Transitioning to a New Season (Ascension Sunday)
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It’s the day after Yard Sale, and pretty much everyone is ready for a break! Lots of us have spent weeks planning and prepping. Many of us spent hours this week pricing, sorting and getting things ready. And yesterday, many people spent hours here working and cleaning up. And honestly, for me, sometimes just seeing the chaos and mess that accompanies Yard Sale can be exhausting. Everybody needs a break.
And indeed, there are breaks coming up for many of us. School is out for the summer this month. Many of us are planning upcoming vacations. And because of summer vacations, sometimes things are a little less crazy at work! And all of those things will be appreciated, especially after a big event.
I suspect that many of Jesus’ first disciples also were hoping for a little bit of break after the Ascension of Jesus. After all, the journey to Jerusalem and the events of the previous 40 days were a lot to take in. They had followed Jesus on a long and sometimes difficult journey into Jerusalem. Once there, Jesus had been arrested and killed. All of the disciples feared for their own lives as well. And just as they wondered how they might find a way to sneak out of town and get back to Galilee, suddenly the Risen Jesus appeared to them. And he continued to do that, according to Luke, off and on for the next 40 days. And he taught them new things during that time.
Like Yard Sale, it was all very intense and often very exciting. But I’m sure it was also exhausting, both physically and emotionally. And besides that, the people who might be trying to kill the disciples were still around – and still might want to kill them – and so they still needed to deal with that threat. I’m sure the disciples were ready for a break.
And they did get a bit of a break. As Jesus ascended, he told them to stay in the city and wait. And so they did, for another 10 days or so. And hopefully they got a little extra sleep and had a few days to chill. But that’s not really the story of the Ascension. Jesus doesn’t say, “chill out and relax until I get back.”
Soon Jesus sent upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit and things got moving again. But now, they were doing new things they hadn’t done before. Sometimes, they were doing old things in new ways. And always, they were growing into a new way of living their faith. They got busy with the new things that Jesus gave them to do. And in so doing, they grew in ways that they probably had never imagined. And they learned to experience the power of God in their lives in ways they probably also had never imagined. Really, the Ascension was a transition to a new season of their faith. Instead of being a time of relaxing and waiting, it was a time to grow and develop in new ways.
It was kind of like moving into the summer. Jesus had planted and watered and now sent them to grow and bear fruit. And so in a sense, the Ascension meant that the summer of their faith had arrived.
And today, as June begins and we’ve been through Memorial Day weekend, we’ve now fully arrived at summer! And while we often think of summer as a time where we can relax a little, for most of us, that’s usually not the way it goes! We just get busy with other things, and we do things we couldn’t do in other seasons.
And that’s often how a summer of faith is as well. After Yard Sale, summer is often a time when lots of things are happening, often because we have time and space to do things we might not have opportunities to do at other times of the year.
And so there’s still a lot going on! This month, we’ll join with our interfaith neighbors to celebrate Juneteenth at Poplar Grove Baptist Church, and we’ll commission folks from Prince of Peace who will serve as missionaries in Honduras for two weeks along with partners from Haven Universe. In July, we’ll be holding our evening VBS for both kids and adults, along dinner and fellowship. And, oh yes, in between Yard Sale and VBS, we’re also doing the kitchen refresh and getting the parking lot sealed and re-striped! There will be a lot to do and a lot of folks to hold in prayer.
But the important thing about all these kinds of events is that they’re opportunities for us to grow in our faith in ways that we often can’t do in other seasons. They’re opportunities for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to new experiences; to connect us more deeply with each other and other communities of faith; and to move us to try new things that we might otherwise never get a chance to do.
And that’s really what Ascension is supposed to prepare us to do. Like Jesus’ first disciples, it’s an occasion to be aware that new opportunities are coming; that we’re about to encounter new people in our lives; and that we’re about to be called to new ways of growing in our relationship with Jesus.
So, like those first disciples of Jesus, I hope everyone can get a bit of break this coming week! I know I need it, too! But I also hope this summer will be for us all a summer of faith, where we grow in faith by being open to experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in different ways, and among different people, and through different activities, so that in this season we all grow more deeply as disciples of Jesus!
Amen.