Return to Sermon Page

June 1, 2003; The Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

Everybody loves a good story, and even though many of you have heard this story before, it is just to fitting for our reading from The Acts of the Apostles to pass it up.  It begins,

"TO:   Jesus, Son of Joseph, Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop, Nazareth.

FROM:  Jordan Management Consultants, Jerusalem

Dear Sir,

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in you new organization.  All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but we have also arranged personnel interviews for each of them with our psychologists and vocational aptitude consultant.  The profiles of all the tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.  

As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comments...  It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. ...  We would recommend that you continue to search for persons of experience and managerial ability and proven capacity.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of tempter.  Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.  The two brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.  Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.  We feel it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau."  ... (But you do have one) man of ability and resoucefulness, he... has a keen business mind...is...ambitious, and responsible.  We recommend Judas Iscariot as you controller and right-hand man. ... [i]

No wonder we find Jesus praying passionately in John's Gospel this morning for his disciples.  According to the memo, they are going to need all of the prayers they can get.

Seriously, how do we choose our leaders?  What are the criteria we use in the church on a national, diocesan or parish level to determine who our leaders will be?  As the humorist memo points out there are many tests and evaluations that can be performed to determine how well someone is qualified for the job.  But what are we really looking for in our leaders.  I believe that all three of our readings this morning not only list the criteria for leadership in the church, they also serve as a reminder of what the church is to be about.

Between the Ascension of Jesus Christ and Pentecost, the eleven disciples felt that it was important to select someone to replace Judas.  The only criteria that they used in narrowing the field of candidates from one hundred and twenty down to two was that it had to be someone who had been with them from Jesus' baptism until the present time.  Even though we cannot literally apply this as the single most important criteria today, we can apply what it represents. It represents a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

The difficulty with this requirement is that it is hard to measure.  As far as I know there is no objective test, which can determine the level of the relationship that someone has with Jesus Christ.  That is not to say that their are not signs or indicators of an individual's allegiance to Christ, but it is much easier to measure a person's intelligence or skill level, than their faith.

What are the signs or indicators that someone has a relationship with Jesus Christ?  I must say two things at this point.  First, because Jesus prayed these things for his disciples means that they were still struggling with them.  And second, these do not only apply to the leadership of the church, but to every sincere Christian.

In Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer," he mentions five concerns that he has for the disciples.  I believe, because he prayed specifically for these, that they are five important characteristics for leaders in the Church.  Important, because they are the very model that Jesus gave to his disciples, and are now to become the model that the disciples must exhibit for others to follow.

These five characteristics are: oneness; faithfulness to God's word; living in the world, but not conforming to it; having a mission to perform; and being consecrated. 

Jesus prayed, "that they might be one, even as we are one."  This oneness speaks of intimacy, the type of intimacy found in a relationship.  Jesus bases his prayer for the disciples', and our, oneness, on the relationship that he had with his father.   While it is a prayer for unity among the disciples, that unity is to be found through Jesus in God.  It is the bonding agent of all Christians - their relationship with God in Jesus Christ.  If that relationship does not exist, then our faith crumbles like a house built of sand.

We live in a world that longs for faithful, trustworthy leaders.  Scandals have not only rocked our government, but the Church as well.   While not trying to lessen the amount of honesty and trustworthiness of government officials, the church and its leadership is called to a higher standard.  Our standard is God's word, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  There is no legislature or Supreme Court that can reverse the Word of God as it has been given to us.  Our faithfulness to God's word reflects our status - a casual Christian, who believes when there is only something in it for me; or the serious Christian, who pursues the life of obedience to God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

Jesus prayed for his disciples and us, that while we live in this world, we would not conform to its standards and behavior.  One disciple was lost because he rebelled against the will of God for his Son and sold out to what he thought was the highest bidder.  Judas never realized that Jesus was the highest bidder for his life.  Judas grabbed what he could get in the here and now, treacherously kissing the hand that fed him and offered eternal life.

Jesus prayed for the mission of the disciples and the church.  They, we, are in the world and have something to accomplish while we are here.   Our mission as a church and as individual Christians is to connect others to God.

And finally Jesus prayed for their, and our consecration.  Consecration - making holy, setting apart.  Jesus consecrated himself through his crucifixion, so that we would be consecrated - made holy to God.  Even though I have been ordained, and chosen as your leader, we all share in a common consecration, that of our baptism through which we have be made holy by God and set apart from the world.   The challenge for us is to live into that consecration.

Just as a society cannot demand greater standards of its leaders than the standards it accepts, so with Christianity, it cannot demand greater standards than it accepts.  The difference is that society makes its own standards.  Christian standards have been established by God in Jesus Christ.

The final section of Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer," begins, "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word."  We must pray for our leaders, for Frank, our Presiding Bishop, Robert, our Bishop, Harold, our priest, Marilou, our Deacon, - and pray for yourselves.    Pray for the strength to be uncompromising Christians in this world.

Return to Sermon Page