Sermon Title:  “It’s Okay to be Ordinary”

Sermon Text:  Acts 1:12-26

Sermon Date:  April 6, 2008

 

 12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk [a] from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

    15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, "Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry."

    18 (With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

    20 "For," said Peter, "it is written in the Book of Psalms:
       " 'May his place be deserted;
       let there be no one to dwell in it,' [b]
       and,
       " 'May another take his place of leadership.' [c]

    21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection."

    23 So they proposed the names of two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

 

 

MESSAGE

          It’s been said that we are born originals and die copies.  I guess that makes sense.  We come into the world a blank slate, born with no fear of anything, and then we go home and real life begins.  And while we are born originals, we are all born pretty much the same, if you think about.  We are special and ordinary all at the same time.  We are born to a world full of possibilities and opportunities.  And not even Prince William was born any more special than other babies born at the same hospital that day in London .

          That is one of the things about this passage today that intrigues me.  Are these guys Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias any more special than other guys who could have been up for the job of twelfth man? 

          We know nothing about them.  They aren’t mentioned in the gospels.  They come out of nowhere and run for the right to replace Judas.  I’m assuming that was a sad day.  Acknowledging that Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus and them.  Acknowledging that Judas had taken his own life.  I’m assuming they cared about him so his death and betrayal would have been hard to take.  But they need to move on, so they cast lots and chose another disciple.

          I wondered why these are new names to us.  Why wasn’t Lazarus up for election?  We know about him.  I think it is because Matthias and Joseph called Barsabbas are just normal, ordinary, average everyday guys…..like you and me.  And God wanted us to believe that we could have been one of them too.

          Have you ever thought of yourself as someone who could have been a disciple of Jesus?  None of them were seminary trained.  None were especially learned.  None were proficient at making speeches or showed any signs of being able to heal.  They were however willing to be taught and to be used.  Willingness here makes all the difference.  And having someone who believes in you puts icing on the cake.

          If you have heard of Dr. Ben Carson, you know his story is incredible.  Born to poor parents in Detroit , he struggled to learn.  His mother dropped out of school in the third grade and married at 13.  The parents divorced when Ben was eight and she often worked three jobs to make ends meet.

          Ben and his brother were slow learners.  Picked on at school and in the bottom of his class by fifth grade, he was called dummy and had an uncontrollable temper.

          “When Mrs. Carson saw Benjamin's failing grades, she determined to turn her sons' lives around. She sharply limited the boys' television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had finished their homework each day. She required them to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on their reading even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what they had written.

Within a few weeks, Carson astonished his classmates by identifying rock samples his teacher had brought to class. He recognized them from one of the books he had read. "It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later. Carson continued to amaze his classmates with his newfound knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class.

The hunger for knowledge had taken hold of him, and he began to read voraciously on all subjects. He determined to become a physician, and he learned to control the violent temper that still threatened his future. After graduating with honors from his high school, he attended Yale University , where he earned a degree in Psychology.

From Yale, he went to the Medical School of the University of Michigan , where his interest shifted from psychiatry to neurosurgery. His excellent hand-eye coordination and three-dimensional reasoning skills made him a superior surgeon. After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore . At age 32, he became the hospital's Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery.   (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/car1bio-1)

          Ordinary beginnings.  Ordinary human beings.  Doing great things.

          But we don’t all have to achieve what Dr. Carson did to do great things.

          Student teaching isn’t easy and it wasn’t easy for Randy as she walked into a sixth grade class wondering why she was there.  She had been an assistant in a day care and wanted to be a kindergarten teacher.  Sixth grade?  Then there was the teacher more wrapped up in finishing his master’s thesis than teaching his students.  At the beginning of the week each student was given an individual contract and sent to the library to do research.   Randy’s assignment was to work with the one group of students his conscience hadn’t let him contract out.  The bottom math group – all boys, all restless and about as motivated to learn about math as she was to learn about hang gliding.  In that group was Frankie who was more unmotivated than all the rest.  The teacher explained that Frankie’s only obligation was to show up every day.  If he came he got full credit, even if he only just sat there with his feet up.

          Randy racked her brain for a math unit to capture their imaginations she decided to base the unit on fractions and taught it using recipes.  They made everything from chocolate chip cookies to her one and only loaf of homemade bread.  Frankie wasn’t interested in the beginning, just hanging back to watch…that it until she promised to take anyone who finished the unit to McDonald’s for lunch.  Frankie said she couldn’t do that but she said she could and would.

          After that Frankie got more involved.  He started showing up in clean clothes and washed hair.  By the end of the third week all nine boys, Frankie included, had finished the unit and she had to make good on the promise to go to McDonald’s.

          But Frankie was right.  She couldn’t take them.  The principal wouldn’t give her permission to take the students off campus.  Then an even greater blow hit when she received a derogatory evaluation from the classroom teacher.     

          Depressed and defeated, she apologized to the boys, thanked them for their hard work and packed up her materials.  Before she could leave school though she had to help chaperone the Valentine’s Day dance for the entire sixth grade.  It was a true classic – boys on one side of the room, girls on the other with a few girls dancing in the middle.  She sat with another student teacher, savoring their last look at middle school before heading back to the elementary school.

          Suddenly the loud rock and roll music ended and a beautiful waltz filled the gym.  Frankie separated himself from the wall of boys, climbed the bleachers where Randy was sitting and asked if she would dance with him. 

          And in true sixth grade classic dance fashion, they were the only ones on the dance floor.  Every eye was on them as they waltzed in silence.  Then as the last note faded away, he stopped dancing, looked her in the eye and said, “Thank you for changing my life.”

          An ordinary teacher who just wanted to teach him fractions and get out of college changed the life of Frankie…by caring.  (A 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul”, p. 178-180)

          Ordinary people can do amazing things.  Ordinary people like Randy.  Ordinary people like Mathias.  Ordinary people like you and me. 

 

          What will you do?   

 

 

Prayer by Blaise Pascal:

 

Lord, help me to do great things as though they were little, since I do them with your power; and little things as though they were great, since I do them in your name.  Amen.