PROPER 6, YEAR A

June 18, 2023

Christ Episcopal Church, Woodbury, N. J.

 

Matthew 9:35-10:8

 

One of the greatest war movies of all time—I’m probably dating myself by saying this—is The Dirty Dozen, released in 1967. The film dramatizes a special military operation during World War II. Lee Marvin plays John Reisman, an American officer given the assignment of parachuting into France and eliminating Wehrmacht officers at a resort chateau to disrupt the German chain of command ahead of the D-Day landings.

 

The mission is so difficult and dangerous that Reisman adopts an unusual recruiting strategy. Instead of assembling a team of the best and the brightest, West Point graduates or members of elite commando units, he goes to a military prison containing the army’s dregs: thugs, murderers, and thieves – men who’d been criminals in civilian life and who continued in their lawless ways in the army until arrested and court-martialed.

 

Five of the convicts have been sentenced to death, and the remaining seven face lengthy imprisonments at hard labor. Reisman offers the convicts a pardon and freedom if they’ll volunteer for this one mission and survive. Odds are nine to one that the mission will fail, and they’ll all be killed. But the twelve who do volunteer on the chance that the mission might succeed become the Dirty Dozen.

 

It looks as though Reisman’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. But, as the movie unfolds, the strategy’s wisdom becomes apparent. The Dirty Dozen have developed skills in their criminal careers that prove perfect for the mission’s demands. One knows how to pick locks. Another is good with his fists. They all excel at lying, concealment, and other criminal tactics that are exactly the talents needed to get this job done.

 

Now, I’m not commending a policy of using convicts in the military. Such a policy can have bad consequences, as we’ve seen most recently with the Russians in Ukraine. But the movie’s appeal is that in the right situation, in the right team, with the right leadership, those whom the world regards as losers can become heroes. The mission succeeds, even though only one of the Dirty Dozen survives and lives to tell the tale. The rest are nonetheless redeemed from a fate of living and dying ignominiously as convicts. 

 

Today’s Gospel tells of another dozen, this time chosen and recruited by Jesus—not the Dirty Dozen to be sure, but a collection who also seem at first glance totally lacking in qualifications for the mission to which they’re called.  In his compassion for the crowds, who seem harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus selects from his disciples Twelve Apostles and sends them out to do the very same work that he’s been doing: preaching the good news, healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead.

 

These Twelve Apostles are an unlikely crew. Some time ago, I read a whimsical piece of writing that speculates on the kind of personnel evaluation that Jesus might have received on them from a management consulting agency. The report reads as follows:

 

Dear Sir:

 

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve individuals you have selected for managerial positions in your new organization. They have all now taken our battery of tests. We have not only analyzed the results, but have also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

 

The test profiles of all twelve candidates are included. You will want to study each carefully. As part of our service, without any additional fee, we make some general recommendations.

 

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in educational background and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue to search for persons of experience in managerial skills and proven capability.

 

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus have radical leanings.

 

Only one of the candidates shows any potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness who meets people well and has a keen business mind. He has contacts in high places and is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.

 

Wishing you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,

Jordan Management Consultants

Jerusalem, Judea

 

So, from a contemporary management perspective, it would seem that Jesus could have done better. But, like Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen, Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t choose the brightest and best of his society: the most accomplished rabbinical students, or the most eminent priests, lawyers, and scribes. Instead, he chose fishermen and tax collectors. And his strategy paid off. After his death, resurrection, and ascension, the twelve became the leaders of a missionary movement that spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

 

(Another parallel with the Dirty Dozen—I have no idea if it was intentional—is that only one of the Twelve Apostles, Saint John, lives to die a natural death. The rest die as martyrs for the faith, but their deaths ensure the mission’s success.) 

 

The choice of the Twelve Apostles teaches us something about how Jesus operates. He calls each of us to continue his work today. He calls us to be his disciples, to proclaim his Gospel, and to bring healing and reconciliation to the world in his Name. 

 

All baptized Christians, not just the clergy, are entrusted with a share in the Church’s mission. Studies of church growth demonstrate that there’s no substitute for every member of the congregation taking responsibility for his or her share in the task of recruiting new members by means of personal, one-to-one evangelization.

 

We instinctively recoil from that idea, I think, because we have a healthy dose of self-doubt about our ability to do the job. Who among us is qualified to proclaim the Gospel to an unbelieving world? Who among us is qualified to be an agent of healing and reconciliation in Jesus’ Name? You’re not and I’m not. The Bishop-Elect is not; and the incoming Priest-in-Charge is not. But the Lord chooses us anyway. Perhaps he sees more potential in us than we see in ourselves. Perhaps he sees gifts and talents that he can use in totally unpredictable and unexpected ways.

 

That’s how Jesus works. He delights in calling the most unlikely people to be his apostles. He promises us that he’ll give us everything we need to be faithful to him and to his mission. And then he sends us out to share in that mission of proclaiming the Gospel and bringing salvation to a hungry and hurting world.

 

Acknowledgment: Key ideas for this sermon came from a sermon of Will Willimon, published sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s.