May 13, 2018 – Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
God is Working
7th Sunday of Easter – May 13, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We’ve gone back a bit in the book of Acts – nearly to the beginning.
You’ll remember that Acts and Luke come in a nice boxed set for Christmas –
they were both written by Luke.
Luke’s Gospel is Part I and tells the story of Jesus’ body before the resurrection.
Acts is Part II and tells the continuing story of Jesus’ body after the resurrection:
the body of the church.
Luke’s idea here is that the church now is Jesus’ physical body on earth and continues to do
all the things Jesus was doing in his earthly ministry.
At the very beginning of Acts, Jesus ascends into heaven and the disciples watch him go up.
Luke’s idea is not that Jesus is abandoning the disciples and abandoning earth.
Rather, the idea is that Jesus can now exercise his loving, healing authority over
all things, all places, and all powers –
he can be at work now in every nook at cranny of creation.
And with his very last words to them, says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea,
in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
In other words, you will be witnesses to the fact that
I am now at work in every nook at cranny of this world.
You can hear the commission, right?
They are to be sent out, to make friends, to expand the circle of friends,
and do as Jesus was doing everywhere: healing and feeding and including and forgiving.
We’ve seen how this works over the last few weeks.
The Samaritans – the sort of feuding cousins of the Jews – are first included.
Then the non-Jewish peoples: first the Ethopian eunuch and then Cornelius and his family.
Today we go back a bit where Luke first has to address a problem with the early community:
the question of personnel!
It’s going to take more people and more leadership to do all this!
Jesus had originally trained up 12 leaders or apostles or
“sent ones” to take charge of the mission.
If the early church is parallel to Israel and its 12 tribes in being the people through whom God
Chooses to work, the disciples figured they had better keep the magic,
symbolic number of 12 apostles.
Right now there is only 11! Crisis!
They figure they had better get busy and choose a 12th apostle to replace Judas!
They also figure that the person they choose had better be someone who
was there for everything Jesus said and did throughout his ministry.
One of the good, obvious people.
Someone with a good resume, all the right credentials and some solid references.
They do their figuring and they come up with a couple of candidates: Justus and Matthias.
Well, how are they gonna choose between them?
Back in the day it was common practice to choose lots to decide who God has chosen.
So they choose lots – kind of like choosing a short straw, except, you know, in a good way –
and Matthias is chosen.
I am sure there is rejoicing, Matthias’s campaign team throws a party,
maybe Matthias even gives a speech and then . . . is never heard from again.
I checked: Matthias is never mentioned again. Ever.
I am sure Matthias worked out just fine.
You know how if you don’t notice someone in a big hockey game that is not necessarily
a bad thing?
It means they’ve gone about their job in a quiet, effective way? And made no big mistakes?
Maybe that’s Matthias.
And hockey teams and churches are not so different in that respect:
they both need their Matthiases.
But here’s the thing: the Holy Spirit is not finished choosing leaders for God’s mission in
the book of Acts.
See, Peter and the other apostles have limited vision.
Matthias is a good, safe choice, right?
And they do need him: the church needs its Matthiases, the people who quietly and
faithfully go about their work.
But for the thing God has in mind, the church needs other kinds of leadership.
Remember that whole “be witnesses to my healing inclusive love to the ends of the earth thing”?
For that God needs somebody else.
Somebody from the outside to take the church to the outside.
Somebody to take the church and its mission to the next level.
Somebody Peter and the church leaders would never in a million years think of choosing.
A person who has . . . absolutely no credentials for this thing.
A person who has terrible references and probably the worst resume in the world for this.
The Holy Spirit in this case has to do the choosing herself, as if to say:
“Okay: Matthias is a good choice. Matthias will serve the community well. Good job!
But . . . I’m going to give you a little nudge in a slightly different direction.”
So the risen Jesus – who, remember, has not abandoned the world but
who can now be wherever he chooses to be – the risen Jesus, 8 chapters on,
chooses to be on the road to Damascus.
And he chooses to be on that road at the same time as a Jewish fellow named Paul.
Paul has been persecuting Christians.
Paul has been imprisoning Christians.
Paul was present when Stephen was stoned and killed – and Paul approved of his murder.
But rather than condemning him, the risen Jesus just asks Paul,
Why are you persecuting me, Buddy?
Jesus recognizes in Paul the gifts he needs to expand the Circle of Friends even further.
Jesus forgives Paul for what he has done – and invites even him into the Circle of Friends.
And so Paul, too, becomes an apostle, one commissioned by Jesus,
to be a witness to the things Jesus is doing to the ends of the earth.
And from there, Paul founds churches, Circles of Friends, all across the Mediterranean,
tirelessly working to expand the Circle of Friends among all peoples
to the ends of the earth, showing how Jesus is at work reconciling all peoples and
making friends of all peoples in Corinth, and Philippi and even Rome – and even, for sure, at Sargent and Victor.
This is a story of forgiveness and hope.
This is a story of inclusion and it is a story of how even the most unlikely people
are needed by God for God’s mission to love, bless, heal and set free
this whole world and every person in it.
It is a story of how everyone – everyone! The likely and the unlikely – have gifts for
enabling the church participate in God’s mission.
It is a story of how God needs you and your gifts for this wondrous mission.
Everyone has a place.
The Matthiases and the Pauls.
And isn’t it kind of good that yes, we human beings can make our safe, good choices and
that will work out but also that God will see that sometimes we need more than we can
imagine and so somehow the Holy Spirit intervenes and does stuff
without our permission!
I just love how in this story Jesus doesn’t consult with anyone before he confronts Paul and
invites him into the work of the church – offstage, Jesus goes rogue!
This is a very hopeful story.
The good news in it is that, yes, God does indeed work both through what we do and our
due diligence and our careful plans.
But God also works outside our best laid plans and sometimes circumvents and
upsets our carefully worked out schemes.
I am sure it was not at all easy to accept Paul into the church and its leadership.
But it turns out that the church needed Paul just as much as it needed Matthias.
I’m saying all this because as the church in our day struggles to forge a way ahead,
I think a couple of things.
I think we must continue to responsibly raise up the Matthiases and nurture disciples and
leaders among both men and women in our congregation.
But I think God is also speaking a word to us today that we must also be open to surprise,
and remember that God is also working outside our carefully laid plans.
We must be open to leadership and ideas from people we might not think are likely.
Luke is telling us pretty clearly that for our effective participation in God’s mission,
we must also look to those outside our immediate and obvious circle.
And I think the Holy Spirit is also speaking a work to you this morning,
that if you think you don’t have a place in leadership or in the mission and
ministry of this congregation – the Holy Spirit is telling you that you do.
And that, like Paul, you should be open to it, for God can work great things through you.
The really good news in this story this morning is that, no, Jesus has not abandoned us.
The triune God is clearly busily at work, outside our awareness, working working working.
When we can’t see it, God is at work.
When we can’t imagine it, God is at work.
God is working for our welfare, and God is working for the welfare of all creation
In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”
And that’s a comforting thought on this 7th Sunday of Easter.
When your plans do not seem to be coming to much, Jesus is working.
When your best efforts do not seem to amount to anything, the Holy Spirit is working.
When you feel like nothing is happening, the Creator is working.
So take heart, and like the early church in some pretty precarious days, be assured:
the triune God is working for the good of all things – even when we can’t see it.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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