The Fabric of Our Lives
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

The Arkansas strawberries have been great this season, haven't they?   A good strawberry season is not something we can control.  The right amount of rain and of sunshine is necessary.  A late frost like we had last year can completely destroy the crop. There are so many factors in our lives that we cannot change or control.  We can, however, choose to accept those things with anxiety or serenity.  It is up to us.

When I purchase strawberries at the grocery store, I always inspect them carefully.  I gently turn the plastic container upside down and examine them as well as I can.  If I see one bad strawberry, I reject that whole batch and move on to another one.  As soon as I get home, I gently pour the berries into a colander. Any bad ones are rejected and any suspicious ones are isolated from the good ones. I make the decisions.  I make the choices. Although we cant change or control everything in our lives, we do have choices.

Today's gospel is packed full of action — of choices being made and of people interacting with Jesus. There are stories within stories. And, of course, Jesus is at the center of the action.  And, of course, like the best of stories, the outrageous, the unpredictable, the unexpected all jump right off the pages of Matthew 9.

For instance, just look at the first two sentences: “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me’.  And he got up and followed him.” 

First of all, it was outrageous that Jesus called this publican, this tax collector, this person linked with sinners and prostitutes. It was totally unpredictable and unexpected that a tax collector would abandon his business and follow this man of no financial resources and no earthly power. Matthew just got up and left all those shekels sitting there for anyone to steal! He made a choice that day he met Jesus and his life was changed forever.

In those days there were tax collectors and then there were tax collectors. This is how the system worked during the time of Jesus.  Native entrepreneurs contracted with the Romans to collect local taxes. These men were required to pay the tax allotment in advance.  Then they would collect the taxes from the people, planning to make a profit, sometimes an outrageous profit. If they worked at it, they could do very well. It was a good way to make a living except perhaps for the scorn of the many who linked tax collectors with all kinds of sinners.

No one knows what Matthew, also called Levi, was thinking when with the blink of an eye, he gave up all that to follow this man called Jesus.  We do know that his decision changed his life forever. He chose one way and rejected another.  Sometimes, we too, come to a fork in the road. Sometimes it seems that all at once, we must make a decision that will affect the rest of our lives in a major way. But sometimes we seem to fall into a decision without really making a decision at all. We choose and we reject without even realizing the guiding factors.  Is it providence or human choice or human error or grace that guides our paths?

When Clifford and I had been married a few years and were living in Miami, Oklahoma, Clifford learned of two job opportunities in his field.  One was with Texas Instruments in Richardson, Texas.  The other was with the Coors Porcelain Company in Golden, Colorado.  We wrote cover letters and sent identical resumes to the two places.  Being young and not very wise, we guessed at the postage and mailed the brown manila envelopes off to the prospective employers.  Within a few weeks, Clifford was invited to travel to Coors to interview.  He did that and was offered and accepted a position in research and development. Colorado would be our home for the next twenty-one years.

Shortly after we made our decision about the job with Coors and the related move to Colorado, the brown manila envelope sent to Texas Instruments was returned to our Miami, Oklahoma mailbox marked “Returned for additional postage”.  Some unknown clerks in two mailrooms a thousand miles apart had a strong influence on the direction our lives would take. Human error and the decisions of others seemed to direct both our decisions and our feet.  But God’s grace smoothed the road we followed and guided us along the way.

During Jesus’ meal with tax collectors and sinners, another actor in this drama appears. A leader of the synagogue suddenly enters in this place full of tax collectors and sinners and disciples and Jesus. He kneels at the feet of Jesus.  “My daughter just died, he said; but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.” We know what happened to this thread of the story. Jesus follows Jairus and goes into his house and takes the girl's hand, and she gets up. She is not dead; she is alive. The leader of the synagogue made a decision that day. He chose to go to Jesus.  He could have stayed home and prepared for the funeral and immersed himself in his grief.  But he rejected that choice.  Instead he chose the unexpected, unpredictable path.  It changed his life and that of his daughter forever.

But before the visit to the girl, another drama unfolds.  As Jesus is making a beeline for Jairus’ house, another story takes center stage.  A woman appears and says to herself, “If  I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” We all know what happens. Jesus allows himself to be called from his beeline journey to the dead little girl.  He stops and speaks to the woman.  After twelve years of hemorrhaging, she is instantly made well. She didn't choose to be ill; to be considered unclean.  I wonder what made her decide to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak that day?  She was considered unclean, untouchable and by the same token, she was not to touch anyone else. By faith she chose to risk touching Jesus. She made a choice that day. It wasn't the safest one; it wasn't the expected or predictable one. Her choice changed her life forever.

These three intertwined stories of choices made remind me of a poem that many of us read in high school — a poem written by Robert Frost in 1920.

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there,
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The fabric of our lives is woven with the things that we cant control and don't choose, like, for example, illness and death as today's gospel story demonstrates.  But the fabric of our lives is also woven with the choices we make, both the intentional ones and those we don't consciously choose. Like Matthew and Jairus and the nameless sick woman, we are confronted with choices each day.

It is the wisdom and grace that come from God that allow us to accept with serenity those things we cant control or change.

It is also the wisdom and grace that come from God that encourage us to step out in faith as did Matthew and Jairus and the unclean woman.

It is also the wisdom and grace that come from God that helps us know when to accept and when not to accept but rather to choose a new path.

It is the wisdom and grace that come from God that guide us on the paths we find ourselves on in our journeys.

And those things make all the difference.

Amen

The Rev. Betsy Porter
St. James’ Episcopal Church
June 8, 2008

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