July 2025

‘I came … to call … sinners’ Matthew 9.13 (ESV)

At a quick glance it is easy to think that this Saying for July does not apply to us.  After all, we have not carried out the events mentioned in our daily news bulletins.  Surely those who commit such acts are sinners, not us …

Yet if we pause and open our minds and hearts to the Spirit, we can think more about what exactly sin is.  It could simply be whatever prevents us from being fully alive in God.  In this context July’s Saying becomes relevant and all encompassing.  Many things might prevent us from being fully in touch with God.  We might be resisting the call to some action or inaction.  Perhaps we do not consider ourselves good enough to do something God is calling us to do.  Perhaps we might not recognise the gifts of the Holy One already given to us.

As we begin to think about sin as an opening up of distance between ourselves and our Creator, and as we contemplate the standards of Jesus and compare them to our own, most of us become visible as sinners on a journey to perfection, only through and by God’s grace.

The words of Jesus in this Saying, ‘I came … to call … sinners’, comes after the call of Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Christ.  At this time, tax collectors were considered the ultimate sinners since they collaborated with the occupying forces and often made money for themselves by collecting too much tax.  Yet Jesus and the disciples had gone to have dinner at Matthew’s house with many such men.  Sinners were in fact amongst Christ’s favourite people.  The Pharisees complained that he should not associate with them.  As is often the case, Jesus challenges the principles of those with power; they do not match those of the Kingdom of God.  Love is extended to all, love without judgement.  Such love is a catalyst for change.

Regardless of who we are and what we have done, Jesus calls us and invites us to share in the love and grace God freely gives to us.  No-one is excluded or too far away from the invitation.  As we allow the Spirit to challenge and lead us through this Saying, we are called to extend Christ’s invitation to ourselves and to others:  ‘I came … to call … sinners’.