The 7th Sunday of Easter (05/24/09)

Text: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Theme: “The Matthias Factor”
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 24, 2009
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

Our text this evening is drawn from the book of Acts. Acts begins with the story of our Lord’s ascension. (This past Thursday was the official, time-honored day for the church’s celebration of that event, and it always occurs on a Thursday which is forty days after Easter.) The next big happening is Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we’ll recall next Sunday along with Confirmation. Do be here for the festivities!

Between the Ascension and Pentecost, it looks as though they put together a pastoral nominating committee – the first PNC! They had a short list of two candidates: Barsabbas and Matthias. They prayed and cast lots. What about this casting of lots? Some scholars have suggested that it was an early version of flipping a coin. In golf, we flip a tee. When it lands it points to someone, and that someone is first to tee off.

In Acts, the tee pointed – or the lot fell, if you will – to Matthias. And we never hear his name mentioned again. As quickly as he appears, he disappears. By the way, the name of Matthias means “gift of the Lord.”

Tomorrow morning, at shortly after 10:00 am central time, the President of the United States will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac river in Virginia. That tomb is guarded 24 hours a day/365 days a year. Such is the reverence and respect paid to an unknown.

Now Matthias was not quite an unknown soldier in the apostolic band (we know his name), but he does fade into anonymity. Without mention of his name, he does, however, show up at Pentecost. Acts reports that on the day of Pentecost the Twelve were there. Peter is standing with the eleven. Peter plus the eleven equals twelve.

The Lord is going to have his Twelve. He had His twelve tribes, and He has his twelve apostles. The sad story of Judas, who betrayed Jesus, does not change this.

On Pentecost Day, the apostolic ministry got into gear. There is teaching and there is baptizing. As a result, disciples are made. See Matthew 28:18-20. At the first Pentecost, we are told that about three thousand people were added to the growing number of disciples. There’s a statistic for you! Unlike our Lord, we might miss somebody with our statistics. You can be sure that the Lord hasn’t left you out of the count.

At the first Pentecost, there was no doubt. The apostolic band was there. The twelve were there. Peter delivered the sermon, and the baptizing started. Disciples were made. And on it goes to our day – even next Sunday at Confirmation!

What about the twelve? We don’t read about them in Acts except when they appoint seven people to take care of the distribution to the needy so they can keep busy with what the Lord put them there to do. After that, they sort of disappear. They simply do their thing where they’re sent to do it. Where those places were we are not told. Tradition has it the Matthias ended up in Ethiopia.

We are told how the Word of the Lord grew. That’s what’s going on: the Word of the Lord. The growth is on account of the Lord, and it’s not due to the popular or not-so-popular style of the apostle.

Much of the material in the Book of Acts centers on St. Paul, and it culminates with his triumphant arrival in Rome, the capitol city of the world at the time. St. Paul has his New Testament letters as well as St. Peter. But Matthias simply drifts away.

Nowadays, the Matthias factor of anonymous faithfulness has few adherents. Job number one is getting your name out there with all the means available: a polished resume’ or a website that broadcasts why you are the best of the best and the coolest of the cool.

But the Matthias’s of the world aren’t out to find the next feather for their caps. They are entirely content to remain anonymous, to simply do what is given them to do, what’s right there in front of them to do – for the Lord and for their neighbor. In their lives they give witness to that repentance and faith that the Word of the Lord produces.

Matthias may have been anonymous, but the Lord didn’t lose track of him. And neither does He lose track of you.

Amen.