They Prayed

Jesus was gone! The forty days since the disciples had realized that he was alive again, after his crucifixion, had gone by so fast. Luke tells us that Jesus had spent most of those forty days preparing the disciples to carry on his mission. Jesus reminded them that he couldn’t stay with them forever, and that he would empower them for mission by sending them the Holy Spirit. Even so, the disciples weren’t prepared for what happened in Bethany that day: Jesus just disappeared from sight. Even though two angels told them Jesus had at last returned to heaven, and that he would eventually come back, they were still confused. Jesus was gone! What would happen next?

We recognize the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry and his return to heaven on Ascension Day, always forty days after Easter, and therefore always on a Thursday. Ascension Day was, and really still is, a major feast in the church. In some parishes, it’s still a day for a festal Eucharist and, often, a potluck feast. Now, though, Ascension Day is usually passed over or commemorated on the following Sunday.

Certainly it’s important to remember Ascension Day. Even though the whole idea of Jesus’ ascension into heaven is hard to grasp, the Ascension is a core part of our faith. Indeed, we continue to affirm its importance every time we repeat the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed. Even so, there’s also a good reason to keep this Sunday as the Seventh Sunday of Easter, as the middle of a special time between Ascension Day and Pentecost. We need to pay attention to where Jesus’ disciples were – and we are – in this in-between time. For this was a time of uncertainty for Jesus’ first followers. They had absorbed his teaching, and they had experienced his departure. Now they were back in Jerusalem, waiting for the fulfillment of his promise, the coming of the Holy Spirit. There were actually quite a few of them. The verses preceding the ones we’ve heard this morning remind us that the remaining eleven of the original twelve, minus Judas, several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus’ brothers, and many other disciples had come together in Jerusalem. Indeed, as we heard, there were altogether “120 believers” waiting for the beginning of the next act, waiting to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and sent out to carry on Jesus’ mission. We might wonder where indeed they actually were. Do you remember the Adam Hamilton DVD? Perhaps they were all gathered in that huge upper room. They knew they were in a time of transition, and so they patiently waited – together.

Aren’t we at St. Peter’s in a similar time of uncertainty and waiting, a similar time of transition? In some ways, the church is always in a time of transition, as we live in that “middle time” between Jesus’ resurrection and his return, and as the secular culture continues to change around us. And, of course, liturgically we are in a transition time. During this Easter tide we too have again been instructed as to the meaning of resurrection, and we too look forward to being infused anew with the gifts of the Spirit. However, I think that we are in a time of transition as a parish too. This parish has seen much change in the last two decades, even in the last few years. Clergy leadership has changed several times, many key lay leaders are gone, some to death, some to relocation, much of the next generation is gone too, and even with part-time clergy leadership, the budget is not balanced. And yet, aren’t there also signs of new life among us? For one thing, we’re still here! Plus, in the past year, we’ve been blessed with two new families. Even so, we too might be wondering: what’s next?

Perhaps there are some clues in that upper room. Let’s go back upstairs and take a closer look at what happened there. The first thing we notice is that, as the disciples were waiting, they came together. Although they had scattered when Jesus was arrested and executed, in this time of uncertainty, they supported and took care of each other. They devoted themselves to in-reach, staying together, studying Scripture, and teaching each other. More important, they prayed. We learn from the verse before the beginning of our lection, that “they were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.” Then, the disciples took stock of themselves. They looked at who they were, and what gifts and skills they had. They discerned who was missing, and they understood that it was important to replace Judas among the inner core of apostles. Then they prayed some more, they “cast lots,” perhaps they threw dice or flipped a coin, and they asked God to show them what God’s will was for them. We may raise our eyebrows at the “casting of lots” part, but, rest assured, that was a common practice in the ancient world for discerning God’s will. Finally, having done their best, the disciples accepted the outcome of their process and appointed Matthias as Judas’s replacement. Did the other man, Joseph Barsabbas harbor any resentment at not being chosen? The account in Acts doesn’t record any. Indeed, the New Testament says nothing more about the lives of either man.

If we come back down from the upper room and look at ourselves, are we still grieving the loss of old friends and old ways of being church? Are we wondering whether there are ministries “out there,” we need to look at? Are there ways to strengthen our internal life that we need to pursue? Those of us engaged in the Common Ministry process see it as a way of renewal for St. Peter’s. However, as we work at that process, learn new tools, and set out on the new paths to which Jesus might be leading us, we still might take a page out of the earliest disciples’ playbook. Like them, we can support and care for each other. We can gather together and pray for ourselves, for each other, and for this parish. We can discover how to listen more attentively to God. Some of us are celebrating the Eucharist and learning more about prayer on Wednesday evenings. Come and be part of the gathered ones. Secondly, we can take stock of who we are. At the Common Ministry meeting in March, the team made a preliminary scan of the talents and skills in this parish. We are an immensely talented group! I invite you to join the process on June 3rd, when we will take a closer look at all our many spiritual gifts. You don’t think you have any spiritual gifts? Believe me, we all do. We simply need to discern what they are, and where we can exercise them. We can discern too who is missing from our parish. We began to consider that question last week, and we can continue discerning who else should be in our midst.

Like the disciples we can then offer our needs up to God in prayer. All of our work as a parish is grounded in prayer. We remind ourselves of the need for prayer when we open our Vestry meetings or other important gatherings with prayer. We can also pray for specific aspects of our parish life. We can pray for our ministries. I invite you to support and pray for our young people, our worship life, our diaper ministry, and Loaves and Fishes. I invite you to pray for those who are here. A couple of weeks ago, I asked you to look around, choose a person here, and pray for that person during the week. I invite you to do that again this week. And we can pray for those who are not here. Can you pray for and then invite here those who are missing? And here’s something else you can do. Last summer, we were blessed to welcome two new families into our parish. I am now praying that two more new families will join us this year. Will you join me in that prayer?

There’s an old hymn that some of you may know, “Are ye able?” The fourth verse and refrain of it go like this:

Are ye able? Still the Master
whispers down eternity,
and heroic spirits answer,
now as then in Galilee.

Lord, we are able. Our spirits are thine.
Remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
a beacon to God, to love, and loyalty.

We are able. We are able, because we know that Jesus has been praying for his followers since the night before he died for them, and is praying for us still. We are able, because we know that, just as he promised to his first friends, he still promises to us, that he will empower us with the Holy Spirit, and that he will strengthen us a community able and willing to reach out to others. As we look towards Pentecost, we join our prayers with his. Come, Holy Spirit, come to us in this time and place. Come to us when we sit in silence and when we are moving too fast. Surprise us, revive us, and shape us into the Body of Christ. Amen.