Seventh Sunday of Easter: Living in the Inbetween

Acts 16:16-34

Psalm 97

Revelation 11:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

John 17.20-26

Last Thursday was Ascension Day, the feast on which we recall that forty days after his resurrection from the dead Jesus returned to his Father; when we recall that Jesus left his disciples in order that he might send to them the Holy Spirit, the Advocate; as he said, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16.7, 13a) Yet, today, the Seventh Sunday of Easter – the Sunday after Ascension Day – we sit with Jesus’ followers – with the whole Church – in an in-between period, in a period of waiting.  Jesus has left, but the Spirit, the Advocate, has not yet come.  The ascension of Jesus left unanswered questions: “When will the kingdom be restored?” “Where has Jesus gone?” “When will the Spirit come?” “What will the Spirit’s coming mean?” And Jesus’ followers, with their questions returned to Jerusalem to wait; and they waited I am sure with a degree of uncertainty, because all that they had expected to happen had not happened.  Indeed, after Jesus’ resurrection very little had changed. They expected that the Messiah, after conquering death by his resurrection, would certainly vanquish the powers of evil and death in the world; at the very least, that he would free God’s chosen people from the yoke of foreign occupation and return power into their hands.  It is safe to say that they were not a little disappointed.  Like so many people who expect change to happen, they expected change to be effected from outside themselves.  They wanted answers and awaited that they would come somehow from above.  But, like so often, God had different things in mind.

The followers of Jesus returned to the upper room, and the writer of the Acts of the Apostles says that there they were “constantly devoting themselves to prayer”.  Tradition tells us that for nine days they waited there in prayer and expectation, and this is a crucial point. They returned to that upper room which had become so important for them – the scene of the Last Supper and of so many of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances – and they returned there to pray, perhaps in disbelief or wonderment, probably with a certain amount of confusion.  But those nine days gave them some perspective.  Those nine days allowed them to imagine what life would now be like that Jesus had definitely returned to the Father.  Those nine days helped them to discern their own power, gifts and abilities, because with Jesus’ leaving they had to seek out and discern a new way to be in the world.

In those nine days, it seems they learned that God’s plan for the world would not come from above, as a solution coming from outside themselves, but rather that they were the instruments and means by which God’s plans would be brought to fruition; that the promised Spirit was not something which would come from outside and possess them, so much as something which was conceived by God and born in them, by which God’s life and purposes would be revealed.  Of course, this would take a complete shift in their understanding of how God would work.  Up until now they had understood Jesus to be God’s sole agent for change and transformation in the world, but those nine days of prayer would expose them to a broader and deeper understanding.  Somehow, they discerned that God was calling them into partnership and it changed their whole perspective on their lives in the world.  Those nine days of prayer enabled them to accept their own responsibility and involvement in making the kingdom of God a reality.  It enabled them to be able to accept the Spirit, and its demanding presence in their lives.

The God revealed to us in the life and teachings of Jesus is a God who always calls us into partnership in making the divine purposes a reality.  If it is true that in Jesus is revealed to us who God is and how God acts in the world, it should not have surprised his early followers that there would be no sudden divine intervention from above to change the circumstances of the world.  Even during his earthly life Jesus sent them out into the world to share the good news of God’s love.  At the feeding of the multitudes he instructed them specifically to feed the people and to oversee the distribution of the loaves and fishes.  He taught them that they were the salt of the earth, giving savour to the creation.  He taught them, saying, “You [italics added] are the light of the world. [L]et your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5.14a, 16)  It is clear from Jesus’ life and teaching that the way in which God, and God’s purposes, are made known in the world is through God’s people.  Perhaps it took Jesus’ followers those nine days to really remember how Jesus was with them, and to realise what God was really asking of them.

I mentioned earlier that the awaited Holy Spirit is not something which comes from above and possesses us, but rather the awaited Holy Spirit is born in us as the power of God and enables us to unleash our own power.  It is the power of God which encourages us to discover our own abilities.  It is the power of God which instructs us to discern our own wisdom.  It is power of God which quickens us to live out our own vocations and God’s purposes in the world.  It is not magic, but the Spirit’s coming springs from our very decision to take up our part in God’s plans.  When we make that decision to align ourselves with God, then we tap into the very power which sustains the entire universe, the whole of creation.  However, we have to be willing to align ourselves with that power; willing to take responsibility for our part in the kingdom, giving  up some false ideas, however deeply cherished, of how God works in the world.  That is why those nine days were crucial.  They were important because it was the time which those followers of Jesus used to face themselves, and when they did that then all sorts of things happened which they had not expected.  When they did that God’s power, which the Church calls the Holy Spirit, was unleashed in their lives in new and surprising ways.

We too want the power of God to be unleashed in our lives, even though we do not always act as if we do.  Nevertheless, if we are honest with ourselves, it is our deepest longing – for God to surprise us into partnership, for God to awaken us into our vocation, for God to encourage us into our gifts.  If we sincerely do not, then I am not quite sure why we are here at all.  Yet, this awakening to God’s power is not magic, neither does it happen by magic.  We often need to change our perspective, we sometimes need to give up our sense of being right, we usually need to let go of the old; and as much as we may want to be surprised by God those things are very difficult to do.  They can only be done within the context of time and prayer.  This time of prayer and discernment is represented by the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost; and it seems hardly a coincidence that the time devoted to this was nine days and that the gestation period for a human being is nine months.   There is something of the patience and care of pregnancy in all this.  A mother is no passive subject in a pregnancy, but an active participant.  She prepares herself and her life for the full manifestation and appreciation of that which is in already in her.  So it is with us.  God’s purpose is not that we should be passive subjects of the great work of the kingdom, but that through the Holy Spirit conceieved in us we should be active participants in its fullest revelation.  To that end we must prepare ourselves in prayer and fellowship; prepare ourselves to be surprised, to change our perspective, to come into our vocations, to work out God’s purposes in our lives, communities and world.

We have one week until Pentecost when we recall and celebrate the manifestation of the Holy Spirit among God’s people. I would encourage us to spend some part of each the next seven days in prayer, specifically in the prayer of preparation and expectation. As we ritually recall this in-between time, this time of wondering and questions, let us be aware of our own questions and confusion but also of our calling and vocations, of our own strengths and abilities and how best they can put to the work of God’s kingdom.