Whenever I think about the ones Jesus called to be his chosen twelve disciples, I am struck by how ordinary they are.  In fact, a few of them are real self centered blockheads; most of them are fairly non-descript; a couple were highly unpopular; one of them will be a traitor.  There must have been many people he knew so why did he pick them for such an important task?  Barak Obama is carefully selecting the brightest and the finest to administer his presidency.  But Jesus-whatever in the world did he see in these bunglers?

There is a story about the famous Italian Renaissance sculptor, Michelangelo Buonarroti.  When he was a young man, a notorious block of marble was being auctioned off from the studio of a deceased sculptor by the name of Ducio.  Ducio had commissioned an odd shape of beautiful Cararra marble to be quarried to create something.  He had had the block cut out in the shape of a tall rectangle and had taken a few cuts out of it about halfway up so that it looked like the capitol letter "K."  And then he had a heart attack and died.  Years went by as the "Ducio block" lay outside his studio, weathering away and becoming dirty and grimy in the sun and rain as his legal affairs were being executed.

Finally, the day came to auction off everything in his studio.  The art community of Florence thought the odd shaped giant "K" had been ruined by Ducio and was a complete loss.  But when it came up on the auction block, a small voice from the back of the crowd piped up and bid for it far higher than anyone else.  It was the young and relatively unknown Michelangelo. "What a fool!" people said.  "What a waste of good money!" people said."What could anyone possibly do with that misshapen block?" they thought.  "What does he see in it?"  But Michelangelo took it back to his studio, studied it for a long time, and then picked up his chisel and began to-as he said-"cut away everything that didn't belong."  And out of that giant letter "K" came one of the world's most famous and beloved of statues: The David.  Where others saw only a junked ruin of a block of marble, Michelangelo saw something else all together.  He gave that block a second glance and a second chance.  Where others saw only lunkhead fishermen, tax collectors, carpenters, and sell-outs, Jesus saw disciples.  He saw those who said "yes" to his call.  What do you see when you look at the world around you?  Are you willing to give what you see a second glance and a second chance?

 

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.</nn><//nn>
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
   O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is so high that I cannot attain it.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
   Wonderful are your works;
   that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
   when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
   all the days that were formed for me,
   when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
   I come to the end—I am still with you.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’