The feast of St Matthew 2021 - mixing with the “wrong” crowd
Throughout my years of ministry in Fiji, I have to confess that I did enjoy my kava. Mind you, wherever I went on ministry there would inevitably be plenty of kava-drinking. It could be ceremonial or social. But one of the effects of drinking a lot of kava is that sometimes at night I would suffer from “gunu kara” which is the inability to sleep because I had not had enough kava or too much! When that happened I would go to find some place at 1.00 or 2.00am to have a few bowls of kava and that would get me drowsy enough to put me to sleep. The closest place during my early years in Ba parish was the security guard post at the back of Ba Motor Parts. I could climb over the back fence which was on the boundary of the mission compound and there the security man would be sitting around the kava bowl and with him were a few of the local night owls. The great thing was that here, around the security guard’s table, all felt welcomed and no judgements were made. Still, a fence can make a difference. On one side was the mission compound where it was only those who felt good enough would wander unless they were seeking confession! And here on the other side, all felt welcomed. It was an ideal place to be a missionary. I remember this place as I recall the story (Matthew 9:9-13) of how Jesus came to call Matthew or Levi, the tax-collector, whose feast day we celebrate today. Jesus didn’t have a church or a synagogue. He would meet people in their own homes. He seemed to enjoy eating out with people of ill-repute - sinners and tax-collectors. But these people were such good company that even the odd Pharisee, who wanted to relax away from his fellow puritanical Pharisees, could be found - like the fellow who asked Jesus’ disciples why their leader was mixing around with these people. Jesus overheard him and so explained what his mission was all about, to find those who feel excluded or unwelcome and make them feel at home. And he did this best among those who made him feel at home. I now confess I miss those days when I could nimbly climb over the fence and, like Jesus, feel at home with those who some in the parish probably thought were not the right company for a young priest. Don’t be afraid of the judgment of others when it comes to mixing with people they would consider inappropriate company. Remember that Jesus was there before you. That was how he found Matthew.
Tom Rouse