Divine Dice

Sermon Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 May 17, 2015 Easter 7

Divine Dice 

“Who are we?” “What do we do now?” “Where do we go from here?” “How can we be anything at all?” I imagine these are the questions going through the minds of the disciples and the other followers of Jesus as they waited in the room in Jerusalem. Transition and change were upon them. They were in a room with a one sentence instruction manual! Wait for the Holy Spirit to come. So, there they were the huddled masses seeking to be freed from the room and sent out with a purpose, instruction, and some sense of Jesus present with them.

In the midst of the waiting for the Holy Spirit, it occurred to Peter that they were down one player and if they were going to be ready for the appearance of the Spirit they needed to be a full team again.

Peter set about regrouping and organizing the disciples for mission.

I’m not sure if you are aware of what it is like to start a new chapter of life or work or whatever without any training manual or any kind of instruction sheet. Now some of you might say that entering into parenthood was like that. And I would agree that no amount of books or friendly advice is enough to prepare for that adventure.

But, here are the disciples entering and moving into a new way of which no other had ever gone before.

Perhaps we can wrap our brains around this when we think of the pioneers of our space programs, or the sailors who crossed oceans, or the Wright brothers with their first flight.

Entering into a domain of where there are no precedents can either be exhilarating or incredibly frightening or foolishness or all of the above.

Peter had a sense of God’s calling into new leadership as he spoke to the believers. After all Jesus had been with them for 40 days after the resurrection and had now ascended into heaven. Surely there was some instruction going on between the Risen Lord and the disciples before he ascended into the clouds.

Sometimes I wonder if this account from Luke is more than just a historical note of how the first organizing meeting of the church took place.

I wonder if this might also be an opportunity for the continuing church to witness and participate in those same questions the first church had.

“Who are we?” “What do we do now?” “Where do we go from here?” “How can we be anything at all?”

It seems as though the church is always in transition and change.

It seems as though the church is always needing to rebuild its team.

It seems as though the church is always needing to regroup and organize.

And perhaps the testimony of these early believers can continue to encourage the continuing church.

From among the approximately 120 believers gathered two fit the criteria to fill the 12^th ‘man’ post of the disciples. They were named Joseph and Matthias. The voting process began with prayer and then proceeded with the roll of the dice. This process of rolling dice is a shock to our Presbyterian system and perhaps all of our current denominations would be appalled at choosing leaders through such chance acts as dice rolling.

But, casting lots was a common practice for decision making in the Roman world as well as the world of the Hebrews. There are several accounts in Old Testament where decisions were made at the roll of dice.

Which leads me to believe then that there is such a thing as Divine Dice.

It leads me to believe that the Divine (God) acts through the resources that are available at the time. Today, we have electronic voting booths and other fancy equipment to help us make fair choices. So, if we look back and scoff at the method utilized by the first church as unthinkable we lose sight of the work of God in the midst of current circumstances.

The decision the disciples made with the toss of the dice was not trivial or the luck of the draw. It was based on the faith they had in God to guide them through the system and they knew and they trusted.

Even if the system was flawed in some ways they still had faith that this was the system they had at the time and trusted that God would work through it.

I don’t think we’re any different today more than 2000 years later. We have systems in place to help us make choices. …

When many of you arrived at retirement what systems were in place for you to make the decisions for the next chapter in your life? As the door of your job closed, before you even got to your car, there was a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities opening up. You were in a position of wondering which direction to go and who to say yes to. There were all kinds of good choices before you, all kinds of good causes to join, and all kinds of good paths to take. But, knowing which was the right one for you to say yes to was not always easy. There are always many good choices before us and as individuals, as the church, and as the community. The challenge is knowing which good choice is the right one for us.  

We have church government documents to guide us in our organization. We have procedures in place to instruct us on how to do the work of the church. We realize they are not perfect nor are they sealed in stone as the ‘only’ way.

But, for the moment they are the resources that we have.

And like the first church we can choose to trust the system and the process knowing that God meets us with what we have.

When my middle daughter was a teenager she had trouble making decisions-not unlike every member of our family. Her uncle decided she needed help with her decision making. He gave her a wrapped package and in it was a pair of dice. He instructed her to use one when having trouble with a decision. He then said the second die is to be used when you don’t like the choice the first die made.

The powerful testimony of the faith placed in the process of the dice was that once the decision was made they were ready to move forward and they were ready to do the work that Jesus had called them to do.

And so we the church today can also place our faith and energy into the decisions that lie ahead and trust that God will be there to guide us and to be in the midst of the process.

Then we too can be ready to go and do the work that Jesus has called us to do.

The disciples were at the crossroads of the way things used to be and the way things will be. I believe the church in every age is at the very same place the early disciples were.

The church as it opens up to God will always be asking these questions:

“Who are we?”

“What do we do now?”

“Where do we go from here?”

“How can we be anything at all?”

Through prayer and faith and a commitment to seek God and God’s will

in all of life

and

as the church

we open ourselves to God and God’s new way to be believers in this age.

I’m excited about the days and years ahead for the church.

I pray you are too.

We are workers of the Lord and we give thanks!

Amen.