The Gospel appointed today by the Revised Common Lectionary is a portion of John 17, where Jesus is praying for his disciples. The epistle comprises two segments from 1 Peter 4&5 where we are being encouraged to ... “Be humble, stop worrying, be alert and sober, and to resist the enemy”. I decided to focus on the passage from Acts, which I assumed would be a build-up to next week’s famous Pentecost passage. But I once again was side-tracked.
Acts begins with a recap of the ascension of Jesus, but then the apostles concentrated on practical matters. Twelve was an important number to them still – their Jewish heritage depended on the twelve tribes, each descended from one of Joseph’s sons. So who would take Judas Iscariot’s place and by what process would this be decided? Prayer would be a part of the process, certainly. Peter addressed a gathering of people which included Jesus’ mother and brothers, the eleven apostles, more women and those who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. (Acts 1:21-22 NIV)
But first, like a present-day politician, Peter deals swiftly and using Scripture with the reason for a new twelfth man to be added. Acknowledging that Judas shared in our ministry (v17) he recapped Judas’ actions and suicide.
The first bit of the recruitment process is a bit mysterious: they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas…and Matthias. (v.23) Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen (v.24). So they prayed AFTER the two candidates had been selected. And then what did they do? Then they cast lots (v26).
Good old Wikipedia offers this explanation of “casting lots”: Cleromancy is a form of sortition (casting of lots) in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice (astragalomancy), but that are sometimes believed to reveal the will of a deity.
This is probably the second most famous time that lots were cast: soldiers cast lots to decide which of them would take home Jesus’ robe. I suspect the soldiers used dice, while the disciples might have used black and white stones, or stones some of which had an arrow carved into them and some which were blank.
Today many churches ban gambling of all kinds, including not sending dice or playing cards in shoeboxes destined for children overseas. Some tolerate raffles and other fundraising methods like tombolas. Apparently, casting of lots became forbidden after the coming of the Holy Spirit, because our indwelling Wisdom is supposed to make up for our uncertainties, writes Sandra Sweeny Silver.
Almighty God, when faced with decisions both large and small, remind us always to pray first for guidance and wisdom. When we are tempted to gamble, make us aware of how easy it is to become addicted. We pray for all families who suffer because of addiction and also for those agencies that work with gambling addicts. Amen.
P.S Matthias won.
Elaine Kinchin
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