“Welcome to the Family”

John 17:6-19; Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Easter 7

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

¹⁵ In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, ¹⁶“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— ¹⁷for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry…

²¹ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.”

²³ So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” ²⁶And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

[The passage from Acts of course takes place after the crucifixion and the resurrection, when the disciples are all gathered in Jerusalem waiting for whatever happens next.

This passage from John’s gospel takes place shortly before the crucifixion, when Jesus has just completed his long goodbye to the disciples, and is now praying to God in their presence:]

John 17:6-19

{6} “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. {7} Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; {8} for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. {9} I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. {10} All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

{11} And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. {12} While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me…

{13} But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.

{14} I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. {15} I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. {16} They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. {17} Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. {18} As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. {19} And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

The Sermon

Peter stood up and said, “Somebody who has accompanied us during all the time we were with Jesus needs to become a witness with us to his resurrection,” which is an interesting job description for someone who is one of the “inner circle” of disciples: someone who will become, with us, a witness to the resurrection.

So from among the group of about 120, they proposed two: a certain Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus; and Matthias.

One of those two finalists would step into the shoes of the recently departed Judas Iscariot, which would return the number of Jesus’ Disciples to an even 12—the number, in that culture, of wholeness, like we view the number ten.

So they prayed, and they said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside.”

And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles, to become again the Twelve.

It is apparently lost to history exactly what happened when lots were cast. The effect was not unlike flipping a coin, spinning a bottle or drawing straws: whoever the lot fell on, that was the one, it was believed, whom God was identifying.

Our nomination process for elders in the church is different from that in the sense that we don’t do any tangible, physical thing—there’s no magic 8-ball or Ouija board that this church pulls out of a closet every year when it’s time to nominate elders.

But we do retain the spirit of it in the sense that, like Peter and these original disciples, we’re not just going in there and trying to decide, or figure out, who would be the most logical next four session members starting in January. Our task is just like that of the disciples: to try to discern God’s will and try to follow God’s leading. The only difference is we do that through prayer, while the original disciples did whatever they did which has come down to us as “casting lots.”

So they had their meeting, and they offered a prayer, and then they asked God to show them whom God wanted to take the place of Judas in the Twelve.

And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and into the role of Witness to the Resurrection stepped a member of the community who up to now has been completely unknown—at least to us. We have heard not one word of this Matthias before he is named to the Twelve.

Like Abraham, with whom God made the original covenant and who became the father of the whole People of God—the pivotal human being at the beginning of Judaism, Christianity and Islam—there is absolutely nothing to distinguish him.

It was the same with the original disciples whom Jesus called. Nothing in their past, nothing of their particular gifts is mentioned; in other words, there is no rational reason why you would have looked at any of these people and said, “Now, there is the ideal candidate for service to God’s kingdom.”

But how many times have I heard people say, “I’m not really ‘church people;’ I don’t live like they do; I don’t talk or think like they do”?

God does not need to see your resume. God will choose whom God will choose, period.

And what happens after Matthias is named to that honored body of apostles?

We don’t know. We never hear Matthias’s name again.

Welcome to the family, Matthias. Along with several others—Simon the Zealot; James, son of Alphaeus—all we ever get about Matthias from anywhere else in the Bible is the name. Nothing is said about where he came from or, more importantly, what his skills were, what particular gifts he brought to the church family.

What was he like? What did he do? What contributions did he make? What did he stand for? The answers to all these questions are never filled in for us.

It’s as if nothing he did was meant to draw attention to himself. The one, singular, overriding, important thing is this: that he lived to serve the just and righteous kingdom of God; that he followed the Son of God who called his disciples, first and last, to love.

Matthias, welcome to the family.

I am always touched by Jesus’ prayer for the disciples as he is preparing to leave them. That long farewell discourse is over, and he’s praying to God. He says,

“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me…

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from evil…

“As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

It seems like such a family thing; it almost seems—and far be it from me ever to dare to imagine what Jesus was thinking—but doesn’t it seem like he’s kind of worried about them? That’s such a family thing. It’s like a mother or father, watching their sons and daughters go off to serve in the military.

He certainly knows that for the disciples he is leaving behind, the ministry is only beginning. From now on, the ministry of the body of Christ will not be administered by one man. From now on, the body of Christ is us.

The hands of Christ are your hands. The mouth of Christ is what you say. Christ’s movement in the world is done by your feet.

The feeding of the hungry, the silencing of the guns; the encouragement, the laughter, the forgiveness of Christ—those have to come from you now. It’s why you’re in the world.

Disciples, welcome to the family.

Today we are not only witnesses to but participants in the holy baptism of Braden Joshua Clamme.

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who followed his own awareness of the Cost of Discipleship—the name of his greatest written work—to his own death at the hands of the Nazis, didn’t believe in infant baptism; he said the commitment made to die with Christ, in order to be raised to new life with him, is not something a baby or even a young child is capable of—a lot of adults aren’t capable of that kind of commitment.

Of course we (enlightened Presbyterians) understand that Baptism is not an act of the will of the child or the parents or the minister or the congregation; it’s an act of the Holy Spirit, to bind that child to Christ. Later that child will be old enough and mature enough to confirm that commitment at confirmation.

In the meantime the people of God gather around the baptismal font, and pray,

Send your Spirit to move over this water

that it may be a fountain of deliverance and rebirth for all who are cleansed by it.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon them,

that they may have power to do your will,

and continue forever in the risen life of Christ.

And then all of us in this great family hear the promise again for ourselves:

I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Child of the covenant,

you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism,

and marked as Christ’s own forever.

Baptized believers, welcome to the family. You belong; you have a place here. And you, the weak and the broken; the arrogant and the inadequate; too often unkind, ungenerous and unthinking as we all are—you are loved. And valued. And cherished. And here is where there is always someone who has hope for you.

You are the ones called to bring the healing presence of Christ into your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your chat room, your community.

Welcome to the family.

You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism,

and marked as Christ’s own forever.

Welcome to the family.

A century ago, Max Ehrmann wrote a poem called “An Easter Prayer:”

Resurrect Thou the dreams and songs and love

that enchanted the garden of my youth,

filled with joys of a thousand hopes in the still morning’s twilight,

and dawning visions in the shadowed, starry night.

As the kindly earth yields forth each spring her budding brood,

so in the barren winter of my heart may there bloom again the rose of sweet content…

To tired men that daily tread the crowded streets,

give Thou a place of sweet repose at night;

and fill with love the hearts of lonely women.

Bring forth sweet babes from out the arms of each,

to light with joy the byways of the earth.

Thou Great God, uphold me also in the lonely hour;

and though I fall in the din and the dust of the world, resurrect Thou me.

Even to the last, turn my hands to kindly service,

and part my lips in gleeful songs of love.

And in the softly falling dark, when all grows strangely still,

may I be glad to have trod the sweet green earth,

and know the tender touch of love.

Yet may I depart with joy, as one who journeys home at evening. [1]

Welcome, all of you, to the family.

Keith Grogg, Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church, Carolina Beach, NC

May 24, 2009

[1] (Ehrmann, The Desiderata of Faith: A Collection of Religious Poems. New York: Crown, 1996.)