May 12, 2024

I speak to you in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Some of you will know that I used to work in public policy. In public policy school, they teach you very specific ways to analyze issues and solve problems. You gather background information and data and learn how similar issues have been handled before. You talk with stakeholders to gather perspective and explore alternatives. Then, using all this information, you recommend a solution. Other industries have similar processes – all based on the idea that with the right information, we can rationally decide on the best solution.

With that in mind, we might find today’s reading from Acts really weird. We might even dismiss it altogether. Here we have the now-Eleven Apostles, who have decided to replace Judas. But Jesus never told them how to do it. So after narrowing the field down to two candidates, what happens next seems unthinkable to our enlightened minds. They cast lots to select the replacement – throwing dice or flipping a coin or drawing straws. But I wonder what about this seems weird – is it the sense of chance that comes with gambling? Or is it the idea of putting an important decision into God’s hands?

What the earliest Christian community is demonstrating for us today is a different kind of decision-making process than we’re used to. It’s something we call “discernment”. Now “discernment” is another of those words, like “vocation”, that’s come to be associated with the clergy. Those of us who are figuring out whether we’re called into ordained ministry are said to be “in discernment”.

But in reality, discernment is much more than that. Christians use discernment to seek God in the context of prayer, scripture, tradition and experience. We try to imagine what God’s vantage point might be and look beyond the surface to see the real and the permanent beyond the immediate and the transient. We work to see to the heart of the matter with spiritual eyes.

That begs the question – why should we discern? We discern because we believe God is deeply involved with God’s people. Scripture speaks over and over again about a God who breaks through from the eternal into human history to be a part of our lives. Think of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; the still, small voice that comes to the Prophet Elijah; or God’s incarnation as a person – Jesus, the Christ.

In this time of crisis, the apostles are engaging in faithful discernment. Peter uses the Psalms to interpret Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and departure from the disciples. The group selects replacement candidates that, in their experience, have the necessary requirements. Then they pray that the all-knowing God will reveal the chosen candidate to them. Finally they cast lots – traditionally a common means of finding out God’s will, such as when dice were used to divide the land of Israel among the 12 tribes. Prayer, scripture, tradition, and experience. All used to select another apostle.

This story about the selection of Matthias pushes us to ask questions about how we discern God’s will and about the confidence we have in the systems we use to discern. Or whether we discern at all. Because we’re often tempted to treat the church like any other business or nonprofit or service club – and tempted to use those rational decision-making processes that work so well in other places. As though the decisions we make about the church are too important to leave up to a mysterious God. Who wants your Vestry to make a big decision by flipping a coin?

But when we don’t discern – when we fall victim to our very human need to control circumstances and outcomes – we lose the very thing that makes the church the church. We stop putting God at the center. We stop inviting God into our decision-making. And that is a very dangerous thing to do.

There are three important things to keep in mind when we begin this weird and specific process called “discernment”. The first is Scripture. To discern faithfully, we need to take seriously the idea that God speaks to us through Scripture. As we picture ourselves in the Biblical stories and imagine how those stories might be the stories of our lives, too. And that takes practice – the daily work of reading and digesting these stories of faith.

But to do that, we have to avoid two extremes. On the one hand, we have to accept that Scripture is not always meant to be understood literally. And on the other hand, we can’t only study Scripture objectively – like it’s simply another academic subject or a cadaver to be dissected. The work of imagining ourselves in these stories is somewhere in the middle.

The second thing I want us to keep in mind is a key to steering that course between the extremes. We have to engage with Scripture prayerfully. The conversation with God that is discernment forces us to deepen our understanding of prayer beyond the sorts of things we teach to small children. When we read Scripture, for instance, we need to be in touch with our hearts. What stories or people does our heart respond to? Where do I feel a sense of energy? What directions might God be pulling me?

The third thing might be the most important of all. The biggest obstacle we have to overcome in our discernment is fear. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear makes it nearly impossible to discern on our own. Because alone, without the courage and support of others, fear has more potential than anything to drown out the Spirit’s voice.

This morning’s story from Acts stands at an important crossroad for the first disciples. Jesus has ascended, and they’re about to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In the crucible of uncertainty in those days, the disciples did their discernment – remaining faithful in prayer and in seeking the will of God. May we be sustained by that same focus in the uncertainty of our own days. Amen.