Everyone named “Justus”

The conflicts continue until an old, blind, black aunt sits them both down and tells them the story about their mother, what she did, and how she loved them, and how she died.

Then finally they began to see that their mother's love that united these two headstrong men was more powerful than the hates and suspicions that divided them.

Life was going to be difficult:

--the white side of the family getting used to the truth that they were partly black,

--the black side of the family getting used to the truth that they have a white brother.

And it was the telling of the story that began to change them.

The telling of the story put them together, people who would not have otherwise associated with each other, and a new future was opened for them all.

We can see parallels between this movie and our life in the church.

We are brought together by a power outside of ourselves, very often with people with whom we would not otherwise know or associate.

It is a story, the story of the Father's love for us in the Lord Jesus that does it.

We're not all alike, but the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens us, and makes us holy, that is, set apart for God's special purposes (as we talked about last week.)

...that they may be truly one.... Jesus prays in the Gospel lesson today.

Our life together is not to be governed solely by the past, by the way things have always been, but by a new future which is only opened to us a bit at a time.

It is a new future which is the way things will be when God completes his creating, when we are truly one with each other as well as one with the Father.

Now that is a story worth telling, and hearing, and pondering, and embracing!

One of the very human problems we have is our worries about place and rank and honors.

The first sin is our desire to replace being one with the Father with being number one ourselves.

And that urge never goes away, even while doing good things.

In Sant Cugat, where our Katy lives, the medieval monastery there has a beautiful cloister or covered walkway surrounding a garden which for centuries served as a place for walking prayer and contemplation.

There are 144 columns that hold up the roof over the walkway, each one topped by a beautifully carved capital, and each one telling a different Bible-story.

One man carved the entire series of capitals, and we know this because he just couldn't resist adding a little inscription on one of the capitals, saying that he had made all these for ages to come, and added his name.

He had no doubt devoted years of his life to these carvings, and they are well-done indeed.

But he just had to have the pride of placing his name there, unlike so many other fine works which are anonymous.

Sometimes our drive for recognition,honor, and place is much more dangerous.

It can tear apart congregations and institutions in the church, and indeed even nations in the wider society.

We need to reflect a bit on the man named in the first lesson today, Barsabbas or Justus.

They wanted to bring the number of apostles back to 12 after the death of Judas, and so they thought about those who had been around since the beginning of Jesus' preaching and teaching, and settled on two finalists,

They have equal qualifications, but only one could be chosen.

They cast lots and Matthias is the one named.

So what about Justus?

We do not hear anything more about him in the New Testament.

Does that mean that he is unimportant?

Certainly not!

He may not have the particular office of “apostle,” but he is still a disciple of the Lord, one charged with the commission at the end of Matthew's gospel: Go therefore into all the world, and make disciples...by preaching and teaching and the example of your life.

We all have the same entry into the church, by Holy Baptism.

A few may have a special office as does Matthias;

but everyone has the responsibility as does Justus, of making new disciples.

Today we elect members to the Congregation Council.

What we cannot say is “Well now, they have to take care of things and I don't have to think or do anything more.”

They may get a new middle name, Matthias; but all of us still have the middle name Justus.

We all continue to have much to do in the name of Jesus.

The Council has put it into a memorable form of a mission statement: To know Christ, and to make Christ known.

It will be appearing on reports and bulletins and bulletin boards and wherever else we need that reminder of the One to whom we belong.

My grandfather went through 6^th grade in a little one-room school where I also began.

My father just barely got through high school.

I have three college and professional degrees.

I have a different office from what they had, but we share the same responsibility.

My grandfather would lay aside his farm work and my father his tools on Saturday and prepare to lead or participate in their Sunday School classes.

I lay aside the work of guiding the work of the congregation to concentrate on sermon-writing.

We have different offices, but the same responsibility.

And so it is for each of us.

We are of different ages, generations, educational levels, experiences, interests, etc.

But we have been called together here by the Lord Jesus.

Maybe we would not associate with each other in any other forum, but here we are, together.

And that is part of the Good News for us today.

Jesus loves us, together, and sends us out with tasks aplenty.

And in effect, all of us are bearing a new middle name, “Justus,” because Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.