Slow Down
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Acts of the Apostles 1:6-14
So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
In the past when we’ve read stories of the disciples during their time with Jesus, they never seem to quite get what Jesus is telling them—they’re often in denial about Jesus’ death, they argue about who should sit at the head of the table even though Jesus is against societal hierarchies, they attempt to build shrines when wholly inappropriate, the list goes on, and the beginning of this passage continues the trend. We’re at the point now, in which the apostles have seen Jesus die and be resurrected, you’d think they’d get it at this point, but nope, they’re still not quite there. After everything they’ve experienced, after everything they’ve seen—Jesus healing people, Jesus changing the way thousands of people think, Jesus being killed and then rising from the dead—they’re still thinking really, really small.
I say this because of the first question they ask of Jesus in this passage— “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus doesn’t really even entertain the question. He pretty much just says, “that’s nothing you need to know, that’s not your concern right now.” Considering the way he does sidestep the question, I picture the risen Jesus rolling his eyes at the question before he responds. Because the apostles’ question about restoring the Kingdom of Israel is the wrong thing to ask. Jesus’ mission, and the mission he is passing along to his followers before he ascends to be with God, is so much bigger than a national cause. It’s so much bigger than any kind of nationalism, any kind of pride or any kind of nostalgia for what was.
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” says Jesus before he ascends. Jesus makes it clear at this point that they aren’t thinking big enough—Jesus makes it clear that their mission will go far beyond Israel. They are being called to do a brand new thing. But I think it makes sense that the apostles, even after everything they had witness, would still fall back onto what they knew—surely, despite their faith in their savior, they were still scared and traumatized—scared of what it would mean to be a group of Jesus followers without Jesus physically at their sides, so they reverted to the safe and easy beliefs they’d always known out of anxiety, out of fear. We see this play out today, sadly, in much more malicious ways— in political slogans and campaign themes about this country going back to what was, to times that was supposedly better. We see it in so much dangerous and cruel knee-jerk legislation these days, from laws endangering women’s health and transgender lives to rolling back child labor laws.
Now obviously the apostles’ fear didn’t lead them to thinking about such callous and horrible things, but they still couldn’t quite get themselves to the right place. They still couldn’t quite understand the world Jesus wanted them to bring about. They still couldn’t grasp the concept of an earth as it is in heaven. They couldn’t think beyond what they knew… not at the beginning of the passage at least.
After Jesus does, in fact, ascend, the apostles look up to the heavens dumbfounded, apparently just starting in awe until two angels of make an appearance and let them know that Jesus is gone to heaven, but will at some point, will indeed come back.
So at this point, Jesus has given the apostles quite a task—to be witnesses of his word to the ends of the earth. And the angels have given them some cryptic, but pretty intense information that Jesus will be returning at some point. So you’d think the apostles would be on their way to spread the word, full of awe and motivation. But instead, they go back to the place where they were staying, and they pray and discern together.
A little anticlimactic, isn’t it? After witnessing yet another miraculous event, the apostles simply go back and pray. But I wonder if this is maybe an example of the apostles finally maturing, finally realizing that they need to really think about the things they’ve seen and been through, that they really need to process everything—the trauma, the grief, the joy, all happening in such a short amount of time. Going back and praying discerning together is exactly what needed to happen before they would begin their brand new ministry.
I really do wonder, if people in power in our world today, if they just slowed down for a minute and really listened to the struggles of the people they supposedly serve, if they really prayed, or if they’re not religious, deeply thought about what’s really life-giving to people, what would really create a better environment for the people they are supposed to protect in serve, if we might be better off right now. But instead, they jump to dangerous nostalgia. They jump to their kneejerk reactions about things they just do not understand. They jump to fear. I talked about this just two weeks ago in my sermon on the stoning of St. Stephen—this misguided and unfounded fear people have of concepts, people, cultures that they just don’t understand. And as Pollyanna as it may sound, I genuinely do believe that if people ventured out of their bubbles and really thought about their fears, thought about what they’re scared of, and then dialogued with people different than them, who could help them understand, things might just be a little better right now.
Because I wonder what would have happened had the apostles just run out and started eagerly and urgently spreading the Good News before they really sat down together to think and strategize. I’m thinking of the very similar passage of the transfiguration, in which Jesus is lifted up and shown to a select few disciples to be truly be the son of God. Those disciples think of the old traditions, and they decide they must make a shrine in his honor before Jesus almost scolds them away from not building said shrine; because remember, as we talked about last week, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands…”. So I do wonder what would’ve happened if the apostles went out and tried to witness inspired by, not the Holy Spirit, but rather their own anxieties and fears—fears about Jesus coming back, anxieties and uncertainties about exactly what Jesus wanted them to do. Things never end well when we’re motivated by fear and anxiety. I imagine they wouldn’t have made it very far out of Judea.
You know that feeling that you get, when someone does something that makes you really frustrated or angry, and you just get so worked up that you feel you absolutely need to call them or text them or write them a strongly-worded email immediately? But when you do without really thinking things over and things usually tend to spiral out of control even more? The advice is usually to write that email, or write a letter, write your feelings out, step away, take a deep breath, maybe discuss the situation with a trusted friend or even and therapist, and then rethink what you might want to say to that person, if you still want to say anything at all. Or on the more positive side of things maybe you’re one of those people like myself, and you get what you think is a great idea in your head and you need to start working on it right that second, and you impulsively start to kind of put things in motion but since you didn’t really think the whole thing through, your project kind of stalls before it ever really starts. Or maybe, even, you’re some kind of activist, and you’re so passionate about some terrifying new piece of legislation that’s passed (and there are plenty to choose from these days), and you absolutely need to go march or protest or throw something together right that second—but you haven’t really thought through the logistics, or thought through what kind of strategy will reach the most people, and won’t just come across as reactionary and ill-thought out. And then you get a little disappointed when you don’t change any minds or inspire people to think differently.
There’s a print I have framed in my office that some of you may have noticed before and it says, very simply, “It’s okay to slow down.” (It’s one of the more useful things in my office next to my Bibles and Bible commentaries). But I think this sentiment is something the apostles miraculously realized at this crucial hour. Even though things surely felt so urgent and intense, even though they just watched their savior ascend to heavens after telling them they must witness to the ends of the earth, even though the angels told them that Jesus would be returning without saying when—and in fact, it almost sounds like the angels are ushering them to begin their work right that second—‘why do you just stand here? Jesus will come back, go, go!”—but the apostles realized that they couldn’t just run out to ends of the earth without real contemplation, without real discernment, without really making a plan together.
And so it might seem anticlimactic, and almost silly that after the miraculous and awe-inspiring ascension, they just got back to the place they were staying and pray. But they had been given a huge task—to take this beautiful but controversial new faith and ideology and spread it throughout the world—to heal people, to help people, to move so far beyond the small, nationalistic ideas they once thought were the end goal. So they slow down. They take some time to think, to process, to pray, and to work together as a new faith community—not just these 11 men, but others who have joined this movement, including Jesus’ family, including women who have joined the community.
Now, I talk a lot about waiting and preparation during the season of Advent. But in that first Sunday of Advent, I almost always quote the Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer—“…our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.” Jesus hasn’t come back yet, and so Advent continues year round. Memorial Day weekend is next weekend, often thought of as the early beginning of the Summer season, of the warm months, of slowing down a little.
So I wonder, if as this Summer rolls in, if we can try to think of this time as a part of the perpetual Advent season. I wonder, if despite the urgency and the tension that seems ever present in this cruel world, if we could take the time this Summer to really sit with those feelings and continue to wonder what the church can and should be in today’s world, and how we figure into its mission, into Jesus’ mission.
And of all Summers, this will be the perfect one to do this. You’ll hear several different and new voices this Summer in my absence, you’ll be introduced to new and different topics, maybe you’ll get some big ideas to mull on and you can use the idyllic Vermont Summers to pray about to discern, to contemplate what you can do for the church, what the church can do for you, what you want to see this church do for the community, for the world.
Now, I am no fan of incrementalism, I am an impatient person, I want the world to change now, I want injustice to end now, I want an earth as it is in heaven now, but the way we’ve been doing things hasn’t worked—so it’s crucial to slow down, to work together, to pray together, to figure out what will work. So let’s slow down this Summer. Let’s slow down and continue to support this faith community; let’s support our guest preachers and our lay leaders; let’s try to think a little differently; let’s slow down and discover where the Holy Spirit is guiding us. Amen.
