Scripture, Acts 1: 1-11; John 16: 5-15
This week is an in-between time. It’s between Ascension and Pentecost. That’s when the disciples graduated to become apostles. They waited for the Holy Spirit, but didn’t know what to expect. Like them, we wait for the Holy Spirit, as individuals and as a parish. We ask ourselves, what is the Holy Spirit advocating for us to do?
An in-between time
This Sunday falls between Ascension Day and Pentecost next week. At this past week’s Evening Prayer we read Luke’s account of the Ascension. Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem. Something is going to happen. But they don’t know what. It was an “in-between time”.
The Church year has three great festivals Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. We prepare for Christmas with four Sundays of Advent, and for Easter with forty days of Lent. However, today is just part of the “Easter season”. There’s almost no build-up to Pentecost. That’s what makes this an ‘in-between time’ for us.
In Acts 1, Luke recaps the Ascension
This morning, we look backwards as well as forwards. We first read Luke’s recap of the disciples’ last experience the Risen Christ. [Acts 1]. But he adds a significant detail. While the disciples gazed upwards into the skies, two angels in white appeared and spoke to them.
That seems to mirror the Transfiguration story, Moses and Elijah were present when Jesus disappeared into a cloud. Also, of course, the great prophet Elijah’s ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot.. Clearly, Luke, knew how to maintain our interest in the “Jesus-story’.
Biblical scholars think of Luke’s Gospel and Acts as Luke Books I and II. Luke was a first rate story-teller. If he lived today, he’d probably be a TV script writer.
Let’s imagine Luke and Acts as Seasons 1 and 2 of a TV series
Season 1 ended with the cliff-hanger. Jesus’ Ascension to heaven.
Therefore, Luke starts Season 2 in typical TV fashion. He recaps the cliffhanger. Now, the disciples are waiting in Jerusalem. Something is going to happen. But they don’t know what. Next week, at Pentecost, the disciples, now Apostles, will begin to spread the news of salvation.
But right now, we have an in-between time. We know – because we read ahead – that the disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all told us at the beginning of their Gospels, about John the Baptist’s prediction. The One coming after John would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Not just water.
What would the Holy Spirit be like?
Next, John baptized Jesus in water. Then, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. But Luke and company don’t reveal much more about this mysterious Holy Spirit until Pentecost.
Therefore, we must look at a different tradition, namely, John’s Gospel. Today’s Gospel passage looks back to Jesus’ final hours with the disciples. Before his arrest. When, Jesus had told the disciples that he must go away to return to the Father.
However, the Holy Spirit would come in his place. Jesus called the Holy Spirit an Advocate. Or, in some translations, a Comforter or Guide. An advocate speaks or writes in support of someone else. Often as an advocate in a court of law.
Thus, Jesus promises the disciples that the Advocate will come after he returns to the Father (as John puts it). Or, after he ascends into heaven (in Luke’s words). Luke’s words are more poetic. However, they rely on the unscientific view of heaven as a specific location above the skies.
As an Advocate, the Holy Spirit inspires, or animates us to follow Christ now that his earthly ministry is over. That’s how Pentecost fulfils the work begun at Easter, when the ministry of the earthly Jesus gave way to that of the eternal Christ.
Our second reading is from the book of Revelation. Much of the book is notoriously hard work to understand. But today’s passage looks to a perfect future. Actually, it’s what Jewish prophets had long looked towards. Although perhaps less poetically. Think, for example, of the passage in Isaiah 65 which we read in Advent. Which we call ‘The glorious new creation’. I’ll talk about the passage from Revelation at Evening Prayer this coming Wednesday.
An in-between time — between students and gradutaes; between disciples and apostles
So, to complete my comments on the in-between time between Ascension and Pentecost. Pentecost always occurs in May or early June. In our world, it’s when students graduate from high schools, colleges, and universities. Graduates keep learning, but act without supervision from teachers.
Pentecost was Graduation Day for the disciples. That’s when they graduated from being Jesus’ students to independent Apostles. They went into the world to proclaim Jesus on their own.
But today is the Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost. We find the disciples in a sort of limbo as they wait for the Holy Spirit to come. They must have wondered, what will that look like?
However, the Holy Spirit isn’t just about the disciples. We use terms like animating, inspiring, enabling to describe the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit also calls us to be advocates for Christ. Like the disciples, we don’t yet know what that advocacy might involve.
Are we ready to graduate?
But I hope that today’s visioning session will help us with that task. Because, it’s an in-between time for us, too. Therefore, like Peter and the other disciples, we wait for Pentecost, next Sunday.
So I leave us all with a question. Are we ready for graduation? To act as Apostles, as graduates for Christ? Or do we still feel like disciples, not yet ready to receive the Holy Spirit? Because next week is Graduation Day. Amen.