One of the most loveable and popular Archbishops of Canterbury in recent decades was Michael Ramsey who died in 1988. I’m nearly positive that it was he who once said that to reform the Church of England, one would need to turn it upside down; that the lowest form of existence should become the highest, and vice versa! (Or, something to that effect). I’m sure we would all understand what he means, but when you think about it, it’s rather a dangerous thing for an Archbishop to say!

Only four Sundays ago, we were talking about the best and the greatest, and even the tallest (do you remember Taipei 101 or Burj Dubai?) and this morning we have James and John going up to Jesus and requesting that they should sit at his right and at his left in glory - We are the best, we are the most loyal, surely we deserve a place of great importance! And, indeed, James and John, and Peter of course, were members of Jesus’ inner circle; they were the ones who seemed to be with Jesus continually; for example at Capernaum, at the house of Jairus the ruler of the Synagogue, on the Mount of Transfiguration, on the road to Jerusalem and at Gethsemane. They were, no doubt, the ‘inner circle’. And this is the John of the Gospel and the ‘beloved disciple’; there’s no reason to think he was anyone else; a different ‘John’. And the two of them James and John, sons of Zebedee, were given the nickname by Jesus, ‘sons of thunder’.

As one writer put it once, who would ever get a nickname like that? And along with Peter, whom we know well to be impetuous and awkward and often shouting his mouth off, the three of them were Jesus’ closest allies and friends. He had been Simon, of course, and ‘Peter’ (or Cephas) was another nickname, and you know well that it means ‘Rock’.

You really have to ask yourself sometimes what kind of people are we dealing with here; the three of them fishermen; the three of them from the back-end of nowhere.

Do you not think that if God had decided to send his only-begotten son in to the world to save us from our sin and all the rest, do you not think he would have gone to the brightest and to the most successful people he could find to make sure that his mission was carried out in the best way possible. Wouldn’t you do that? If you wanted something done properly, would you not choose someone or some people whom you know could carry out the job properly?

In many ways, I find it bewildering how Christianity has survived at all. And whatever about two thousand years ago, how does it survive today, when he’s only got us to choose from.

But isn’t that the point? As our dear bishop friend from last Friday week ago, preaching at the special service for the Alliance of the Orders of St. John, when he referred to the choosing of David in First Samuel, the youngest of Jesse’s sons and a shepherd at that, and the Lord said, “He is the one”.

Bishop Jack Nicholls said, God never chooses the best or the greatest, in fact Bishop Jack said, ‘God’s not very good at that’!

God chooses the one he loves, the one whom he has called, and he has called the likes of you and me!

What is God at.

Perhaps the point is if God is not going to bring in his kingdom through the likes of you and me, he’s not going to bring it in at all! Rather than starting from the top, he has used those at the bottom; Jesus has already turned everything upside down. Does it sound familiar?

A long time ago I used a story about a guy called Billy who attended an American junior-high Christian Summer Camp in the States. (Knowing this story all too well, I was wary of our daughter Lydia spending a whole summer this year with ‘Camp America’ – but not the same thing at all, thankfully).

From the story I know so well, I assume Billy had something like Cerebral Palsy. His speech and his movements were severely awkward and distorted. Even in a so-called ‘Christian’ summer camp, he was ridiculed and mimicked on a daily basis.

The cruellest thing was on a particular Thursday morning when Billy’s cabin was assigned to lead morning devotions, and his cabin mates all voted for Billy to be the speaker. (They wanted to get some perverted entertainment from his struggling attempts to say anything at all).

Come that Thursday, Billy dragged himself up to that rostrum as waves of sniggers were heard, and in what seemed like an age, Billy managed to get out the words,

“Jesus loves me and I love Jesus”. When he had finished there was stunned silence. All over the place, there were junior-high school kids with tears streaming down their faces.

On that camp they had tried everything to reach the kids with the gospel message such as bringing on baseball stars; all the great and the good, but nothing seemed to work. But it wasn’t until a spastic kid called Billy who declared his love for Christ that everything in that camp began to change.

God doesn’t need superstars to declare his word. He loves to take ‘the stones the builders reject’ to use as the foundation rock for the building of his Kingdom.

If God can use the likes of Billy to build his Kingdom, you can never say he cannot use the likes of you or me.