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Scripture: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26, John 17:6-8, 13-19
Title: Drawing the Short Straw
I know it’s hard to believe, but I wasn’t always this specimen of strength and athleticism you see before you today.
This week, when Katie and I were talking about her kid’s time, I told her the story of my skinny, weak, gangly self playing kickball in elementary school. Every time I came up to kick, the other team would yell out “step in!” and everyone would move forward.
It was the worst.
And as my lack of kickball skills were common knowledge, I was most often picked last for the team.
It would usually be between me and another gangly awkward kid, and we would both be silently hoping that our name was next. Because even though it wasn’t a great place to be, being second-to-last wasn’t nearly as horrible and humiliating as being the last picked.
So when I first read today’s reading from Acts, I read it through a different lens.
The lens of not being the a-team.
The lens of not being chosen first.
And I heard about Matthias and Barsabbas and couldn’t help but wonder if they felt at all like I did, standing there, next to the other person, hoping it’s your name called first.
The location of both of today’s texts are important – not where they physically take place, but where they are located historically and in our church year.
Today is the final Sunday of Easter.
Next week is Pentecost.
This past Thursday was Ascension Day, the day where Jesus ascends into heaven to be at the right hand of God.
So this morning finds the disciples in this strange in-between zone. They have followed Jesus, learned from him, watched him be killed, they’ve seen him rise from the dead, and have just watched him go back to be with God. So the question for them is… now what?What do we do now?
Well, Peter, being the practical leader that he is, decides that the most important thing to do in this moment is to replace Judas.
While it’s been argued among scholars the exact reasoning for Peter’s decision, most agree that keeping the connection to the 12 tribes of Israel and remaining true to the prophecies were the main ones.
The remaining 11 disciples decided that this new disciple should come from among those who had been with them during Jesus’ ministry. After all, who better to tell the good news of Christ than someone who had been there and had seen it all?
So they propose two guys for this job: Matthias and Barsabbas.
And then, believe it or not, they cast lots to decide.
A flip of the coin decides who is the new 12th disciple.
They didn’t take resumes.
They didn’t conduct interviews.
They just said, you two guys stand here, heads it’s Barsabbas, tails its Matthias.
Ready, set. … Tails – Matthias, you’re in.
Sorry Barsabbas. Better luck next time.
I feel for these guys.
I’m sure for them, this moment was not great.
They hadn’t been included in the original 12, so there’s that good start.
And then this – to be picked by a flip of the coin?
Rough.
I think a lot of us can relate – even if you were among the lucky ones who were picked first for kickball and other playground sports – you can still relate to that moment that seems so important when it’s happening, but in reality doesn’t do a whole lot to the big picture.
This text makes me laugh a bit because the disciples are worrying about this one little thing and right around the corner is Pentecost and they have NO CLUE what is about to happen. Here they are, voting to bring just one guy into their inner circle, and next week, the Holy Spirit destroys that very inner circle and brings everyone else on board.
It’s going to blow their mind.
It makes me wonder what little things in my world are going to be blown out of the water by the Holy Spirit.
And despite what is about to come, despite that we never hear about Matthias again after today, this moment is still important enough to have been recorded, for us to hear about, not because one individual is going to save the whole of God’s plan … but he matters because he was a part of what made the team complete.
He is called, but the plan isn’t contingent on him.
God is going to work.
Things are going to happen with or without Matthias.
Things are going to happen if the lot would have fallen on Barsabbas.
Whether the disciples like it or not, whether they are ready or not, the Holy Spirit is coming.
And for us – it’s already happened.
The Holy Spirit has come.
God is working in the world already. Right now.
And the good news for us?
The lot has already been cast.
The coin was flipped, and God spoke YOUR name.
You are in.
God has called us disciples.
And while God’s plan isn’t contingent on you – your presence makes the team complete.
The team needs you.
This is what I think Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel.
We come across Jesus praying to God, praying for his disciples to God.
Jesus knows what is coming.
Jesus knows that he is going to go away, but he is praying that those disciples who are still here might be reminded that the work is not done yet.
We’re disciples too. This prayer is for us.
We have all been sent.
John 17:18 Jesus says “As you (God)have sent me (Jesus) into the world, so I (Jesus) have sent them (us) into the world.”
That’s how it works.
There’s a plan here:
God sends Jesus.
Jesus sends us.
Because there is still a lot of work for us to do.
In the final verse of today’s Gospel Jesus says that he has made us holy.
Sanctified.
That word literally means to be made holy, or to be set apart for God.
I want to focus on this word for a second, because I think we can hear “set apart” and think it means “stay apart.” That we should be separate from the world around us.
But it’s the rest of that definition that matters most.
Sanctified means to be set apart FOR GOD.
For God.
We are set apart, sanctified, We are being made holy FOR something, and Jesus tells us today that we are to go out into the world.
Pope Francis once said “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”
I think this is what we all want to be.
We WANT to be this kind of church. Be this kind of disciples.
But I also think that we don’t really know how.
Our world today gives us a lot of information, but not a lot of action.
We hear a lot of opinions about how to make the world better, but don’t see a lot of people actually doing the things they talk about.
I’m guilty of this too.
I can be the best armchair activist the world has ever seen.
But I’m not sure that’s what God is asking.
I think God is asking us for more than armchair activism.
This is why Jesus prays today.
He is praying for us.
Jesus knows how hard it is to go out and DO.
So he prays for us who are sent.
For the wisdom and strength to do more.
To recognize that our names have been called.
I spent the last two days at the Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly in Ramsey, and along with a few of our congregational delegates, I heard the call to go out.
The theme was “The Word became flesh, and moved into the neighborhood”
We are asked to be about more than talking.
To be about more than focusing on things inside this building, and more on going out and doing.
Our keynote speaker Brian McLaren reminded us that being disciples isn’t about bringing people into the church, it’s about going out, into the neighborhood and BEING the church.
Now for some of you – maybe even a lot of you – this is as uncomfortable a task as when Chad asked you to change pews last week.
Go out?
Be the church out there?
But I like it in here.
It’s safe.
And I know people.
And my pew is comfy.
I get it.
This is no easy task.
But there is a lot of work to be done still, and if we don’t do it. If we don’t go out and show the love of Christ to the community around us, the love that WE have received from God first – then who will?
There’s a story from the Old Testament, when Moses was giving one of his many arguments to God as to why he was the wrong person to lead the Israelites out of slavery – and God simply asked Moses – what’s in your hand?
For Moses – it was a shepherd’s staff, and God used that staff to make all sorts of miracles happen.
Moses didn’t go out and get something new.
He didn’t do something he had never done before.
He simply took what he knew and let God make it holy.
He let God set him apart for the work of God.
And look what happened.
This same thing is being asked of you today:
What’s in your hand?
Today, I want us to imagine.
I want us to imagine together how we might be invited to join God already at work in the world.
I want us to imagine together what it might look like to make the world a better place for God.
I want us to imagine together what our own personal gifts and talents and passions might have been set apart for.
God is already at work in the world.
We can either sit here, safe in our pews, surrounded by people who look and think and believe a lot like us, or we can go out.
God will love us either way.
God calls us beloved no matter which one we choose.
But we can go into a broken, hurting, needy world, and share with them the love we have been given.
So as we watch this video, as we are reminded of the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples, for us, and for the world, I want you to imagine what these words might mean for you.
Jesus has called you.
Jesus has sanctified you.
Jesus is sending you.
Now what?
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