Fallen Lot
Acts 1:6-26

May 28, 2006


In the first century A. D. if you wanted to know something really important but didn’t know how to find out, you threw lots to see where they fell. Some kind of divine or other worldly force was supposed to be moving around those lots to make them land the way it’s supposed to be. We still throw lots or lotteries and dice and chips and other accoutrements of the gaming world, but today, money is the almost universal focus of our lots. So it may sound odd to ponder when is it that we gamble with our faith?

Some lots have changed. Few people still pretend that lotteries and other forms of gambling have any divine guidance at play, benevolent or otherwise. Gambling and betting is all about the mathematical combinations of chance, an impersonal force that you may believe you have mastered and understood, but most of us do not get that far. You may harbour hopes that “my time has come,” but all this means is that the mathematical odds possibly will reward your persistence. As in so many other realms of modern bureaucratic existence, numbers seem to define one’s identity, except that numbers do not talk or smile back at you. Numbers are useful for lots of things and can help us explain difficult and complicated things, but numbers are also good candidates for empty idols that dehumanize us.

Officially, so far this sermon has never happened since the United Church of Canada is thoroughly opposed to all sorts of gambling. We shudder at the thought of a raffle for an afghan under our roof. I hope I will be forgiven. Just remember, Toronto, the disciples chose their last member by a lottery.

The weeks after Easter are surprisingly non-eventful. A flurry of activity in the week after the Third Day, but there is really very little narrative of how Jesus circulated and continued to teach his disciples during a 40-day period. One thing for sure, is that he did not go on a major speaking and healing tour. There were still critics who contested the reality of his resurrection. So, we do not know much at all about those extra-ordinary days and have received no enrichment from further teaching. The disciples, however, were confirmed in their mission and fortified for the long task ahead, so it appears that Jesus’ guidance took hold and bore fruit. This 40-day sojourn concluded suddenly at the strange event of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.

There are lots of miracles and remarkable accomplishments of Jesus in the Gospels, but this one is absolutely supernatural. It is hard to picture without a ton of special effects. I am sure Steven Spielberg could do a stunning job of portraying the Ascension, but I don’t believe that would make it any more plausible to most of us. What happened precisely, Spielberg or CBC filming, is beyond our human imagination. Like many Biblical events, I think it is better that we get away from the How of the Ascension to the Why and What Now.

I am not sure if this has ever occurred to you, but if Jesus had stuck around and lived continually with us all-too-human beings in this world it would have undermined most of what he attempted to do. We’d have leaned on Jesus hard throughout the centuries to take care of the big messes, and certainly a number of people would have ignored or rejected who and what he is. That would not have helped us to progress at all as human beings attempting to become the children of God. Jesus needed to get out of here. Regular death was out, so like Elijah he somehow “translated” into the other realm.

It’s what happens as a consequence of his Ascension and farewell that grabs us. All the disciples have their heads in the clouds watching Jesus, wishing most likely that they could have gone with him, one of those peak experiences that you would love to never end. But it was abruptly brought to end ironically by a couple of white robed guys who just happened to be there - a thin disguise in Biblical language for angels. In essence, they scolded the eleven to get their minds back down to earth and start living out the Gospel.

They go back home and the first thing that appears on the agenda is that missing seat at the table of 12. Judas’ empty spot is a painful reminder of all they had been through, a reminder that despite their acquaintance with Jesus they were still beset with human passions, betrayals and fears. Why did they have to fill the 12th seat? There were actually many more followers of Jesus who had hung around, so they were not lacking in people power. Most likely they wanted to have someone else wipe out the memory of Judas by the fruitfulness of his anticipated work - a very human and positive direction, although Judas’ act never has been entirely overcome. They did what they felt they had to do, the best way to start again.

There was a kind of embarrassment of riches - too many good people to choose from and no tried and true way to select the proper one. Two fellows are mentioned right off: Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias, neither of whom were ever mentioned before, yet they must have been good. The 12th disciple had to meet God’s standards first, so they let God do the selecting and pulled out the lots.

These were little sticks, perhaps with some writing on them. In Hebrew tradition, they were called the Ummim and Thummim, a kind of heads and tails. With the proper prayers invoked, all felt that it was God who was manipulating how the sticks fell. God chose Matthias for great things, though we never hear what they were. Poor Joseph Barsabbas: I’m certain he did wonderful things too from a lesser ranking. Nobody ever remembers the team that lost the Grey Cup.

But give yourself 10 days and a couple of verses and the situation is changed, the rules are rewritten. This is the last time lots are relied upon, for now God uses our brains and hearts to guide us through the discernment of difficult decisions. I’m going to give next week away, but when the Spirit comes to the disciples at Pentecost, our brains get turned off full volume to the reception of God’s direction. Making a difficult decision is incredibly hard, stressful, and worrisome work, so now you feel a little bit of the divine pressure. But now you and I are the ones who have to think with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all our soul, and with all of our strength.

Regretfully, many people have hesitated to think religiously for fear of thinking heretically, thinking wrongly. Few people waste their time on heresy anymore, but there is a heresy of method or lack of method: believing that religion and faith are personal matters, that it is about how you feel and not really how you think and have to defend your thinking with others. That is exactly how we gamble with our faith, assuming that our the essence of our lives can be resolved by our bank accounts, our social standing, our power quotients, the genuineness of our emotions. It is in our faith that we need our brains the most, for we are attempting to think in the categories of God and God isn’t easy.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. I know there are people who are convinced that their human brains are somehow independent of God’s thinking, but who are they fooling? Don’t waste your brain. Think in church.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan