Vicar’s sermon 12.5.24 Acts 1.15-17, 21-26

When I was knee high to a grasshopper, Mr Huke stood behind me in the choirstalls at Hereford Cathedral . I don’t think I ever spoke to him, that wasn’t the done thing for a chorister. I mention him though because he, of all the lay clerks in the choir, seemed to have a lovely gentle sense of humour, and I sensed this as we sang our way through the psalms or sat through the bible readings at Evensong. So it was David whose sense of humour was tickled by verses such as ‘they have eyes but see not, noses have they but smell not’. You’d hear a gentle chuckle when, in the Book of Acts, Paul arrived in Rome ‘and took Courage’ – Mr Huke was a beer drinker I guess. And today’s reading from Acts would also be right up his street: the apostles (or was it the 120 disciples) casts lots ‘and the lot fell upon Matthias’. In my mind’s eye I can see a great pile of cartoon characters with poor Matthias struggling out from underneath them all.
Matthias had one clear advantage over his fellow contestant for the apostleship: a much shorter name on the ballot. Beyond that, the requirements set for the position were clearly laid out: one of the men who have accompanied us throughout 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.
I find it interesting that there were at least two candidates – but maybe there were more. Two, at least who had been with Jesus right from the beginning of his public ministry: unnamed in the gospels but present none the less. And notice the ministry to which they are called: ‘they must become a witness with us to his resurrection’.
This ‘resurrection business’: we can’t let it go. Here we are, just a week away from the end of the Easter season, still grappling with the centrality of Jesus’ resurrection to our faith. Alongside the better-known Easter gospel stories, one of the main ‘resurrection texts’ in the New Testament is the 15th chapter of the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. There he explains
That Jesus was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.

In response to the Corinthians’ questioning the resurrection of the dead Paul writes:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.
We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ – whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.
And here’s the kicker: If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Matthias is to become a witness (with others) to Jesus’ resurrection, meaning that he is to proclaim the resurrection faith. We don’t have the Christian faith without the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Paul’s letter is an early historical document (a letter, not a gospel or collection of stories) that mentions by name those who witnessed the presence of the risen Christ. And, lest we be uncertain about the importance of the claim that Christ is risen he highlights it for us: If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied….we might as well spend our Sunday mornings in Costa and not come here to worship

So Matthias was there from the beginning right through to Holy Week, Easter Day and on to (what we call) Ascension, and he is to become a witness to his resurrection. What does that involve?
It involves holding on to the firm historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. There is a historical core at the heart of all our theologising, all our imagining, all our poetry and hymnody: a person, this person Jesus, who died, was raised and who was seen. We can’t ever let this go. That’s for starters.
Then, we proclaim Jesus Christ…or slightly more helpfully, Jesus, the Christ. This simple distinction reminds us that the resurrection is the work of a God who has been working his purposes out for centuries within a particular people in a particular part of the world with whom He had a particular relationship. And it is one of their number, Jesus of Nazareth, who fulfilled Israel’s promise and caused the whole of history to move in a different direction. Matthias had to have been there from the beginning so that he could bear witness to the person of Jesus – who He was, what he did, what he taught and said, how he lived and died. As Christians following the risen Jesus we become linked to the whole story of God and His people: the resurrection points us backward to God’s revealed purposes. It reminds us that the book on our shelves called the Bible is important (all of it!) because it is the context within which God’s work through Jesus is set. We daren’t become untethered from our common history.
And then Matthias is called to preach hope. Resurrection means that human beings can change: indeed God’s purpose for us is that we do change, salvation (rescue) is possible. There is a whole new world opened for us through the resurrection of Jesus. We are not trapped in a downward spiral towards death. …or at least, we need not be. Christians are agents of hope. We are never satisfied. We are a pain in the neck for governments of all shapes and sizes. An annoyance to those who would reduce our humanity to disposable economic units and to authoritarian regimes who believe individuals are disposable. We are meant for life in its fulness and that means that with Christian Aid ‘we believe in life before death’, it means we seek dignity for everyone (young, old, black, white, male, female, gay, straight) because Christ died for us and rose from the dead for us: that’s how much we matter to God and how much we should matter to one another.
And Matthias must become a witness to the resurrection because the whole world, the created order, is waiting expectantly to be made new. Resurrection isn’t just for humanity – its for ‘all the stuff that matters’ because matter itself can reflect the presence of God. Bread, wine, water, oil – yes. But also the Blue gentian and the lapwing. The River Tees and the hay meadows ..and the burned out Amazon rain forest and the oceans full of plastic and the bleached coral in the South sea where His presence has been defiled
Resurrection for and of the whole of creation. Not a ‘rewinding’ of the story back to the beginning, a new start that forgets the hard lessons learned, the pain of the journey. No. Resurrection from the dead. Resurrection that carries the scars, the hurt, the bruises, the distress and abuse and makes something beautiful out of them: that’s the Good News – the despair, the utter emptiness isn’t airbrushed out of the picture, it is reworked, transformed and quickened.
Oh Matthias! Oh Matthias, who could even begin to attempt this? What a task! What a calling, what privilege you have…. But remember, there’s a church full of people here who can help.