Often while I am reading a passage of scripture something strikes me. It can be one word or a phrase. This week it was a sentence in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11, “When they had gathered together they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’” To put the sentence in context, the disciples are with Jesus after the resurrection. He has appeared to them many times. “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. “
What struck me during my reading and reflecting was that after following Jesus for three years, after witnessing the crucifixion, after the resurrected Jesus appeared to them, after he talked to them, after he prayed with them and ate with them the disciples still didn’t get it! As we study today’s readings we learn from St Matthew that when they were at the mountain just before Jesus ascended into heaven, they worshiped him but they still doubted! What crossed my mind was, “hum, if the disciples didn’t get it with the resurrected Jesus standing right in front of them how can we expect people to grasp the message of Jesus today?” What did it take for the disciples to get the message and following on from that, what does it take for us to get the message?
Jesus Christ left this world and ascended into heaven with eleven doubting followers just standing around looking into the sky. A couple of angels had to drop by to get them moving. This is the beginning of our Christian Church and it isn’t a very auspicious beginning. Yet the church that began with this unlikely collection of people has grown into a global spiritual movement that extends to us right here in Peachtree City, Georgia more than two thousand years later.
Clearly at some point the disciples did “get it.” They managed to overcome their doubts and fears. They did come to believe and they did fulfil the commission Jesus gave them before he ascended to his Father in Heaven, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28: 19 – 20). Because of their action, each of us has come to believe. Our faith is nurtured by the Holy Spirit; the same Holy Spirit that descended on the followers of Jesus during Pentecost.
In these days leading up to our celebration of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, let us pray with St Paul the Apostle who did not walk with Jesus while he was on earth but who experienced Jesus through a conversion of heart. “Brothers and sisters: May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe in accord with the exercise of his great might …” (Ephesians 1: 17 – 18).
God our Father,
our risen Lord Jesus Christ
lives now in your presence.
When we keep looking for him in the clouds,
help us turn to the task
he has given us to do here on earth
and learn to recognize his face
in our brothers and sisters.
And when we are too attached to this earth,
remind us that in your own good time
you will complete Jesus' works in us
and take us to your joy and glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.
