Transitions

This is Transition Sunday – on several levels

 

1.    Liturgically it is the Sunday between the Feast of the Ascension this last Thursday and the Feast of Pentecost, the 50^th Day of Easter next Sunday,

            a time between two significant events in the Jesus Story.

2.    We just got some good news that puts us in between so many months of COVID shutdown and restrictions and mask wearing and new CDC guidelines that are pointing to an end in sight for this pandemic, at least here in this country – for now.

I find myself humming “Ding, Dong, the witch is dead, 

                                                the wicked old witch, the wicked old witch.”

But don’t declare victory yet.                        We are still in between, in transition.

 

3.    To mask or not to mask, that is the question. – apologies to Shakespeare

            There are several details to work out, 

                        and the good advice is don’t through your masks away yet.

 

4.    And then there is that in between place for Nativity in the calling process,

            a time of transition that has been going one for nearly two years now.

 

Let’s go first to the liturgical transition that this Sunday represents

            and see how that addresses our other transitons.

 

The event of the Ascension marks a distinct break 

between the physical appearances of Jesus 

and a whole new way for the Resurrection Jesus to appear.

We could say that the Ascension puts closure 

on the old familiar way of looking at Jesus.

 

Up until then the Resurrection appearances of Jesus were localized.

He had a solid body, which he invited them to touch, 

but that solid body could some how show up in a locked room.

At other times he showed up but was not recognized, 

and then when he was recognized, he disappeared.

 

But it was all a time of transition preparing the disciples for a shift

from the physical experience of Jesus, 

which was bound by the limitations of space and material presence, 

to Resurrection presence 

which is unbounded in time and space.

 

No longer bound by a mortal body, 

the Resurrection Jesus now thoroughly pervades all life, 

all of the universe, all of creation.

 

Now if I had been one of those disciples,

I’m not so sure I would rejoice at the thought of the Ascension.

Who wants to give up what some would call “the real thing” 

for an unknown, unseen, untouchable, intangible 

resurrection presence of Jesus?

We humans have this great propensity 

for holding on to the Jesus of our past experience, 

closing off our receptivity to any new – to us – revelation of Jesus.

We would keep Jesus bound 

by the limits of our own experience and known perception of him.

 

But Jesus will not be held, he will not be restrained.

            So on the Ascension Day,

the disciples had no choice; 

and it was back to town to sit and wait and see what comes next.

                        nine days in transition.

 

True, they were sitting with the promise of Pentecost, 

but little did they know what that would be like 

or that they themselves would become Resurrection appearances of Christ.

 

The first reading from Acts is an interesting little bit of Church history.

While the Apostles are in this interim period

            they make an administrative decision:

                        picking a replacement for the Apostle no longer with them.

            That should catch our attention here, some parallels might be observed.

This seemed like a good idea:

            12 Apostles to represent the new Israel of God

                        in place of the 12 tribes.

Very scriptural…

 

Their criteria for Apostle candidates are appropriate and good.

They are looking for someone who was present with Jesus

            for the whole duration of his ministry,

                        and for his death and resurrection,

            someone who was eye-witness to it all, and especially the resurrection.

The search committee comes up with 2 names to present to the Vestry.

 

But now, notice how the choice gets made:

            they cast lots, drew straws, flipped a coin.

 

Ah yes, but first they prayed.

            They entrusted that choice into God’s hands,

                        just as it had been Jesus’ choice about the original 12 to begin with,

                                    not the result of nominations and elections

                                    for all the wannabe apostle candidates.

 

Well now, wouldn’t that be something to consider!

            …going through a search process, 

coming up with a final slate of candidates,

and then trusting the final choice to the Holy Spirit.

 

Well, I’m going to suggest something about this incident in Acts 1 

for your thought and speculation.

Maybe the disciples, as well intentioned and as prayerful as they were,

            got ahead of the process and acted prematurely.

What if they had stayed with the transition process of the Ascension

            as they waited for the promised Holy Spirit?

 

What if they had been aware that they weren’t quite ready yet

            for making such decisions about 

                        who qualified for being a bona fide Apostle?

 

Notice that this is the last mention of Matthias that we have in Acts.

He just disappears from view after this.

 

If they hadn’t been in such a rush 

to fill out the number of the Apostles to 12 again, 

like what it was before,

            maybe Paul later wouldn’t have had such a hard time 

convincing the Church that he too was an Apostle,

                        chosen by Jesus.

 

This example might be helpful to keep in mind here at Nativity

            in thinking about the calling process.

 

This is also a transition time for the wider Church 

            in how to be the Church in today’s world, 

                                    hopefully in a soon to be post-COVID time.

            transition in how to relate to the culture, 

how to connect with people

            some of whom think of Christians as religious extremists

and how to present the Church as relevant.

The way we have worshiped has been forced to change.

            and what will we take from that going forward?

 

And just like the disciples 

who may have preferred to hold on to the form of Jesus 

they had known and cherished 

and thus would have him limited and bound, 

we too may want to limit the way the faithful gather in community 

to what we have known 

and thus limit and bind the community of faith, the Body of Christ,

                        and how it is expressed.

 

We are sitting here today between the saying good-bye to the past

                        and God-only-knows what is coming next.

 

Actually we could see all life as in transition,

            for each of us individually 

            and for the great, big, really big picture – the whole planet and cosmos.

 

We actually live on a knife edge 

            between what is passing away and what is coming to be.

There is a word for that knife edge:  NOW.

 

From last week’s Gospel, Jesus said to abide in his love.

And when we discover this love he has for us, 

            then don’t go back to the old mind set, the old way of seeing the world.

            Don’t get hooked by pressures from the world.

You can take a lot of hits from the world, if you are wakeful to this Love.

 

We are being loved by Jesus in the NOW, and being chosen by him

            so that, frankly, we can be of some good use in the world,

            so that we can be fruitful, create some results.

 

That is to say:  If we bear fruit, then expect to get eaten.

                                    Expect to be nourishment for others.

Jesus did this big time.

Look – we come here, up to this table, and eat him,

                        this literal giving of his life blood for us.

 

Well, back to the theme of being in transition.

 

We are always being faced with the necessity of letting go of one thing

                        and receiving something else.

            There is no way other than this.

Pat Johnson and I talked about this when I visited her a couple of days ago.

As much as she would love to stay here,

            she spoke of her move as a logical transition

                                    that she was coming to terms with.

 

We can make it much easier for ourselves if we cooperate with

            letting go of what is passing away and receiving what is coming to be,

because it’s going to happen with or without our cooperation.

 

Here in this Ascension-tide transition time is the golden opportunity

            to expand the horizon, to look at what all the possibilities might be,

            to play with different ideas about how to be a congregation,

                                    how to be a faith community.

Here in this transition time is the perfect occasion for exploring 

            what it means to be a church, 

            what is our charge, our reason for being.

Here in this transition time each of us individually 

            can look at what is the transition I am facing,

                        and pray to God for God’s merciful grace to help me through.

 

I’ll end with some words of encouragement.

 

The Gospel for the 7^th Sunday in Easter is always from John 17, 

            which is called the great priestly prayer of Jesus.

In this year’s selection from that prayer, 

            Jesus prays that his disciples, and all of us,

                        protected in his Name,

            will have our joy made complete. 

 

To be protected in his Name is to experience the liberation of Jesus 

from all the binding influences of the world, 

of the enculturation of this society we are surrounded by.

Jesus takes us beyond our self-limits.

 

And to be protected in that Name is to be in the place 

            where we know we are profoundly cared for and loved,

            where there is no fear about the future,

            where perfect love casts out fear.