter, whose portrait is drawn more fully and more honestly that perhaps anyone else in the New Testament.  That portrait begins in Luke 5, our text, where Jesus calls him to be his disciple.

Now if anyone is a good example of the “Peter Principle,” it is this other man named Peter, Saint Peter himself.  He rises quickly in the organization of the early church, and he takes his incompetence with him all the way to the top.  It’s amazing the way that they tell the story of Peter in the New Testament.  Because the temptation, it seems to me, must have certainly been there to rewrite the story — to edit it and take out all those embarrassing moments and events in Peter’s life; you know, the way that biographers do with national heroes, so as to put them in the best light possible.  That must have been a strong temptation.  But the New Testament writers didn’t do that.  They showed Peter bungling his way all the way to the top. 

I hope you can appreciate what Peter meant to the Church in that first century.  You see, the Lord himself appointed Peter to be the leader of the Church.  He said to Peter, “You are Peter — Petros — The Rock, upon which I will build my Church.”  His name was Simon before this.  Jesus gave him his new name, and when Peter assumed his new position as chief apostle after the Resurrection and Pentecost, the Church venerated him because he was seen as the primary representative of Christ.  He was the nearest thing that they could see to Christ in the flesh.  We know nothing like that in our own experience.  We can only imagine what it was like to be in that first century church.  For one thing, there weren’t any dedicated church buildings.  You met in somebody’s home — if you were lucky — or in hidden away places such as the catacombs under the streets of Rome — secretly, because it was against the law to be a Christian. 

Now, suppose the word comes to you that Peter himself is coming for a visit (and we know that he did visit many churches), and that he is going to tell your group stories about his experiences with the Lord.  Can you imagine what it would mean to be a part of that — to know that Peter himself was coming?  It would mean that you would be able to get as close to Christ in the flesh as you could ever possibly get.  It would be a truly holy moment in your life.   When Peter visited these churches, he would tell stories about his life with the Lord — the very same stories that you and I read in the gospels.  They are stories in which he never seems to quite get it right.  He is a bumbling, sinful human being just like the rest of us.  His power is not in his perfection, but in his humility.  God used him not because he was without sin, but because he could confess his sin.

They must have asked him, “Peter, tell us about the time you first met Jesus.”  And he told them this story, “I was a fisherman out on the Sea of Galilee, and we were having a terrible day — like none we had ever had before.  We had no luck at all.  We had been out there all night and when we called it quits to come back to shore, we hadn’t caught even a single fish.  It was as though something had directed all the fish to stay away from our boat.  We were washing our nets dejectedly there by the boats when I looked up and saw him coming towards us.  There were people all around him, and they were crowding in trying to get closer to him.  Finally, he worked his way over to my boat and climbed in asking me to push off from the shore a bit.  So, I pushed the boat out a few feet from the shore.  He then stood there in the boat for a while teaching the people many beautiful things, while we all listened intently.  When he had finished, he told us to move out into the deep water, saying, ‘Now, I’ll show you where the fish are.’  Well, you can imagine how I felt at that point — someone who obviously was not a fisherman coming up to a professional like myself to tell me where the fish were.  But I swallowed my pride, and I did as he asked.  We went over to the area he directed us to, and at his command, we put down our nets again — those ones we had just taken the trouble to clean.  And all of a sudden, there were so many fish caught in our nets, we had to call over another boat to help.  We hauled in so many fish that both of our boats were to the point that we almost sank.  When I paused to figure out what had happened, I instinctively fell to my knees and said, “Depart from me, O Lord! For I am a sinful man.”  For I knew, like Isaiah of old, that I was in the presence of God.  And do you know what he did?  He did the same thing that God did to Isaiah; He called me to a great mission.  He said that he wanted to use me — even me!  And to this day, I don’t know why he did it.  For I was then, as I still am now, totally unworthy.  But when we got back to shore, we gave the fish away, left our boats and nets on the shore and followed him.”  

Now that story, or something like it, is what Peter told wherever he went.  It’s the story he told Mark, who then wrote down Peter’s memoirs, which is why we have it today as the “Gospel According to Mark.”  Those early Christians cherished those stories, because they realized that those stories were something that everybody should hear so that we would know that the good news is not about what we can do, but about what God can do with us and through us and in us.  It is not about our perfection; it is not about our power; it is not about our virtue; it’s about God’s grace in our lives!  That’s the other “Peter Principle” — what we could call the “Saint Peter Principle.”  Incompetence, honestly confessed, is overcome by grace.  

Now, I don’t know about you, but I can so identify with Peter — because he demonstrates that sincerity and good intentions don’t always result in success.  You know, there was nobody with better intentions than Peter.  Nobody!  Nobody was more sincere than Peter.  He was just a big “teddy-bear” of a man who was always trying to do the right thing, but who somehow, more often than not, managed to fall flat on his face.  It was as if there was a struggle going on inside of him between the good side of him and the bad side of him, and the good side didn’t always win.  “I do not do the good that I want to do, but the evil that I do not want is what I end up doing.”  It was not Peter who said that.  It was St. Paul.  But it could have been Peter, and it could have been you or me.  Do you remember the story of Peter trying to walk on the water?  He sank like a rock.  He told that story about himself too.  I can just picture him telling it with a pun about his name, Peter, the rock.  “I sank just like my name, like a rock!”

Now the meaning of it was this: “I can preach a good sermon about faith, about how if you keep your eyes upon Jesus, you’re not going to sink.  But when it comes to putting it in practice — when you’re called to step out of the safety of the boat and put your trust in the promises of Jesus, well that is all together a different matter!”

Then he told them about the days leading up to the crucifixion.  He told them about how Jesus had told them beforehand that he was going to be arrested and put to death on a cross.  Peter continued, saying that he told Jesus, “I’ll stay with you until the bitter end.  I’ll never forsake you.”  And, you know, he could have told the story that way, to say that he really had done that.  Nobody would have questioned it!  But he didn’t tell it that way.  Likewise, he could have told it by saying, “At least I stayed with him longer than any of the other disciples!”  But he didn’t tell it that way either.  He told it honestly.  “Three times, I was asked if I was a follower of Jesus, and three times, I said ‘No! I don’t even know him!’  I wanted to do the right thing, but when the moment of truth came, I just didn’t have the power in me to do it.”

Now, why would Peter tell all those unflattering stories, and why would Mark and the other gospel writers remember and record them?  There is only one reason.  It’s because Peter knew that what God had done through him was not something that came about because of his own strength and virtue.  No, it had come about by God’s grace alone.  You see, that is the real “Peter Principle.”  It’s the “Saint Peter Principle.”  Our incompetence — even our sinfulness, honestly confessed — is overcome by God’s grace.  It’s as if our problem in this life is not our incompetence, but our efforts to conceal it. 

In thinking about my own life and the lives of many of my colleagues in the professional ministry that I know something about, I think that when we are really honest, we know that we can never really live up to the expectations that are placed upon us.  We don’t have to just look at such dramatic and embarrassing failures we’ve seen during the last few decades on the American religious scene.  I won’t mention names, but every few years, it seems, some high-profile TV preacher ends up in a big scandal of some sort.  As much as I would want to distance myself from some parts of their theological belief system, and particularly from their abuse of power and their follower’s trust, still, I recognize them as simply fellow human beings who are subject to temptations and to poor judgment, just as you and I are.  

I know what Isaiah was talking about when he said, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.”  And that doesn’t just mean that I sometimes use inappropriate language when I get mad.  I’ll readily confess that that is true.  I do occasionally let a few slip out.  Well, all right, perhaps more than just “occasionally.”  When Isaiah used those words, he was referring to his whole being.  In the symbolism of Isaiah, when the angel touched Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal from the altar, he said, “This has touched your lips, and now your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven.”  Isaiah knew he was unworthy, and so do we when we come face to face with the Holy.

I am reminded of a description of a self-sufficient man, proud of his independence and his self-sufficiency.  He always liked to walk through the park on a Sunday afternoon immaculately dressed, so that people would see him.  He would walk along pompously with an air of superiority, head held high, swinging his cane to show off.  He would be thinking about how successful he had been and about how he deserved everybody’s respect.  And at precisely that moment, he trips on a rock and falls flat on his face.  He gets up as quickly as he can, dusting off his clothes and looking around anxiously to see if anyone was watching.  And then, he resumes his strutting promenade.

Now, I have never done it quite that way, as anybody who knows me knows that I never, if at all possible, dress up immaculately.  But, in other ways, the putting on of a false front and worrying that somebody might see me, as it were, “trip on a rock and fall flat on my face” — in other words, to make a fool out of myself: that I can relate to.  Among the most basic of all human needs is the desire to have self-esteem, or self-respect.  In one way or another, we all strive to gain this sense of self-esteem and respect for oneself, but as any parent can tell you, it is very fragile and easily broken.  This is especially so when we look to others for our self-esteem, which seems to come so naturally to each of us.  

Those people we know who are always putting on a show; they are in reality making that thing, be it their college degree or whatever, an important part of their self-respect.  They desperately try to force other people to respect them so that their own low self-esteem is bolstered up.  And when our self-esteem is dependent on what others think of us at the moment, it becomes of utmost importance for us to try to hide our vulnerability and any weaknesses we think we might have.  We become afraid to show our real selves for fear that we might not be accepted, and thus, we have to put on a false front.

You’ll notice, however, how different that is from Peter.  His self-esteem certainly did not come from his educational background, for he had none.  And it didn’t come from his being recognized as a man of outstanding leadership and speaking ability who always had good judgment, for that wasn’t true either.  In fact, we also have recorded in Acts one incident several years after he had become the early church’s chief apostle, where Peter was strongly reprimanded by Paul for allowing his Jewish ethnic prejudices to take over.  Good old Peter was wrong again, and he admitted it.  

No, Peter’s self-esteem was not dependent upon what other people thought of him — that they would think of him as a sort of superman with special qualities no one else had.  His self-esteem was based in the fact that he had been chosen by Jesus in spite of all of his shortcomings, and that God’s grace overcame all of his failings.  In fact, God often used those very weaknesses and failures for the greater good.  Peter had discovered the paradox of grace — that it is when we confess our weakness that we become strong.  This is what explained what happened in Peter’s life.  It explains why Peter had so much power when he was so human.

In the history of the Church, many others have also made this same discovery.  The Reformation itself was based in this very discovery by Martin Luther.  He described it in the language of sin and guilt by saying that the more he strived to lead a sinless life of perfection the more guilty he felt, and the more powerless he became.  It was like being a performer who is afraid of making a mistake, and that fear then paralyzes him so that he can’t do anything right.  (And I can certainly relate to that one too!)  But then Luther finally got the point of the gospel through reading Paul, just as John Wesley then made that same discovery through hearing Luther’s commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans being read.  They saw that faith means trusting God.  For them, it meant that God had forgiven them — he really had.  And so, you don’t have to pretend!  You can be honest about who you are.  You can trust that you can step out from the security of the boat, or you can come out from behind all the defenses you have built up around your life, and when you do, you won’t sink.  You won’t sink, because God is on your side, and He is there with you.  His grace means that it is not all dependent on your own efforts alone to really achieve something in this life.  You can be imperfect, and you can have all the weaknesses and problems in your life, and you will still be able to experience God’s grace.  You see, that’s the “Saint Peter Principle.”  Our limitations and our sins are overcome by God’s grace.  We can’t do everything, and we most certainly can’t do everything well, but we can do our best through the power God gives us.  And grace means that somehow, that’s enough!

I don’t fully understand all of this, but I have certainly experienced it.  If we are faithful at doing the best that we know how, then grace means that there is something that happens that overcomes our limitations.  That is why I trust that as a minister, God can take the words of this less than eloquent speaker and use those words to do something for someone else by His grace.  This is why as a parent and now grandparent I trust that what I have said or what I have failed to say will somehow be overcome by the grace that allows my children and grandchildren to hear what I meant to communicate.  That is why as a human being, I trust that my mistakes in the past will not detract from my life in the future.  By grace, they will be overcome.  In fact, by grace, they can become the very means of appreciating life all the more.

An author by the name of Dame Edith Sitwell once said of William Blake, the famous English painter and poet, “Of course he was cracked!  But that is where the light shown through!”  We are all cracked somewhere.  All of us!  None of us is perfect.  And it is by grace that those flaws don’t ruin our lives; and it is by grace that sometimes, those flaws become the very source of our power — of where the light shines through.  And in the end, when the saints come marching into the kingdom, they will be quite a sight indeed.  Not one of them will be without flaws and cracks.  All of them will have led lives with major shortcomings and problems at one time or another.  But God will have used all of them in one way or another.  

This is what God’s message is to us from the life of Peter.  It’s what we can call the “Saint Peter Principle.”  And when those saints come marching in, Peter will be first in that number.  He was chosen by Jesus to be the first disciple, and he is the prototype that we are to follow.  The rest of the saints following behind him, including ourselves, will be just like him, with many problems that we’ve had to overcome — often some that we never really overcame at all.  But all in that number will have discovered the grace of God, and all will have at some point knelt down and said, “I’m not worthy.”  And from that point on, the fact that they were not perfect didn’t really matter.  It just didn’t matter!  Grace overcame their incompetence!  

That grace is freely available to us all in so many ways, and when it comes to the corporate life of the Church, perhaps it is most deeply symbolized in the Holy Communion.  It doesn’t say so in the gospel stories, of course, but I have a feeling that it was Peter who was the first to actually partake of that first “Last Supper” on the night Jesus was betrayed.  That would have been so like Peter.  Always eager to step forward and lead the way.  But it was also very shortly after that that he fell so badly only to be restored again through grace by the risen Christ a few days later.  So, as we share in that grace poured out for us — whether during a communion service or in the varied ways we minister to each other in the life of this church, let us always remember the example grace played in the life of Peter.  Let us discover anew in our own lives that same grace — that grace revealed in the real “Peter Principle” — the “Saint Peter Principle,” that His grace is available to us to overcome and even use all our shortcomings.  And that grace will see us through to the end, when we join together with the saints of old in that grand march — the one portrayed in that old New Orleans jazz song, “When the saints go marching in.”  Yes, Lord, I do want to be in that number!  And it is by God’s grace alone that you and I will be.  All we have to do is accept the invitation! 

So as our closing prayer, let’s sing “When the saints go marching in” together: “O when the saints go marching in; O when the saints go marching in; O Lord, I want to be in that number; O when the saints go marching in!”

Zoom log in information

ID: 840 9415 4793

PW: 583756

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

We welcome you to join the West Tokyo Union Church faith family for an online service on Sunday, April 28 with Jim Sack preaching. The title of the sermon is “What a Pain it is to Love.” It’s an interesting topic and all will be explained at the service. We hope to see you online at 10am on Sunday.

_{^{Love Your Enemy by Timothy Schmalz}}

Scripture Readings: 1 John 4:7-21 and the Gospel of John 15:4

The hymns for the day::
    #539 O Spirit of the Living God (Verses 1,3,4)
    #549 Where Charity and Love Prevail  (Verses1,2,5,6)
    #384 Love Divine, All Loves Excelling  (Verses 1,2,3,4)

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

Note: May 12th and May 19th will both be in-person services. We will keep you posted on the times and locations of the gatherings.

We invite you to join the WTUC faith family for our online worship this Sunday, April 21 at 10am Japan time!

Sermon Title: The Gospel According To The Life Of Luke
Old Testament reading: Ps 103:1-12
New Testament reading: II Cor. 12:3-10
Hymns: “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” – “There Is A Balm In Gilead” – “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand”
 

Date: Apr 21 (Sunday)

Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Tokyo Time)

Place: Zoom

Style: Online

Speaker: Rev Tim Boyle

Liturgist: Esther Yomoah

Organ: Kazuko Sacon

Children’s Message: Ruth Ingulsrud

Slides: Misae Uratai

Zoom log in information

ID: 840 9415 4793

PW: 583756

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

We welcome you all to come and worship with the West Tokyo Union Church family next Sunday, April 14th at 11am for a hybrid, in-person and online service. Please note the time change. We will be meeting in our usual room on the campus of the Lutheran College in Mitaka. Here is a link to the location:  https://wtuc.net/map/

Our preacher is Rev. Jonathan Oh, who will be joining us with his family. We hope that many of you can come and meet them at the church. His message is called, “Grace in the Midst of Doubt.” The Gospel Reading is from Luke 24:36b-48 and the New Testament Reading is Acts 3:12-19. 

Opening Hymn: Crown Him with Many Crowns (UMC Hymn 327)
Hymn of Response: My Hope is Built (UMC Hymn 368)
Closing Hymn: Standing on the Promises (UMC Hymn 374)

Our organist is Kazuko, the liturgist will be Steve Eskildsen and Ruth Ingulsrud will bring the children’s message.

Jonathan’s Biography:
Rev. Jonathan Oh is an ordained teaching elder with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). He has been living in Japan for over ten years and is serving as a tentmaking missionary. He is an on-camera meteorologist for an international broadcasting service. At Tokyo Union Church, he serves as a chaplain for the young adults group and helps lead the audio-visual production team. Jonathan is happily married to his wife and partner, Rachel, and is the proud father of a young daughter, Cana.

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

For a recording of the service on April 14, please click on the link below:

It was wonderful to see many of you in person at the Easter Service and lunch on the campus of the Lutheran College in Mitaka. Glad that so many friends showed up!

Join the West Tokyo Union Church family at 10am, this Sunday April 7, for an online worship service. Carol Sack will bring the message, “Then Jesus Showed Up.” The slides are prepared by Carol, the liturgist is Betsy, our organist is Kazuko and Ruth will present the children’s message with help from her puppet friends.

Gospel Lesson  —  John 20:19-31

Hymns:
Opening Hymn: EASTER PEOPLE, RAISE YOUR VOICES
Hymn of Response: THIS IS A DAY OF NEW BEGINNINGS 
Closing Hymn:  NOW THE GREEN BLADE RISETH

We look forward to seeing you online. The following Sunday, April 14, will be a hybrid service, both in-person and online with Rev. Jonathan Oh preaching.

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

You are welcome to join the West Tokyo Union Church community for any or all of the upcoming events during this Holy Week:

The Good Friday service at Mitaka Lutheran Church on the campus of the Japan Lutheran College (https://www.luther.ac.jp/language/en.html) will be held at 5pm on March 29, 2024. The service will be in bilingual in English and Japanese.

On Saturday of Holy Week there will be an Easter Vigil, once again at Mitaka Lutheran Church, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on March 30th, which includes Holy Communion. This service is only in Japanese.

On Easter Sunday, March 31, our worship service will be in-person only, meeting at our regular space on the Japan Lutheran College campus. The service will start at 11:00 am on Easter instead of at 10:00 am which is our usual time.

Easter Sunday events at WTUC on the Mitaka Lutheran College campus:

Egg hunt and lunch set up starts at 10:00am

Egg hunt at 10:30am

Worship at 11:00am

Lunch at 12:00 (after worship) in the cafeteria

Rev. Dr. Jim Sack will be preaching on Easter Sunday. Jill will be liturgist and Kazuko will play the organ. The texts that will be used are Isaiah 25:6-9 and Mark 16:1-8. The Title of the sermon is “God Running on Empty.” The children’s message is pre-recorded since Ruth is preaching at a church near Tachikawa on Easter Sunday.

The hymns are: Christ the Lord is Risen Today, It Is Well With My Soul and Christ is Alive.

We hope that your week may be very meaningful and that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

Palm Sunday is almost here! Join the WTUC online community on March 24 at 10am Japan time as we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as Easter draws near. Rev. Tim Boyle will be preaching the message, “The Lord Has Need of You.”  (Manuscript is attached below.)

Our liturgist is Betsy; the organist is Kazuko; Ruth and her puppet friends will bring the children’s message.

Scriptures:
Old Testament: Psalm 118:19-29 
New Testament: Luke 19:28-40

Hymns: “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” “Pass It On,” “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.”

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with us!

THE LORD HAS NEED OF YOU

Text: Psalm 118:19-29; Luke 19:28-40

Our Scripture reading this morning tells of an important event in the life of Jesus, when he made his final entry into Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish world, to take his uncompromising stand against the hypocrisy of his day.  All four gospels give details of this event, because it was seen as setting the stage for the most important event of all — the death and resurrection of our Lord.  We have come to know the Sunday on which this event is commemorated as “Palm Sunday” because of the palm branches people had taken to wave in the celebration and to throw down before Jesus along with the overcoats. 

The reason that Jesus was greeted in this way was that the people had seen and heard about Jesus’ great miracles, and they believed he must be the long-awaited Messiah who was to set them free from bondage.  Properly understood, of course, Jesus was just that, but he had not come as a military conqueror to lead a rebellion against Rome and call down the army of Heaven to drive out the oppressors.  His kingdom was not of this world, and so many of these same people turned against him only a few days later when it became clear that their expectations were not going to be met. 

But on this day, the crowds welcomed him with great fervor.  His reputation had spread like wildfire, and particularly his great miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead only a few days before in the nearby town of Bethany had electrified the city.  John 12:9 tells of the reaction of the common people when they learned that Jesus was again in Bethany with Lazarus.  “A large number of people heard that Jesus was in Bethany, so they went there, not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from death.  So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus too, because on his account many Jews were rejecting them and believing in Jesus.”  

Lazarus must have had a powerful testimony indeed, for the power structure decided that he must be on their”hit list” as well as Jesus, if they were to weather this storm.  From their perspective, they thought that if they didn’t take such action, not only would they lose their power base, but they also feared that the Romans would come in with great force to suppress the inevitable uprising.  Nowhere does it say that Lazarus was killed too, but it is likely that he was.  In any event, he was someone who experienced physical death twice.

Now, let’s turn to that triumphal entry itself that all of this was leading up to.  There are, of course, many angles from which we could look at this story.  Jesus knew before he entered Jerusalem what the outcome would be.  He had, in fact, told this disciples that he would be captured by the corrupt Jewish leaders and that he would be executed after a mock trial, but also that he would rise again on the third day.  Jesus knew that the crowds were longing for the Messiah to come and free them from Roman oppression.  And thus, he knew that they would turn against him when they realized that he didn’t fit those expectations.  This is why he wept over the city as he rode down from the Mt. of Olives on that donkey.  The fickleness of the crowds — on Sunday they took palm branches to wave and cried out “Hosanna to the King” as they welcomed Jesus into the city, but then on the following Friday morning, some of these same people were crying out “Crucify him!” because he wouldn’t call fire down from heaven to destroy the Romans.  Thus, Jesus must certainly have had mixed emotions as he was welcomed by the crowds.

We could further consider the implications of this and other points as well, but this morning, I want us to take an entirely different approach, and think about that little donkey that Jesus chose to carry him into Jerusalem.  Isn’t it strange that Jesus chose this untried, young colt for this great honor.  Why on earth would he do that?  So, let’s think about this seemingly strange choice and what it teaches us.  Let’s look at this event from the standpoint of that young donkey that carries Jesus through the crowds.

First, let’s think about what it means that this colt was not yet broken in.  In v. 30, it tells us that Jesus told his disciples to bring him the colt, which he described as not having ever been sat on before.  I spent my childhood and youth in a rodeo culture in Arizona and had many opportunities to ride horses. I wasn’t involved in breaking in horses, mules, or donkeys to be ridden on, but from what I know about the subject, it is not something that comes naturally to the animal.  They resist it at first and are very skittish and jumpy.  They have to gradually get used to the feeling of having someone on their back.  Ordinarily, if you hopped right on to the back of a colt that had never been ridden before, it would go wild and try to buck you off.  And yet Jesus chose such an animal on purpose.  I wonder why.

The mystery of this deepens even further when we think of what Jesus asked this colt to do.  It would have been one thing if Jesus had wanted to ride the colt out in an open field alone or something, but no, he directed the colt right into the crowds of people lining the road leading into Jerusalem.  Imagine what you would have felt like if you were that colt.  Let’s look at it from the colt’s point of view.  First of all, if I were that colt, when I saw all of those people waving palm branches and yelling at the top of their lungs, my first inclination would be to turn right around and run the opposite direction as fast as I could.  So, if I kind of “humanize” this young donkey and imagine what would be going through a donkey’s mind, it would be something like the following: “Wow, what an experience!  Here I’ve been used to walking ‘barehoofed’ on dirty and dusty paths with sharp rocks and sticks, and now all these people are throwing their clothes on the ground in front of little old me to walk on!  Gee, I hope I don’t mess them up too bad.  Even the weight of someone riding on my back for the first time feels light when I’m walking on soft cloth to cushion my feet.  Somehow the presence of the master calms by fears as I allow him to direct me forward.  I don’t know what’s going on here or where I’m being led to, but I only know that I can trust the master on my back.  Boy, I’ll certainly never forget this experience!”

We can be sure that that colt was never the same again.  No doubt, its owners were tremendously proud of its accomplishments.  It had really proved itself, and it is certain that it would not need to be broken in any further.

Now, there are several lessons we can learn from this little colt and the story it played such an important role in.  First, there is its choosing by Jesus.  Jesus told 2 of his disciples to “Go into the village there ahead of you: as you go in, you will find a colt tied up that has never been ridden.  Untie it and bring it here.  If someone asks you why you are untying it, tell him that the Master needs it.”

As I mentioned before, to anyone who knew anything about colts — and certainly most everybody did in those days, this must have seemed like a crazy thing to do.  But his disciples had seen Jesus do lots of other seemingly impossible and crazy things before, and he always pulled them off.  So, they willingly obeyed —though, no doubt, they were constantly puzzled by one thing after another, including this.  After all, you’d think he would want the most seasoned veteran he could find to carry him through the crowds.  But no, he chose the very opposite.  In fact, in Matthew and John, reference is made to a strange prophecy that was written hundreds of years earlier by the prophet Zechariah, which we read earlier, where he says, “Tell the city of Zion: Now your king is coming to you.  He is gentle and rides on a donkey: He rides on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  The disciples, of course, didn’t realize the significance of this event—and all the other events that happened in such rapid succession—until later as they looked back over everything that had happened and saw how it all fit into the pattern and fulfilled numerous previously obscure prophecies.

It is very interesting to note that approximately 1000 years earlier, during the time of King David, a tradition developed where the king rode into Jerusalem on the back of a young colt to the crowds waving palm branches.  This festival is referred to in Psalm 118 which we read earlier. Reading again from verse 25, it says, “Lord, save us! (And the Hebrew word translated “save us” is one you are quite familiar with — “hosanna”) Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. … With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.  You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”  

So, it appears that King David and his successors actually rode on a donkey into Jerusalem and up to the altar of the temple while the people greeted him with palm branches crying out to the Lord, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  This annual event, however, had not happened since at least the fall of Jerusalem some 600 plus years prior to Jesus, but here the people were seeing it happen again before their very eyes.  As all the Jews longed for the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of the Kingdom of David, we can be sure that they saw the connection.  Not even Jesus’ disciples, however, understood the true meaning of what was happening.  In fact, it wasn’t until they had time to reflect on all these events in the light of the Old Testament and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that they understood its true significance.

Returning to the story of the colt, there is the part about its owners letting Jesus’ disciples take it away.  We have no information given us that would indicate that Jesus had made previous arrangements to borrow the colt — though that would certainly have been possible — or why the colt would have had more than one owner, as the word is in the plural.  All we know is that the disciples simply saying “The Lord has need of it” was sufficient to convince the owners to let them take it.  Presumably they recognized the two men untying it to be Jesus’ disciples, and they were honored that he would want to use their colt.  We can be sure, however, that they were puzzled by it all and no doubt followed along in the crowd in utter amazement to see their colt doing such a great job.

But the most important part of this story that applies directly to each one of us is the phrase, “The Lord has need of it.”   Jesus needed that colt to fulfil that particular mission. In a similar manner, the Lord has need of each one of us as well.  There are countless missions to be fulfilled before he returns again, and the Lord must depend upon us human beings to be his agents in accomplishing them.  That is just the way God works.  He doesn’t force himself on anyone, but with the gentle nudges of his Spirit and the workings of his human agents, he accomplishes his missions of making himself known to each person and remaking that person into the kind of person he desires—a person of purpose with a joy not dependent on circumstances.  It is also through his human agents that he relieves the sufferings of people who are poor and oppressed.  That is why this phrase, “The Lord has need of you” is so relevant to us.

The story of this colt also shows us that we don’t have to be experienced in order to be used greatly by God.  Jesus chose a young, totally inexperienced colt for at least 2 reasons.  One is that it is through the weakness of his agents that God’s strength shows through even more.  God is greatly displeased by glory seeking and false pride on the part of us humans when it is he that is due all the glory.  That is why it says in the I Corinthians, “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame, and what the world considers weak in order to put powerful men to shame.  He chose what the world looks down on, despises, and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.  This means that not a single person can boast in God’s presence.”  Jesus’ choosing of this young colt, then, is symbolic of that.

He still does the same today.  He won’t use a proud, self-sufficient person who isn’t really depending on him.  You’ll notice that when he chose his disciples, they were, for the most part, uneducated and simple people.  It seems that God just gets a big kick out of doing it that way.  And isn’t that wonderful?  Why, that means that you don’t have to put up any false fronts of bravery and self-confidence in God’s presence.  Of course, you couldn’t get away with it even if you tried, since he can see right through you to your very core.  Instead, you can go right to him as you are, and he will then reward you greatly.

This leads us, then, into a second reason Jesus chose the young colt.  The young, totally inexperienced colt had nothing to depend upon except the Master.  It had to place its total trust and faith in the one leading it.  And this is symbolic of what God would have us to be like as well.  That colt could have been stubborn like donkeys usually are.  In fact, donkeys are fundamentally different in nature from horses.  Not only are they not as big and strong as a horse on average, but they instinctively run from danger and cannot be trained to run into battle like a horse would.  That’s why there is no such thing as a “donkey cavalry!”  But a horse will fearlessly carry its master into battle with no thought of its own safety. Granted, cheering people waving palm branches is far different from jeering soldiers waving swords and spears, but even so, a donkey would not normally even think of approaching such a situation. Thus, that colt had what would seem to be an iron-clad excuse for not obeying.  It just wasn’t supposed to be able to do that sort of thing.  But the colt yielded itself totally to the Master and found extraordinary strength.

From what I’ve said up to now, you might conclude that experience is bad or something.  And of course, I don’t mean that.  All things else being equal, God can better use an experienced person than an inexperienced person.  But the problem is that experience often leads to self-sufficiency and lack of dependence on God, and that he cannot accept.  Thus, it is good to get experienced and to learn as much as you can, but only if you don’t let it go to your head and only if you maintain a proper relationship to God, trusting totally in him.

On that first Palm Sunday almost 2000 years ago, a young donkey was just standing around munching on some grass, when two men came up to him and led him off to Jesus.  Jesus asked the young colt to do what seemed impossible to him.  Why he had not yet had anyone ride on him berfore, much less through a frenzied crowd waving palm branches in his face.  So how could he?  But somehow, the colt knew that this man could be totally trusted, and in giving himself to that man, he found extraordinary strength to do and to accomplish well the task set before him.

Jesus is calling each of us as well — sometimes even to do what may seem beyond what we think is sensible and possible.  You may feel like that young, inexperienced colt did that fateful day almost 2000 years ago.  But, to quote an old song’s lyrics, even if “the old grey mare ain’t what she used to be,” God still has plans for each of us and calls each of us to be God’s hands and feet for service to others.  All you have to do is to yield to him and to follow his leading.  Just as the disciples said to that young colt, “The Lord has need of you,” so he is saying to each one of us, “I need you too.  Won’t you follow me?”

Let us pray:

Our Father in Heaven, today we have thought about the meaning of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The events of that day were in preparation for the events that shortly followed and were the climax of all that Jesus had come to do — namely, his crucifixion and resurrection.  O Lord, as we prepare to celebrate Easter next week, help us to focus on these greatest events of all human history.  And as we do that, we pray that your Holy Spirit may work in our hearts to cause that resurrection power and the fountain of life it brings well up within our souls.  We pray that our parched hearts may be filled with your life-giving water.  Jesus said that he has need of us.  Use us, O Lord, and as you did with that young donkey 2000 years ago, take away our fears and help us to trust in you completely.  For it’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. 

I’ve chosen for our closing hymn a rather recent song entitled, “Pass it on.”  We experience God’s love in our lives, and then we “pass it on” to others.  

Join the welcoming community of West Tokyo Union Church for an online worship service at 10am Sunday, March 17th. For our overseas members, remember that is 10am Japan time. Rev. Tim Boyle will be bringing us the message, “The Gospel According to the Life of Matthew.”  (Transcript attached below.)

The Scripture readings are Isaiah 6:1-8 and Matthew 9:9-13. The hymns are: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Ode To Joy), Just As I Am, and In Christ There Is No East or West.

Kazuko is our organist, Misae is preparing the slides and Ruth will be joined by her puppet friends to bring a lively children’s message.

Thank you to all who help make our services happen. Our small community is blessed by active members who hold each other up in prayer.

The Gospel According to the Life of Matthew

Text: Matt. 9:9-13

Last time I was with you, I gave a message on the life of Mark and how the Good News that he experienced was that God always works in our lives to give us second chances.  I want to continue in that same vein by taking a look at the life of Matthew and what we can learn about how God worked in his life and to see what the “Gospel according to the life of Matthew” is.  While the message of the Bible is applicable to people living in any age and culture, the way the Good News of Jesus Christ impacts each individual is a bit different.  As created individuals, we all share equally in the image of God, but we are also unique individuals, and so the specifics of how the Gospel of Jesus is realized in our lives is specific to each of us.

There are a number of other biblical characters whose lives were transformed by their encounters with Jesus Christ that likewise point us to principles we can apply to our own lives, and so today, let’s look at what we can discern from the life of Matthew and how the Good News of Jesus applied to him and how it can also apply to each one of us.  Earlier, we read the portion from Matthew’s gospel of his own calling, and so now let’s see how that same event is described in Luke.  It’s recorded in Luke 5:27-32, where it says, “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me!’ So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him. Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for Jesus at his house.  Now, there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus replied to them, ‘The healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

You’ll notice several differences between the two accounts, primary of which is the name used, as Luke refers to him as “Levi” while Matthew refers to himself using the name “Matthew.”  We have no written account as to the reason for this, but it very well may be that Levi is his actual Jewish name and Matthew is the new name that Jesus gave him, much like Jesus giving Simon the new name of Peter.  In the Greek, Peter is “Petros,” which is derived from the Greek word for “rock,” “petra.” Jesus chose this name because Peter’s faith was like a rock.  Scholars think that the name Matthew is derived through the Greek from the Hebrew words meaning “gift of God.”  What a beautiful name that is. In both Mark and Luke, he is called Levi when he first encounters Jesus, but then later on, he is always just referred to as Matthew.  I think this is one way the great change in Matthew is emphasized, and it’s part of the message we get from “the gospel according to the life of Matthew.”  He truly was a “gift from God.”

There in Japan, the time for filing your income taxes just finished, while here in the US, we still have a month to go.  Filing taxes is not exactly my favorite activity, and I would imagine that in any country, tax collectors are not likely the people you most want to meet – at least not for their jobs, anyway.  I remember when we were in Israel many years ago, just after we had visited the “Wailing Wall,” which is all that remains of the ancient temple in Jerusalem, our guide mentioned to us as we drove past the equivalent of the Internal Revenue Service there, “This wall over here is what the Israelis refer to as ‘the other wailing wall!’” Well, in ancient Israel, it was much more than that, as tax collectors were considered to be among the greatest of sinners and were probably more despised that anyone else in society.

The tax collecting system the Romans had then was to farm out the collection of taxes they imposed on those under their control to what amounted to independent contractors.  The Roman authorities would set the total amount of taxes to be collected from a particular region and then would leave it up to the official tax collectors they had recognized to come up with that amount.  Whatever amount in excess of that amount that the local tax collectors could collect, they could just keep it for themselves.  They used various forms of pressure to squeeze out as much tax as they could from the citizens, and so they typically became rather wealthy.

There was, however, a social cost for becoming a tax collector, as the local populace viewed them as social outcasts, and if a fellow Jew stooped to that level, they were viewed as traitors. Zacchaeus is another example of that, as he is described by Luke as being a “chief tax collector” who was very wealthy.  He was shunned by the rest of Jericho, and so while he may have had an easy life with respect to wealth, it came at a great social cost. But like Matthew, his life was transformed by his encounter with Jesus.

Luke also records another story that illustrates how radically different Jesus’ attitude was towards these outcasts from that of the religious leaders and indeed society as a whole. Luke 18:9-14 says: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘ ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ ’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘ ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ ’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’”

Levi, who later became Matthew, was just such a person as this.  Whether he had literally gone to the temple to humble himself as in Jesus’ parable, we don’t know, but he clearly had in his heart, which is why Jesus chose him to be one of his 12 disciples.  And just like in the parable, Matthew, who had humbled himself, was exalted to such an extent that the gospel account that he compiled later became the first book in the New Testament.  

When you consider this background, it is indeed a miracle that we have this book, “The Gospel According to Matthew.”  I think it’s no accident that the story of Matthew’s calling is right in the middle of a list of many miracles Jesus performed.  His calling in itself was a great miracle, in the sense that Jesus would take this despised man who had strayed so far from the path of righteousness and raise him up to be one of his 12 disciples and eventually one of the 12 apostles.

One interesting thing about the way the calling of Matthew is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, is that it simply says Jesus told him to come and be his follower and Matthew immediately responded.  Now, obviously there’s got to be a lot more to the story than that. It’s kind of hard to imagine some stranger he knew nothing about coming up and telling Matthew to follow him, and then Matthew doing just that, leaving everything behind. We can only speculate, of course, but I think Matthew must have heard Jesus before this, and it must have moved him so much that he longed for a new life. Jesus saw into his heart and knew what was there.  And like in the story of life of Mark, Jesus gave him a “second chance”— but not just a chance to reform his tax collecting methods but to a radical transformation of his whole person.

How do you suppose Matthew felt about this?  He doesn’t directly say, but we can get a hint from the way Matthew himself reports his being called by Jesus to how Mark and Luke report it.  While the 3 reports are essentially the same, there are 2 details that Matthew leaves out of his report. Matthew just says that he got up and followed, but Luke adds the phrase, “leaving everything,” emphasizing how great a personal sacrifice it was.  And when you think about it, it truly was a much greater sacrifice than any of the other disciples.  For a fisherman, it would have been relatively easy to return to their former occupation if things didn’t work out with this itinerant teacher.  But Matthew would not have had the option to return to being a tax collector, as there would have been no possibility that the Roman government would have allowed that.  He was truly burning the bridge behind him.

But that was not important to Matthew. I think he considered the great honor he was receiving to far exceed any sacrifice he was making. He was receiving something far beyond his wildest dreams—something no amount of money could buy. Not only was he being accepted and loved just as he was, but he was also receiving a life of purpose, where he could contribute to something of great value that would last forever.  So, rather than feeling he was making a great sacrifice, he felt he was gaining everything.

The other difference in the accounts is that Matthew doesn’t mention that it was his own house where he was hosting the banquet.  It just says, “the house”, though some English translations do add that detail in, since both Mark and Luke state it directly.  But it’s not there in the original Greek of Matthew.  It seems like a minor point, but it does show Matthew’s humility in not wanting to put himself out front any more than necessary.  He was only thinking of what Jesus was doing for him, and it was in tremendous gratitude that he put together this great banquet. All three accounts continue with the description of the banquet as having a large number of “tax collectors and sinners” enjoying the feast with Jesus and his disciples. When you stop to think about it, however, who else could Matthew have invited? If he had tried inviting the up-standing, self-righteous people of the town, they would have been shocked and would have thought of it as an insult.

They were, however, intensely interested in what was happening, and it wasn’t difficult to find out.  The construction of houses in that day were such that it would have been easy for those not at the banquet to peak in and see what was happening.  The Pharisees and other religious leaders of the Jews were doing just that, and they were scandalized to see Jesus eating and having fellowship with these “deplorables,” to use a contemporary expression.

Something that is no doubt common to all human societies is that eating a meal with someone equates at least to a certain degree with accepting that person on an equal basis.  In the cultures of the ancient Near East, however, this was much more so than what we experience in the modern cultures we are familiar with.  The Jewish law was such that Jews were forbidden to eat with non-Jews, because to do so was thought to bring defilement onto the Jew.  Thus, in the early church, as it was breaking out of its narrow Jewish mold, God used various circumstances and events to lead the disciples away from such discriminatory attitudes.  One incident was that of the vision God gave to Peter showing various animals that were considered unclean in Jewish law and telling him to kill and eat them.  Peter found that difficult to accept, but God told him not to call unclean what God had made clean.  And then God sent Peter and the other Jewish believers that were with him to the house of a Roman centurion named Cornelius, where a large crowd of Gentiles were gathered in preparation to hear God’s message through Peter. They gladly received the message of Christ, and they then experienced what could be called a “second Pentecost”, with the same infilling of the Holy Spirit that had occurred at the first Pentecost. These people, then, became the first non-Jewish followers of Jesus.

Old habits, however, are not easy to break, and this is particularly so with discriminatory attitudes. Indeed, even several years later, Paul had to admonish Peter and other Jewish believers in Antioch for the hypocrisy they showed when they shied away from fellowship with Gentile believers by avoiding sharing a meal because they were “afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.”  During the early years of the Church, there was a strong movement of Jewish believers referred to as the “Judaizers” — rather like the more modern issue of what is referred to as “westernizers.”  Judaizers believed that in order to really come to God, non-Jews had to first submit themselves to the Jewish law, just as the Jews did.  Paul, of course, was at the forefront in combatting this, but apparently Peter wanted to avoid conflict with this group and so he and others had stopped eating with their Gentile brethren when the Judaizers were around.  The account in Galatians 2 says that “even Barnabas was led astray” by this hypocrisy.

At any rate, this issue of fellowshipping around a meal is something that is important in all cultures, and it is a point at which discriminatory attitudes often rear their ugly heads. It is also, however, something that symbolizes acceptance and love, when we make an effort to invite people into our homes or eat with them in other settings. Perhaps the most meaningful invitation of all is what Jesus says to each of us as recorded in Rev. 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”  I guess you might say that that is the ultimate in “inviting yourself over for dinner,” but Jesus could have just as easily said, “I am sending you an invitation to come to my house for dinner.”  Indeed, that is basically what he is saying to each of us when we partake of holy communion.

This, of course, is on the spiritual level, but in his physical life here on earth, Jesus did the same thing.  He welcomed everyone and was willing to eat a meal with anyone.  This is something that the self-righteous religious leaders of his day detested, as it went against everything they held dear.  To their way of thinking, such actions on the part of Jesus lowered Jesus to the level of those sinners. This brings up an important point that often leads to some confusion among Christian believers, and that is the difference between accepting someone in love and supporting their lifestyle choices.  These two actions are often in tension.  While the Bible records Jesus accepting and relating to all he came in contact with, this same Bible also counsels us to be careful of who we associate with lest we be negatively influenced and tempted into sin.  Jesus, of course, was not faced with the same limitations that we have—namely human weaknesses and a sin nature.  On the level of his human nature, he was faced with the same temptations we all are, but his divine nature gave him the power to resist them all and not fall into sin.  So, we do need to be aware of our own limitations and not get in over our heads, so to speak.  And part of that is keeping clear the distinction between accepting and interacting with every person and necessarily affirming the way that person lives.

A good example of this principle is the relationship between parents and their children.  While you unconditionally accept and love your child, you also need to discipline your child and train him or her up in moral behavior.  While in the physical sense, Jesus did not have children to raise, in the spiritual sense, we all are in that category of needing such discipline and training from our “Heavenly Parent,” as it were, or to use another expression, our “Heavenly Big Brother.” We see that principle being applied in Matthew’s life in the story of his calling by Jesus.  So, let’s take a look at that scene as it’s described in the synoptic gospels. As I mentioned earlier, in all probability, this feast in honor of Jesus was held in the inner court of Matthew’s house.  As the religious leaders were really bothered by what Jesus was doing and saying, they were peaking in to see what was going on.  To them, it was scandalous, and so they asked one of his disciples who was close by, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  Whether Jesus could overhear what they were saying, we don’t know, but he didn’t really need to.  It was obvious from the disapproving looks on their faces, and so he called out to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. … For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This is such an interesting response. What they were implying is that since Jesus was associating with sinners, their sin would rub off onto him, making him a sinner too. Now, if I were in that situation, my natural response would likely have been to get mad and say something like, “You guys are full of it! You’re nothing but a bunch of hypocrites!” Admittedly, there were some occasions where Jesus did use some pretty strong language to express his righteous indignation of those who were abusing their power and oppressing the weak of society.  But here, he doesn’t do that but instead answers them in a way they can’t argue with, first by recognizing their outward righteousness.  I think we could rephrase Jesus’ response as saying, “You all are healthy, upright people. But what should healthy people be doing? Shouldn’t they be helping unhealthy people just like a doctor does?”

They were in effect saying, “He is with those people because he is just like them.” But Jesus was saying, “No, I am with these people precisely because I am fundamentally unlike them.” Who would criticize a doctor for being in a hospital all day long? “What’s he think he’s doing, associating with sick people all day long? He must be sick himself!” That, of course, would be a ridiculous thing to say.  But that was in effect exactly what the Pharisees were thinking. So, what Jesus was asserting is that strong, healthy people should be helping those who are facing various forms of infirmity.  And if that is true with physical infirmities, it’s also true with infirmities of the heart and spirit.

Lastly, I want to bring up one more point that we can learn from “The Gospel According to the Life of Matthew,” and that is God seeks to have us dedicate the talents and gifts he’s given to each of us as individuals to his service.  God doesn’t want you to strive to be somebody else, somebody you are not.  On the contrary, God wants you to use the personality and natural gifts he has endowed you with to serve God and all those he has created in his image.  Matthew was Matthew, and so God was not asking Matthew to become like John, Peter, or Paul.  Matthew was a businessman and had come out of a highly competitive business world.  Thus, we can surmise that he was a very practical man who probably thought very little about religious and spiritual things.  After all, those would likely not have been topics of discussion among tax collectors.  He would not have been someone who knew a lot about the spiritual world, but he certainly did know a lot about cut-throat competition in the economic sphere and how economic forces affected the human heart.  For years, Matthew would have been keeping detailed tax records, and so we can assume that he was naturally a very meticulous person.  We can see that coming out in the way he crafted his gospel account.  The gospel writer who put together the most orderly and detailed account of the representative teachings of Christ in what we call “the Sermon on the Mount” was Matthew.  His gospel account was one that emphasized actions over theologizing, and so was practice oriented.  Likewise, compared to the other gospel writers, Matthew emphasized teachings relating to the business world.  While Jesus used a variety of illustrations to teach with, it is only Matthew that records those having to do with economics.  For instance, there are the parables comparing the kingdom of heaven to someone discovering hidden treasure in a field and then selling everything he had to buy that field and to a merchant dealing in pearls who finds the ultimate pearl and sells everything he has to buy it.  Likewise, only Matthew records the basic teaching that one cannot serve two masters, namely God and money. 

It’s really a beautiful thing to see how Matthew poured out his God-given personality and natural abilities into the writing of his gospel.  There is so much we can learn from that.  That is especially so if you are one who subconsciously feels you need to somehow become someone you are not in order to serve God.  One way you can most faithfully serve God is in the station of life you find yourself in, be that your school, your job, your home or your retirement years.  God has endowed each of us with a variety of talents and gifts, and we can contribute most to the building up of God’s Kingdom by using those for his glory in our daily lives and in his church.  That is the gospel message from Matthew’s life.  He came just as he was to let Jesus transform his life and use his natural talents.  May each of us do the same.  In doing so, God will bless us and lead us into a life of purpose and joy.  

Let us pray:

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a God who accepts us just as we are, but also that you are a God who doesn’t just leave us there but who guides us as we yield our lives to you.  Help us to learn from the life of your servant Matthew that we too can contribute meaningfully to the building up of your Kingdom here on earth through using the unique personalities and gifts you have given us.  For it is in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ that we pray.

WTUC Sunday Worship Zoom Link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84094154793?pwd=UmhGUXlac1B1ZHMzY3ZBMnBHaWtuUT09

Meeting ID: 840 9415 4793. Passcode: 583756

We hope that many of you will be able to come and worship with the WTUC family!

Please join the West Tokyo Union Church community online for the second Sunday in Lent, February 25, 2024 at 10:00 am Japan Time.

Rev. Dr. Jim Sack will be preaching and the sermon title is, “Peter, Rock or Sand?” The scripture readings for this Sunday are Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16  and Mark 8:27-35.

The hymns will be: 
Abide With Me — When I Survey the Wondrous Cross —  Wide Open Are Your Hands

We hope that many of you will be able to join us via Zoom and worship with us!

Use the link below to join our service at 10am Japan Standard Time:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84094154793?pwd=UmhGUXlac1B1ZHMzY3ZBMnBHaWtuUT09

Meeting ID: 840 9415 4793

Passcode: 583756