Year A / Eastertide / Week 7 / Sunday
Readings: Acts 1.12-14 / Psalm 26.1, 4, 7-8 (R/v 13) / 1 Peter 4.13-16 / John 17.1-11
“From the Mount of Olives…the apostles went back to Jerusalem….All these joined in continuous prayer” (Acts 1:12-14).
Here is the core of Jesus’s disciples gathered after his Ascension: the apostles, some women, his brothers and Mary, his mother. At Pentecost, they became the heart of the first Christian community. Between Ascension and Pentecost, they were a community in prayer as the first reading describes.
We are in fact this Christian community. We are Jesus’s disciples here praying at Eucharist. We are also supposed to be praying in this in-between time of Ascension and Pentecost.
Our readings invite us to meditate on Jesus’s disciples in prayer, as well as Jesus praying. This can help us enter the spirit of waiting and preparing that this in-between time between Ascension and Pentecost demands of us. We can do this using this familiar line from a song we sing in church: “we remember, we celebrate, we believe.”
We remember. The story of Jesus’s core disciples at prayer is about unity, devotion and perseverance. They were united in prayer. They were singularly devoted to prayer. They persevered in continuous prayer. We remember that they prayed as they waited for the Holy Spirit. We also remember where they gathered: in the upper room where they had their last supper with Jesus and where he appeared twice to them after the Resurrection.
What about us? Are we gathering together in prayer as we await Pentecost? Where are we gathering? And what are we praying for?
Perhaps, our experience is similar to theirs. Like them, we might still be trying to understand what has happened in our life and faith since Easter. We might have began our Eastertide afresh and joyfully. Now however we might be distracted from God, praying less and living as lukewarm Christians. And, instead of Jesus’s peace in our hearts, we might be grappling with anxiety, fear and conflicts.
We are a week away from Pentecost. It is a good time to remember the community in prayer in the upper room. It can encourage us to come together as family, friends or parishioners, turn to God and devote ourselves with one accord to prayer.
We celebrate. The community in the upper room prayed, “Come, Holy Spirit.” They came together for this one desire. They shared this one prayer. They gathered as Jesus’s disciples. Yet they were a motley group: his mother God chose, brothers who did God’s will, women who followed and served, apostles he called for mission. We must celebrate this reality of their community because we are like them: each different yet everyone Christian.
As a faith community, we share much in common, like baptism and the creed, sacraments and the call to serve. We are however different in myriad ways. Our race and language. Our ideas and ideologies. Our values and habits. Some are socially privileged; others, socially disadvantaged. Some of us are nice and some of us are not so nice. We differ in common sense and the common good. Yet as Christians we recognise that praying together is what binds us as God’s own. Look around us in Church; isn’t this true here and now? It is indeed good and right that we can, especially now, pray, “Come, Holy Spirit.”
And don’t we want, even need, the Spirit? It heals the sick, reconciles the divided, and consoles the broken hearted. This Spirit heralds hope for the despairing. It also gathers the lost, unites the scattered and sends us forth to renew the face of the earth. We can wait, pray and persevere for this Spirit because God has already given it to us at baptism. Yes, we must celebrate that we can ask for it.
We believe. We hear that Jesus prayed to his Father at the Last Supper. He prayed for his disciples then: that all might be one. He prayed to protect them from the evil one and his ways of selfishness, greed, lust, competition, intolerance, prejudice and hatred. These divide us from one another and God. We believe Jesus prayed like this because he loved his own to the end.
We are Jesus’s own too. We believe he continues to pray for us even from above because we remain in the world soiled by original sin and spoilt by our sins. As Jesus’s disciples, we believe we can pray to God, Our Father. We can ask Him to send his Spirit to stop us from dividing each other and instead restore unity and build community. Because we believe this, we can pray, “Come, Holy Spirit.” Are we now? Will we this week?
We remember. We celebrate. We believe. They help us to prepare well to receive the Holy Spirit. Let us not do this by focusing on our ability to do more or better. Rather, let us recognise that God waits patiently for us to receive the Holy Spirit. He simply desires our availability. Only when we are readily available to receive the Spirit can it empower us to live in God and act according to God’s ways.
When we dare do this, God's grace abounds. Don’t be surprised that we might just receive the gift of untangled speech. This frees us to speak clearly. It also emboldens us to proclaim the Good News that in Jesus Christ God saves. Others hearing this will rejoice with us. Then, it becomes very clear: no more Babel, only Pentecost.
Indeed, what other prayer need we say but “Come, Holy Spirit come”? Shall we?
Inspired in parts by the writings of Fr Andy Alexander
Preached at Church of the Sacred Heart
photo by Frantisek Duris on Unsplash
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