This is the Pastor’s Blog for the Service on Sunday May 17th. This week is Ascension Sunday and the message is titled “In the Meantime”. Included here is the primary Scripture of this message and the Pastor’s notes.
Scripture: Acts 1:1-14
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. 13 And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. 14 These all continued with one accord in prayer [e]and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Pastor’s Message:
May is a very busy month for many of us. It’s a season of celebrations and milestones. Last Tuesday, the pre-K kids at our day school “graduated.” They are the class of 2039! Family members were proud and joyful, some were a bit teary. Witnessing our kids and grandkids grow up fills the heart with all sorts of feelings. My own 36-year old “baby” graduated yesterday with her second Masters’ degree, and I couldn’t be more proud and hopeful for her.
Milestones also mark seasons of transition. Transitions can bring their own set of concerns and anxiety, don’t they? Sometimes we don’t quite know what’s going to come next. If we do know what comes next we may not know exactly what our days might look like. Change brings with it a whole new set of concerns, even if the change is planned for and wanted. And then there are times of change that are so stressful we just want things to go back to how they were before. It’s only human to want routine and predictability.
In the story we just heard we see the disciples in a season of transition. In just three short years they had encountered Jesus of Nazareth who asked them to follow him. They travelled with him and heard his stories, saw his miracles and healings. They saw him arrested and executed. They experienced his resurrection from the dead and now they have him back among them.
But the Risen Christ isn’t going to let routine settle in. He is getting them ready for the next stage, the next season of life in God’s kingdom. He’s trying to get them ready for his leaving them again.
It’s good to pause here and consider the importance of this part of the gospel story. The Book of Acts is volume two of Luke’s writing, with Luke’s gospel being volume one. Luke addresses his two volumes to Theophilus, which means “lover of God.” The gospel of Luke ends with the ascension of Jesus, and the book of Acts opens with the ascension. Jesus’ ascension to heaven is the middle point – the hinge – on which Luke’s whole narrative swings. This hinge joins together part one – Jesus life, death, and resurrection – to part two – the giving of the Holy Spirit and growth of the Jesus movement beyond the bounds of Jesus’ direct leadership in ancient Palestine.
I don’t think the disciples have even a glimmer of an idea that Jesus is going to pass leadership on to them. The are still looking for a messiah who will kick out Israel’s enemies – in this case, the Romans – and reestablish a monarchy in Jerusalem, restoring the royal line of King David. Jewish religious tradition held that the conquering messiah would descend from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem in military might and glory.
This is the route Jesus and the disciples followed on Palm Sunday. Jesus and his followers came from Bethany, a village on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, and entered the city of Jerusalem from the east. This must have felt “right” to the disciples: “here we go! The messiah will make things right for Israel again!”
But the glorious restoration of the monarchy didn’t happen. We’ve heard the story of Holy Week – the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, and then his resurrection from the dead. And now, at the beginning of Acts, the Risen Jesus is taking the disciples back to the Mount of Olives – the opposite of where they expected to be going. Instead of taking the throne in Jerusalem, Jesus is getting ready to leave them – again. This is all upside down and inside out!
As he prepares to return to God, Jesus tells the confused disciples: “it’s not for you to know what God has planned. But you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit so that the work of the gospel can continue.” Jesus is passing the mantle to the disciples, and he tells them to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to be given.
Jesus assures them that in the waiting, they will be ushered into the next season of the God’s unfolding story, and he trusts them to carry the good news forward.
And so it has been down through the ages. Peter and Paul, Priscilla and Aquila, Junia, Barnabas and Chloe and many others take Jesus’ mantle upon their shoulders and spread the word. The mantle is passed to the abbas and ammas of the third and fourth centuries – those fathers and mothers who went to the desert to devote their lives to prayer. And when people came to see them to learn more about the life of prayer, those people took the gospel out from the desert even farther into the world.
When the Church went through seasons of propping up its own structure instead of bearing witness to the good news of God’s love and salvation, there were others who let Jesus’ mantle drape across their shoulders and who shared the gospel, bypassing the Church’s self-interest and institutional self-absorption.
The Church now faces many challenges. Here in the United States, those who identify as “spiritual but not religious” make up about 22% of the population according to the Pew Trust. Another 21% of the adult population identifies as neither spiritual nor religious. My friends, that’s 43% of the population. Gone are the days when one joined a church as a part of being a good citizen or a good person. No one looks askance at folks who decide to do something other than church on Sunday mornings.
So where are we now? And what’s next?
Let’s let Jesus’ words guide us: “it is not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.”
You will receive the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says. There’s no condition attached to that, no requirements to be met first. The Holy Spirit is given to ensure that the good news of God’s love continues through all seasons.
One of those who took on the mantle of Christ was St. Julian of Norwich. Her feast day was just a few days ago, on May 8. She is credited with authoring the first book in English written by a woman. When Julian lived, England was being decimated by the bubonic plague. The town where Julain lived, Norwich, lost two-thirds of its population to the plague. In the spring of 1373, Julian became very sick (although not with the plague). She became so sick that the priest was called to give last rites. As the priest held a crucifix before Julian’s face, she began to have a vision of Christ suffering on the cross. What came from Julian’s vision was sixteen different revelations, or “showings of divine love,” as Julien called them after she recovered and wrote a book about her experience.
One of the most beautiful of those showings was one of a tiny little thing. Here are Julian’s words: “[God] showed me a small thing, the size of the hazelnut, nestled in the palm of my hand. It was round as a ball. I looked at it with the eyes of my understanding and thought, What can this be? And the answer came to me: It is all that is created. I was amazed that it could continue to exist. It seemed to me to be so little that it was on the verge of dissolving into nothingness. And then these words entered my understanding: It lasts, and will last forever, because God loves it. Everything … has its being through the love of God. I saw three attributes of this small thing: the first is that God made it; the second is that he loves it; and the third is that he sustains it.”
St. Julian’s words are like balm to the heart and soul in a season of changes and shifts. As one wonderful thing ends and we wait for another to begin, our hearts can grow restless and weighed down with worry. Along with the disciples, we stare toward the heavens and wonder when God is going to do something, when the power of spirit will lift us up into the next wonderful season.
God’s presence through the Holy Spirit is just as sure and trustworthy in the midst of every change, in every season, in every time of transition, in every time of waiting. Whether we are celebrating, or mourning, or just waiting for what’s next, God holds us in the palm of God’s hand. All the time. And everywhere.
Because we are held by God always, we can pick up the mantle of Christ and bear witness to the gospel, just as the disciples did. Just as St. Julian did. We will receive the power of the Holy Spirit to do God’s work in this time and in this place. Listen for the wind of the Spirit. It is coming.
Closing prayer.
