The A-Team – Selecting the Apostles

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102819.cfm
Ephesians 2:19-22
Luke 6:12-16

OK, I’ll admit it, I thought this would be an easy reflection to pull together. The gospel reading for today is one of the shortest for the entire 3-year liturgical cycle, so it should be a simple matter to determine the main point, add some background information for clarity, then drive home the inspired word of God and run my victory lap.

Perhaps I could even compare this to how a company or other enterprise is put together in the beginning – you know, a “startup.” I started down this path, showing how a team is put together to build a product that builds a company, starting in a garage, many hours of burning the midnight oil to get the first gadget into the marketplace. The lucky accidents along the way and picking up the pieces when mistakes are made. And the 12 Apostles are just like these entrepreneurs, but . . . but they’re not.

I used to be one of the home computer pioneers. I was in the Homebrew Computer Club that met in the auditorium of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, California. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple were also there. There’s a certain go-for-it mentality in Silicon Valley that puts few limitations on innovation and change. That’s probably why Radio Shack hired me away from National Semiconductor to head up the development of their first home computer products.

I’ve spent the long hours like Steve Wozniak of Apple did, designing hardware, selecting parts, and writing software, then building the first unit by hand. It’s a very challenging and rewarding experience. As I reviewed some of the history of Apple Computer, now called Apple Inc., and reflected on the rise and fall of my own employer, I decided that the trials and tribulations I was going to relate to today’s gospel, with building a team and the like, just aren’t the same.

We know from today’s gospel reading that:

“Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles”

We can surmise from this statement that there were many more than 12 disciples from which to build this important team. What makes this “holy startup” different from something in the tech industry? Maybe we should define a couple of the words in the reading.

The Greek word for “disciple” simply refers to a learner and is used throughout the New Testament to refer to people who believed in Jesus.

The Greek word for “apostle” literally means “one who is sent,” and can refer to an emissary or anyone sent on a mission. An apostle is given the authority of the one who sent him. All the apostles were disciples—they were among the many believers in Jesus—but only a select group of disciples were chosen as the Twelve Apostles.

While the mission of the apostles was not clear to them at the time, it was super important to get the selection of this group right, because there were no plans, as we would find out in retrospect, to grow this group of apostles beyond “the 12.” The apostles would continue to learn from Jesus the teacher but would also be empowered to heal and expel demons in the name of Jesus. Their role would become that of teacher, messenger, and evangelizer to bring the good news to all the world and give everyone who hears the opportunity to become a disciple, a follower of Jesus, themselves. If everything went according to plan, Christianity would be self-perpetuating as each of the apostles passed on to everlasting life.

Some of the disciples under consideration had previously gotten a personal invitation to follow from Jesus. When Jesus told Peter, Andrew, John, and James to “leave everything” and follow him, he would make them “fishers of men.”

Sometime later, we hear of Jesus inviting Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him. Tax collectors at the time were hated by just about everybody, because they were known for demanding more than was due and had the force of Roman law behind them.

Many other would become disciples because they heard about and believed in the works and the message being delivered by Jesus.

There are many techniques today for selecting the best work candidates from a large pool of possible employees. I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t actually have a stack of resumes, work histories, or other tools aid in the selection process. So what did he do? He prayed.

I’ve found that when I pray to God, situations often work out a bit better than if I don’t. Sometimes my prayers are surely mixed in with the prayers of lots of other folks praying for a similar outcome on the same issue, like health problems for friends. I can’t wrap my brain around the intensity and directness that Jesus’ all-night prayers to God his Father would have been like. The decisions made by morning set in motion the church as we know it today.

The Apostles Jesus named are:

“Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,
Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”

After Judas Iscariot took his own life, lots were drawn to select Matthias, a disciple of John the Baptist, as the “new” 12th apostle. Like the United States Supreme Court, being an apostle was a lifetime appointment. Except for Judas’ replacement, it seems that there were no official additions to the twelve, although Paul became an apostle of Jesus because he was personally called by Christ, taught by him directly, and seen Jesus alive after his resurrection.

Three of the Apostles were part of a closer inner circle with Jesus. They were Peter, John, and James. At the invitation of Jesus, the three were present at the Transfiguration of Jesus and again in the Garden of Gethsemane, the scene of the agony and arrest of Jesus.

As I tried to find information on each of the apostles individually, I found that there was either very little information, or enough to fill a book. Some of the twelve historically seem to have only minor rolls in the establishment of Christ’s church, I’m guessing that their roll has often been under-reported. Some interesting facts not reported in the Bible include Thomas (yes, the one known for being “doubting”) was instrumental in founding the Christian church in India.

Most of the twelve apostles were martyred, details which I have elected not to include here.

What did I learn? A seemingly simple gospel reading put in place the group that would carry on Jesus’ good news and build the foundation of the Christian church we have throughout the world today.