Skip to main content

Jesus' Apprentices

Yesterday was a day for confession in church... First I confessed that I had actually managed to turn up without the full text for my sermon, through uploading the wrong file to my Kindle, then I confessed that watching The Apprentice is one of my guilty secrets... It is, as someone with a better turn of phrase than me, merely Big Brother with an MBA but I do enjoy watching Lord Sugar choose which of what is always an unlikely bunch of misfits, will partner with him in a new business venture… It has to be said that I wouldn’t partner with many of them in running a sweetshop… but maybe Lord Sugar sees something in them that I don’t…
But reflecting on the gospel reading yesterday morning the same could also be said of those the Lord Jesus chose to partner with him in the proclamation of the Gospel as his apostles... Those who were to carry on the family "business" after he was gone.
Thankfully he didn’t and doesn’t choose his apprentices using the same criteria or methods that Lord Sugar or the world in general does. Perhaps you remember an old parody that did the rounds, purporting to be the recommendation of a firm of management consultants to Jesus (this is one of the bits I didn't quote in the service yesterday because I didn't have it in front of me...)

Dear Sir
It is our opinion that the 12 men your have picked to manage your new organisation lack the background, educational and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have attributes required to work as an effective team:
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities of leadership, preferring to pass the buck. The two brothers James and John place personal interest above corporate loyalty. Thomas clearly demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
We feel it our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. Simon the Zealot, obviously has radical leanings, Nathanael has a lazy streak and a sarcastic turn of phrase while we suspect that both James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus would register high on the manic-depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, has a keen financial mind and contacts in high places. He is highly motivated and ambitious. For that reason we recommend Judas Iscariot as your financial director and possible successor as chief executive.

A piece of fiction – but it holds truth within it – The people that Jesus chose to be his apostles were not the brightest and best in the eyes of the world… They were not the richest or the most highly qualified… They were, first and foremost disciples - people prepared to follow, and not follow trends or popular opinion or conventional wisdom, but follow God in Christ…
They were also not particularly virtuous… Look at Simon Peter’s fiery temper, James and John’s selfishness, Levi the tax collector’s likely love of money, Thomas and his doubts… etc etc. They were neither invited to follow Jesus as disciples or appointed to go out as apostles because of their virtues, but because of God’s grace… In the course of a very difficult conversation on my blog last week, one commentator asked “why does God use bad people to serve him?”  To which I said “Because he doesn’t have anyone else…” We are all sinners… Doesn’t matter how bad that sin is in the eyes of the world… 
But God in his grace can use any and all of us...

Shalom

Comments

Andrew Kenny said…
Nice one David. I always find those fictional letters amusing as well as challenging!

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-