This time next week, we shall be celebrating the Day of Pentecost, often referred to as 'the birthday of the Church.' Moreover, this time next week, we shall be taking part - as will every congregation in this diocese - in the launch of 'Casting the Net', the new diocesan initiative for mission. As well as other material, every congregation has been issued with a fishing net, with instructions from the Bishop to use it inventively. You'll need to come next Sunday to see what we do with our net, though I should probably make it clear now that we will not be taking the net into the street to entrap unsuspecting passers-by.
This morning's readings give us a warm-up, if you like for 'Casting the Net', for there is a theme of mission running through them, particularly in the first reading from Acts and in the passage from John's Gospel. The risen and ascended Christ sends his apostles out into the world to be witnesses to the fact of the resurrection and to all that the resurrection means.
Thus Peter, in that first reading, when speaking about the election of a new member of the Twelve, says, 'one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.' And they cast lots and Matthias joins the missionary band and becomes one of those witnesses.
So, mission is a theme from both Acts and John; being a witness to God and to Jesus Christ is a theme. And in the reading from the First Letter of John, we hear something of the message these witnesses are to bear: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life. The disciples are to be witnesses to the new life of the risen and ascended Lord and they are to be witnesses to the message of real life, eternal life, life in the Son of God, a life which is possible for all people.
And so 'Casting the Net' is about new life in the Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane; it is about new life in every congregation of this geographically large and diverse part of Scotland; and it is about new life in each every one of us - new life, real life, eternal life in the Son.
It is not primarily about another strategy for mission produced by the Church, whether it be the diocese or the province or the Anglican Communion. It is primarily about each and every one of us being renewed and, thus renewed, being able - being empowered - to act as witnesses to the resurrection and all that the resurrection means.
It is about each and every one of us being sufficiently comfortable and confident in our faith to spread the message, simply by who we are and the way we live our lives: at home, at work, with family, with friend, with those we know and those we do not know. Not by our own energy but with the energy of the Holy Spirit, whose descent upon those first disciples we will celebrate next Sunday.
It is about each and every one of us being sufficiently comfortable and confident in our faith to spread the message, simply by who we are and the way we live our lives: at home, at work, with family, with friend, with those we know and those we do not know. Not by our own energy but with the energy of the Holy Spirit, whose descent upon those first disciples we will celebrate next Sunday.
Let us return to that first reading from Acts and the election of Matthias to see what that tells us about this life of discipleship. What was required then is required now. The apostles were seeking to elect someone from those who have accompanied us throughout the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us. In other words, they needed someone who knew Jesus, someone who had walked with Jesus.
The heart of the message of new life, real life is the fact of the resurrection. And the basis of that message, without which the message would be nothing more than empty words, is personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ. Personal acquaintance nurtured and developed by the reading of scripture, by prayer, by acts of love towards our neighbour, by sharing in the Eucharist.
No substitute has been found for this basic requirement of discipleship and none ever will be. To speak of the Christian life, a person must first be a witness to the Christian life. To be the champion of the risen and ascended Lord, the Christ who alive in every place for ever, a person must first be a companion of Jesus.
There is no substitute either for the place of prayer. It is there in the election of Matthias: 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.
The apostles prayed and left the choice to God. It may seem to us that the sense of divine choice is crudely put: and the lot fell on Matthias. However, we sometimes use the same figure of speech to express a sense of being called to do something: 'It is my lot to do so-and-so', we sometimes say.
Life is made up of choices and compulsions. Simon of Cyrene, for example, was compelled to bear the cross of Jesus on the road to Calvary. Maximillian Kolbe chose to take the place of the condemned man in Auschwitz. Sometimes burdens are laid upon us and we have no choice but to bear them; sometimes we make the choice to pick up the heavy load.
We face the choices and the compulsions in companionship with others. Last Sunday, you may remember, I spoke about the Church being a society of friends. Today, in the gospel passage, we heard Christ praying for this society of friends. He speaks of his pride in them and he speaks of his gratitude to God for them. All through the prayer, he speaks of the disciples a gift.
He prays for them as a company, that they may be one. We should keep his prayer going, for the Church is ever in danger of tearing itself apart, separating 'us' for 'them', those who are like us and who think like us from those who do not. It is nothing new: you have only to read the Acts of the Apostles to see that.
Indeed, reading through Acts, we are presented with a vivid picture of what the Church ought not to be, while being reminded of what the Church should, and can, be - and what the Church sometimes is. We can all appreciate the wisdom of Jesus praying to God that his disciples, his society of friends, should be one, that they should be united in their mission, united in casting their net.
It is a truly wonderful thought that as Christ prayed for them, so he prays for us, with that same wisdom and with that same knowledge of each one of us and our needs: Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me.
Thus he prayed for the Twelve, his closest disciples; thus he prays for us, Christians the world over, gathered in congregations large and small. Thus he prays for this community, this congregation, that we may be one, and that we may be ever kept in God's name, witnesses of our Lord's resurrection.
Sermon by: Jonathan Mason