Sermon of the Month - May 2010
Community: Chosen
Introduction
It’s been an unusual week hasn’t it? Since he became Prime Minister of the first peace-time coalition government since Ramsay MacDonald, David Cameron has been appointing the members of his cabinet and all the posts of government. What’s unusual, of course, is that he has been calling them from both parties of the coalition, in line with the coalition agreement. We will all discover how this changes the political landscape of course, as this all unfolds.
But Jesus had no such complication. It was of course to his band of disciples alone that he turned when he took the decisive step of calling some of them to be apostles. Luke 6:13 tells us that Jesus called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them. That tells us two things: the number of his disciples was of course rather more than 12; and from that large body, he chose twelve. Acts chapter one tells the story of Jesus’ ascension to glory, and Philippians 2:9-11 gives us the meaning of that – God exalted Jesus to the highest place, to the place of glory, to be the name at which every knee shall bow, to be the one that every tongue shall confess as Lord. And then Acts 1 goes on to tell us that the number of believers in those days numbered about 120. By a nice coincidence that is roughly the number of our membership here.
Now if I had such a number and selected eleven for a purpose, you would be thinking football – unless it was summer and then you might think cricket. A number like that has an immediate resonance. And the number Jesus selected was 12. And the resonance of 12 was of course the twelve tribes of Israel. It does not take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that! Everyone in Israel would get the point. Jesus was choosing people to have a special purpose which he would define, but by choosing 12 he was defining that purpose: they would be the leaders of a new Israel. It would be the time of a new covenant, a new testament, a new Israel. And they were his apostles, those he chose, those who were to be sent out by him – for the word apostle means those who have been sent out. The list of the 12 of course notoriously ends with Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor, and who did not survive, but quickly died after his treachery, and whose place was filled by another disciple, named Matthias, also from among the band of disciples, chosen by lot, after prayer. So these 12 are the people who have been sent out by Jesus, and as Jesus ascends to glory, and is given the name above every name, they have a message of salvation in his name, and as the Holy Spirit comes upon the 12, they go, empowered by the Spirit into all the world. They are the apostles, sent by Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, the leaders of a new Israel, the men who proclaim the Messiah Jesus, crucified by men but raised by God. Jesus chose twelve of his disciples to be his apostles.
1. Team
Jesus was no soloist. A lot of us act as if he were. That’s true for us as Christians, who put Jesus in the central place of worship. It’s also true for non-Christians, who still see Jesus as an unusual figure from history, as a major religious teacher, an individual who has had an unequalled impact on history; those non-Christian critics who deplore him as the ‘pale Galilean [who has] conquered all’.
But Jesus cannot be understood in this way. Jesus the soloist; Jesus the individualist; Jesus the lone ranger; the solitary hero. He cannot be understood correctly without his disciples. It is not true that Jesus stormed the pages of history and then the disciples came along afterwards and made of it what they wanted! Jesus the individualist is a major misunderstanding. We can no more understand Jesus without his disciples than – if you prefer an example from fiction – Captain Kirk without the crew of the Enterprise; or if you prefer an example from reality, no more than Winston Churchill without the thousands who actually ‘fought them on the beaches,’ on D-Day. It lies at the heart, at the absolute centre of Jesus’ ministry that he called and chose these 12 to be his apostles. He called his disciples and he chose the 12.
The Acts of the Apostles shows this team at work, and in many ways their path follows that of their Lord. Jesus’ ministry began according to Luke with Jesus returning to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. See that? Everyone praised him. And the story in Acts starts the same way. Acts 2:47 tells us that the new church, fresh from the extraordinary growth on the day of Pentecost, were enjoying the favour of all the people. It didn’t last with Jesus of course: quickly enemies emerge, people who see their power threatened, and their interpretation of how things should be done challenged, and it ends with Jesus condemned at his trial before the Sanhedrin. crucified by the Romans, and abandoned by his disciples. And similarly as the followers of Jesus get going, the stories of opposition, then persecution, and then execution rise.
2. Spirit
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. That’s quite a surprise. After all he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. But Jesus was not only fully divine, he was also fully human. He did not emerge fully formed, he began as we all do, with a nine-month gestation and then a birth as a baby, not talking, not preaching awesome truths at the age of three minutes. He was a baby, and his cries as a baby are the truth God preaches to us through him. The Word became flesh, and that flesh began in the womb, was born and grew. Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully human. So as he grew Luke tells us Jesus grew and became strong: he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him; that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men (Luke 2:40, 52). Jesus was fully human. So although he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, when Luke tells us that Jesus returned ... in the power of the Spirit, he is telling us something more. Jesus has a specific anointing. He is now anointed to fulfil his Messianic ministry. Now is the time! Jesus is fully human, and one of the clearest signs of this is that he needed to pray. He needed to set aside quality time to listen to his Father, to experience the presence of his Father, to know the purpose of his Father. Jesus needed this new empowering of this Spirit. He needed the guidance in the power of the Spirit from his Father. This is a very Trinitarian experience: Jesus is dependent on his Father in the power of the Spirit. While the anointing of the Spirit is upon him, and the divine nature actually lies hidden in his humanity, Jesus, the Son of God, did not think to snatch at equality with God, but made himself nothing, assuming the nature of a slave (Phil 2: 7 REB). Jesus did not get his spirituality for free as it were. He does not wander around this Earth as if he were an angel in disguise, a god walking the planet, an avatar. He is fully human, and utterly dependent on his Father. And it as he lives out his true humanity that he also reveals his full divinity.
So Jesus heals Simon’s mother in law, he heals a great crowd who come to him with all kinds of sicknesses – but then he went to a solitary place. Even after the exhileration of miraculous healings – indeed I would suggest, especially after these awesome moments – he needs the solitude, the separation from everyday distractions, so he can spend quality time with Father. He needs quality time for real, engaged prayer.
Why did Jesus need space? Prsumably because of that all too real humanity – and as a human being he could be distracted – distracted by the claims of compassion no doubt. But he needed to remain dependent on his Father, he needed real time for prayer. And friends, if Jesus, Jesus the Messiah, the Jesus the great miracle-worker, Jesus the one who could hear the voice of his Father more clearly than anyone, if Jesus needed space and time for prayer, we certainly do. We cannot flourish as Christians without serious time set aside for listening to God, talking with our heavenly Father, and waiting long enough to gain a sense of his will and purpose for our lives.
So here it is: Just before Jesus makes that momentous decision to select his cabinet, to call and to choose from his disciples that band of 12 who would lead the way among the disciples from then on, and with the replacement of Judas by Matthias, become the new 12, the new leaders of the new Israel, the new community of God’s people sent into all the world, to bring the love of God, the saving grace of God to all nations, before all that Luke 6:12 tells us: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. See both sides of this. That if Jesus is going to make a decision as big as this, then prayer is vital – not a casual thought or too offered in God’s direction, and a hope that he bless the decisions we make afterwards! Jesus spent the whole night in prayer. Our political party leaders spent the whole night before the general election campaigning. And I bet when then had difficult decisions to make in the days following they wish they could catch up on their sleep! But they considered it that important that they spent the night campaigning. Jesus considered the prayer so important that he spent the whole night in prayer. Of course he was still fully human. He was probably pretty tired too! But this decision was just too important to make without spending all that time listening carefully to his Father. Because the other side to this momentous decision is that Jesus considers the choice of the 12 – this 12, these particular men, not just any men, these 12 – to be a decision so important he will spend all night in prayer sharing the time with his Father, so he knows he has the decision just right.
William Temple tells of a time when he had a major decision to make, a choice between two career paths as it were. Choosing one or the other would make a massive difference to the course of his life. And he devoted the whole night in prayer. At the start one choice seemed more right – and indeed had been the recommendation of many of his friends. But by the end of the night he knew before God that the other choice was the one God wanted him to take. He made that choice in obedience, and time proved it was the right choice.
3. Chosen for what
And finally, what is it that the 12 are chose to do? What is Jesus’ purpose in choosing them? They are to be the 12, the new Israel – but what will that mean in practice? These 12 are the key to Jesus’ ministry, and prayer is the key to Jesus’ spirituality. Now we see that the good news is the key to Jesus’ message. Jesus proclaimns the kingdom of God – in word and in power. As Bryn Rees’ hymn puts it: “The kingdom of God is challenge and choice, / believe the good news, repent and rejoice!”
It’s crucial we hold these together: “repent and rejoice!” These 12 and all of us who hear and receive the good news, who follow Jesus are called to this same twin challenge: “repent and rejoice!” It’s fully good news if we do both. Sometimes we say we only want to rejoice. Repenting sounds so downbeat, it challenges us to be aware of our sin, our failure. Can’t we just come to church and be happy? Can’t we just have that wonderful experience of the love of God without that disturbing bit about the challenge to repent? I guess that’s the more common temptation to shortchange the gospel we meet. But there’s no good news without the defeat of the bad news, and the bad news of our sin getting in the way of our relationship with God, needs to be seen and faced and repented of. The other side happens as well – rather less often these days – where we are overwhelmed by the need to repent, by the terrible horrible nature of our sins, and we cannot see past them to the grace of God in Christ. But we need to see and hear Jesus, and as we repent, receive his forgiveness. Simon Peter in that episode by the Lake we have been returning to time and again over these last few weeks sees this. As he sees the awesome catch of fish, the terrible failures of his life overwhelm him in his close proximity to the awesomeness of God in Jesus. Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man. But repntance is not the only word either. Jesus brings the word of forgiveness, then, both at the beginning, and also at the end, after Peter’s denial, with his commission, Feed my sheep (John 21:17). You are forgiven. Repent and rejoice.
Jesus calls; Jesus chooses; Jesus sets the pace; and that pace is by openness to God in prayer, by moving in the power of God’s Spirit and not in our own flawed human powers. And Jesus changes us for good, if we accept his call, and repent and rejoice, repent of our sins, and rejoice in his forgiveness.