This year we are electing a new Diocesan Synod and one of my roles as Area Dean is to act as Returning Officer for the Deanery Elections  to the house of Laity. I must also see that the election of both clergy and laity is conducted fairly and according to the rules. I do not think it is going to be too hard a task as the Diocesan Synod doesn’t seem to have quite the same appeal as the General Election. Even so, I am ‘Presiding Officer’ and that’s enough for me whose only previous electoral involvement was as a teller at local elections a very long time ago.

Now, I love elections. Whenever the nation goes to the polls, whether it be for local or General elections, I and Mr David Dimbleby on the BBC keep company throughout the night. When others have wisely retired to bed, I am still there, loyally watching the handful of politicians, pundits and reporters discussing trends, swings, moods and desperately putting a spin on every result as it comes in.

I must confess, therefore, to being a little disappointed that St. Peter conducted an election which was over almost as soon as it began;  for which there were no hustings and which relied on neither first past the post nor proportional representation but that strange and undemocratic system of choosing by lot. The election of Matthias was a lottery.  Worse than that it was a lottery which removed all responsibility from the voters and put all the onus on God who was invoked to show who had been chosen.

The Divine choice was signified by the lot falling on Matthias who was duly declared the winner of the vacant place left by the traitor Judas.  Whether it was a wise choice on the part of God it is difficult to judge because apart from the two mentions of his name in our New Testament Lesson little is known about him.  In the realm of legend he is said to have spent 30 years preaching the Gospel in Judea and Ethiopia before being crucified somewhere near the Black Sea. It seems that he found time to write a Gospel which has now disappeared, though it was quoted and referred to by several important Christian leaders and writers of the first and second centuries.  One hopes that his character is not indicated by some of the causes for which he has become patron – alcoholics, reformed alcoholics and smallpox (presumably the sufferers rather than the disease). 

Whatever the subsequent history of Saint Matthias or his manner of being chosen, the importance of the choice lies in 3 things - its timing;  the one doing the choosing; and the qualifications he had.

The timing was between the Ascension and Pentecost. Though we are now over forty days from Easter we are also on the cusp of Pentecost. The Church elongates this period of festivity in order to give it precedence over the penitential season of Lent and the joyful season of Christmas.  The New Testament time-scale was a much shorter period. Before our Lord ascended back to His Father, he promised his disciples that the Holy Spirit would soon come upon them and empower them to become Apostles – those who were to be sent out into the world to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom. They were to be the chosen instruments whereby the mission of claiming people for God would be continued and what Jesus had begun in his earthly ministry would sweep over the globe as the gospel net was spread to gather into the Kingdom all manner and hue of existence.

In today’s Gospel, part of the great High Priestly Prayer of Jesus which takes up the whole of Chapter 17 of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus prays for his disciples who will continue his work on earth. Jesus asks His Father to protect them from all that will thwart that work – protect them, he says, as Jesus himself had protected them, especially from the evil one. Jesus knows that the Devil will target their mission and, where it is possible, thwart and even destroy it.

This is something we always need to be aware of, not least in this present time when the Church (and not just the Church of England) is so pre-occupied by internal wranglings and self-centred concerns that the real work of claiming the world to God’s heart is being diverted as energy is spent on ourselves rather than the mission for which Christ has commissioned us. Our Post Communion Prayer today ought to be a reminder to us of what that mission is – for we shall pray that we be confirmed (made strong) in the mission to preach the Gospel of Christ’s Kingdom to all the world  and to do so by living the Good News we proclaim.  We do not proclaim this Gospel by back-biting, dispute and acting uncharitably towards each other. That is the Devil’s thwarting not the Lord’s desire.  So, Christ prays for our protection as much as he prayed for the disciples. They and we are to be sanctified – made holy – in the truth which is Christ. When we seek the Holy rather than the Profane we are under God’s protection.

As Peter and his companions waited in that in-between time after the Ascension and before Pentecost there was a mood of expectation about the Mission which is about to begin but there was a need to prepare themselves for that Mission for mission without prayerful preparation might not be carried out according to God’s will.  In one specific area they had some preparatory work to do.    Because of the actions of Judas, they were no longer Twelve. Symbolically this was important because Jesus had prepared them to be the New Israel – the new People of God. In the  old Israel there had been Twelve tribes. The new spiritual leadership required twelve apostles in place of twelve tribes signifying the new relationship God now has with his people. The Twelve were to head this new family of God which would no longer be confined to geographical Israel but which would sweep the world as the New Israel. It was imperative therefore that they were prepared and part of that preparation was to choose a replacement for Judas. Enter Matthias.

But who would decide between him and the other candidate? Peter had assumed the authority given to him by Jesus after the Resurrection but he felt unable to make the choice alone. So came the election but, as I have already said, it was to be an election not by men but by God.  “Lord” prayed Peter, “you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen.”  Having prayed, the disciples cast lots and Matthias was chosen. He was deemed to be God’s choice.  The importance of this is that it is God not we who shape his Church and it is God, not we, who chooses those whom he wants to guide that Church.

As a former Director of Ordinands I am very familiar with the way Vocation works in the heart of those who offer themselves for ministry. It is always God’s initiative. The word ‘Vocation’ has at its root the meaning ‘to call’ and throughout both Old and new Testaments there is countless calls from God which evokes a response – from Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, through to Mary, James & John and the other disciples  and now Matthias. But it doesn’t stop there – the call comes to us all – through Baptism, the awakening moments in faith; through service where one thing leads to another; through the voices of friends or in the depths of silent prayer and much more. Whenever we hear and experience something which deepens our conviction that we are here to minister, to witness, to serve we are hearing the voice of God. It matters very little what form that service takes – whether it be ordination or Sunday school teacher; flower arranger or pastoral visitor; youth worker or prayer group leader; Christian teacher or Christian postman. The call is the same. God chooses and says to our hearts – be part of my Mission to love and save the world. Save it by loving it where you are and among the people I have placed you. Take every opportunity I give you to reach out to others in my Name.

You did not choose me, says Jesus,  no, I chose you.  We can only escape that call – we can only avoid the lot falling on us – if we turn our backs on God because by virtue of our baptism we are His Chosen People – of whom the lovely 1^st Epistle of Peter says:

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into his own marvellous light.

‘God’s own people’ – God’s chosen one’s. What a marvellous yet deeply humbling thing that is! To be a Christian is to accept that, as his loved and chosen ones we are deemed worthy to share in his work of loving the world – work which he only entrusted to his Son until after Pentecost. God dares to believe we are up to it – and He dares us to believe it. 

Ah, you might say, I haven’t got what it takes.  Well, in one sense that’s true – which is why, with the disciples,  we must  be empowered by the Holy Spirit.  But in another sense it isn’t true because we can easily become qualified. 

Back to Matthias again: the disciples thought that he was qualified because he fulfilled the conditions laid down – namely, a long association with Jesus. In the case of Matthias he had been close to the twelve ever since Jesus was baptised by John in the River Jordan right through until the Ascension. Thus he was qualified to be a witness to the Resurrection.

And so are we – if we live our lives close to Jesus – through prayer, Christian study of the Scriptures (particularly the Gospel), through participating in the life and worship of the Church, central to which is the Eucharist, and if we try to live our lives by Christ’s values, living as Easter People. That’s what qualifies us.

Living close to Jesus for Matthias was a physical thing and an eye –witness thing. For us it is a spiritual thing and it is the eye of the heart which perceives who Jesus Christ is. We are people of the Incarnation, of the Cross, of the Resurrection and with a vision of God which is one of the ways we understand the Ascension.

It is faith in these great things which qualifies us for the work God calls us to do and also for becoming the people God longs us to be – for our witness and mission is also to ourself and to each other. Those whose hearts are converted to Jesus Christ have no trouble in reaching out to others. Not even the devil can stop us.  So, Matthias becomes a symbol for our own involvement with Christ and hearing his story once again we can draw new inspiration for our own Christian Life – a life that is lived within the Call of God and which is a response to that Call.

I choose you!  - The lot fell on Matthias, and it falls on us.  Embrace that with joy and you will be sanctified, others will be drawn to Christ and  God will be glorified!