A couple of years ago I went to a workshop on leadership in times of change. It was led by a professor from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. He had written a book on the subject, which I was reading. So I went into the day with certain expectations. But somewhat to my surprise, he began the morning talking not about leadership, but followership. I had never heard that word before – I thought he made it up.
His point was that even though he was there to talk about leadership, even though he was there to address a group of church leaders who came to learn about leadership – Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders – there is actually a serious need in the church for something we don’t even have a good word for: followership.
Since then, I have done a search on Amazon and discovered there are many books out there in the business world about followership. But at the time, I was quite skeptical about it. It seemed to me that following is not a hard thing to do. Anyone can be a follower. Why do we need to teach people how to do that?
After he put in his plug for followership, he got into the topic we had all come for – leadership strategies that we could use in our congregations, which were all facing change and the need to adjust to this change. And it was a good workshop; I took away some good practical ideas that I would be able to use back home. But that idea of followership continued to annoy me. Is this really something important? Followership?
This week we are back at the beginning of the book of Acts, the second volume of Luke’s gospel. In the beginning of this volume Luke described the ascension of Jesus, with his disciples – that is to say, his followers– standing around looking on, and then not knowing what to do with themselves. They were suddenly leaderless. They stood in the same spot, looking up into the sky, until two angels of the Lord appeared before them and said, “What are you doing standing here?” So they went back into Jerusalem, returned to the room they had been staying in for all these weeks since the Passover, and waited – waited for inspiration to strike.
All they had ever done, since they had walked away from their old lives and entered this new life, was follow Jesus. They followed him from town to town, across lakes and deserts, up and down mountains, in and out of synagogues. But now that he was gone they did not know what to do.
How do followers begin to take hold of the reins when their leader is gone?
When I was a campus minister a big part of my job was to plan all kinds of events for the students. I tried to be there for all the events, but it wasn’t always possible. Occasionally I would have to send them out to do something without me.
Once I got a phone call about a woman who was moving out of her apartment into assisted living. She was frail and needed a lot of help, but there was something else. She was a hoarder, and she was embarrassed by it. Would our students be able to help?
I knew I had a conflict the day it was scheduled, but I called the students together and explained the situation. Would they be willing to do this? They said they would.
The week after, they reported back to me triumphantly. Everything had gone well. They got there on time, they put in a few hours of hard work, they treated this woman with kindness and respect, assuring her that she had no need to feel ashamed.
Then one of them told me, “After we left there we didn’t know what to do, so we asked ourselves, ‘what would Maggie do?’ We went to Dunkin Donuts and had a reflection.” I felt so proud.
Now that might have been the only time anyone ever asked, “What would Maggie do?” WWMD, perhaps? But millions of people have asked another question: What would Jesus do? And I think his followers asked that very question. The day Jesus ascended into heaven, and in the days that followed, they pondered that question: what would Jesus do? And what, then, did they do? They devoted themselves to prayer.
They constantly devoted themselves to prayer. These are the words of the scripture, in the verses leading up to this passage we heard today. This devotion to prayer, as Jesus taught them, prepared them to take their next steps. And now it was time for the next steps.
So Peter, who had become their de facto leader, stood up and began to speak. He spoke to the whole congregation, numbering about 120 people. The first order of business, he told them, was to replace Judas, the disciple whom had been lost, and bring their number back up to 12. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, there had been 12 disciples in his inner circle. Twelve is the number signifying completeness – there were a total of 12 tribes in Israel, there were 12 disciples of Jesus, now there would be 12 apostles.
There would be certain criteria for the selection of this 12thman. The first, of course, that he would be a man. But also, that this man would be one who had been with them from the beginning. They were seeking a man who could be an eyewitness to the ministry and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They chose two candidates: Barsabbas and Matthias.
Once these two candidates were named, they set about the task of choosing one. First, once again, they prayed. Then, they cast lots.
Perhaps that seems like an odd way to do it. To us, casting lots seems like leaving it up to chance. Like flipping a coin or throwing the dice. But in ancient Israel it was used as a means of discerning God’s will. One would pose a question to God and cast lots for the answer. In the Old Testament something called the Urim and Thummim is mentioned a few times, and this is believed to be a form of casting lots. Please don’t ask me what it is, because I don’t know. We only know that the priest would carry the Urim and Thummim in his breastpiece when he went into the temple. Without getting into specifics, the scriptures indicate that this was how the priest would receive answers from God. From what we have been able to gather, it seems to have been a form of casting lots.
It had its limits, of course. Casting lots was only useful for true/false, either/or questions. Maybe multiple choice, at best. Personally, I have this tendency to ask God open-ended questions like, “what do you want me to do with my life?” or “just tell me how to solve this problem!” but the technique is no good for that sort of question. You can’t say to the Urim and Thummim “Just tell me what to do!” They would just say “Yes.”
Before we draw the conclusion that these ancients were just silly, superstitious people for this business of casting lots, let us consider how it was actually done.
Prayer.
Prayer helped the followers of Jesus to first ascertain that they should anoint one more man to round out their number. And prayer also gave them insight into what qualities were needed in this man, and prayer led them to the selection of two men who might serve well.
And then, one more time, they prayed: O Lord, show us which one of these two you have chosen.
As the proverb says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is God’s alone.” There is an expectation that God is involved in every part of the process, and that God has chosen someone already. The role of these followers of Jesus is, primarily, to seek God’s will and follow it.
Evidently, the cast of the lots showed them that the man God had chosen was Matthias. Matthias was added to their numbers, making them once again complete.
And what about Barsabbas? We don’t know. We can assume that he continued as a follower of Jesus. As a man of faith who had exhibited the qualities necessary for leadership of this movement, I would think he would not want to desert his friends or make trouble for them.
I think Barsabbas accepted his place and stayed. But the better question might be, what about Matthias?
What ever happened to Matthias? We never hear another word about him in the scriptures. Perhaps he wrote a gospel, there is some scant evidence he did, but if so it didn’t make the final cut.
It is a strange little passage, and its purpose for the church is, perhaps, just to serve as a bridge between the ascension of Jesus and the day of Pentecost. It’s a little picture of how they managed through the quiet period between losing Jesus and gaining the Holy Spirit. They were, for this little while, leaderless –
but they didn’t just sit like bumps on a log, waiting for something to happen.
New leaders were born that day. Peter stood up and guided the congregation. Matthias stood up and joined the leadership team. As the book of Acts unfolds we see many others stand up and take their place among the leaders. But you know what happens first? They follow.
The unique quality of leadership in the church is knowing how to be, and having a willingness to be, a follower of Jesus Christ. Every one of us begins as a follower. If the truth be told, we never stop being followers, by the grace of God.
The message is this: you may be called to lead, in a certain place, time, setting. And you need never be afraid that you lack the ability to lead in Christ’s church – as long as you are a willing follower. Christ will call, the Spirit will equip, and through prayer we will never be left alone. Thanks be to God.
May you hear the voice of the Lord calling your name.
May you answer, as so many before have, “Here I am.”
May you follow him in faith, without fear, always in prayer.
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