May 20 -- Seventh Sunday of Easter

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you and peace from our risen savior Jesus the Christ, who comes to us this day in the Word and the Water, in the Wine and the Wheat.  AMEN.

Have you ever in your lifetime seen or experienced the impossible become possible for the better?  When I was in high school, I was on the swim team.  I played water polo, and that was really my first love, in terms of High School sports.  I actually went to my high school to play basketball, I had some skills, but the school was very competitive, some of my classmates even went on to play for top-10 schools, and two even made it to the NBA.  Which is to say, it wasn’t much fun for someone like me with a few skills.  So, I dropped out of basketball after my freshmen year, and started swimming in order to get stronger for water polo.  But in the process of being on the swim team, I started to set some goals in that area beyond just getting in better shape for water polo.  My event became the 100yd butterfly (4 pool-lengths).  And to make a long story short, I was not good enough to compete against the top swimmers, really.  My goal was a race against the clock.  My goal was to break the 1 minute mark in the 100 fly, and I think Coach had a lot to do with that.  He was my greatest cheerleader: “You’ve gotta break a minute, Dan.”  To give you some perspective, I just read recently that the national record in this event was just reset this year at 46.6sec.  And when I started this event I was coming in at about a minute and 12 seconds.  That’s like a whole pool length.

But for 2 years I worked toward this goal, and in the winter of my junior year, I went with my team to the Eastern U.S. Championships in Philadelphia, “shaved and tapered” (explain).  And there I did it:  I broke a minute, and I actually came in at a time of 56.4!  So for me, the impossible had become possible.  And I’ll never forget how excited Coach was to see my time up on the board.  He was genuinely proud and excited that I had done it.  And it was such a wonderful feeling, I remember, because, my time didn’t matter to the team’s, I thought.  I wasn’t the star putting up any points for the competition, I was just racing the clock.  But to Coach it mattered.   

I wanted to reflect on the “impossible becoming possible for the better” today, because our Gospel text talks about everyday people becoming—a word maybe Lutherans aren’t so comfortable with—SANCTIFIED.  Filled with holiness, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, filled with the fire of love to share.

Also in our first lesson from Acts, an everyday Christian, named Matthias becomes the 12^th apostle.  For him and his family—could you imagine?—the impossible is becoming possible right before their eyes.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, you, like Matthias was, are everyday Christians.  I know that most of you are very humble and quiet, down to earth people, loving and gentle, broken and tragic at times, confused and angry at times, just regular human beings who love the church and love the Lord.  Nothing special.  Nothing fancy.  Just the little things.  “No big deal,” we like to say.  There’s kind of a lukewarm feeling to our righteousness.  And the word SANCTIFIED might make us feel a little like a penguin in the desert.  “I’m not sanctified, I’m just Joe.” 

But sisters and brother in the Risen Christ, it is my joy simply to be the one to remind you this day, that in Christ, because of Christ, through Christ and with Christ, you are most certainly SANCTIFIED.  You are God’s most prized child!  “How do you feel about that?!”  And you, like Matthias, are sanctified and sent.  That might seem kind of random, kind of a careless, maybe flippant thing for me to say, like I’m just making a generic statement for the sake of a sermon: “You’re just saying that, Pastor.  But not me.  You don’t know me.”  But let’s not forget how random Matthias’ selection was.  They cast lots, they rolled dice to see who the 12^th apostle was!  There is a randomness to God selecting you, too.  God’s wisdom gets worked out in the strangest of ways to us sometimes.  What does Paul say in Corinthians?...God’s wisdom can seem like foolishness to the world.  Perhaps it’s even more random (than Matthias being chosen) that you’re sitting here, being named a sanctified Child of God, being sent out to share God’s love with a world in pain—maybe that’s even more random than Matthias being chosen.  What are the odds, that God chooses you?  But God does.  And you too are an apostle. 

I know that there are only 12 apostles in Scripture, but the word itself means “sent out” from the Greek (apo—from, stelleon—send).  You are sent out this day. 

It’s very interesting that in Scripture we never hear of Matthias except in this passage.  He’s not spoken of in any of the Gospel stories before this point, and after these verses in the book of Acts, we don’t hear anything more of him.  He’s just an every day Christian.  Sanctified and sent. 

Sisters and brothers in Christ, the impossible has become possible, for the better…for we too (all of us, even you) are sanctified and sent. 

And like my good ol’ coach back in high school, Christ is there, jumping and shouting, cheerleading us from the side of the baptismal pool, genuinely excited and proud, not because you’re putting up the huge points for the team, but because this is the good and worthy and healthy and righteous and holy way to live out your days—sanctified and sent…you are, and always will be!  Thanks be to God.  AMEN.