You’re driving through town, probably in a hurry to get somewhere. There’s a roadblock ahead. One lane is closed and traffic slows to a crawl as cars trickle through one at a time.
As
you take your turn going through the bottleneck, you notice workers… standing
around. They might be taking their only 15-minute break of the day. Or, they
might be conferring about some important aspect of their work. But at the
moment you lay eyes on them, they are standing there, doing nothing so far as
you can see.
And I think our reactions at that moment are pretty universal. We want to roll down our car window and yell, “Why are you standing there? Can’t you see you have work to do? Who’s in charge around here anyway?”
Just a few days ago—Thursday, May 29, the 40th day of Eastertide, to be exact—we celebrated the ascension of Jesus the Christ into heaven. A few of us celebrated by actually going to church! But the church wisely dedicates the 7th Sunday of Easter to The Ascension, just to make sure everyone is reminded of this crucial moment in our history and in our life as a church.
And why is it crucial? Because it is the moment when the body of Christ, the Church, is left in charge.
And all too often, we are much too much like the disciples in our story from Acts (1:6-14, NRSV). We are much too much like the road workers who frustrate us so.
We go to church, we gaze piously upward like the disciples, we come to the Holy Table.. not to fortify us for the work we are called to do as Christ’s body in the world.., but instead of.. digging in, getting our hands dirty and our backs sore.. doing the work we have been left in charge of.
It’s much easier to talk about the missional church, to read books about the missional church, to listen to the Bishop preach about the missional church, than to actually DO missional church.
Living in this part of the country, another thing we are treated to as we drive from place to place, is church signs everywhere that seek to reprimand, teach or inspire us with clever sayings.
And I think our reactions at that moment are pretty universal. We want to roll down our car window and yell, “Why are you standing there? Can’t you see you have work to do? Who’s in charge around here anyway?”
Just a few days ago—Thursday, May 29, the 40th day of Eastertide, to be exact—we celebrated the ascension of Jesus the Christ into heaven. A few of us celebrated by actually going to church! But the church wisely dedicates the 7th Sunday of Easter to The Ascension, just to make sure everyone is reminded of this crucial moment in our history and in our life as a church.
And why is it crucial? Because it is the moment when the body of Christ, the Church, is left in charge.
And all too often, we are much too much like the disciples in our story from Acts (1:6-14, NRSV). We are much too much like the road workers who frustrate us so.
We go to church, we gaze piously upward like the disciples, we come to the Holy Table.. not to fortify us for the work we are called to do as Christ’s body in the world.., but instead of.. digging in, getting our hands dirty and our backs sore.. doing the work we have been left in charge of.
It’s much easier to talk about the missional church, to read books about the missional church, to listen to the Bishop preach about the missional church, than to actually DO missional church.
Living in this part of the country, another thing we are treated to as we drive from place to place, is church signs everywhere that seek to reprimand, teach or inspire us with clever sayings.
In fact, I often do not find them so very clever or inspiring (although the one above is both!), and I am grateful that we of the Episcopal tradition do not engage in that particular conceit!
One I’ve seen with some regularity is this: “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats!”
Wrong! We have been left in charge. God left humankind in charge of creation, and Jesus left us in charge when he ascended into heaven.
Of course, I know what is intended by that saying. The intention is that we should prayerfully and constantly seek God’s guidance in all that we do. And I agree.
But all too often, the notion of God as pilot and us as mere co-pilot gets turned into a helpless piety. I see that in people who don’t think we need to engage in environmentally sound practices because, after all, God is in charge and nothing humans do can cause permanent damage to God’s creation.
Nonsense! We have been left in charge of God’s creation and of caring for it, preserving and protecting it, even as we enjoy its bounty and beauty.
I see it also in people who piously proclaim, “the poor will always be with us,” to excuse themselves from doing anything about it—in spite of the fact that Jesus commanded us to care for the poor and seek justice for all, over and over again.
Yes, we are disciples, which translates, “followers of Jesus.” But we are also apostles. We have been commissioned to go out, to lead the way, to take the Good News into the world, to seek and find Jesus everywhere and in everyone.
And we can’t do that by standing around and gazing piously into heaven! We need angels to come along on a regular basis to jar us out of our reverie by asking, “Why do you stand there looking up?”
Yes, we have been given the message, and yes, we seek guidance from above, but we are in charge. Many details of how, precisely, Bette Kauffman or Christ Church, St. Joseph, is to execute our charge are up to us.
In other words, we have to make some decisions, whether we are sure about the rightness of them or not. Sitting around endlessly waiting for God to present us with a detailed plan we need merely execute will never get the job done!
The prophet Isaiah sums up nicely how I experience this business of following Jesus yet being in charge. In chapter 30, verse 21 Isaiah says,
And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ (NRSV)
In other words, our ministry on this earth is often a matter of picking a direction, doing something, and having God bless our efforts! It looks like “a plan” only in retrospect.
Indeed, when I hear people say things like, “God has a plan for your life” or “Everything happens according to God’s plan,” then look at my own life, I have to wonder if God flunked Planning 101!
And that suggests a really important question: Why in heaven’s name would God leave such a ragtag bunch in charge? Why, pray tell, would Jesus leave his church in the hands of creatures of such limited vision, so ethnocentric in orientation, so easily frightened by change and difference… So unqualified for building the Kingdom of God… Why would Jesus leave US in charge?
Well, the answer is in our Gospel reading today (John 17:1-11, NRSV). The answer is that he did not leave us alone in charge. The answer is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Today’s Gospel reading is the first part of what is called “the priestly prayer.” It continues all the way through v. 26 of John 17. Jesus prays for himself, then he prays for his disciples, and finally for the unity of all believers. Our lectionary divides it into three parts—one for each year of the church cycle. But also to accommodate our limited patience with “long” readings in church, I’m sure!
But I urge you to go home and read the whole thing. I urge you to dwell on the words and phrases, to bask in the love for us they reveal.
And most of all, to do your best to wrap your mind around what it means to say that God dwells within us. We have been left in charge—a scary thought. But WE are the new temple of the Holy Spirit, whose coming we celebrate next Sunday.
AMEN
