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Acts 1:6-14, I Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11, John 17:1-11
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Today is the Sunday after the Ascension. On Wednesday evening we celebrated the Eve of the Ascension, the ten-day period between Christ’s leaving the earth and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, next Sunday. This is the time between times for the church.
Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles points to the Ascension. It relates St. Luke’s version of what happened that day and that afterwards the disciples quietly went home and devoted themselves to prayer. After all that had happened, there was no response left for them other than prayer. We note also that the Virgin Mary is part of the community along with the brothers of Jesus.
Again we have this idyllic portrait by St. Luke of the early days of
the Christian community gathered, constantly devoting themselves to
prayer.
But we know that such peaceful times do not last, then or
now. Our reading from First Peter attests to that. This is a letter of
encouragement in face of the fiery ordeal the church is experiencing
in persecution sporadically throughout the Roman Empire. It was written
to build up the saints and recall for them that to take up the cross
of Jesus means also sharing in his death as well as his resurrection.
It may seem rather harsh to us reading it today, but then we do not
have Roman soldiers knocking on our doors taking away family members
who are Christian. Or as one pundit noted, if arrested for your faith,
would there be enough evidence against you to be convicted as a Christian?
Think about it.
Our Gospel is part of Jesus’ last words to the disciples. These are his desires, wishes, hopes and prayers for them. If we listen carefully we can hear his words for us as well. This is something we sometimes forget; the words of Scripture are there for us today, not just a record of how the church and the people of Israel remembered their past. Scripture is for us today, it is not just history.
Given that understanding, our reading from Acts calls us to remain faithful in prayer. To trust in God even when our future, our plan of action, is totally beyond our grasp as it was for the disciples, the Virgin Mary, and the others gathered in prayer. When we do not know what is going to happen, how it will happen, and are anxious about what may happen, then prayer, not worry, is our call as Christians.
As I noted, we do not have Roman soldiers knocking on our doors checking on our beliefs and loyalty to the emperor. However, in many parts of the world the literal persecution of Christians is going on even as we meet here this morning and our prayers need to be with them. But we have a variety of things great and small that distract us from the Gospel of Christ.
For us, it is a matter of perspective, discernment and choice. What are
we called to do? To be? How do we respond when things do not work out
the way we wanted, hoped, planned? We have the promise of Scripture that
Christ will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish
you.
God knows what you are going through. God will not leave
you orphaned. That is the great promise Jesus gives us of the coming
of the Holy Spirit. Christ will be with you in any times of trial,
be it illness, loss, persecution, or anything negative in your life.
Christ will establish you.
Christ will be with you to restore, support, and strengthen. Not necessarily in the way you imagined, but in the way God sees for you. There are few times that cry out more for faith in God than when things are going badly for us. This is when the promise of God given to us in First Peter is so important.
John’s Gospel has some striking language for us today: I have made
your name known to those whom you gave me from the world…the words
that you gave to me I have given to them.
The them is not
just the disciples gathered with Jesus. The them is also us.
We have been given those words. We have been given those teachings.
We have been given those promises. We are the them.
So with the words that you gave me I have given to them,
do we
really know these words of Scripture? How do we know the words Jesus
has given us? Do we pay attention? Do we read his words to us? Are the
readings on Sunday the only Scripture you will have during the week?
And they have received them.
Have we really received them? Or is
it just hearsay for us? Could you be convicted of being a Christian?
They…know in truth that I came from you.
That is a tough one.
Do you know Jesus to be your Savior, your Redeemer, the Son of God?
They have believed that you sent me.
Really? What do you believe
about Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ to you here? Now?
These words of Jesus to the disciples are to us as well. How do we understand them? How do we respond to them? How do we live them?
Christianity is a very personal, intimate faith. It is based on the relationship of God with each of us: God who has created us; God who came to us in human form to teach and restore us; God who blows through the church and through us to comfort, guide and be with each of us. The Holy Trinity is a most personal, intimate God.
And so we wait the coming of the Holy Spirit to the church—to us —to blow through us in new and challenging ways as we live into the promises of Jesus to his disciples 2,000 years ago and to us today.