Us vs the environment

We humans and our technology always have been hard on the environment. Back about 13,000 years ago, in America, the Clovis people developed a way of making very effective spears for hunting mammoths. In a span of at most 450 years these huge mammoths became extinct.  Whether Clovis hunting was the prime cause can be debated – but it certainly made at least a contribution to the demise of the mammoth – and a number of other species Read more

Reflection for Sunday May 24

For one in place of Judas
The apostles sought God’s choice
The lot fell to Matthias
For whom we now rejoice.

Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke, is puzzling in some respects.  It seems that an important position had to be filled.  The twelve apostles were now only eleven in number.  Yet there were supposed to be twelve of them.  Scholars speculate that the need for twelve stems from God’s use of that number throughout the Bible to represent God’s people: the twelve sons of Jacob leading to the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob’s other name), the twelve gates of heaven in the Book of Revelation, and so on.  Whatever the reason, today’s story is set in the midst of some pretty stupendous goings-on:  first the witnessing by the apostles of the ascension of Jesus into heaven, followed by a number of days spent in prayer, and the ultimate event, the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

Sensing that the event we now call Pentecost required a full complement of witnesses, during those days of prayer the eleven decided to find someone to fill the place of Judas.  The person selected should be a former follower of John the Baptist, a consistent witness to Jesus’ ministry, and a witness to Jesus’ resurrection.  The apostles selected two individuals, one with a legacy of respectable names:  Joseph called Barsabbas also called Justus, and the second one called Matthias.  Apparently the two men presented excellent credentials, and the apostles were stymied as to the selection they should make.

For the moment put yourself into the sandals of those men.  Although each had followed Jesus from the time Jesus presented himself to John the Baptist through the days of ministry, through the passion and resurrection, neither had been called by Jesus to be one of the twelve apostles.  Did either want to be?  What was the advantage to being a known member of a group of people marked as followers of Jesus, preaching unbelievable happenings to sometimes unbelieving crowds, although Jews by birth and tradition somehow beginning to doubt the restriction of salvation to Jews alone, somehow beginning to suspect that the way things would turn out wasn’t what had always been anticipated?  Those apostles, after all, were not exactly members of an elite country club.  Nor did they sit on boards of powerful corporations.  Yet, apparently, both Justus and Matthias accepted their “nomination” to become an apostle, at the same time knowing that only one would be chosen.  Or to put it another way, knowing that one of them would not be chosen.

This is where each of us can identify with Justus and Matthias.  How many times have you put yourself into a situation in which you could come out the apparent loser?  Did you apply to a college, not sure you would get in?  Did you apply for a job not knowing what the odds were?  Did you run for class office?  Did you apply for an apartment, or a mortgage?  Did you seek membership in a club or civic group?  Did you try out for a sports team?  In general, did you ever put yourself on the line to reach a goal?  But of course you did.

Now here comes the interesting part:  the phrase “they cast lots for them.”  The casting of lots is an event appearing frequently throughout the Bible.  The process was used to make decisions falling into certain categories:  those involving the making of a just decision, a resolution of a dispute between two strong parties to avoid strife, and the seeking of Divine guidance for an appointment of a person to some office or the selection of an entity for some part of a ceremony.  So the apostles were familiar with the process as a means of seeking God’s help when faced with a difficult decision, one for which no apparent solution was evident.

The casting of lots was not a matter of voting.  Rather it was more akin to tossing a coin, heads Justus becomes the new twelfth apostle, tails Matthias does.  As we know, the coin came up tails, and Matthias became the “winner.”  The advantage to the process was the certainty on the part of all that God indeed had chosen Matthias.  From another standpoint, the advantage to the process was the certainty on the part of all, including Justus, that God had not chosen Justus.

Some questions arise.  The first is—what became of Justus?  We don’t know, because there are no further references to him in the Bible as we know it.  For that matter, though, there is no further mention of Matthias.  Apparently the point of this story in Acts is not to introduce us to the new Apostle, Matthias, whose adventures we will follow in the stories ahead, nor is it to introduce us to Justus so that we might profit from his example in stories to follow.  Neither man merits further attention.

Then why the story?  Some scholars argue that the purpose of the story is the process that is outlined for making the selection.  Criteria are set for certain roles in the new church, and a process is outlined that implies that even though candidates may be equal in their qualifications, God’s choice can be divined by prayer and the casting of lots. Today the latter has taken the form of actual voting, supposedly inspired by the Spirit whose help has been sought in prayer.  As our diocese moves forward in the process of electing a new bishop, we will hear more about the role of prayer and discernment in the selection of that person.

Finally, what about the rest of us?  Are we not the Justuses of the world?   We have not been called to ordained ministry, yet we are faithful witnesses to the ministry, passion, resurrection, ascension of Jesus, and we proclaim the coming of the Holy Spirit. We take risks in this witnessing, risks that at times don’t lead us in the direction anticipated.  We look for the good in whatever outcomes we experience.  Sometimes the college we didn’t get into resulted in our experiencing a much better education in another institution of higher learning.  Sometimes the job we didn’t get led to employment in an area more suited to us.  Sometimes the mortgage we were denied led us to another choice of residence in which we lived very happily.

Right.  But what about the other times?  This is where it helps to realize that just as Matthias could take comfort in the fact that God and not humans has chosen him as the replacement for Judas, so Justus could take comfort in the fact that God had not chosen him.  Having lived so intensely as a Christian during the past three years, that certainty and comfort probably came easy to Justus.  Sometimes that comfort and certainty doesn’t come easily to us.  Those are the times when we need to reaffirm our credentials as apostles:  witnesses to and participants in the ministry of Jesus, the passion, resurrection, ascension of Jesus, and receivers of the Holy Spirit.  As we rejoice in the selection of Matthias, we also rejoice in the non-selection of Justus, knowing that we are protected in Jesus’s name, through the word of God and the coming of the Spirit.

On spirituality, morality, theology…

This is our rather broad catchall category for posts related to spirituality, morality, theology, religion, faith, belief, worship, the church…..

Torture

After reading some of the recent commentary on torture it hit me that there really are two quite different objectives for those using this technique.  The first – and the only one that anyone ever will admit to – is to obtain important and accurate information;  the second is to break someone so that they’ll confess to something, implicate someone, or just get them to tell you what you want to hear.  Note that in this second case truth is completely irrelevant.  Read more