Tomorrow (according to the Episcopal calendar) is the feast day of Saint Matthias the Apostle. You will recall, that Judas Iscariot, in addition to betraying Jesus, also committed suicide, leaving eleven apostles in charge of the early Church.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection the first Christians thought it necessary for there to be twelve apostles. From among those who had been with Jesus during His earthly ministry they presented two candidates for apostleship: Joseph, called Barsabbas, and Matthias. They cast lots (perhaps a better system for election to high office in the Church than we presently have) and the lot fell to Matthias.
Matthias is only mentioned by name in Acts chapter 1. The rest of his life and his apostolic ministry are never referenced again in the New Testament. Yet, the Church acknowledges Matthias as a saint. His faithful, unsung, largely unrecorded life was recognized as being of great value to Christ and His Church. This is good news for the vast majority of us as Christians, whose lives of service and commitment to Christ will never be recorded, written about, or made into a major motion picture.
Our aspiration must be to serve Christ faithfully over the years of our lives, whether many or few, hoping not for earthly fame, but merely that our names will be listed among those welcome in heaven.
Your comment about our lives never being made into a major motion picture speaks to the enduring nature of the Bible. Imagine how many motion pictures will exist 2000 years from now. There will not be many, if any at all. Our lives live on in the Kingdom of God and that alone is more than enough for me. What wondrous love is this!
ReplyDeleteI have heard a statistic that the Bible is both the top best seller of all time AND the top best seller each year.
ReplyDelete