Easter 7
Year A 24th May 2020
The in-between time;
In the Story of our faith we reflect on this time when those
early followers of Christ, the witnesses of his resurrection, were with him
just prior to his ascending into heaven.
It was a unique time in the history of our world. Jesus had died, had risen and was there with
them. Can you imagine all the
emotions? These witnesses were joyful
and filled with wonder. Their hope that
Jesus was the messiah was confirmed, but at this time there were many questions
about what it all meant for them and what was going to happen.
In the year 2020, just as some of the isolation restrictions
lessen, we are also in an in-between time…. we are all in a time of
question. What is God trying to tell
us? What does all this pandemic of the
Corona Virus mean for our faith journey?
What is happening? When will it
be over? Where is God in it all?
The followers of Jesus asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the
times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses….”
When things happen that turn our world up-side down, we want
to make sense of it all and we ask all kinds of questions. It is most frustrating that we often either
don’t have any answers, or we make up some that are incorrect and build our
lives on error.
Jesus’ answer to his followers is that there are somethings
that we don’t have the authority to know.
God gave us our brains and this is a gift we should use, but when we don’t
know the answer we need to be super careful that we don’t make something up to
suit us – but instead we focus on what we do know.
Over the years there have been many who have claimed to have
had the end time, or the time of Jesus return, revealed to them. Many had a tragic end as they were shown to
be cult leaders, deceiving their followers and destroying lives. But there are others too, who are well
meaning and Christians, and they seek to understand the time that we are living
in.
Many often worry over things and get caught up in conspiracy
theories. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of those conspiracy theories are
correct. However, this all reminds me of
a clock I once had that said, “Live as though Christ died yesterday, rose today
and is coming tomorrow”.
There are some things that are not our authority to know, but
we do need to “keep our lamps lit and burning”, and by that I mean, we live our
lives ever awake in our faith. We need
to help each other in this. If we learn
anything from this time of “social Isolation”, it should be that we need each
other. It is with each other that we can
keep focused. It is only with each other
that we find our place in the world.
What that place will be, can actually depend on how we treat each other.
St. Peter exhorts the early Christians how to live their
life, and in particular he is addressing the leaders as he tells them to tend
the flock of God. It is interesting to note
that Peter knew well what was meant by tending the flock, because this was his
particular charge from Jesus on the fateful occasion when Jesus asked Peter
three times if he loved him. Peter was a
born leader and comes across as someone who bounded in loudly expecting all to
follow, but this view of leadership is not the picture that he now paints. Instead he tells the leaders not to lord it
over those in their charge, but to be examples of love and humility.
It is tricky being a leader.
I have come across people who don’t respect you as a leader unless you
lord it over others. But guess
what? These are usually people who are either
misled or trying to make trouble. When
you treat people with love and care, they will respond. Jesus did not lord it over people. He gave all freedom. Freedom to follow and freedom to walk away.
As a leader in this time of “in-between”, how can we know
which way to direct our people?
We do not have the authority to know the times that the
father has set but Jesus was given authority to make God known to us. He was given authority to make known the “Name
of God” – in other words, he makes known the son of God – himself. Jesus is the visible expression of God and he
has authority to give eternal life. When
we read the prayer of Jesus we start to understand the heart of God and how he
desires his people to live in love and unity. We know how Jesus led the people and taught
them to love…. That love covers sin, that the greatest commandment is to love
God and then flowing on from that love we are to also love one another. These things are how we are to lead – and we
in the church should all see ourselves as leaders in our own area of
influence. We all can encourage the
priorities of Christ.
Jesus prayed, “Protect them in your name that you have
given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
The readings today reveal aspects of our Christian life – what
we are to do, and how to behave toward each other, but there is one important
aspect that I haven’t yet mentioned.
At this point in our “In-between” story of the early Christians,
they were a confused and frightened little group who had not yet experienced
the day of Pentecost. Jesus told them
that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them and then
they would be Jesus’ witnesses throughout the region and to the end of the
earth.
One of my favourite Bible vacation school speakers talked
about how the disciples went from pre Pentecost poverty to post Pentecost
power. These Christians had such a
close relationship with Jesus and they had learnt so much from him, but a
relationship with Jesus and divine knowledge was not enough.
It was God’s plan that the Holy Spirit would come. Here was a time “In-between”.
In retrospect, we should realize that this “In-between” time
was not a void or a time of nothing.
I was speaking with some people who are Street Chaplains in
Cairns, Brisbane and Toowoomba and one mentioned that it is worth reflecting on
how we see this time in 2020 with all its restrictions. Is this a time of interruption or disruption?
The implication is that we either are just holding on and waiting until the “Interruption”
is over so that we can get back to life as normal, or we see that life should
change, adapt and evolve from this point.
It was because the early church was persecuted that the
church finally went out to all the world.
In 2020 the church had become very insular and was dwindling. Then the doors were forced shut.
This time is a divine opportunity. Now that we can’t hide behind the church
doors, will we go out into all the world and become his witnesses? Will we recognize and present our relevance to
our society? I believe we have this time
as an invitation by God to do so….. but will we?
It is a passion of mine that Australians need to see that our
faith is foundational and integral in our society. We, the church, God’s representatives are
vital to the well-being of society. We
have Chaplains in our defence force, Chaplains in our police force, yet people
question whether we should have Chaplains in a State School. YES we should. Should we be teaching RE in schools - yes we should. Do we not realize that our faith and history
are entwined and even if for this reason alone, RE should be taught.
But know this – Our place in society is valid, and should be
seen as integral because we LOVE. We
love with a love that conveys the supernatural love of God.
Jesus has prayed that we may be one, just as He and the
Father are one. Our being witnesses to
the end of the world means that we are witnesses of the Good News of God’s
love. And in God’s love there is
complete freedom – including the freedom to walk away.
The power we receive from the Holy Spirit is the power to be
God’s witnesses. To be an effective
witness we cannot rely on our own strength because it will fail and fall.
I think we had forgotten who we are as church, and what our
purpose should be. It could well be that
this “In-between” time is an anointed and holy time of waiting, unifying with
other Christians to become one. Let us
truly invest in this God-given time.
Exciting times are to come as the Holy Spirit does a whole new thing…. We pray that we see the open doors and we
stop hiding in the shadows of stained glass window. We pray that the Holy Spirit empowers us to
be witnesses in our city, our region and to the ends of the earth.
