Acts 1:6-14--June 1, 2014 PAUSING AND PRAYING

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1 Acts 1:6-14--June 1, 2014 PAUSING AND PRAYING In about a week and a half, I ll be celebrating an anniversary. Not my wedding anniversary that s in November. Give me a minute and I ll think of the exact date! No, June 12th is the anniversary of my ordination as a minister. On that date, I will have been an authorized minister in the United Church of Christ for 26 years. I remember my ordination service very well, in spite of the fact that it s been more than a quarter of a century since the event happened. I remember the pomp and circumstance, and the mixture of great joy and deep anxiety I felt. I remember the buzzing excitement of the community of faith coming together to anoint and authorize another pastor in Christ s church, and the solemn silence and reverence during parts of the service when everyone could feel that they were in the midst of the Holy One, Almighty God. But I think what I ll always remember most about my ordination is the moment called the laying on of hands. You ll actually be seeing that next Sunday, when three of our youth are confirmed. But at my ordination, the laying on of hands was the symbolic moment when the Holy Spirit entered and empowered me for service and ministry as a leader and pastor in Christ s church. I was literally surrounded by a dozen or more ministers which is a scary place to be, when you think about it! and they were all pressing their hands down on me and praying over me so I might receive the divine empowerment, wisdom, guidance and ability to carry out my duties as a sanctioned minister in the church of Jesus Christ. It was a very powerful, moving and deeply spiritual moment in my life: experiencing such fervent, intense, sincere prayers on my behalf, and knowing that God was acting in that moment and surrounding me with His holy presence. I recalled that prayer experience as I pondered this morning s Scripture reading from the book of Acts. Two thousand years ago, after Jesus had been crucified; after he had been resurrected; after he commissioned the disciples to be his witness to the ends of the earth; after he ascended into heaven; after all those big events, the disciples gathered in an upper room.

2 The twelve disciples along with the women and other followers and observers of Jesus earthly ministry had been witnesses to some amazing and extraordinary events. Those common, ordinary people had followed Jesus for three years. They had seen the blind given sight, the lame walk, lepers cured and demons cast out. They had been there when Jesus fed 5000 people with only five loaves of bread and two small fish. And they had even been eyewitnesses to a man, Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, coming out of his tomb alive at Jesus command. Yes, the disciples, women and followers of Jesus had witnessed all of those events, and more. Then there was the resurrection, with Jesus empty tomb and his various appearances such as on the road to Emmaus and behind the closed and locked doors of a small room where the disciples had been hiding out in fear. Finally, Jesus appeared to his chosen ones one last time. He promised that God s Holy Spirit would come to them and be their Counselor and Comforter. Then Jesus ascended into heaven. He vanished into the clouds, so the story goes, to return to God and sit at the right hand of the Father in power and glory. So, after all that, what was next? What were the disciples going to do now? Something glorious and dramatic? Something to knock people s socks off? Hardly. After the awesome events they had witnessed, but before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the thing the disciples and other followers of Jesus did was... wait. And while they were waiting, they prayed together. The great theologian Karl Barth called the waiting time between Jesus Ascension and the day of the Holy Spirit s coming at Pentecost the Significant Pause. I love that. The Significant Pause. That s the time between the mighty deeds of God, when the only things that can really be done are to wait, and to ask God to act. Karl Barth wrote that, during this pause between God s activities, the church s task is to simply pause for a time and pray, Veni, Creator Spiritus. Come, Creator Spirit. I think a lot of our life consists of significant pauses, or waiting and praying. Have you ever noticed that all the major events and milestones of our lives births and deaths, weddings and baptisms, confirmations and ordinations, graduations and retirements are brief and momentary? All of the important holy days and holidays Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Thanksgiving last for only a day. Then they re over until the next year. And the rest of our life happens between those big events. When you think about it, most of the living we do occurs during the significant pauses. 2

3 The story of the gathered community of Jesus followers that we read this morning in the Book of Acts reminds us about the way we, the church, are to live during the significant pauses of life. Like those who were gathered in that upper room, this faith community of ours is made up of followers, friends and family. We re a diverse congregation, and we don t always agree or see eye to eye on everything; but even so, just like Jesus original followers, we re called to be of one accord, praying together steadfastly. Now, at this point I want to say that this act of praying together isn t to be done as though it s some kind of spiritual twiddling of our thumbs, to pass the time and give us something to do as we wait during the significant pauses in life. No, praying together as a community of faith is much more than that. Prayer is something that sustains our life as a faith community. Prayer unites us in our mutual faith in God. Prayer connects us with one another and with God. Prayer brings us closer together and strengthens us as we share the work and ministry that the Lord has called us to do. And prayer draws us closer to God. I want to share a poem with you that I was given quite a few years ago. This poem, about prayer, was written by a man named Walter Rauschenbusch. It s called The Little Gate to God. In the castle of my soul Is a little postern gate, Whereat, when I enter, I am in the presence of God. In a moment, in the turning of a thought, I am where God is. This is a fact. The world of men is made of jangling noises. With God it is a great silence. But that silence is a melody Sweet as the contentment of love, Thrilling as a touch of flame. When I enter into God, All life has meaning. Without asking, I know; My desires are even now fulfilled, My fever is gone In the great quiet of God. My troubles are but pebbles on the road, My joys are like the everlasting hills. 3

4 So it is when I step through the gate of prayer From time into eternity. When I am in the consciousness of God, My fellowmen are not far off and forgotten, But close and strangely dear. Those whom I love Have a mystic value. They shine as if a light were glowing within them. So it is when my soul steps through the postern gate Into the presence of God. Big things become small, and small things become great. The near becomes far, and the future is near. The lowly and despised is shot through with glory. God is the substance of all revolutions; When I am in him, I am in the Kingdom of God And in the Fatherland of my Soul. Praying during the significant pauses in life, either individually or as a church community, reminds us that the major things that need doing in the world the significant problems we face as a human race, such as poverty, hunger, violence, injustice and war are ultimately beyond our ability to solve through our own effort, programs and crusades. If they weren t, we d have solved them by now. In our hearts we know that s true, and human history backs it up. So, some other empowerment is needed. That is why we, as a church and as individual people of God, are moved to wait and pray. This waiting and praying also reminds us that God s gift of the Holy Spirit isn t a guaranteed possession of the church. We can t simply take it for granted that God s Spirit will always be with us. The Holy Spirit s presence is a blessing from God; a blessing that needs to be prayed for and received by us again and again. My friends, I believe that we re in one of the most challenging Significant Pauses to ever happen in human history. During this pause, there s a tremendous amount of stress and tension. Many people are worrying about economic hardships that don t seem to be getting much better. There s an ever-widening divide between the rich and poor, the haves and the have-nots. There s turmoil and violent upheaval in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe that hopefully won t explode into serious and sustained wars. There s the serious threat of Islamic or other extremists killing hundreds, even thousands of people through terrorist acts. Whether it s caused by climate change or some other reason, we seem to be experiencing more severe and destructive storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods than usual. 4

5 Anger, incivility and blatant contempt toward others is causing deep divisions between races, religions, cultures, classes and political ideologies. It seems like every day we hear about the shooting or some kind of violent killing of yet more innocent people. There s a lot of worry and concern about the way our world is going, and the perilous direction the human race seems to be headed in. It s clear to me, my friends, that the days we re living give us a very good reason to take a significant pause, to strive to come together as Jesus followers, as Jesus church, as a nation, and as fellow members of the human race, and be of one accord, waiting and praying fervently for the Holy Spirit to come and renew our hearts, our faith communities, and our broken, hurting world. Some of you may be thinking, In the face of such serious problems and challenges, we can t just wait and pray. We need to do something. I would respond to that by adapting the words of S.D. Gordon that I used in the Meditation upon Gathering that was printed in this morning s bulletin, Yes, we need to do more than pray but only after we have prayed. That s because, when we pause and pray, it invites the Holy Spirit to enter into the situation; and through the Holy Spirit we re guided to do God s will, not our will; we re empowered to do things with God s strength, not our own strength; and we re sustained and enabled for ministry and faithful service in the challenging and even somewhat frightening future to come. My friends, as we live in the significant pauses of God s activity, and as we face the substantial challenges of living in these tumultuous and uncertain days, let us strive to be a faith community that is united in Christ and one another and guided and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we join other disciples of Jesus in waiting and praying and working fervently with the Lord for a better world a world that genuinely reflects the Kingdom of God here on earth. To that end, may we join together in praying, as one united body, the Body of Christ, Veni, Creator Spiritus, veni. Come, Creator Spirit, Come! AMEN. 5