“For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
‘May another take his office.’—
History:
I always find a particular comedy skit funny, You know the type. There’s either a group of military inductees or a group of new citizens gathered together, and they’re going to take an oath. Everyone raises their right hand and the master of ceremonies begins the oath… —I [state your name]— Everyone replies: —I state your name.—
This is what today’s lesson is all about.
The band of Apostles had a vacancy, and they needed to fill it. It came down to Judas called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, or Matthias. The Apostles prayed and then lots were drawn.
It is interesting to note that in Jewish culture lots were cast using stones, but the casting of lots was limited to priests. William Silverman and Iain Chalmers in Casting and drawing lots: a time-honoured way of dealing with uncertainty and for ensuring fairness wrote:
Although the masses were forbidden by Jewish law to cast lots for divination —“ which was the prerogative of the priests – God’s authorities on earth were allowed to use lottery devices to guide judgements. Thus the chief priest carried sacred stones inside his breastplate, through which he sensed divine intentions. The stones gave God’s answer, determined when the ‘Yes’ or the ‘No’ stone was drawn out.
Matthias chose the yes stone and was counted among the Apostles. Matthias won the lottery.
The lottery:
How did we come to win the lottery, to be Christians, to be part of the Holy Polish National Catholic Church?
Now certainly some of us are Polish or have a Polish heritage, but many do not. Background doesn’t matter. Some were born into the Church, others came to the Church later in life. Birthright doesn’t matter. Regardless of background or history, each of us won the lot, the yes stone. We have been chosen to be on the inside, to be part of the Holy Church.
Doesn’t it feel great to know that we won the lottery?
Getting stoned:
We are lucky and blessed to be Christian, to have won the lottery, and are part of the true Church, but we must remember that winning comes with sacrifice.
Think about the method of casting lots by which Matthias won. According to Jewish priestly practice the Apostles, the new priesthood of the Holy Church, used stones.
Think about that. They used stones, which can remind us of stoning. Choosing the stone, winning the lottery, being Christian requires that sort of sacrifice. Several chapters later in Acts we will read of the stoning of Stephen. Chapters later the Jews and their Gentile sympathizers attempt to stone Paul at Ico’nium and again at Lystra.
What does it mean?
Would could reduce Christianity to winning, to being right and leave it at that. We could reduce Christianity to sacrifice, to getting stoned, to being a martyr, and leave it at that. Those two things are only the beginning and ending points to our Christian life. We begin by winning and we end winning. We begin with knowledge of sacrifice and we end in sacrifice. Our Christianity is everything that comes between those two points. The practice of Christianity is all the things that add to our winning and add to our sacrifice.
What adds:
What adds to our sacrifice and to our winning is the love that comes in-between, the love that is the marker of the Christian life. Our Lord and Savior prayed, saying:
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
We do not belong to the world because by winning we have been freed from the constraints of the world. The world wants to tell us how we should —love.— The world wants to dictate who we may and may not love.
Thankfully we’re not part of the cheap love, the merely romantic or sexual love the world dictates. Our how of loving is a love that acknowledges the core value and dignity or each and every human being, every human, from the beginning of life and into eternal life.
Thankfully we do not have to choose sides in our loving. The world would have us love some and hate others. We love the lovable, who can be too annoying to love, and we love the broken, who can be too damaged to love. We love because as St. John says:
Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
Our loving is all that occurs between the bookends of winning and sacrifice.
Not complex:
Our loving is not complex and we don’t have to break out the journals and ledgers to count the complexities of loving. We are not part of an accounting/bookkeeping exercise where we enumerate our good deeds. Rather, our Christian life is one where loving, a lifestyle defined by loving, never counts the costs or keeps balances. As the ads say, we JUST DO IT.
Taking our place:
We have won. Our Holy Church and each and every one of us has the assurance St. John spoke of:
—¨This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.
We have won and the Spirit of God in us, in our work, in our loving. We have taken our place in the Holy Church. The place that was prepared for us has been filled. Let us never forget the value that our winning adds. When we won the vacancy that could only be filling by our winning was filled. Jesus prayed:—¨—¨
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.—¨
We have won and have taken our place, the place we need to be so that Jesus could lead us in filling the vacancies that still exist. There is a vacancy in this pew and that, there is a place for everyone in our Holy Polish National Catholic Church. By the love we carry, by the witness we bear, many more will come to win, to sacrifice, and to love.
We have taken our place. Our winning, our sacrifice, our living lives defined by love wins the victory we all long for, the coming of the Kingdom of God, where we will stand together with all who have sacrificed and have loved. Amen.
