Jesus Drafts Dream Team. And a Great Light Shines

Transcription

1 The Rev. Dianne O Connell First Congregational Church of Maltby January 26, 2014 Isaiah 9:1-6 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Psalm 27:1,4-9 The Lord is my light and my salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Paul calls for end of divisiveness in the church. Matthew 4:12-23 Jesus calls the first disciples. Jesus tours Galilee, great crowds gather from everywhere. Jesus Drafts Dream Team And a Great Light Shines An anonymous preacher once suggested that if Jesus had sent his twelve disciples for psychological testing this might well be the reply he would have received: Dear Dominus Christus: Thank you for submitting the résumés of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have taken our battery of tests. We have run the results through our own computer. After having arranged personal interviews for each of them with our 1

2 psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant, it is the opinion of our staff that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the enterprise. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities for leadership. The two brothers James and John place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas shows a skeptical attitude that would tend to undermine morale. Matthew has been blacklisted by the Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, definitely have radical leanings, and registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale. Not one of them passed a credit check, nor did they have any record, be it fulltime or adjunct, of miracle performance, fish and loaves production, or demon tossing. And not a one of them knew the words to I ve Seen the Light. Reports are pending on Nathanael, Philip, John the Least, and this fellow Thaddeus, aka Jude. But we do not expect different results. As your Recruiting Agency HR consultants we have to say that your first group of management candidate recruits are all REJECTS. 2

3 We understand there was a twelfth initial recruit with serious potential but that he dropped out. Good thing too. Tests show that he could be treacherously disloyal and greedy, and could actually have placed you, as CEO, in grave personal danger. This agency stands ready to assist you in identifying a new Twelfth Man, but again strongly suggesst that what you have here is not a potential team of twelve organizational development specialists, but rather a brawny bunch of fishermen and day laborers. We suggest that, as such, they d make a fine Football Team. But because of their pacifist natures, even then they might not be very good we d have to call them the Galilean Sea-Doves. ~~ Little did the HR agency psychologist know that he or she was evaluating the Dream Team of Christian Evangelism the best of the best not even rivalled by the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team" described by American journalists as the greatest sports team ever assembled. The Galilean Sea-Doves would prove themselves as the most committed, talented, courageous evangelists of all time. ~~ Today is Apostle Sunday, at least here at First Congregational Church of Maltby. I don t know if any other church observes Apostle Sunday, but I believe they should. It is the Sunday we recognize that Jesus had a vision that went 3

4 beyond his earthly life and he was taking steps to build an organization that would carry out that vision after his earthly mission was completed. Someone always asks what the difference is between an apostle and a disciple. My understanding is that a disciple is a student and an apostle is a messenger. Hence, the twelve would be students of Jesus but after they were sent out to preach and teach on their own, they became messengers or apostles. James was actually the first of the 12 apostles to be martyred. He was killed with the sword on order of King Herod Agrippa I of Judea, about 44 A.D., in a general persecution of the early church. James brother John was the only apostle to die of old age at Ephesus. All the others, tradition says, were crucified in the mission field. Peter spread the gospel as far as Rome where he was executed. The Roman Catholic Church claims Peter as its first pope. Legend says Philip preached the gospel in Phrygia, in Asia Minor; that Nathanael/Bartholomew carried a translation of Matthew's Gospel to northern India and was crucified in Albania; Levi changed his name to Matthew preaching for 15 years in Jerusalem before going out on the mission field to other countries; 4

5 Thomas carried the gospel to the east; scholars believe Thaddeus wrote the book of Jude and founded a church at Edessa; and while we believe that James the Lesser and Andrew were also missionaries, I do not know where. ~~ I stand in awe of all early Christian men and, of course, women who not only dedicated their lives to spreading the message of Jesus Christ, but GAVE their lives in the process. But these first apostles knew Jesus personally, ate with him, talked and walked from town to town with him, experienced him deeply, believed in his message, believed in him, AND had personally experienced the resurrection. One can understand their fervor and determination under these circumstances. But what about the new recruits. Luke 10:1-24 speaks of seventy apostles who were students of Jesus. According to Luke, the only gospel in which they appear, Jesus appointed them and sent them out in pairs on a specific mission. It is true that after Judas defected, the remaining eleven disciples chose Matthias to replace him. But actually, by this time a whole crowd of people who had previously walked in darkness, as Scripture would say, these people saw the Light, so to speak, and dedicated their lives to spreading or reflecting it. The Christian Community had swollen to the point where there was a whole crowd 5

6 standing in as the 12 th Man and a noisy, dedicated group of supporters, it often was. What inspired these folks to keep on keeping on even after they began to learn of the crucifixions? This is an important question because as their spiritual descendants, we have to figure out what inspires us to keep on keeping on. What keeps the fires burning in our breasts to keep this little outpost alive in Maltby with the bell ringing and the lights shining? ~~ Mark Twain once said: The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Several years ago I was given a book which I have to admit, I never got around to reading. I am really sorry, because in recent days it has been recommended to me twice in relation to this sermon. The book is The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren. Published ten years or so ago, it has sold like 33 million copies and I didn t read mine. The subtitle is: What on earth am I here for? It s a question somebody thought I should ask myself and, no doubt, the question each of the original apostles asked themselves. In his book Warren 6

7 apparently links each person's purpose to five classic functions of the church-- worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. All the reviews say the book has helped countless people re-examine their lives and deepen their faith. I m going to find my copy and read a chapter a day as a Lenten exercise, I think. Here we are in Maltby this generation s Christian apostles, care-takers of Christ s message to the world. We might ask the same question, What on earth are we here for the Warren asks individuals. We have our leaders and our mission and our vision and our benevolence committee, and our Budget. All necessary for preaching and living the Message. The Administrative Council met Thursday night to finalize the budget you will vote on during the Congregational Meeting after services today. Annual meetings are happening all over the world, as Christians plan and fund their programs to continue fulfilling Christ s command to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them all that I have commanded. During the process, the Maltby Council talked of serving the community, supporting each other, fostering spiritual growth, maintaining the facility, and securing the funds to support a settled pastor and his/her family by It s a 7

8 tall order. There were four women there, counting me, and three men. That s not enough. During these days leading up to the Super Bowl, perhaps the image of the 12 th Man, the noisy, raucous supporters, is a good one. Jesus had his seventy, the Seahawks have their thousands, and Maltby Congregational has YOU. You re today s 12 th Apostle for this time and in this place. Around the table, we asked what inspired us to give of our time and energy and our money to this church. You ll be offered the opportunity to participate in a similar discussion during lunch. Thursday, we heard comments such as, We like to learn together, the fellowship and sense of belonging are important to us, the charge of discipleship is real and current we are charged with bringing the message of Christ to people in today s world, because we are interdependent as a community, the development of a personal spiritual life, the chance to use my skills for God and community. Diversity is important. We aren t and shouldn t be all the same. Our differences are good. What challenges, what promises, what part of the Good News of Christ speakers to you, personally? Speaks to you so loudly, or whispers so softly, that you come to this place Sunday after Sunday, roll up your sleeves and pitch in with 8

9 time and talent, and open your checkbooks and support the enterprise with a portion of your financial resources? That s the spark, the excitement, the Good News we want to share with our neighbors, our closest friends, our families. ~~. Perhaps the reading from Corinthians this morning warns us of at least one potential pitfall as we seek to lead a church. It reflects some of the early tendencies towards attaching one s loyalty to the messenger rather than the message. It is interesting how human nature and history replay themselves through the years and the centuries. The original apostles dispersed from Jerusalem establishing churches across vast territory. And they developed their followers. Each, no doubt, had different styles and different approaches and the Corinthian congregation began to line up behind one teacher or another forgetting that the message of Christ was the point, not which messenger was their favorite. But you wouldn t be familiar with such problems here. So what is the message? And it might look and sound a little different at different churches. But how does Maltby Congregational reflect Christ s message to the world? I believe we focus on God loving us, accepting us, forgiving us, despite our differences. 9

10 But if God loves us, accepts us, forgives us and that we are called to love each other, accept one another, and forgive one another and we are called to share this good news with those wandering about in the darkness and bring them into the Light and help heal their wounds, both physical and spiritual would that be worth all the effort? Amen. You don t have to ask the Apostles of Old. Ask each other. In Christ s name, 10