Advent Sunday 2010
“Stern Matthew” – Matthew 24: 36-44

Are you looking forward to Christmas ? Especially those family gatherings... You know the ones I mean. You meet members of the family you only see once a year, or at christenings and weddings and funerals.

There’s the one who is a bit wild and you’re never quite sure what he is going to do or say next - drag you off for a wild night drinking (in the case of some of my mad Irish relatives). Or the one who is a bit stern and you feel like you might get told off any minute, especially if you haven’t polished your shoes recently. Or the one who is just nice and easy to be with, and so you look forward to going to the party and are happy to put up with that strange mulled wine that takes the enamel off your teeth…

The Gospel writers are like members of our extended family. Two years ago at this time, we were introducing Mark, the wild one, who told us the stories of Jesus the miracle worker; always on the move, full of energy, until that last week of his life when he suffers so silently and so poignantly. Remember Mark’s favourite word - ‘immediately’.

And last year we were introducing Dr Luke, our humane friend. The one who tells us so many of the lovely stories about Jesus. The one who shows us Jesus especially befriending the outcast, the poor, women, Gentiles. Luke’s favourite word is ‘mercy’.

But this year we are introducing Matthew, the “stern one”. We are in for a demanding year. Matthew tells us a great deal about Jesus the Teacher, and especially Jesus the teacher of the New Law. It is Matthew who passes on the Sermon on the Mount in the form that we know it best. It is Matthew who contains some of Jesus’ clearest ethical and spiritual teaching.  Matthew’s favourite word is ‘perfect’. ‘Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect’. It is going to be a demanding year with “stern Matthew”.

And this morning we get a double blast of challenge. Not just “stern Matthew” but “apocalyptic Matthew”. In this passage we hear some of Jesus’ teaching about the judgement of God. To our eyes it is most strange. All will be judged but some will be rescued before the judgement comes. Think of the images that Matthew offers. Two men working side by side: one is saved, the other not. Two women working side by side: one is saved, the other not. And the ones who are not saved have been living in a state of silly ignorance, deceiving themselves that all is well, when in fact…

Well we could be watching a Hollywood disaster movie. You can always spot early on the one who is going to get eaten or drowned or fried. They are always the loud-mouthed, careless, frivolous, arrogant ones. We feel they deserve what they get ! Fascinating how a deep Jewish and Christian insight into wise living has become the engine of so many popular disaster movies: it’s almost as if people everywhere recognise that careless and arrogant living brings its own reward - nemesis, judgement, destruction.

And Matthew says to us “Be careful, be alert, live the right way, so that you are ready to face your Maker when the time comes. Because you never know when your time will come…”  “Stern Matthew” indeed.

The staff all went on a training day yesterday about how to preach Matthew. I say that so that you know that we don’t just knock these sermons together but take our preparation and preaching seriously ! You can look them up on our web site if you don’t believe me ! And we learned a great deal about how carefully Matthew wrote his Gospel. How its structure and theology is subtle and deep. But a couple of things stood out for me and connect to the passage of Matthew which we read this morning, and I want to finish with those.

The first is that Matthew clearly thought being a Christian disciple was a very serious thing. It is Matthew who records Jesus’ teaching about turning the other cheek. It is Matthew who records Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies. For Matthew following Christ is utterly demanding. It will cost us everything. And if it is not costing us everything, then we will hear Matthew asking us: “Are you really a Christian?” “Being a Christian is more than being nice to people. It is about becoming good.”

Matthew wants us to be good – loving and just– because that is how God is – loving and just. Our character is to be like God’s character – the family likeness.

Matthew is really a good Anglican ! He teaches us to put our trust in the loving God who is the Father of Jesus, but then he says to us: “If you want this family name and these family privileges, then show some of the family qualities.” Faith and works together: just what Thomas Cranmer has taught us, through his and our prayer books.

Brothers and sisters we are in for a demanding year. Again and again we will be asked: “So you say you are a Christian – well do you live like one ? do you give like one ? do you love like one ?”

We find ourselves in both a difficult and a potentially good time for the Church in England. For centuries, almost every English person has described themselves as “Christian” but many have paid only lip service to the serious demands of the Faith. And therefore Christianity has acquired a reputation of being rather wet and undemanding. That age is passing. More and more people do not describe themselves as “Christian”. More and more people don’t know what Christians believe. And so when they meet us, they are curious and ask “so what do you believe ?” But of course they really want to know the answer to the next question: “and do you really believe it ?” “Does it make a difference to your life?”

I am not making this up. This is happening in our churches this year. That is both very exciting because people are getting past the old complacent prejudices about our Faith. But it is also a little scary, because they will expect us to take seriously what we claim to believe. Or why do we bother ? Or why should they bother ?

“Stern Matthew” will allow us no hiding places from the truth about ourselves.

The second thing that Matthew took seriously was community, and this makes the scariness of Matthew a little easier to manage. The Gospel was possibly written between AD 70 and 90 in Antioch in Syria. It was the first city where Christians were known as Christians. Jews and Gentiles had both become followers of Jesus Christ and so they acquired a new name, they belonged to a new community. And it was a community where it was easy to pick fights and fall out.

Imagine a church with both Gentiles and Jews – pork-sausage-eaters and non-pork-sausage-eaters. What a problem on the morning of the parish breakfast ! No wonder there were arguments. It is almost as difficult as imagining a church with middle class and working class people in it, young and old people in it, Magpies and Mackems in it…just like us.

And we know as a church that it can be easy to fall out with our fellow Christians, to have deep feuds. But we also know, and are discovering more and more, that we are a real community. That things go better when we work together. That whilst it is very hard on our own to live like Christ, when we do it as a big untidy family, it is a bit easier. And we are discovering that when we are finding it hard to keep going – as lots of us do – that it is much easier to keep going when the community takes care of us and we are not left on our own. Matthew has much to teach us about being a loving community. It is going to be good to be with Matthew this year.

I used to row a lot. In an eight. I was very fit – even if it is hard to believe now ! The thing about rowing is that once the race starts, you can’t get out of the boat – and if you want a breather the other 7 lunatics in the boat won’t slow down to let you get a breather. You have to keep in time. You have to keep going. It is utterly demanding. “Stern Matthew.” But it is precisely because you do it as a team, that you spend hours and hours working together, sweating together, throwing up together, that you learn that deep trust. You discover that even though it is utterly demanding it is actually do-able. I was fortunate enough to meet some of the guys I rowed with recently. I had not seen some of them for 30 years. But we still have a deep bond. If I close my eyes I am back in the boat with them – and we even won some of our races !

“Utterly demanding but actually do-able.” “Utterly demanding but actually do-able.” That it what “Stern Matthew” is going to teach us about being Christian.

For a year we are going to have a scary team manager – Alex Ferguson not Chris Hughton. But we will finish the year a better and a happier team for that. “Stern Matthew” will be good for us.
Amen.