I
recently received a coveted speaking invitation. I know it is coveted because
I’m the one who did the coveting. The person who offered me the gig mentioned
casually that they had booked another preacher but the deal somehow fell
through. Perhaps I should feel insulted that I was not their first-round draft
pick. In fact, I’m secretly glad the A-lister got the swine flu, or whatever.
It’s
a good idea to remember that nobody – least of all God – really needs us. If
the Lord could use Balaam’s ass to preach down revival, all ministry must be
grace.
Matthias
doesn’t have much going for him. He didn’t make the cut for the starting
twelve. There is no Epistle of Matthias. He doesn’t show up again anywhere else
in the Bible. Muddled tradition even mixes up his name and says he was either stoned
and beheaded in Jerusalem or crucified by Ethiopian cannibals. His only claim
to fame is that he rolled a seven in the ultimate ecclesiastical crap-shoot.
But
he was one of the men that have
accompanied us from Jesus’ baptism to the resurrection. Matthias’ only real
virtue was location, location, and location.
Christian
leadership does not rest in charisma, IQ or EQ, but in a life spent in the
presence of Christ. The cautionary tale of Judas warns us that secular
leadership in a sacred place can be a gut-wrenching experience. “Don’t count on
the world to teach you leadership,” Brother Jonathan warns Harry Farra’s
character the Little Monk. “Its goals are bankrupt.” Judas knew his way around
a balance sheet and how to cut deals in back room politics, but he left Jesus
two days too soon.
Matthias
came off the bench to bear witness to what he had seen. The understudy got the
part mostly because the costume fit. The church let him in because the
apostolic egg crate was one grade-A shy of a round dozen. He drew the high card
in a random cut of the deck and got a job that Joseph could have done just as
well. And he will eat and drink at the head table in the Kingdom, and will sit on
one of the twelve thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. (Lk 22.30)
If
our talents are short, let our time with Our Lord be long. If our part is
small, let our love of Christ be large. If our ministry bears much fruit, let
us remember that another could have done it just as well.
Sweet Notes from the Second String,
Doug
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