Next Sunday there is going to be a very important team
naming… The selectors have been contemplating it and working hard behind the
scenes for the past four years … Senior players have been peaking for it, new
talent has been scouted, discovered and cultivated, they’ve tried out people to see how they fit
into the team environment, sweated injury worries and form slumps, there may be
last minute bolters and forced changes. Talk back speculates, paper columns are
filled, everyone makes their picks there is only one thing everyone agrees on;
this time good people are going to be left out.
The players nervously wait and wonder…
Will they take four locks or an extra loosie?
Three half backs or two? Will it be specialist backups or versatile
all-rounders? Have I done enough? … and we await the announcement of the thirty
one man All Black’s world cup squad…
It’s a different process, a different purpose, a different
number, different names but the passage we had read out to us today revolves
round a team naming. Jesus picks his
leadership team from amidst his growing number of disciples. It shows us how
Prayer is a significant part of Jesus decision making process and it gives us
some good insight into leadership in the church as we look to follow his
footsteps.
It’s also a critical turning point in Luke’s gospel and
Jesus ministry. It serves as an introduction to Jesus teaching
on what it means to follow him, Luke’s sermon on the plain. Jesus is still
about proclaiming the revolution of grace in word and deed, we see that in his
healing ministry, bringing release and wholeness, but he now moves to include instructing his disciples in how to live in a
way that expresses that revolution: As Darryl Bock summarises, “It’s a call to
exceptional love in light of the offer of God’s gracious blessing.” Next week
we’ll start a series looking at that teaching called “plain talking from Jesus.”
Last week in two conflict stories revolving around Sabbath observance we’d seen how Jesus and his revolution of grace was coming more and more into conflict with the
Pharisees and scribes of the law, the religious leadership of the day. The
passage had ended with those religious leaders responding with over the top
irrational anger and deciding that they must do something about Jesus. How is
Jesus going to respond to this? What is Jesus next step?
How Jesus deals with this opposition is helpful to us. Firstly
Jesus allows himself some breathing room, we see that he doesn’t as much react and
our emotional gut reaction to adverse situations is the hardest to really
control, but he takes the time to think and reflect before responding. Luke
uses a temporal connection with what had gone on previously to tell us that it
was on one of those days that Jesus went up to the mountain to pray. I don't know about you but I'm actually pleased to know that Jesus had some 'one of those days" . but how he hadnles it shows that Jesus takes the time to settle,
that he takes time to go and pray; To spend time bringing the situation to God.
He seeks God’s face for the way forward.
As should we… Ministry and church life should be saturated and started in
prayer.
In Israel’s past going to the mountain to pray speaks of
firstly encountering the presence of God: Moses encounters the burning bush at
Mt Horeb, the same mountain where he encounters God and is given the law.
Elijah also goes to Horeb to pray and meets God after the earthquake and
rushing wind in the still quite voice. The mountain is also where God’s people
seek fresh revelation. Moses is sent to Egypt with the message ‘let my people
go’, the law is given, Elijah is strengthened and given a way forward which
includes a succession plan. Jesus comes down from the mountain with a definite
plan of the way forward.
The second thing Luke says is that he spends the night praying
to God, there is a sense here of relationship. It has the sense of a
conversation with God. The name Israel means to wrestle with God, Jacob is
given it after he wrestled with God or an angel, god’s messenger, in the
ancient near east a messenger from a king was to be seen as having the same
gravitas as the king himself. So we have
the picture here of prayer being a wrestling with God. When Jesus comes down
again he has come to a place of peace and has come to know what God’s plans and
purposes are. Often we can see prayer as basically giving God a shopping list
rather than to and froing of wrestling to find the way forward.
The way forward is innovative and prophetic… Jesus choses twelve from his disciples who he
designates apostles, or sent ones. While with the All Black’s it’s a process of
picking the best and greatest, here in response to prayer we see that the
choosing is God’s will, the number is God’s will and the people chosen have
been revealed in that time of prayer. We see in choosing twelve that this is
Jesus response to the opposition and rejection of the religious leaders of his
day. Twelve was an important number in Jewish history it was from the twelve
sons of Israel that the nation itself was born. Here we see the beginning of a
new people of God, a new leadership, A new group that would carry on Jesus
ministry after he had gone. It’s interesting in our world we often choose the
most qualified and best to be leaders or take on chief rolls, but here we see
that it is the sovereign choosing of God. Jesus revolution of grace had shown
that Jesus called fishermen and tax collectors to come and follow him, what he
looked for in leaders was the willingness to be with him, to learn from him, to
serve with him. When you look back at the scriptures of the Old Testament you
see it’s the same, God chooses people and their response is to acknowledge they
are not up to the task… Moses, had run away after killing a Egyptian guard and
he had a speech impediment, Jeremiah was aware of his young age, Isaiah was
aware that he as a man of unclean lips, of a people of unclean lips, David’s brothers
who had more of the physical attributes and were trained warriors were amazed
that God should anoint their younger brother king. God chose Israel not because
it was the biggest or the best amongst the nations far from it, rather it was
because they were the smallest and the least. God chooses, God equips, god enables, and if we remain faithful teachable
and available, god can make us fruitful.
I think I’ve told you one of the episodes that God used to
call me to ministry. I’m not a morning person…I had been working as a youth
pastor at St John’s in Rotorua. It had been a long weekend, an all-nighter, I
think and a late Sunday service and I was dead tired. I’d slept in till about
9;30 although Kris will tell you it was closer to eleven. One of Kris’ friends
had come round to visit, the kind of Christian that can smile early in the
morning before their first cup of coffee. She said hello to me in that happy
joyful way, and I always the pastoral sort retored with a grunt and said ‘It’s my
day off I don’t have to be nice to you today’ to which she replied… You’re
going to make a great minister Howard.’ My ego kicked in and I though why thank
you… and then she hammered it home… “yes your so flawed there is hope for the
rest of us.” But God used that to let me know he was calling me faults foibles
and all to ordained ministry… It is his calling and while I’ve worked on those
flaws it is still God’s calling and leading.
When you have a look of the names of the twelve it tells us
about Christian leadership as well. Apart
from telling what were the popular names in Jewish families at the time, most
of them were named after the heroes of the Maccabean revolt. We are told it starts with Simon, now called
Peter, , and that it is Jesus who gave
him that name, which means rock. It reflects the basis on which Jesus would
found his church, at the end of the sermon on the plain he talks of building
ones house on rock being the one who hear God’s word and puts it into practise
in their lives. This is what God is going to build his church on, and Peter as
the key leader, reminds us of that. It’s
good for us here at St Peter’s to be reminded of that… God builds his church by
his people hearing his word and putting it into practise.
Andrew is Peter’s brother and John and James are the other
fishermen we have meet before. Matthew is another name for Levi, and when Jesus
meets people it brings change and Levi is able to have a new start in life with
a new name. It’s interesting that in Luke’s sequel Acts that apart from Peter,
john, James and Phillip that the others do not feature in the expanse of the
church. It’s hard to argue from silence but within leadership people have
different roles and tasks some that propel them to prominence and other that
are equally important but are often leaves them in the background. There is
diversity in the group as well… the other Simon is called the zealot to
differentiate him from Simon who Jesus called Peter. The Zealots were a
political movement who believed in armed struggle and violence to free Judea from roman rule, they were the
freedom fighters/ terrorists of their day, this Simon would have found it
uncomfortable being in a group with a tax collector, who he saw as a
collaborator with the romans. Philip is a Greek name and would have been a
Hellenistic Jew whereas the others were from galilee. It easy for a leadership team to mistake group speak
and conformity for unity and peace, but we need diversity in leadership and how
we work that is an expression of the way we reflect Jesus love to one another.
In a church that weird person who thinks differently just may be a gift from
God to open us up to new possibilities.
When we are working with people there is always risk as
well…Luke is upfront in acknowledging Judas Iscariot as being the one who
became a traitor, and the calling of God and being with Jesus is no automatic
guarantee that people will keep the faith. In our reformed tradition one of the
ways of looking and seeing a genuine faith in Christ is the idea of perseverance. Keep on going and growing till the end, till
going home to glory. I have some interesting discussions this week about family
friends who had solid dynamic faiths who now don’t want anything to do with God
and the shock and pain that causes, a pain that has been with Jesus followers
from the beginning.
Jesus is choosing this twelve to act as those who will be
able to carry on his ministry after he has gone… In modern business speak Jesus
is all about succession planning. He is aware that his mission and revolution
of grace will lead to the cross and while he continues proclaiming his
revolution of God’s grace he looks to develop those who will be able to see and
witness to the reality of who he is and what God wants to do. In this passage we see he continues to
proclaim that and to heal and set free those troubled by unclean spirits, but
it also tells us that he looks to his disciples and begins to teach them. We
see it with paul as well in the rest of the new testament he always had a team
of people who he building up for ministry, chief amongst them is Timothy, just
as Bartameus had done with him. The
success of a ministry is only usually seen in what happens when a minister
goes, that there are people to step up and take that persons place. The test of
leadership is not often seen until it is time for them to step aside and there
are many people who are willing and able to step into their role, even go
beyond what they have done. At St John’s
one of our key worship leaders moved away and he came to us and said “well I
guess that’s the end of the youth worship team”, but we were able to choose two
15 year olds from the guys he had taught and encouraged to take over and they
did a great job, one of them is now
employed as a worship and creative ministries pastor at C3 down the road the
other is a worship leader in nelson about to release his first live worship
album. If you are involved in ministry the key thing is that it is to be given
away not held to yourself. One of the things I value was the way people were
willing to give me opportunities to minister and lead, when I was young and I
feel this week that challenge to do likewise.
Finally, the twelve were called to be Jesus special
messengers his apostles they were called to be sent, in the Christian faith
leadership is about role not status, service not finally making it. We are all called
to discipleship, to know and to grow so that we can express exceptional love in
response to God’s generous offer of grace. When Jesus begins his sermon on the
plains it tells us he looked to his disciples, not just the twelve but the large
number that were with him from all over the area, both Jewish areas and gentile
areas like Tyre and Sidon. We may not
all hear our names read out in an all black’s line up, particularly if we
actually want to win the world cup, but We are all called to grow in our faith
to grow as followers of Jesus. We may not all get to go to the world cup but we are all called to be sent, it’s
interesting in Luke’s gospel that the twelve are sent out on a short term
mission trip and later Jesus send out the seventy two, it’s like Jesus wants
more and more of us to witness and be his messengers. It’s the call that is at
the heart of our mission statement as a church we are called to be a
sustainable, vibrant and authentic community, growing as followers of Jesus, and
inspiring others to join us on that journey of following his footsteps… It’s
about discipleship, it’s about mission that comes from us being with him… we
are called to be sent.
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