Pascha VII

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:12-14; Psalm 27; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11

We are an impatient people. We want to get there. Have a problem? We want to consider all the possibilities and choose a solution. We want to fix it. Then we can check it off the list and move on to the next item. But that is not how Jesus instructs us to live our lives. After his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples to stay put and wait. They were to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father.

I am reminded of that one lost sheep Jesus spoke about. Being lost, she sat down in the high Palestinian grass and waited; waited for the shepherd to come looking for her. Was there fear that a wolf might find her before the shepherd? I expect. What if someone else found her first and took her away. A possibility. Staying put and waiting is not easy or comfortable.

Consider all the people in the Gospels who are waiting. Crying out as they wait for help along the roadsides hoping to be cured of their disease, waiting at a tomb, waiting for someone to put them in the healing waters of the Bethesda pool, waiting every day until all the village women went away so the outcast woman of Samaria could come to the well alone and not be shamed, waiting in a tree to see Jesus, waiting for someone to notice and take pity, waiting for a birth, waiting for…

What are you waiting for at this time in your life? What are we as Church waiting for?

We don’t like waiting. We’ve been well trained. Amazon Prime can have it at your front door tomorrow, if not today. We haven’t received a response to our text in twenty seconds; we become irritated. There is so much that needs to be addressed and fixed. How will we get to it all done? We get frustrated and angry; taking it out on others.

Why don’t we like waiting? It is not because we are important but because we’ve lost the joy and excitement of anticipation. Do you remember when certain fruits and vegetables were only available at certain times of the year? You had to wait for strawberries and apples and asparagus and tomatoes. Now we can have pretty much anything at all times. Expectation has been replaced with demand, anticipation with frustration, joy with irritability.

And as to sitting still? Staying put? What more be said.

As a counterpoint, we are given a quiet, small window into the life of the earliest gatherings of the church. It is a life style that we need to take seriously and reflect upon as it counters our present way of life and strongly consider reclaiming: stay put and wait for the promise.

It is why I get very wary when business models are offered to address the spiritual issues that our contemporary church is facing. I get wary when another author comes out with a new book that will change your parish into the Kingdom of God on earth. I get wary when meetings within the Church begin with an unthinking, routine, mechanical, obligatory prayer rather than devoting ourselves to prayer.

In our Christian lives and the Church how often do we resort to prayer before making a decision? In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus makes no decision until he prays. In John’s Gospel today, we are privy to Jesus’ intimate final words at the Last Supper, a prayer to the Father.

An early meeting of the Church called the Council of Jerusalem which dealt with the issue of circumcision for Gentile converts, is a primal example. Their apostolic letter to the Gentile Christians in Antioch concludes: “It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these [following] necessities”. Notice the order: “It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us”.  The Church consults the Spirit, debates and confirms the Spirit’s decision for the community.

In the present situation of the Church’s life, with so much swirling around us, so much uncertainty, so many questions and doubts, and little leadership and direction, why would we not listen to Jesus’s instruction to stay put and wait for the promise in prayer?