Superheroes are famous for their elaborate origins. Batman’s parents were killed when he was a boy. Superman rocketed from a dying planet and was raised by a Kansas farmer and his wife. Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider and the Incredible Hulk was bombarded with gamma radiation. But Matthew, a former tax collector who went on to write one of the books in our Bible has such a simple origin story. Jesus said, “Follow me” and he did.
I. Those God Chooses
Now it is an interesting conceit to thing of oneself as a superhero, as doing anything heroic, especially in relation to your faith, but when you look throughout the Bible you come across many people like Matthew: ordinary people, people dealing with the normal things that life brings them coming in contact with God and discovering what it means to be more than they thought they were because God is working through them.
There was an elderly couple who had money and had all they needed except that they didn’t have a child to pass it on to. And they were living their lives in the Middle East, doing what they did. And God came to them and told them to move south to a land which he would show them and he would make them into a great nation. After laughter and fears and tests and betrayals, they trusted God and obeyed him and the nation of Israel began in its unique way. This elderly couple became the parents of a nation and their descendants, both physical and spiritual, became as numerous as the sands on the shore or the stars in the sky.
There was a boy who spent his life tending sheep for his father. He was the runt of his family, the youngest of a great number of brothers. But a prophet came to him and anointed him to become the king of the land. This shepherd boy became the greatest of the Old Testament kings who was known for being a man after God’s own heart.
And then there are the disciples, like Matthew. Some were fishermen, ordinary workers, others were tax collectors. Jesus had followers who had been prostitutes and he even had a few revolutionaries who joined his band. Jesus’ followers weren’t highly educated. They weren’t trained in leadership or missions. But Jesus said to them, “Follow me” and they did.
II. What we are Chosen For
But what does it mean when we say yes to following Jesus? What does it mean to be a hero for God? I think at its simplest being a hero is about being more than you thought you could be, more than you have it in you to be. Matthew had it in him to collect taxes, to be hated by those around him but to make up for it by being wealthy. Peter had it in him to fish. David had it in him to be a shepherd. And Abraham and Sarah had it in them to stay in Ur and let their line end with them. But God had more planned for each of these and God gave them the power and the strength and the faith and the hope to bring about greatness.
Our kids learned about three heroic traits this weekend. These traits that they learned about aren’t the end all be all to being a hero, but they all are tied up in following Jesus’ command to Matthew and answering when Jesus says, “Follow me.” They learned that it is important to trust God and that in trusting God we learn to obey him. It isn’t human strength that we rely on but rather God’s strength. They learned that we can find courage in the fact that God has a plan for us. And they learned the power that comes from living a life of encouragement. We like to think that heroics are those big things that are done to save the world and help those in need, but one of the most heroic things we can do for others is to encourage them and help them when they need it.
These three traits of being a hero for God are only the starting point, they only begin us on the road where we find ourselves to be greater than we thought we were capable of.
If we follow the example of Matthew we answer Jesus’ call by saying yes. If we follow the example of Matthew we go where Jesus leads. If we follow the example of Matthew we will discover that though we are ordinary people living ordinary lives, God can use us to do the extraordinary. Matthew’s example is an example of trust, of obedience, of courage; it is an example of faith.
In today’s gospel we see a number of people who respond to Jesus with faith. There is the synagogue ruler who comes to Jesus for help because his daughter is dying and there is the old woman who touches Jesus to receive healing. These people trusted that Jesus was able to change their lives for the better. These people had courage to do something that was difficult for them. The synagogue ruler didn’t dare go to Jesus because Jesus was being branded as a heretic. The old woman didn’t dare face Jesus because she was considered unclean by all those around him. And yet they both let their trust in God lead them to acts of courage and their faith brought healing to them.
I began with the origin stories of a few superheroes. I also shared some stories of people from the Bible who lived lives of heroic faith. But the key isn’t to focus on them. The key is to look at yourself.
Those of you who belong to my church know that I’m being ordained in about 3 weeks. One of the steps along this process that I have been going through has been that I had to tell my own origin story to other Christians. It’s something that’s quite common among Christians, it’s called giving a testimony. It’s one of those things that can be scary to do… after all, who likes to get in front of a crowd and talk about themselves? But the testimony is our own way of bringing ourselves into God’s big picture. It is the place where we get to tell about what God has done in our lives, how God has worked and how we responded. It is our own origin story, how we came to be the Christian that we are. What is your origin story? What is your testimony? How has God changed your life and how did you react to this?
I’ve never understood the criminal who reads Superman and gets into it, then goes off and breaks the law. How can you be inspired by someone who stands for truth, justice and the American way and yet do things that go against that very thing? No, let these stories inspire and encourage you. Let these people of faith that we read about in the pages of the Bible be people who you long to live like and let their example be something that you strive for. When you open the Bible and come upon a story of someone following Jesus ask yourself what you would have done in their circumstance. Would you have had the trust that they showed? Would you have been as courageous as they were? Would you have stood up for those who needed to be stood up for, offering encouragement instead of disdain? Would you have responded to faith or fear? So often we allow our fears to keep us from truly living lives of faith. So often we let our worries ruin the greatness that God has planned for us.
But when we do follow, when we do let our faith take charge, when we do follow that example of Matthew, our lives move out of the ordinary and all of a sudden, the melodrama of superheroics becomes real to us.
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