Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Sermon from Acts 1:12-26 for May 13


Take a look around the room. Who, in your humble estimation, is the greatest leader here today?

Just so you are sure, you are welcome to get up and take a good look. Some of the folks around you are very nice, but leaders? You really want to pick the best ones, and by-the-way, they may not necessarily want to be leaders. The point is you think they are great leaders!

So, who you got? Speak up!

By what criterion did you make your decision? Who is best looking? Smartest? Has accomplished the most? Has the most resources? The person you most want to be like?

Leadership, that is the task of leading, whether it be a group or an organization, requires an interesting set of skills.

Sometimes it seems to us the required skills are obvious. If you are going to be the leader of a surgical team it probably would help if you were a doctor, a surgeon, and in some cases a surgeon in for example orthopedics, or cardiology, or oncology.

On the other hand, sometimes, it is not at all clear what skills are needed. And in those instances, sometimes we resort to a system of picking leaders that is truly awful, we elect them.

Now before you moan and groan, I am not talking about national leadership, although that would be a lively if not, terribly painful debate. I am thinking instead about two beloved institutions: the family and the church.

Perhaps you have heard the old saying that you can’t pick your family or your relatives. They are what they are for good or for worse. Imagine the craziness in the hospital nursery as the babies in the basinets debated and chose which parent staring through the windows they were taking home.

“Oh, Oh, I want the one with the big … ears! Bat wings! That’s me for sure.”

Instead, your parents are who they are, the luck of the draw as it were, the people that made you. And some of them were ready and able to be parents, some were willing, some even good at it. To all of you who had darned good parents, God bless you, and God did!

But not all parents are spectacular. Many learned to be good parents, over time. As we have often said, Brian and Katie survived our parenting. A few drops on the head explain Brian, and high heels at age two explain Katie.

And some parents sucked at being moms and or dads, with no skills, no desire, no time or energy or intelligence, no imagination, and no love.

Today as a culture we celebrate moms, especially the good ones. But we know many of our moms were imperfect, lots were and are dedicated but true goofballs. And some, just never were made for that kind of leadership.

Of course, if you want, you can learn to be better at most things. Cook eggs enough times you can learn not to burn them. And choosing to be a better parent, can actually make you a better parent, investing time, energy and most importantly love, can overcome all kinds of disasters!

Try getting halfway across New York State for three weeks of vacation only to discover that your little girl has come down with chicken pox, discovered under her sleeper at 10:00am in the morning, and so mom choosing to bike you all over the hills of Alleghany State Park so that you wouldn’t infect the other kids camping at the park.

Leadership like parenting can be learned. By watching other lead well. By investing time and energy, by deciding to be better and better.

Even at leading the people of God.

Judas was dead. Luke doesn’t tell us he hung himself. Instead Luke tells us that he was found in a field swollen up so that his guts spilled out. The field, tainted with his blood and innards, was off limits to the community of faith, as was Judas.

So he needed to be replaced: a new leader found to replace him and bring the Apostles back to twelve.

The Apostles and the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and Jesus’ brothers talked. About 120 people had gathered to pray and decide. And they put forth one absolute requirement, that the  one chosen must have witnessed all that the other Apostles had of Jesus’ ministry, life, death and resurrection.

Two persons came to mind, Justus and Mattias. They had been there. They had seen. They had show their commitment and staying power and willingness to serve. And between them, they couldn’t choose.

So, they let God pick, God vote, God decide. They put both names in a hat or something like it and out came Mattias, the new 12th apostle.

Leaders are essential. They help us grow as people and as a community of faith. Parents leads us, moms in particular into being amazing adults. Elders, Deacons, pastors and every kind of small group leader in the church enable to be the people of God and do what God has called us to do and to be.

It’s cool! It’s amazing! It’s always surprising!

Thank God for all our leaders. An thank God for great parents, especially moms!

Amen.

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