Monday, February 25, 2019

Sermon for Feast of St. Matthias

+ Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle – February 24th, 2019 +
Isaiah 66:1-2; Acts 1:15-26; Matthew 11:25-30
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

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In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

If you do a Google search for Lutheran Church names, you’ll find a plenty of St. Paul’s, St. John’s, and St. Peter’s Lutheran Churches, but not too many congregations named after St. Matthias.

By worldly standards, Matthias gets less attention than a D-list celebrity or a one-hit wonder. No fame. No glory. Nothing the world would call super-spectacular, much less make the ESPN top ten plays. 

St. Luke spends the better part of a whole chapter of Acts on how Matthias was chosen to take Judas’s spot as an apostle. But after that we don’t hear another word about Matthias in the New Testament. 

Why then, we wonder, does the Church have a feast day for St. Matthias?

Today the Christian Church remembers and gives thanks to God for Matthias.
Because he was called to be an apostle, not a celebrity. A faithful eye witnesses to the historical events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Because Matthias, like John the Baptist, was called to decrease, that the good news of Jesus Crucified would increase.
Because Matthias was called to proclaim, not himself, but Jesus crucified and risen in word and deed. For all people. For you.

There may be a lot we don’t know about St. Matthias. But we do know a few of the most important things about him. He was baptized. Redeemed. Made holy. Chosen and called by the Lord to be his messenger. Sent out in his vocation to serve.

The important thing about Matthias isn’t the man, the messenger, but rather the message. Not so much whowas called, but whathe was called to do. As St. Peter declared…

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 

An eye-witness to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. That’s the job-description of the apostles. To preach, proclaim, teach, and deliver God’s saving gifts of forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ death and resurrection. And to do so not as men spinning threads of fantastic fairy tales or legends, but as historical fact. These things happened. 
Matthias was an eye witness. He saw Jesus dead on a Friday afternoon, and alive again three days later on Sunday evening. That’s the joy of the Christian faith and Scriptures. It isn’t made up. It’s real. It’s true. It happened and was seen by real people. We didn’t see the death and resurrection of Jesus. We didn’t hear with our own ears what He said. But Matthias and the others did and they faithfully delivered it wherever they preached. To the Church. To us today. 
This is God’s way of doing things. Working through sinful men to accomplish his saving work and to care for others. In the Old Testament God had his 12, his chosen people Israel. Through the 12 tribes of Israel came the Holy One of Israel, Jesus. In the New Testament God had his 12, his chosen, called disciples. Through the 12 disciples and later the 12 apostles, the Holy One of Israel, Jesus was proclaimed. And God still has his 12, His chosen, called, beloved people. You. The baptized. Redeemed. Made holy by the blood of Jesus. Gathered as his Church. All by God’s grace, just like Matthias.
For by God’s grace, he simply, quietly yet boldly, did what Jesus called and sent him to do. To be a witness to Jesus’ death and resurrection for him and for all. To preach this saving good news to all. To love his neighbor as God in Christ has loved us.

In this way, we’re a lot like Matthias. Matthias’s story is our story.

The same Word of God that turned Matthias into an apostle, turns us away from sin and death to be God’s baptized, beloved children. 

The same Holy Spirit that called Matthias to hear and proclaim God’s saving Gospel opens our hears to hear and our mouths to declare the forgiveness of sins to those around us. 

The same saving good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection that Matthias witnessed is witnessed and received among us today in the Scriptures we hear and meditate upon, and in the forgiveness of sins we hear, taste, touch, and see at our Lord’s Table. 

The same Lord who used and equipped Matthias to serve as an apostle, along with the other apostles, sinful men all of them, still chooses to call and equip sinners as his chosen instruments to serve others, here in our congregation and in our community.

It’s tempting, in our sinful flesh to want to make St. Matthias day all about St. Matthias. Just as it is tempting to make our daily Christian life all about ourselves. To want to make a name for ourselves, to want the spotlight, and to be self-serving. But that is not the way of God’s people, just as it was not the way of Matthias and the apostles. 

God calls us, as he called Matthias and the apostles, not to self-service, but to sacrificial service. To glory in Christ crucified, not ourselves. To point, as John the Baptist did to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For you. For all. To speak the words of Jesus that Matthias was called to speak. Those words that are Spirit. Life. Salvation. And true rest in a busy world.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

A blessed Feast of St. Matthias to each of you…

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

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