St Matthias the Apostle (May 14)

Added to the Eleven Apostles

Isa. 22:15-25 Eliakim replaces Shebna; Ps. 15 Who shall dwell in your house?;

Acts 1:15—26 Matthias replaces Judas; (if the Acts reading is used instead of the Old Testament reading, the New Testament reading is 1 Cor. 4:1—7 Stewards of God's mysteries); John 15:9—17 I have appointed you to go

'And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.' Acts 1:26

Apostle spoons

Have you ever seen a set of `apostle spoons'? They're teaspoons or coffee-spoons, with the figure of a saint cast into the end of the handle. They should always be in sets of twelve. `Because', people will tell you, `there were twelve apostles in the Bible.' Only unfortunately that's not true. Certainly there are lists of twelve names in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and in the Acts of the Apostles. But there were many others whom the Bible calls apostles, who weren't included in the lists of the Twelve. The most famous was St Paul, `the Apostle to the Gentiles', who was not one of the Twelve. He refers to many of his companions a-s apostles, including at least one woman apostle, Junia. The word simply means someone who's been `sent out'; in other words a missionary.

The Twelve

Yet the Twelve were important. Often the Gospels refer to them simply as that, `the Twelve', and we often write it with a capital T. In one place they are described as `the Twelve, who were also called apostles'. One theory is that Paul the apostle himself gave the name of `apostles' to them, when they left Jerusalem and started doing missionary work, to show that they were all equal in God's service. And yet the number twelve was very significant; so significant, in fact, that when Judas Iscariot, who'd been one of the Twelve, committed suicide, the others thought it was important enough to appoint an immediate replacement. They didn't want to take a vote for anything so important. They used the ancient method of writing the names of each candidate on the two sides of a piece of wood and throwing it onto the ground. This was called `casting lots'; depending on whether it came up `heads or tails', they felt that God had made the decision.

Why twelve?

Matthias was chosen, and he's the saint we commemorate on 14 May. We know nothing else about him at all, except that he fulfilled the conditions for being an apostle, that he'd been with Jesus and was a witness to the resurrection. So why was it so important to keep the number up to twelve? Jesus told the Twelve, `You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' The twelve tribes were the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. So the twelve apostles symbolized the twelve patriarchs; that, incidentally, is the only reason why there were no women among them, because a woman can't symbolize Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan and so on. `Judging' means ruling, so the Twelve were to be the rulers of the Jewish church after the resurrection of Jesus; others, dike Paul, would take care of the Gentile church. That's why it was necessary to appoint Matthias; otherwise the symbolism of the twelve sons of Jacob would be lost.

Symbolism

You may ask, `What's that to do with us?' The appointment of Matthias teaches us the importance of symbolism and of willingness. Never dismiss anything as `merely symbolic'. Symbols are important to people, they're how they define their identity and proclaim their loyalty; symbolic language may be the only way to proclaim truths that are too deep for prose. Never pour scorn on somebody else's symbols. As the Irish poet W. B. Yeats put it, `Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.'

Willingness

The second lesson is that we never know what God's going to demand of us. Matthias never dreamt that he'd become one of the leaders of the Jewish church. But when the call came, and `the lot fell upon Matthias', he was willing to do whatever God expected of him, and go anywhere that God called him to. You don't know whether God's going to call you to a position of responsibility, or to pursue a boring but demanding life of service to others, where nothing will be remembered about you but your name. But if you've `been with Jesus', in regular prayer, worship and Bible reading, and if you can witness to the power of the resurrection in your own life, then God will give you that power, to enable you to do whatever you have to: All you need is to be willing, as Matthias was.

Suggested hymns

Jesus, take me as I am; 0 thou who camest from above; Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands; Thy way, not mine, 0 Lord.