This week's readings are Acts 1.15–17, 21–26 and John 17.6–19.  In the Acts reading we look in on the disciples working out how to bring their number back up to 12, now that Judas was no longer with them.  They have a couple of good candidates, so to choose between them 'they cast lots for them'.  As a method of appointing candidates to positions of authority it's not one we tend to use much any more (though I suppose it could make our upcoming Annual Meeting more interesting...), and perhaps it's even one we feel some aversion to from a faith point of view.  It looks like relying on luck, or fate, both of which notions generally lie outside the boundaries of Christian orthodoxy, perhaps more at home in pagan or mystic religions.  Indeed another place we meet lots being cast in the New Testament is in the hands of the pagan Roman soldiers casting lots for Jesus' clothing at the foot of the cross.

Look to the Old Testament, though, and this practice turns out to have a deep root in the biblical Jewish faith (and always remember that these earliest Christians that we are reading about were Jewish).  It's a part, for instance, of priestly worship, apportionment of the land, to decide which priests would enter the temple, possibly to choose the first king of Israel, and generally to make enquiries of the Lord.

What's interesting to me is that in all of these instances there is no sense of luck, there is just a total trust in the fact that all things - from the smallest to the largest, happen the way they do within the will of God.  So in this context, casting a lot isn't a question of chance, it's a question to the creator - who can make manifest his will in the way the cookie crumbles, so to speak.

Now I'm not advocating we start making all our decisions on the basis of a roll of the dice (as a lover of games of all types, I know full well how fickle the little things can be), but I do wonder if in this ancient way of thinking we might find a refreshed wisdom.  It is a reminder to us that one of the core tenets of our faith, which we often seem to forget, is that the universe - in its entirety - is supported and upheld by the will of God.  There is a purpose, and intention, behind history - an end towards which it is working (reconciliation with its creator, and perfection through that reconciliation), which even now informs and impacts it, and how we are called to shape it.  In other words, the purpose that sustains the creation, which our ancestors saw manifest in the casting of lots, is something deliberate in which we have a particular part and role.

Which is where we encounter the other meaning of 'lot' - that is our 'lot' as our 'portion' or 'inheritance' in life.  Interestingly both in Hebrew and Greek, as well as in English, it is one word that carries all these senses.  In all three languages what at first looks like chance coalesces into a purposed identity.  

If we place these thoughts alongside those of Jesus in the gospel reading, they go from being general to being personal.  Jesus is praying for those given him by the father - those allotted to him by the father.  Those who have believed in him, and trusted in him.  In other words, us.  We make the mistake sometimes of thinking that we choose to believe in God - actually it's the other way around - he chooses to believe in us, and in so doing grants us our identity, value, and very being.  We are not products of chance, but of will; not born from detached process but of intentional love; and we have a place and a purpose in God's plan for his creation, just as did the 12 apostles - and the even greater number of believers gathered around them.

So let's get on with it, 'giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance (lot) of the saints in the light.' (Colossians 1:12)