On being second choice

Peter asked the disciples to choose a replacement for the now deceased Judas. Jesus had chosen 12 ordinary men to be close to him. Last week Jesus points out that he no longer calls his disciples servants, but rather, he says, A I have called you friends.@

During the war in the Marine Corps, we trained with 12 men in a battle group. Twelve men were formed into a squad, 3 squads to a platoon, 3 platoons to a company. Each man in a squad had specific tasks to do even though we trained on all weapons. If we lost a man, it hurt our performance and we all had to work harder and fill in.

I suspect that the apostles felt they needed that replacement for Judas so that they would have a full complement of personnel. They decided to choose the twelfth apostle by lot. Lot usually meant drawing two straws, one longer than the other. The one who picks the longer straw is the winner. But, the apostles added a prayer asking God to choose between the two, then their drawing of the straw becomes a sign from God.

So now we have St. Matthias. Now Lutheran churches have chosen to name churches for the apostles. So where is there a St. Matthias Lutheran Church? Well, we do have one in Clearwater, Florida. So we do honor the 12 apostles.

But wait, there were more than these, weren= t there? It seems that the Jews had a concept of sending someone from one community to another in order to send a message or to take or collect money. They called these messengers in Hebrew: Shaliah, or A one who is sent.@ They were sent on a specific mission and when they returned, they were no longer called Shaliah. Jesus used this word Shaliah to describe his 12 disciples. Translated into Greek it is apostelos. Jesus commissioned these 12 apostelos as ones who are sent. These 12 apostelos had a special standing among Jesus= disciples.

When it came time to fill their ranks, the Apostles nominated two: Matthias and Joseph. The lot fell to Matthias. So now we have 12, right? Well, remember Paul (Saul) called himself an Apostle. He claimed his apostleship from Jesus himself; he had seen the risen Lord and received a direct commission, he says. Paul considers an apostle to be the chief and highest gift of ministry and its authority is from God and is attested by miraculous signs and wonders.

For Paul, besides himself and the Twelve, there were other Apostles, namely: James, the brother of Jesus Barnabas, Andronicus and Junias, all men of note among the Apostles and Christians of longer standing than he. However, the church of the second Century limited the term Apostle to the 12. But did not exclude James and Barnabas. So the meaning gradually developed to that of those commissioned by Jesus to preach the Gospel.

So we have here Matthias, now one of the Twelve Apostles, not original 12 but chosen to fill the place of Judas. We actually know nothing more of Matthias than we have before us now. We don= t know any of his missions although legend has it that he was stoned and then beheaded with a double bladed axe. But Matthias had the same qualifications as the other 11. He had been with Jesus from the time John the Baptist had preached thru the crucifixion and the resurrection. Those were his qualifications; sounds like the others, doesn= t it?

The other disciples had been chosen by Jesus directly when he was with them. But Matthias was not. Matthias was kind of a second choice, a fill in, a substitute, perhaps even ordinary.

Yes, ordinary.

We have always felt that the Apostles were special; giant size, bigger than life. Here is an ordinary person becoming an Apostle! Perhaps Matthias is more like us - ordinary.

Over the years, I= ve read many a resume submitted by people who wanted work. Some of the resumes are truly impressive, reflecting great work, graduating magna cum laude which means graduating with great praise. Most of us even when we are lucky enough to graduate do it A sine laude.@ That is - Awithout praise.@ But of course, they don= t print that on our diplomas.

Its not so bad to be ordinary, that is, to be a Christian sine laude. The world has strange ways of showing its praise Even the church used to give attendance pins to children. We praised them for attending every Sunday but often we missed the essence of being in church we often sent the wrong message.

The essence of church attendance is our relationship to God. With God, we are special. It is that which counts. It is what God considers us. God knows our qualifications, our strengths, our weaknesses. God knows us better than we do.

Matthias may have been an ordinary disciple but God saw Matthias as special But what about Joseph also called Barsabbas (that is A son of the sabbath@ ) and sometimes called Justus. Joseph had the same qualifications but didn= t make it into the inner circle.

I have been in churches where two people are nominated for church council and only one is elected. The other one has hurt feelings and leaves the church. That is not what God intends or desires for us. In some churches, the alternative is to nominate only one person who then is elected because there is no choice. 

Being chosen is not simply honorary. It is a call for a purpose; it is to carry out a task or mission. It is specifically job oriented. Matthias= election was not just to sit at the inner circle, a place of importance. It was to fulfill a mission to preach. If legend is correct, Matthias did fulfill that mission and lost his life as a result. What about not being chosen? As Joseph found himself, it does not mean that he was a bad person, he was equally qualified. But he was spared for some other job.

God calls us to do special tasks; it may be a life-long single task or it may be a life-long series of different tasks. It is not easy to know what those tasks may be: It may be to give a cup of water to someone who is thirsty. It may be to witness. It may be to support someone in time of crisis. It may be to say one thing at a meeting.

God puts these tasks before us; our job is to recognize them and do them. Sometimes you= ll know this is what God want you to do. Other times it will not be clear, but you= ll do it anyway and when you look back, it all makes sense and you know that God has led you to do it.

I personally have felt God= s presence and been encouraged by visiting our shut-ins or visiting those in the hospital. We all have so much more to give in this world. We are chosen; we are chosen to witness to God= s love, to the love that sent his son to us to show us the extent of God= s love for us. God makes us special.

God puts A special@ on our hearts and we, like Matthias and Joseph join in a grateful response to God= s love. With God= s love for us, we can go against the world= s ways and love others; even love the world= s unlovables.

And, you know - that is our mission - to love others, even the unlovables.

Amen