Next First Things
Next First Things by Rev. L. John Gable
May 24, 2020
As we enter into our study of the book of Acts we are reminded that this is the sequel to Luke’s Gospel, the continuation of the story of the birth and growth of the Church, after he has told of the life and ministry of Jesus. As Oscar introduced us last week we find the disciples gathered in Jerusalem just as they had been instructed. Recall Jesus telling them to “wait here for the promise of the Father… (for) you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” We, today, have the advantage of knowing where this story is going and how it ends, but clearly they did not. While Jesus’ message was definitive it was not very clear. What? Who? When? All of which beg the question they surely must have been asking, “Now what are we supposed to do?” The short answer being: Wait.
This is a surprisingly apt answer for us as well in the midst of this pandemic, isn’t it? We too have a myriad of questions about this virus and its spread, about when and how we will re-open and regather, underlying all of which is the question, now what are we supposed to do? And the answer again is simply, “wait”; admittedly not a strong suit for many of us.
But what we are being called to is an active, not a passive, kind of waiting. It is the kind of waiting that leans forward with anticipation and expectation that something is going to happen that is beyond our doing or control, that something beyond our ability and wherewithal is necessary, and we need to be ready for it, so we need to learn to wait, and interestingly enough, history has shown that it is in such a season of waiting as this that the Church has learned to pray. Wait and pray, just as the disciples did then this is still good instruction for us today.
Many will suggest that Luke wrote this sequel to his Gospel not only in order to tell the story of the birth of the Church on the day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (about which we will talk more next week), but as a reminder to the Church in every age, including our own, that we are living in an “interim” period, the period between the first coming of Christ in His incarnation and His second coming. When? Where? How? We don’t know, do we? So now what do we do? We are called, as were those first followers, simply to “wait and pray”.
We speak of the birth and the growth of “the Church” in the book of Acts, but in doing so we need to understand it was nothing like what we think of as “church” today. No buildings, no organs, no stained glass windows, no pastors, no committees and I could go on. We need instead to think of the Church in Acts as being like a large family gathering. We are told when they first met together there were 120 people, so call it a family reunion. But these weren’t brothers and sisters by blood, at least not their own blood, but by faith, united by the blood of Jesus. These were folks who knew Him (we are told even His own mother and brothers were part of this clan), who had heard Him preach and teach and perform miracles, who had seen Him suffer and die and then be raised again from the dead, who now believed He was the promised Messiah and so called Him Savior and Lord. The Church’s very first creedal statement was “Jesus is Lord.” A mere 120 of them, an odd lot loosely joined together, to whom had been given the Great Commission to “go and tell the world about Him!” It is little wonder that they were asking, “Now what do we do?”
So in this opening chapter of the book of Acts we are given glimpses in to the “first next things” they set about doing. Even in the midst of their waiting and praying, the “first next thing” they decided to do was to fill the open slot among the twelve left by Judas. Why? Perhaps the simplest answer would be to say that they figured “if Jesus had twelve, we should too!” The longer answer is to remember that Jesus chose the twelve to represent the twelve tribes of Israel to whom they would be sent. As that scope of responsibility then spread to evangelize the whole world it was necessary to have a full rank of evangelists – no one was to be unreached and untouched with the Good News. So, the “first next” question is “Who should be chosen”?
I am part of a prayer covenant group with other pastors from around the country that has met together annually for a couple of days for the past 25 years. As you can imagine over a quarter of a century we have walked through a lot of life and ministry together. Conversations that started a long time ago about how to raise children now has evolved in to questions about retirement.
We were supposed to meet together a couple of weeks ago, but were unable to do so for obvious reasons, so we did a Zoom call which included a new pastor we had invited to join our little cluster last year. Having only been with us one time we asked him during this call if he was willing to continue with us and his answer was interesting to me in two ways. He said, “Before getting on this call I thought my answer would be “no”. After our last meeting together I didn’t really feel connected to you, guys. You have shared so much of your life together for so long. I didn’t feel as if I belong and that I wouldn’t be able to catch up. But then after being a part of this call today I realize how much I missed being a part of this group and how much I need it. Yes, I’m in.”
I thought about that conversation as I read our passage for this morning and I have a new sensitivity to how both Matthias and Joseph also called Justus, must have felt as they were being considered as a “new member” of the twelve. Surely they must have felt honored even to be considered, but at the same time they must have wondered, “Considering all that these guys have gone through together how can I ever fit in?”
We get that, don’t we? At one time or another we all know what it’s like to try to enter in to a new group, a new community, a new church. We know how difficult it can be to break in to existing circles of friendships and relationships, even in a church, which should be by design the most hospitable and welcoming place of all, but unfortunately many have found that not to be the case.
It is interesting to me to think about this with you during this time of separation when we aren’t able to meet together at all, much less to welcome new members and friends; but perhaps this is exactly the right time to be thinking about our ministry of hospitality as we prepare to “re-enter”, whenever that will be. As much as we are looking forward to being back together with our friends and those we have missed seeing, we need also to be preparing ourselves to reach out in friendship to those we have never seen before, those who are new to our fellowship or will be first time visitors. They too are looking for the kinds of friendships and sense of belonging that we are looking forward to getting back to.
People are first attracted to a church by what they see from the outside: perhaps the preaching, teaching, programs, missions and outreach. As they enter in however they start noticing how people love and care for one another and they assume, or at least they hope, that if they were to become a part of that fellowship that they too would be welcomed and loved and cared for as well. That is not an unrealistic expectation they bring with them, which means that we who are already part of the family need always to keep our eyes and hearts open to welcoming the newcomer, to inviting them in to the circle of care and belonging. That is our responsibility to them as members of the Body of Christ.
Yet, there is another part of that equation that I also want to speak to. Not only does the Body need to be ready and willing to welcome and receive new members, it is also helpful when the newcomer makes their presence and desires known as well. I will never forget one Sunday morning several years ago when a woman, a first time visitor, stood up during the prayer time at the 8:00 service. She introduced herself by name and said she and her husband had just moved to town. She said she didn’t know anyone yet, but intended this to be her church home, so wanted to make some friends. In all my years of ministry I have never seen anyone do that before and I was stunned with delight. That woman was Joyce Peipert. She is now a deacon, she just returned from the mission trip to Kenya, she’s been sewing masks to beat the band, and I know for a fact that she has made some really good friends. Hospitality/welcome/entering in is a two way street.
There is another interesting aspect to our lesson this morning that I want to touch briefly on and that is both “the Who and the How” the early church, this loosely formed gathering of first believers, chose the replacement apostle. As you know our church nominating committee is in the midst of identifying new elders, deacons and endowment fund trustees, our new leaders for the coming years, and it is interesting to see that the process for selection we use today is very similar to the one Luke describes here. Of course we have formalized the process and given it to a committee (when in doubt we Presbyterians form a committee) but we, like they long ago, set some guidelines as to who should be chosen for particular offices. They determined that this new apostle had to be someone they knew, he (today we would say he or she) had to come from among the 120; they had to be one of us. Second, they had to be one who had walked with Jesus a long time, as we read “one who accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.” They had to be a “known quantity”. It is important that a leader’s qualities and character and levels of commitment are known, and sometimes that takes a long time spent together. And finally, their confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord was essential. It was important that this new leader knew Jesus, not just knew about Jesus, and we can say the same today. We seek men and women to lead us as elders and deacons and trustees who know Jesus and walk with Him daily.
As do we today, after considering the many they narrowed their selection down to two: Matthias and Justus, and then did you notice how they made their selection? They drew lots which was the accepted practice of the day used when making many decisions in the Temple. Names of the candidates were written on stones and placed in a jar, the jar was then shaken until one stone fell out and that was the chosen one. Doesn’t sound very spiritual, does it? It sounds more like drawing straws or flipping a coin; no thunderclaps or voices from heaven. Yet, somehow they believed that this was a way to invite God in to the decision making process. They would limit the field, but God would do the choosing!
Strange as that may sound, do you know how we choose our leadership as Presbyterians? We vote! The church nominating committee, after following a process very similar to the one the disciples used, begins by identifying names of potential candidates from among our body (one of us) and then discusses each of their qualifications for leadership, then they cast ballots and vote, and then those individuals’ names are placed before the whole congregation to be voted on again. Hardly sounds more spiritual than casting lots, does it? Yet, we, too, believe that in this way we partner with God to help us discern and select our church leaders. We discern the needs and qualifications, then trust God to guide and bless the process, by ballots if not by lots! We believe our leaders are chosen: bottom up – from the people and top down – by God’s guidance.
So, how do we know we are right in our decisions? We don’t always, not any more than we know we are right whenever we are asked to make a decision about following God’s will, but we trust that God is in the selection process and not we ourselves. Through the years I have been helped when called upon to make a decision by this 8 step bit of guidance offered by Henry Drummond. He writes:
- Pray – (ask God for wisdom and discernment)
- Think – (God has given us good minds, use them)
- Talk with wise people, but do not regard their opinions as final
- Be aware of the bias of your own will, but do not be too much afraid of it either
- In the meantime (sounds like waiting to me), do the next best thing, for doing God’s will in small things is the best preparation for doing it in great things
- When decision and action are necessary, go ahead
- Never reconsider the decision once it has been acted upon, and then he offers this one bit of encouragement:
- You will probably not find out until afterward, perhaps long after, that you have been led at all.
Was Matthias the right decision? We don’t know, he is never heard of again
in the Scriptures, but I trust he was and that he did his part. I have a pastor friend who only after he was called to serve a new church discovered that he was really the second choice of the committee, the first choice had declined the offer. At first he took offense at hearing this, feeling like he was somehow being “settled for as second best”, until the committee explained that they had been undecided between the two so they decided that they would trust God’s guidance (kind of like casting lots). The other’s declining the offer was the sign to them that my friend was actually the one God was calling, and he ended up serving them faithfully and fruitfully for many years.
As I read through the first chapter of the book of Acts it all sounds so ordinary, so mundane, so “churchy”, very much like something we would do today, with none of the drama and excitement of the rest of the book, but then I realize that all of these were the “first next things” which were necessary to get ready for that which was yet to come, that for which even we continue to wait and pray.