The Church’s First Business Meeting

Real Church Life

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26[1]

According to the calendar, this is the seventh Sunday of Easter. Seven weeks ago we listened to the choir sing joyful hosannas; we gathered out on the ball field at sunrise and celebrated the empty tomb. The Church has been riding the crest on the wave of spiritual euphoria because Jesus has arisen! Luke even records for us just prior to our passage for today that while the disciples were watching, they saw Jesus ascend into heaven.[2] Then the disciples went back to Jerusalem and gathered the early Church together for constant prayer.[3] It sounds like the kind of church we’d all like to be a part of – one that spends a lot of time celebrating, gathering, and praying. This is the frosting on the cake of church-life. It’s the sweet nectar of the Church’s flower and the part everyone likes to see.

But what we have in our text today is not necessarily the frosting. Right after all the celebrating and prayer and gathering, Peter gets up in front of the gathered community and essentially says, “All right folks, it’s time for a business meeting.”

Can you hear the sighs of resignation and the moans? Do you suppose this happened in the sudden way it does so people wouldn’t be bolting for the doors once they discovered there was going to be a business meeting right after worship? If they had known beforehand what was coming, do you suppose that this would have been the first low attendance Sunday in Church history because everybody knows spontaneous vacations and other conflicts always pop up once a business meeting is announced?

Many of you know I detest having business meetings on Sunday after worship and we’re doing that very thing today…again. I know I’m not the only one who will be glad when we’re done with this incorporation stuff. It’s important, but not much fun. In God’s perfect sense of humor, on the Sunday we’re having a business meeting, the Revised Common Lectionary text I’ve chosen for this day is a passage about a business meeting. So today is a double-whammy for the worshipper. You not only get a sermon about the first Church business meeting, but you get the business meeting itself as a bonus. Lucky you, huh?

Before any of you start bolting for the doors though, let’s take a look at what happens during this first Church business meeting and see what nuggets of spiritual nourishment we can glean from what too often seems like the nasty-tasting cough syrup of church life – the church business meeting. Perhaps the problem is not really the act itself, but the manner and attitude that we bring to this important church function.

Peter stands up and tells the believers that the order of business before them is the replacement of Judas. Twelve apostles served during the ministry of Jesus. Now, Judas is dead,[4] and his position needs to be filled. Why can’t they go with just eleven apostles? Well, it seems that, like so many biblical numbers, the number twelve is important. There were twelve tribes in Israel. In Ezekiel’s vision of God dividing up the land, there are twelve portions.[5] Jesus promised that the twelve apostles would sit upon twelve different thrones to judge the tribes.[6] And the new Jerusalem envisioned by John on the island of Patmos has twelve gates.[7] So twelve is an important number for the Jewish Christians of the first century. Eleven just won’t do! We don’t know if they convened the nominating committee or came up with candidates on the spot but there was an open position to be filled, and the Church took care of it.

Peter says that the one who replaces Judas must meet certain criteria, namely, this person must have been a part of the ministry of Jesus from the get-go. Two candidates are qualified: Barsabbas and Matthias. So the community casts lots,[8] and the lot falls on Matthias. The first business meeting is over.

Now there’s some things about this little business meeting that are instructive for us.

First, acts of worship consist of more than just singing the songs, saying the prayers, and reading Scripture. Here, the early Church makes the choosing of a new apostle a very holy thing. I believe I’ve told some of you that one of my favorite book titles is, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.[9] This book points out God calls us to be just as active in the mundane and day-to-day operations of spiritual life as those spiritual mountain top experiences. In Jack Kornfield’s book, he quotes Rene Daumal who said, “You cannot stay on the summit forever. You have to come down again. One climbs and one sees; one descends and one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art in conducting oneself … by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one no longer sees, one can at least still know.”[10]

That all sounds pretty “preachy” doesn’t it? How does it translate into our lives. Well, let me share how it hit me this week. Last week after homecoming, the garbage didn’t find it’s way to the dump on it’s own, the chairs and tables didn’t just walk back to the Activities Center. Someone had to do these things. You could mention a lot of not-very-fun jobs around the church that people don’t get paid to do and most people don’t even know they happen. Yet, I know at least a few people who see them as a form of worship. On the cutting edge of my own spiritual growth is seeing these not-so-fun jobs as an act of worship.

We’re also celebrating Memorial Day this weekend. I’ve never served in our armed forces but I’ve heard enough people who have speak of the mundane and tedious tasks that have to be done. These are not the jobs that make the news but they end up being the grease for the machinery that keeps things going.

So in a few moments when we convene the membership for a business session and you’re tempted to bail, I hope you don’t! Stay and worship with us. This is an important part of church life!

Second, I want you to notice in verse 15 where it says there were about 120 persons at that first business meeting. Is Luke merely giving us a historical fact about attendance? In Jewish life, they had a law which said there needed to be 120 people to establish a community with their own council. 120 people made them legitimate. I think Luke tells us how many people there were because he wants us to know the early Church was not a fluke.

What makes us a legitimate viable community? Our bylaws say in Article IX: Section 5 that 25% of the active membership makes a quorum and allows us to do business. But that’s really just an escape clause. We aren’t really viable when only 25% of us are here. We’re viable when each person is active, present, and participating in the life of the community. When we all make the decision together, that’s when we’re our best.

Lastly, I want you to notice in verse 24 how they went about choosing Judas’ replacement. They prayed first and asked for God’s heart in their decision. They didn’t politick behind the scenes and lobby for their position. They simply prayed for God’s heart in their decisions.

So let’s have a business meeting!

Amen.

[1] I also preached on this passage on June 1, 2003. This sermon uses some of the same material.

[4] Matthew records what appears to be a different version of how Judas died. In Matthew 27:5, Matthew records that Judas hanged himself. In Acts, it says that he fell headlong in the middle of a field where his bowels gushed out. Which version is correct? We don’t really know and some have tried to reconcile the two accounts by saying that when Judas tried to hang himself, the rope broke, and he fell to his death.

[8] For this custom of casting lots, see Proverbs 16:33. While we can’t say for sure, it’s most likely that each man’s name was written on parchment or a piece of wood, placed in a bowl, and the bowl was shaken until one man’s name fell out.

[9] Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry (New York: Bantam Books, 2000).

[10] Quoted in Jack Kornfield’s book, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry (New York: Bantam Books, 2000), p. 123.