Casting Lots – 16 May 2021 We’re fast approaching the end of the Easter season, this being the 7th Sunday of Easter. In these weeks after Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we remember the events in the 1st century CE that followed the joyous shock of the resurrection - the appearances of Jesus to the disciples and others, the commission to go out into the world to baptize and spread the good news of the Gospel, the instruction of Jesus for the early band of apostles and believers to prayerfully await in Jerusalem the arrival, the gift, of the Holy Spirit. This past Thursday, on May 13 this year, had we held a special worship service here at Trinity, it would have been to remember the ascension of Jesus from earth toward the heavens. With the ascension, the stage is now set for our lectionary scripture passage for today from Acts chapter 1. The chaos, the fear and trepidation, of the first few weeks following the resurrection, the bodily loss of Jesus after his ascension, is beginning to abate. The band of roughly 120 persons, the initial followers of The Way, continues to patiently and anxiously await the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Thus begins the struggles of the early church body. Now that the haze has begun to clear a bit, there is suddenly the realization that a crisis exists amongst the band of believers, and the apostle Peter addresses the concern. One of Jesus’ original twelve disciples, Judas, is no longer with them. Peter informs the group of believers that the betrayal by Judas and his death were in fulfillment of the scriptures – it was a part of the plan. Be that as it may, and despite the despair and anger concerning Judas’ fate, there is the fact that there are now only eleven disciples. That number of eleven seemed incomplete, and Jesus himself spoke of the twelve apostles shepherding the twelve tribes of Israel. Having eleven apostles just wasn’t proper – it was perceived as being urgent to now name a twelfth person to be an apostolic witness to Jesus’ resurrection. Now occurred what might be termed the very first meeting of a nominating committee. Peter first establishes the prerequisites for this important position of being the twelfth apostle. As Peter describes, this is to be a person who has “accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us”. And, sorry ladies, though this initial community of believers includes women, and the subsequent chapters of the book of Acts detail the vital contributions of a number of women to the growth of the early Christian church, this job of the new twelfth apostle is to go to, well, a man. The nominating committee responds with names of two worthy candidates. The first is Joseph Barsabbas Justus – I’m sorry, but the man has just too many names! The second candidate is Matthias. Interestingly, these verses are the only ones in which Joseph Barsabbas Justus and Matthias are mentioned in the New Testament. It was recorded in another contemporary writing that Matthias had been among the seventy disciples identified in the Gospel of Luke. Tradition has it that Matthias went on to become a missionary to the Ethiopians. After the nominating committee finished its work, then follows in the scripture passage a three-verse account of the very first church congregational meeting. I must admit that it was easy for me to just scan over the first two verses of this account, with my eyes zeroing in on the third verse, the climactic moment of the congregational meeting. “And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.” They did what? They entrusted a crucial decision of the early church body to basically a roll of the dice! In fact, casting lots, basically rolling out pebbles and divining or interpreting the nature of the throw, was not viewed as a haphazard process in biblical times. Rather, it had a respectable history in Hebrew lore, with many references in the Old Testament scriptures. But casting lots – really!!!! Those other two earlier verses describing the congregational meeting, the ones I simply glossed over, contain important information on what preceded the casting of lots – the congregation of believers prayed as a body, that the will of God would be revealed to them in who should be selected for the twelfth apostle. This is the careful, thoughtful work that precedes the casting of lots. Another name for this process? Discernment – discerning the will of God when there’s a fork in the road that requires a decision of which path to take. How do, or should, we begin each congregational meeting, each meeting of the session, each church committee meeting? With prayer – in order for us to discern the will of God in our discussions. I can speak for myself that this topic of discernment has always been a challenge for me – often frustrating, flummoxing, even at times quite disappointing when it comes to the results. About twenty years ago, a denominational church paper produced a series of articles based on the questions most commonly asked by people in the pews. The most commonly asked question was: “How do I figure out God’s will for my life?”; i.e., what is this process of discerning the will of God for my life’s journey? This question very easily transitions to “How do I figure out God’s will for the life of my Christian community of faith here at Trinity?”, etc. As bewildering and confusing the task of personal discernment can be, the task of communal discernment is more complicated, because, well, that process involves the prayers and insights of more than one person. The need for some fresh discernment of Trinity’s future is substantial at the moment. The impacts of the pandemic are abating now, and our worship and programs are beginning to resume in ways more like in pre-pandemic times. What does the future look like at Trinity? Will the future look like the “old normal”, or to what degree will we be pursuing a “new normal”? In what fashion do we continue to offer, or even expand, our digital online offerings to the community (and beyond)? Will we potentially have Trinity members who engage only with our ministry online? Now that engaging with our local community in mission efforts is becoming easier again, in what ways, new ways and old ways, does Trinity reach out to our local and broader community? How does Trinity establish a financially sustainable framework in which to perform its mission and ministry now that we’re returning to “normal”? This is all going to require a lot of prayerful discernment effort in coming weeks and months. Trinity’s session has begun to discuss some of the options, and will continue to do so at upcoming session meetings – options concerning church staff, financial sustainability, mission focus, etc. Once the discernment dust has settled a bit, a called congregational meeting will be scheduled to inform the broader membership of the results of session’s discernment process. This communal discernment stuff can be some tough work – spiritually, emotionally and otherwise. The prayer that the early band of believers voiced in that first congregational meeting makes a very important point, as noted by these words of scripture: “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen.” The obvious implication here is that we individually don’t know what’s on everyone’s heart. That insight doesn’t necessarily make the discernment process much easier. But discernment, collectively determining the will of God, is crucial for informing the nature of our mission in the world. In my readings of various commentaries on today’s scripture passage from Acts 1, one particular commentary brought me a lot of insight, and comfort, related to the workings of the discernment process. This commentary laid out three concepts to inform the work of discerning – this is a sermon, after all – there really need to be three points, correct? First, we know the framework of God’s will for our lives in this world: we are called to love God and to love our neighbor. All the decisions we make about our individual, and communal, lives ought to be framed within these two great commandments. Our lives are not our own to do with as we please. We are called to love God by loving our neighbor. This is the framework in which our lives, and the lives of our faith community, ought to be lived. Second, we know we live our lives under the canopy of God’s forgiving love. This is a very important reality. It is not realistic to believe that God’s specific will for our life will be crisply and concisely laid out for many of us, for after all “we walk by faith, not by sight”. We can pray and pray for God’s specific will to be revealed, but often our prayers will not be answered, at least not immediately. So, as Martin Luther advised, we will have to choose boldly our path. We won’t often know for certain which is the right path. We choose a path, knowing that God’s forgiving love will sustain us in the midst of life’s many decisions. Third, we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In Romans 8:28 we hear: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God…” God is at work in the midst of our decisions. In a sense, this passage from Romans tells us that God is always working to make the best out of our decisions. Our bad decisions, and those do happen, do not separate us from God. As people claimed by Jesus Christ and committed to Jesus Christ, we choose, we decide, and we act. We act in the assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. There you have it – Discernment 101! Well, maybe. If you’re like me, though, with some Type A personality traits, it’s still tempting to grab the bull by the horns and plunge ahead. If there is one thing we Presbyterians are skilled at it is committees, and committee meetings! There come times when I just want to scream “Give me the dice!”. How about drawings straws? Maybe a little “rock, paper, scissors”? Relax, embrace the process. As we read in our other scripture passage today in Psalm 1: “Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.” What better synonym for meditation in our discussion than … prayer, discerning prayer. We’re approaching the end of the Easter season. In the first century CE, the period of waiting for believers in The Way is about to end – the Holy Spirit is about to arrive in a week, which we will celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. We at Trinity are in a waiting period as well – what happens next on our journey as a community of faith? Just be comforted that the outcome is not really a “crap shoot”! Amen.