Waiting in the Spirit
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· 28 viewsThe wait: Ascension to Pentecost
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Sunday, June 2, 2019, Easter 7
Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.
Sometimes, you just don’t know where you stand. You’ve filled out the application form and submitted it. Now you’re waiting for the answer: did you get the job or not.
You’re parked in the ferry parking lot along with hundreds of other vehicles. Will you be allowed to go on the next ferry or not?
You’ve gone down on bent knee, offered her the ring, and now wait to hear if she’ll marry you or not.
Welcome to the world of waiting. It’s a world of anticipation, anxiety, expectancy, and uncertainty.
It’s also a world made up mostly of our own conjecture. The new boss knows who the new hire will be. The ferry officer knows how many vehicles the ferry can carry. The prospective bride knows if you’re the one she’s been looking for.
We’re at a similar point in the church calendar, between the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That’s when Jesus’ disciples gathered in Jerusalem to wait. But if we read the Gospel accounts carefully, we find that the disciples’ waiting was not a time of uncertainty, but a time of expectant hopefulness. Already the resurrected Jesus had an effect on them. They knew what was coming, just not when. They waited in Gesthemene with fear and anxiety, not knowing what was coming next. But now, they wait joyfully, hopefully, expectantly. They knew they were going to receive prophetic gifts, but not how. So they wait, signing songs and praying together, models for the future waiting church.
Today we find ourselves still in the afterglow of Easter and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost. In the middle of that, we trip over the Ascension of Jesus. It’s easy to skip over this event and plunge into Pentecost. But that would be a mistake, I think. Jesus’ ascension is a major Feast of the church. We’re called to consider what it means. Plus it’s a difficult image to process. The disciples receive Jesus’ last charge to them, then watch as his earthly form disappears into the clouds. There’s some rich symbolism here. From the time of the exodus in the desert, clouds have come to symbolize both God’s presence and his all powerful otherness. The Israelites knew God was with them and leading them by the cloud that went before them. They also knew that they would die if the cloud suddenly revealed God to their eyes. So at the very least there is a built in ambivalence in the image of the cloud. There’s also an am bivalence in the cloud that closes around Jesus on the day of his ascension. It’s the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the beginning of theirs. There is a transfer of responsibility while the boundaries of heaven and earth are blurred. They are observers, but also participants. From now on, his story will be their story.
If you have ever served as executor of a will, you know how difficult it can be to transfer an estate from one party’s name to another, or several others. Our judicial system builds waiting into the process. We’re forced to wait for public disclosure of debts to be reported, for a coroner’s report to be accepted, for a court date to be appointed, for all parties to be notified, and finally for the sale and disposal of real property. The waiting serves a purpose. Order is maintained and justice is given time to happen.
Jesus last command in his leaving and first command in his kingship is to wait. But it’s a wait time made rich with prayer and worship. Luke ends his Gospel with these words, “While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”
When the day of Pentecost comes, we will see the fruits of that period of waiting, prayer, and worship. All their former timidity is gone. In Peter especially we see his false bravado replaced by the strong voice of authority. Jesus speaks through his voice. Jesus’ ministry continues through the disciples.
Which is exactly what Jesus himself prayed would happen. In our reading from John we are given an intimate audience in the company of Jesus and His Father. Jesus prays that his disciples and he may be one, just as he and His Father are one. What did he mean by that? That they be like minded? That they may share a common vocation? Yes, and more. We begin to see what Jesus had in mind if we take a look at two concepts that would have been familiar to Jesus and his disciples: blessing and inheritance.
Jesus departed from the disciples while in the act of blessing them. The Greek word is eulogeo, from which we get the word eulogy, and it literally means to speak well of someone. But there is an important distinction between blessing as used in Hebrew scripture and the common blessing of Greek language at the time. The roots of Luke’s use of eulogeo lie in the Old Testament and refer to the relationship between God and man. Eulogeo means to invoke divine favor, to celebrate with praises that which is addressed to God, to consecrate with solemn prayers. So when Jesus blesses the disciples he elevates them just as he is being elevated. He is sharing his own divine favor with them. It’s not so much conferring something on them, as it is speaking something into existence: his personhood into their persons. We are drawn to the image of God speaking the world into existence in . So it is that Jesus speaks his disciples into a new existence when he blesses them at his ascension.
The other concept is the Talmudic understanding of inheritance. Jesus tells his disciples, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.” Those words are echoed in , where we read about “the promised eternal inheritance,” meaning a new covenant made possible by the ransom paid at Jesus’ death and resurrection. We think of inheritance as one or at best multi-generational. Descendents inherit the estate of the parent. But the Talmudic understanding is that inheritance is eternal, renewed covenantaly, essentially decreed by the Father for all time. It’s often described as the eternal lovingkindness of God, and celebrated in psalm and song. Jesus conveys the Father’s inheritance, which is his own, to the disciples. They are recipients of the Father’s eternal promise. Because it is an eternal inheritance, it’s not subject to the rules of our earthly exchanges. It does not transfer from one party to another, it absorbs the new party into the inheritance without lessening or altering it. Jesus says in his prayer to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one…” Both the gift of the blessing and the gift of inheritance are summarized in this new state of being: oneness with Jesus and the Father. From that all things flow, including the power of the Holy Spirit to act in the lives of Jesus’ disciples.
Now that’s worth waiting for. Unlike the disciples, we don’t have to wait. The gift of the Holy Spirit is already ours. We are the fulfilment of the prayer Jesus prayed, “on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” Our oneness is not subject to any other intervention. Our blessing is continuous and our inheritance secured. We know where we stand.
The sad state of our age is that certainty, about many things but especially about faith, is considered arrogance. A Christian sure of his faith has less respect than a doubter whose faith has collapsed. A story emerged this week about an English vicar, Rev. John Parker, who challenged his parochial school over their decision to hand over the entire curriculum of sex education for children to a transgender group. He was summarily dismissed from the discussion, and stigmatized by his church, the Church of England, to the point where he resigned from his ministry. He stood on Biblical truth, the God made us male and female in his image. His church said, “Well, we’re not sure of that. It’s open to debate.” He lost. He’s out.
It’s a sad commentary on our age and a sadder one for the church. But at least the world got to hear the truth through the voice of Rev. Parker. He spoke in the inheritance of the eternal promise and with the one blessed voice of the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit.
Pray that there may always be that voice. Pray that we may be so bold as to be that voice. The death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost demands that we bear witness while we wait.
Amen.