Last week’s Gospel lesson stated so clearly the what the mission of the church is: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Mat 28:19-20) It’s essential, that all of us who make up the church never forget what the church is all about. Satan would like nothing better than to get us off the track. He does that in so many ways. He tries to get us to think of ourselves as a club. He tries to get us to think that we exist for ourselves, instead of for the purpose of loving and serving God and our neighbor. We can’t let him get away with it. We need to remain focused on who we are and what Jesus wants us to be doing. For that purpose, for the next four Sundays, we’re going to spend some time reviewing just that on the basis of the name our forefathers chose for this congregation.

One hundred and one years ago, a group of people met together in Downtown Benton Harbor for the purpose of organizing this congregation. They met to appeal to the Wisconsin Synod for a pastor. They discussed the possibility of having a school to train their children in God’s Word. They met to discuss finances and a building program. And they also met to decide on a name for their new congregation. There’s no historical record that I’ve seen to indicate how much time they spent on their decision, but we can be sure some thought went into it. Who knows how long the list was from which they were choosing. But there are at least a thousand good names they could have picked. But they settled on the name we have in stained glass over our door, and by which people have known us now for a century.

They chose to call themselves "St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church." All four parts of our name are important. We are Evangelical. What does that mean? Why was it included in our name? We’ll hear about that next week. They made sure they were known as Lutheran. We’ll examine that also in a couple of weeks. And they made sure to include the name Church—not society, not club, not fraternity or sorority, but Church. We’ll spend time in our last sermon on the significance attached to that word in our name. But today we want to focus on what probably took up the most time in their deliberations when our church was first named. "St. Matthew."

Why not St. Mark, or St. John? Not that any of those would have been bad names. Quite the contrary. But there was something special about St. Matthew that our forefathers could identify with, and wanted to be identified with for as long as this congregation would exist. Of all the apostles, St. Matthew was certainly not the flashiest. That honor would have to go to St. Peter. St. Matthew was not even one of the three closest Apostles who got picked to go along on special events, like the transfiguration or Jesus’ prayers in the garden of Gethsemane. But there was one thing that set St. Matthew apart from all the rest. He was the one disciple who entered Jesus service with the worst reputation. He was the one that nobody liked before Jesus called him. He was probably the richest of all the men Jesus called—but he hadn’t gotten rich by earning an honest living.

Matthew was an outcast from society for some well-deserved reasons. As a tax collector he had taken a job with the occupying foreign government that ruled Judea. That would be like a Frenchman, Dane or Norwegian working for the Nazis during their occupation of those countries. He was considered a real Benedict Arnold. On top of that, Tax collectors, since they didn’t have many friends except other tax collectors, figured, "why not cheat and get rich." And that’s what they did.

But Jesus walked right up to Matthew, while he was sitting in his tax collector’s booth and said "Follow me." And Matthew got up and followed him."

What an unexpected coup of grace, that Jesus chose Matthew, such an unlikely candidate, to be one of his apostles. Of all the unlikely candidates, Matthew tops the list. But Jesus called him anyway. And the power of Jesus’ Word converted him. Matthew was no dunce. He knew the emptiness of his way of life. He knew his money would never fill the emptiness in his heart. Jesus’ words on the other hand made his heart burn. In Jesus’ words Matthew found the real object of all his longings. And so this chief of sinners, became one of Jesus’ twelve princes.

Our forefathers knew that story. You can almost imagine what the discussions were like in their rented meeting hall, as they chose that name for our congregation. We are all the chief of sinners. We were all unlikely candidates for the kingdom of God. But in his mercy, God chose us to follow him and be his disciples. What a testimony to the grace of God is the name they chose for our church! St. Matthew’s!" They wanted to identify with sinners, and not shun them. And we their spiritual sons and daughters want to do no less. We too are chiefs among sinners. God has not chosen us because of who we were, or who we thought we were. He has chosen us by grace alone to be his disciples. Knowing this absolute truth, how could we possibly look down on others, and consider anybody else "unworthy" of hearing the Gospel invitation of Jesus?

Not only, though, do we recognize St. Matthew as a former Roman sympathizer and tax collector. We recognize him as a disciple, a follower of Jesus. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Others Jesus had called had asked for time to get their affairs in order. But not Matthew. He didn’t pack up his tax collector’s booth. He didn’t take time to audit and close the books. He didn’t count his money. He just got up, and followed Jesus. There would be no looking back. From that moment on, Matthew was no longer Matthew the tax collector, but Matthew the disciple—Matthew the former tax collector.

That’s what it means to repent, you know. The God’s Word Bible translation always translates repent "Change the way you think and act." Which is exactly what Matthew did. He didn’t want to be a be the kind of guy who does whatever benefits himself. He wanted to be the kind of man who did what was right from now on. He didn’t want to be the kind of guy for whom money was the most important thing any more. He knew how empty that had left him feeling. He didn’t want to feel the stares of poor people, as he made his way home alone at night from work. He wanted to identify with them and to help them, to share their burden with them and to point them to the Savior.

Our forefathers chose the name St. Matthew’s, fully aware that’s what it meant for them too. They weren’t in it to become the most prestigious church in town, with all the prominent members of society. They organized as a gathering of redeemed sinners who wanted to go and sin no more. We their sons and daughters want to always remember the same. When Jesus says to us "Follow me" we don’t want to make excuses and come up with delay tactics. We don’t want to count our money before we decide what to do. Like St. Matthew, we want to get up and follow Jesus, forsaking sin and fishing for men. Which brings us to one more wonderful thing about Saint Matthew.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?" ¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Matthew was now a changed person. He was a child of God. He was a friend of Jesus. He was a student and follower of the Master. If he had just become a Pharisee, he never would have seen his old friends again. He would have looked down his nose at them. He would have shunned them and avoided them at all costs. But Matthew didn’t become a Pharisee. He became a Christian, a Christian who remembered who he had been, a Christian who gave Jesus all the praise and credit for his conversion and salvation. More than that, Matthew knew in his heart what that meant. He had literally crossed over from death to life—from an eternity in hell to an eternity in heaven. For the first time in his life, Matthew knew how to face his death! What a horrible, unspeakable crime it would have been for Matthew to hide his newfound treasure in the sand, to keep it all to himself. The thought never entered his mind! If God could save him, a sinner—one of the veritable dregs of society, he could save anybody! And would! Matthew absolutely had to share his new joy and love and peace with his friends. He knew they were just as sad and empty as he had been. He knew they needed exactly what he now had. He had to share it with them!

In naming our congregation St. Matthew, our forefathers acknowledged that very same truth. We were not going to be or ever become, self-centered, self-righteous Pharisees! They were determined to have this church be a place where other sinners could sit down at the table with Jesus and meet him, hear him speak to them, find out about the life and joy and peace he has to offer. It would have been sheer hypocrisy to name our church as they did, and not intend it to be a first aid station for dying souls. And it would be hypocrisy for us to continue to call ourselves St. Matthew’s if we didn’t intend to let our church continue to be an oasis in the wilderness, where every thirsty, dying soul finds the cooling drink of the water of life!

That’s what our whole church, named after St. Matthew is all about—inviting other sinners to enjoy the overflowing gifts of God’s abundant grace. May it always remain so, to the glory of God, the honor of St. Matthew’s name and the salvation of many souls. Amen.