"Witnesses To Jesus' Resurrection" Easter 7 May 28, 2006

(First read the text for this sermon: Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26

I was baptized on February 7, 1954. That is when God commissioned me for ministry – even though I was only a nine-week old infant! But, as the prophet Jeremiah heard God to speak, so is this is true for you and me as well: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;…” In Jeremiah’s case, God “appointed [him] a prophet to the nations.” That was his calling. When you read through the book of Jeremiah you find that, even though the prophet resisted that vocation mightily, he could not avoid it! It was work that God gave him to do.

So it is for you and me. When were you baptized? That is when God commissioned you for ministry!

Obviously, infancy through youth through adulthood brings many, many changes in our life situations. We are in discernment, to varying degrees, throughout our lives when we are attentive to the calls that come from God, to do the work God gives us to do. It is a matter of discerning, again and again: What is that work? Where am I called to do it? Among which people?

This is not something restricted to pastors, discerning a call to ordained ministry. For each one of us, our baptisms are our commissioning for ministry. Any vocation can be a calling from God.

Luther emphasized that when he taught about “the priesthood of all believers.” Tim Wengert (who teaches at the seminary in Philadelphia) likes to paraphrase Luther by saying, “If you don’t see God in your work of changing diapers, then you won’t see God anywhere.” God’s calling can be to any vocation – be it electrical engineering, or parenting, or plumbing, or teaching, or running an office, or medical care, or volunteer board service, or grounds keeping; any vocation can be the ministry to which God has called a person.

It could be that the work you’re doing is not your calling! Indeed, when a person is restless in her work, God is moving in that restlessness. There is a call there to be discerned. So – if you are restless, what gifts is God calling you to use that you’re not using now? What work is God calling you to do? Would that mean a career transition? Or is it work that you can do as a volunteer, in addition to what you’re paid to do? Discerning the answers to questions like that is not an easy thing to do! Indeed, it’s nearly impossible to do on your own. We nearly always need the help of trusted friends and guides of deep spirituality to help us see how God is moving through our restlessness. (That’s why Spiritual Direction is so important, to give a commercial for one aspect of the work that I have been called to do.)

Now. I’d like you to pull out the bulletin and find the listing of St. Stephen’s church staff. This something that’s in the bulletin each week. I’d like you to pay attention to what’s at the top of the church staff list. What do you see? “The Baptized People of St. Stephen – Doing Ministry in the World.” That comes before any of the names in the church staff list – because your ministry “in the world” is more important than the work being done by anyone working within the church.

The congregation is a center for mission. The work done by the pastor and the church staff is for your nourishment. It is to support you and equip you to do the work that God has given you to do, among the people God has given to you, because that’s how God’s mission is advanced.

This is your ministry. God has placed you on the mission field, where there are daily opportunities to bring the compassion of the risen Christ to those who are in need or despair.
Are you aware of that work God has given you to do? Are you aware, through the compassion and grace you exhibit, through your daily work, that you are witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection?

Ben Campbell writes, “The resurrection of Jesus…is a worldwide event, stretching across geography and centuries…to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven. The resurrection is the beginning of the Second Coming of Jesus….[Jesus] has been involved in his second coming ever since, meeting people in spirit day after day, year after year, place after place.”

All of this has basis in the verses we read this morning from the Acts of the Apostles. As many of you know, Acts is the second volume in a two-part story, written by the same anonymous author who produced the gospel of Luke. At this point in the story, Jesus has just ascended into heaven, and his followers have returned to Jerusalem. In the verses leading up to this morning’s reading, 11 male apostles are named (Judas, of course, being the one omitted). There is also mention of women who are gathered. (That would have been shocking to 2nd century readers, making it clear that this is a tiny community that is witnessing to Jesus’ resurrection by breaking barriers!)

The reading begins in this way: In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) … Now, think of that. At this point in the story, the entire Jesus movement comprises about as many people as us gathered right now in this room! This struggling assembly of Jesus people is meeting to respond to the situation created by the apostasy of the traitor, Judas.

There is a strong sense in the passage that God is working, even through this tragedy. Peter says to the others: "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus”; and he quotes from Psalm 69 to give Biblical grounding to what he is saying. Peter and the others feel a need to restore the number of apostles to 12, probably because Jesus had talked about restoring the 12 tribes of Israel, in Volume One of the story, the gospel of Luke. Peter says, “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us -- one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection."

So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Neither Justus nor Matthias is referred to again in the story! Such biographical and historical details are not important to the story. What is important is the theology: that it is God who is working in these events. It is God who has chosen Matthias to be a witness to Jesus’ resurrection in this way. It is God who has given this work to Matthias, and who has called Matthias to the work, and Matthias discerns that call through the community of the Jesus people.

We too can be a community of discernment for each other! Through our baptisms, you and I have been commissioned by God for work as witnesses to the resurrection, because we have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection. Hear some words from the new liturgy for baptism, in the upcoming Evangelical Lutheran Worship book:

God, who is rich in mercy and love, gives us a new birth into a living hope through the sacrament of baptism. The power of sin is put to death in this holy flood, and we are raised with Jesus Christ to new life. We are united with all the baptized in the one body of Christ, anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and sent out in mission for the life of the world.

Listen to another passage from the new liturgy:

In baptism God frees us from sin and death by uniting us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God, we are made members of the church, the body of Christ, and we are commissioned for Christ’s ministry of justice and peace.

That ministry is what you and I are called to perform, in our daily work.

What joy there is, in responding to hungry people who need to be fed, with spiritual or physical nourishment.

What satisfaction we receive, in ministry to impoverished people who need the Good News brought to us by Christ.

What fulfillment there is through the hard work of establishing peace when we encounter conflict.

Through our actions and words of compassion we teach the faith!

What delight there is, in being witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia