This week is Ascension in the Church (May 24) and Memorial Day for the nation (May 25).
From the Rev. Randy Hollerith, National Cathedral
“As a young boy, I can remember being taken to the train station in Alexandria, Virginia, to take a trip all by myself for the very first time. My mother bought my ticket, gave me a few dollars for a hotdog and a coke, and promised me that my Aunt would be waiting for me when the train arrived at its destination. I remember so clearly my feelings as the train began to pull out of the station. I was on my own and for a few hours alone in the world. Even though I tried to be tough, I found myself wondering what would happen if my Aunt was not there at the end of my journey? Would she be able to find me? Would I be able to find help? It was a strange time, a time between, between being left by my mother and picked up by my Aunt.
“This past Thursday the Church celebrated Ascension Day, the feast that marks the moment when Christ returned to the Father. After the Ascension, Peter, James and the others must have found themselves oddly and terrifyingly alone in the world. Their master had gone, and they were on their own. Jesus promised them that the Holy Spirit would come to be with them. This giving of the Holy Spirit would happen on Pentecost, a day we celebrate next week. But there was a span of days, between the Ascension and Pentecost, when the disciples must have felt very alone, caught and caged in a period “between.” Like my train ride as a child, they were on a journey between two points of safety. And all they could do was hold onto the promise that they would be met at their destination, that Christ would not leave them. All they could do was move forward and hope.
“Sometimes in our spiritual lives we find ourselves in a similar state of limbo. Times when we ride the train of life between two destinations seemingly without support. These are times when it seems that we are without Lord or Spirit, times when we perhaps feel a heaviness, a coldness, that God is very far away from us. The mystics called this the “dark night of the soul,” and all of us who pursue the spiritual life must go through it sooner or later. The problem is that some of us think that we are always supposed to be able to sense God’s presence, and if we can’t, then we must be doing something wrong. But the fact is, the disciples didn’t do anything wrong in those days between the Ascension and Pentecost. They were simply told to wait and to hope and not to despair, because even though they felt alone they were not forgotten.
“For all of us, there are those times when we seem to be without Lord or Spirit. But the important thing to remember is that we have not been abandoned. Like my long and lonely train ride, sometimes all we have to hold onto is the promise that someone is coming to meet us, that we won’t be alone for long. The secret is that at those times we just have to live with nothing more than a promise. The promise that there has been an Ascension and there always is a Pentecost. The truth is, sometimes all we have to hold onto is hope. But hope will be enough if we place our trust in the Lord. Amen.
Today’s readings testify to the power of Christian community. In Acts, God’s Spirit astonishes and empowers the community. 1 Peter encourages the community to consider the blessing—intimacy with the Spirit—that is theirs when they suffer for God’s sake. Jesus prays that God would protect his disciples’ unity.
In the first reading from the book of Acts, Luke emphasizes the reality of the resurrection and the validity of the apostles as witnesses. The apostles are to await the Holy Spirit. The apostles ask if the kingdom is now to be restored, for the promise of the Spirit implies that the last days are imminent. Jesus discourages such speculation and redirects their attention to the plan of God now being unfolded.
A new era of sacred history is beginning. The world is to be evangelized from Jerusalem. Verse 8 is virtually a table of contents for Acts: Jerusalem, chapters 1–7, Judea and Samaria, chapters. 8–9, the Roman empire, chapters 10–28.
The apostles return to Jerusalem where Luke describes the expectant assembly: the eleven, the women who had attended Jesus, and his family. They devote themselves to prayer, always the context of great events in Luke, here particularly a prayer of expectation of the Spirit.
The Gospel’s reading is from Chapter 17 of John. Chapter 17 is known as the prayer of consecration or high-priestly prayer of Jesus. He offers himself to the Father and speaks as high priest in offering intercession for others.
Jesus’ ministry on earth is completed. He has manifested God’s nature and character (literally, “God’s name”) to the disciples, and they have received the knowledge that his works are those of the Father. This prayer is the expression of Jesus’ union and communion with the Father, spoken aloud before the disciples so that they may share that union. In the completion of the work of redemption, the Father and the Son reveal one another in mutual glory. Eternal life, the consequence of that redemption, is “to know…the only true God, and Jesus Christ” (v. 3).
It is thus revelation as well as intercession. Jesus prays for himself, for the disciples and for future believers.
John is telling them/us that Jesus is worried about something: disunity and division. He prays that the disciples will be one. Later he will extend this concern to all future disciples. Unity is not a strategy of convenience and economy; It is rather an extension of John’s understanding of what eternal life (or salvation) means. It is not about a place or a gift or a certificate of acquittal so much as about a relationship. John helps us avoid the commodification of the gospel and invites to an understanding of being good news by being community in which love is lived out.