Waiting for God (Easter 7B)

Ascension of Christ, Salvador Dali, 1958

Waiting for God
Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year B)
13 May 2018
Homily Preached at Trinity Episcopal Church

Ashland, Oregon
8:00 a.m. Spoken Eucharist; 10:00 a.m. Sung Eucharist
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; Psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19

The Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.

God, take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

I think all of us have memories of long car trips either as children or with children.  Questions abound.  “Are we there yet?”  “How much longer?”  “When are we stopping for a potty break?”  “Are we there yet?” “When do we cross over into the next state?”  “Where will we be eating dinner?  What will we eat?”  “Are we there yet?”  “Oh, Look--an amusement park!  Can we stop, can we?”  “ARE WE THERE YET?”  Sometimes, the tiresome questions can annoy, and nerves can fray.  “Mom, tell NN to stop it!”  “Kids, don’t make we have to come back there!” 

Waiting is something our modern American culture does not value or particularly equip us for.    We value action, measurable results—the quicker the better, and taking charge.  For many of us, the single image that most summarizes a failure of government is a long line in most states’ Department of Motor Vehicles office.  One of the most frequently seen occasions for arguments between a married couple is where one of them through inattentiveness makes the other one wait. 

But not all cultures share this loathing of waiting.  No one likes to wait, and “waste one’s time.”  But in many cultures, especially Asian and African ones, the ability to gracefully manage oneself during wait times, patience, is highly valued, and time when you have to wait is seen as an opportunity to develop this virtue.   

In today’s reading from the Book of Acts, the disciples are in an in-between time where they need to wait for something.  Jesus, after his death and bodily reappearance, has been visiting and appearing to them on a regular basis.  After forty days, he departs definitively by ascending into the skies, with the clouds and the brilliant light hiding him from the eyes of the disciples.  He leaves with a command and a promise: he orders them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there until they are “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) in a promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and as he ascends angels declare that he will come again and descend in a like manner (Acts 1:1-11). 

So the disciples in today’s story are in waiting mode, or at least should be in waiting mode. 

But they are unhappy.  They know that Jesus called twelve of them to be special witnesses to the arrival of the Reign of God, that number being symbolic of a newly constituted and restored people of Israel, with its ancient twelve tribes.  The tribes haven’t been around for several hundred years; most of them were wiped out and lost at the time of the Assyrian conquest of Israel in 720-740 B.C.E.   During the Last Supper, Jesus had promised the Twelve that they would sit on twelve thrones and judge the tribes of Israel (Luke 22:29).   But now one of those twelve chosen special symbols of the newly restored Kingdom of God, Judas Iscariot, has defected and helped Jesus’ enemies capture him and put him to death. 

So Peter proposes that they fill the place left by Judas.  Now, the truth be told, if you asked me, it seems that the best person to take this place among the special twelve witnesses to Jesus would have been Mary Magdalene, since according to many of the stories, it was she who first saw the Risen Lord.  But the society at that time being what it was, and Peter being who he was, Peter restricts the opening to men.  In Luke’s story, Peter gives several criteria for the replacement—he must be a man, he must have been a companion of Jesus from the start, and he must have been a witness of the reappearance of the Risen Lord after his death. 

So far so good.  The eleven realize that two men, Matthias and Joseph Barsabbas, meet the criteria.  But they cannot decide who it should be.  So they use the ancient method of determining which animal would be the sacrificial offering from a group—they draw lots.  And so Matthias it is.

Despite the fact the pre-Christian Dead Seas Scrolls community had a governing body of Twelve elders, there is absolutely nothing in the Acts text that suggests that Peter’s intention was that the Twelve would become a permanent fixture in a permanent Church governance.  He and the disciples at this time fully expected that Jesus would come again quite soon, and the need to find a replacement for Judas was with the express goal of having the Twelve as a group ready for that moment, so they could sit on those twelve thrones as judges, presumably when Jesus returned in glory.

Other than the fact that he clearly wants to restrict the use of the word “apostle” to just the Twelve, it is not clear what Luke’s attitude to all this is.  He simply recounts the story in Acts without commentary.  But interestingly, this is the last we ever hear of Matthias.  Later on, it is another person, Paul, who ends up being, along with Peter, the great witness to Jesus. 

I think that the lesson to be learned is this.  Jesus in ascending had told them to return to Jerusalem and wait there to receive power from on high.  Ten days later, on the great Feast of Shavuot, or Pentecost, the promised outpouring of the Spirit would occur.   But in the meantime, the disciples have neither the direct guidance of the Risen Lord, who has now gone up out of their sight, nor the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which has not yet been poured out upon them. 

But they are impatient and must act.  And this is a good thing, and they are trying to do God’s will.  But instead of just waiting, as Jesus commanded, they reconstitute the Twelve.  But they are reduced to throwing dice to actually make the pick.  And their action seems not to have had much effect of the course of the Church thereafter. 

It is normal and natural to be impatient, and to want to take action, especially when it seems that things are coming to a critical moment.  That was clearly the position of Peter and the Eleven here.  And it is not necessarily a bad thing to actually take the steps that we think are placed before us even when we appear to be in a place where we need to wait.

But we must not let fear or discouragement make us impatient and act out of turn, or intemperately.  God’s time is not our own, as much as we would like that to be so. 

 In the Hebrew Scriptures, there is a key idea—the need we have to be patient and let God do his work in his own good time.  Sometimes this means simply trying to get out of the way of God.  The Psalmist says, “Wait for the Lord: be brave and strong-hearted, but wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14). 

Second Isaiah, speaking to the exiles of Judah after they had lost their nation, their temple, and many had lost their trust in Yahweh, said this:  “But those who wait upon the Lord will take new strength; they shall soar as on eagles’ wings; when they run, they will not be weary; and when they walk, they will not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). 

Sometimes we find ourselves in over our heads. And like the eleven in this story, direction from God might not come right away.  Our path may not be clearly set before us.  Our natural inclination is to try to dig ourselves out.  Sometimes, that may be simply taking the one or two simple actions that appear to be within our reach and tend toward what God intends.  Like eating chicken soup for a cold, it may not necessarily help, “but it couldn’t hoit.”  

When we find ourselves alone and without direction or comfort, we must not be like those guys in Waiting for Godot, simply repeating nonsense lines and distracting ourselves from the fact that the anticipated one does not appear to ever be coming.  God has promised to help, and to guide and direct us.  And he will.  But, like people in a DMV line, we mustn’t give up because we don’t like the discomfort of waiting. 

Sometimes we find that there’s no right way to proceed. We can keep trying to dig ourselves out... or we can wait patiently for God to help us.

Next week, we will be celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church on the Feast of Pentecost.  That’s because God does act and send his direction and comfort.  He did it then, and he does it now. 

This week in our prayers, let’s take more time to listen.  In our daily life, let’s take more time to be patient.  Because patience is a virtue, and a gift from God, one of the signs of Love’s presence in our lives.   

In the name of Christ, Amen.