Friday, June 3, 2011

The Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A

Who’s Holding the Bag!

Readings: Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11

The period between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost is a time of transition for the disciples. The resurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples strengthened them and gave them hope. It was a time of great joy for the disciples as they were reunited with the risen Saviour. The Ascension, as he withdraws from his disciples, as he is carried from them into Heaven, marks the end of Jesus' earthly life. Before he makes his final departure from them, he commissions them to continue his earthly work. As witnesses of the resurrection, it is their task to continue his proclamation. It is their responsibility to carry on the work that Jesus began. Jesus lives! Jesus reigns! Jesus has left his disciples holding the bag!

But Jesus made a promise to them. They are not alone. They are equipped. They have everything they need to carry out their mission. The Holy Spirit will be their ongoing comfort and strength. While Jesus tells them to await the coming of the Spirit it is, nevertheless, that same Spirit that moved on the waters at creation. It is the same Spirit that led the people of Israel through the desert. It is that same Spirit that hovered over Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan River. That same Spirit, Jesus is telling them, will come with new and renewed energy to assist them in the work that God has called them to do.

And so they are to wait, to spend time in preparing themselves for what is to come. They are between loss and promise, a difficult time for any of us to face. And so they turned to God in prayer. They looked back on what Jesus had told them and savoured his message. They remembered his promises and looked forward to their fulfillment. They focused on what was vitally important.

And they lived in hope. There is such an air of expectancy about the disciples during this period of waiting. There is a sense of urgency about their vision for the future. “What next?” they are asking themselves. They are about to embark on a new path without the guidance of their beloved leader. The path ahead is unclear. It is a time of testing and self-discovery. They were fruitful times. We hear over and over in the Acts of the Apostles how the Church grew with new converts. We know that over two thousand years later we still bear the fruit of their faithful witness.

As the Easter season comes to an end we deal with the consequences of the resurrection in our own lives. We enter a period of transition. We are thrust out into our world with that same great commission. “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” Jesus is saying to us as he said to the disciples. We are sent out into the world to communicate the Good News of the Gospel. It is up to us to continue the work that Jesus began, that the disciples continued, and that countless Christians throughout the ages have carried on. We are not called to be observers; we are called to embody and communicate new realities because of what we have seen, because of what we believe.

This is a period of transition in the Church of God. Many see this as the Post Christian era, a time when personal world views, ideologies and religious movements are no longer rooted in the traditions of Christianity. Many people are unchurched. It is more common to hear the name of Jesus used in profanity than in worship. Jesus’ earthly mission may be over, but the work of the kingdom has barely begun. It is to be carried out through us, Jesus’ 21st century disciples. How do we reach out to the unchurched in ways that will open them up to the richness of God’s grace? How do we find creative, new expressions of our faith that will draw people in to the Christian community?

This parish is facing a time of transition. In many ways, we are living between promise and fulfillment. We are awaiting the outcome of the Diocese purchasing the Lutheran space. There are constant hurdles to overcome. It sometimes seems as if it will never end. As well, you will be between clergy as I take leave of you in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be a time not only of testing, but also of self-discovery for you as the people of God.

The question is, what do we do in the meantime? How do we live with our sense of loss as we await the fulfillment of the promises? The disciples are a wonderful role model for that. We can begin by following their example. We need to be people of prayer. The disciples came together as a community and they prayed. They prayed for one another. They prayed for the needs that they saw in the world around them. They looked back on what Jesus had told them and they held onto the message. They remembered his promises and looked forward to the time they would be fulfilled. They focused on what was really important. And they lived as if … They lived with hope, trusting in God’s promises.

And of course we know that we need to gather the community together and pray. We need to pray for God’s guidance about our future. We need to pray that God will be present with us. We need to pray that God will be at work in our lives. But particularly when we face a time of transition, a time of loss or change, we need to pray. We need to pray even when the only prayer we can pray is “God, I can’t pray!” That kind of prayer will help us to look back and remember the times that God has been with us. It will help us to remember the promise that God made to be with us always. It will help us to learn from our sense of loss. What does it mean in my life? What changes need to be made? Does it mean that I need to spend more time with my family? Does it mean that I should look for ways to become a better person? Does it help me to figure out what to do with this time of change? Does it help me to cope with the change?

We still encounter the risen Lord. But it is a mystery which eludes our grasp. It is rather like trying to view a beautiful piece of art through the slats of a venetian blind. We can see the image, but not clearly enough to understand its beauty and perfection. We get flashes of insight. But to fully appreciate it we would have to view it under the proper conditions, our view unobstructed, with proper lighting. When the risen Lord encounters us we do, at least for a moment, fully comprehend. Yet it is almost impossible to hold on to the image.

If we have eyes to see the mystery of the resurrection we will glimpse it all around us. We will catch sight of it in nature – the smell of the rain, the wildness of a thunderstorm, the beauty of a flower unfolding, the sight of a starry sky. We dream it, the kind of dream you wake out of without quite remembering what it was about. We meet it through liturgy, through music, through literature, but most of all we it in other people.

Jesus has left, but we are not alone. His promise to the disciples holds true for us. May we live by the Spirit.

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