Choosing Another
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

May 24, 2009


It seems like a simple task, replacing a leader who has seriously violated his/her trust in office and has been dismissed. Our all too human tendency generally is to amp up the requirements for the position and insist upon more recommendations and pieces of paper, particularly in the traits that were so woefully at fault, attempting to organize such ill-behaviour out of existence.

Such ill-behaviour, treachery, abuse, evil, never operates according to proper bureaucratic procedures. Typically, a search committee focuses too narrowly on getting someone whose character traits are 180 degrees opposite the predecessor’s fault line, forgetting about the total job. A church executive once observed that most search committees seldom select the wrong candidate, they just reject the really right one early in the process over an insignificant detail. Never admit you are left-handed.

How do you prevent a Judas? There are more than a few people today who want to reinterpret and rehabilitate Judas to correct a great injustice of history. He was, in fact, the most faithful and insightful of the disciples, according to these views, a person who knew what had to be done and was courageous enough to sacrifice his integrity to do it. Perhaps he was convinced the Kingdom was imminent and by bringing in the Roman police he naively thought he was precipitating the incident that would usher in the Kingdom of Heaven with a bang. There was a bang, but it didn’t sound the way he thought it would.

We will never really know, and for sure, Judas’ reputation is fixed forever and deeply. There are others in history - Julius Caesar’s Brutus, Quisling in Norway, Benedict Arnold - name some others. John Killinger recalls going to see the stage presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar. After the performance there was a time to mingle with the actors. The actors who played Jesus and Judas swapped roles every few nights, they said, or otherwise the Judas actor would be ostracized by the other actors.

The apostles knew that somebody should replace Judas, although they could have left the position empty. Twelve was a sacred number for them, the twelve tribes of Israel continued. Besides, there was work to be done, “the share Judas had been allotted.”

There was really only one requirement for the company of 120 disciples and apostles - he had to have been with Jesus from the beginning, and therefore a witness to the resurrection. None of us would qualify, of course. They insisted upon someone they all knew and like them knew what was fundamentally important. It all makes perfect sense, and this method has killed the spirit of more churches and organizations, as the church fades into the sunset not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Two candidates emerged, Barsabbas and Matthias, just names. All one can say is that they had to have been there since Jesus at the Jordan; so much for the usual image of a dozen fellows circulating around with Jesus - there were dozens of them. Both obviously were excellent candidates, but the apostles decided not to allow “the process” to carry itself out. Along the way personal agendas, relationships, and prejudices would sneak in between the pores of the best intentioned democratic procedures, and the apostles knew that all too well, for they had had a few spats themselves.

So they prayed, asking specifically for God’s guidance using an ancient tradition. They would leave the impossible decision up to God, with whom nothing is impossible, and cast lots. The United Church has an official policy against such a method, better be warned, no lotteries. It’s simply not in The Manual.

But in the Bible the lot fell on Matthias and he was “enrolled” with the original eleven apostles. And that’s the last we ever hear of Matthias; same is the case for Barsabbas who had to be pretty good or his name would never been remembered and recorded. I trust both of them continued in their faithful ministries, for after all, this casting of lots was not about them, not about “me,” but about the Gospel of Jesus Christ which they were both determined to embody. Both had witnessed the resurrection, and when you see that, you can never be the same.

What do you think we are doing here, but praying that God will choose another among us? Perhaps it will be Téa, perhaps her parents, James and Wendy. Time and location has disqualified all of us by the original criteria, but certainly that hasn’t stopped the Christian church from calling millions, yea billions of others to be enrolled with the apostles. Likewise, we haven’t heard much of any of them; we don’t know most of their names. We just hear and see the Gospel reflected in their lives well and passionately lived. We are here precisely because God decided to fill that empty place around the apostles’ table and continue.

The Ascension of Jesus is one of those significant events misplaced on the Christian calendar. It occurred ten days before Pentecost, which always falls on the 50th day after Easter. Ascension is always a Thursday, so you have to work harder to commemorate it. I understand it is a national holiday in Finland, though most Finns no longer remember the religious part. So for one more week we are in Easter. We gather here to choose another, one more apostle and then another and three more. The word apostle means “one who is sent out.” We choose not by friendship and family relationships, political and economic partnerships. We pray that God will guide our decisions and selections. As for you and me, hey, we are Barsabbas and Matthias sitting in the pew, not knowing which one will be chosen, but when the lot falls, it’s time to witness to the resurrection.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan