Living in the In Between Times

During worship this past Sunday, Ascension Sunday, I was encouraging people to not get stuck looking up at heaven - to where Jesus has gone, to our past, to how things were when they made more sense to us and seemed more stable. Instead, I encouraged them to look around at what God is calling us to do and to the opportunities that surround us, even as we wait for Jesus’ return.

This week is General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church in Canada’s annual denominational gathering. I’ve already been watching some of the streamed sessions, which yesterday included marking the 25th anniversary of our denomination’s confession and apology to indigenous people for our role in residential schools. Human sexuality is yet to come on the agenda. I mentioned on Sunday that those at General Assembly would need our prayers as this is a divisive issue.

In the Ascension story in Acts 1, the disciples want to know before Jesus leaves what the time frame is for when God will restore Israel and return everything to how it should be. Jesus’ answer comes quickly and is to the point - it’s not for them to know God’s timing. They are to continue on as they have been taught and to be Christ’s witnesses to the world, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come on them.

Somewhat like the disciples, we find ourselves in this in between time of waiting with our imperfect human systems that have been built up over centuries. We are called on to help bring the kingdom among us, to follow Christ’s teaching, and to make decisions impacting the church the best that we can, just as the disciples had the difficult task later in Acts 1 of replacing Judas who had committed suicide after betraying Jesus. Even if they hadn’t liked him very much, he had still shared the journey with them and was a brother in the faith.

Yesterday I watched Nadia Bolz-Weber’s sermon at Rachel Held-Evans’ funeral and learned news of two deaths of people from church and one impending one. I watched the movie Indian Horse about the residential school system in Canada (well worth watching to gain understanding of what happened but also troubling) and then the session at General Assembly revisiting our apology. First Nations people were in attendance and spoke, including residential school survivors. All in all, it was a sobering day.

And yet, it is in this in between time of acknowledging our brokenness and loss that we have our spiritual muscles strengthened. The disciples without Jesus’ physical presence could only rely on each other to find their way, could only remind each other of the things He said and taught them, could only lean into what they had experienced of God and knew to be Jesus’ way. They were anticipating the Comforter coming, the Spirit, which would equip them to be Christ’s witnesses to the ends of the earth.

We have the church, even with its good intentions gone dramatically wrong at times, to buoy our faith. We have the community of believers who should be caring about us and nudging us towards more active discipleship and faithfulness. We may have losses but in those we learn gratitude as we reflect on the legacy left behind by someone leaving this earth. As God wills and sends it to us, we have the Holy Spirit working through and among us to guide us. Because of Easter we have the promise of resurrection, whenever that end day arrives and Jesus returns, but we also have the possibility for resurrections of many different kinds in our daily lives..

I’m still in a sober mood, sad for the suffering we go through and that we needlessly have inflicted and continue to inflict on others. And yet I’m so happy that God provided a way through it for us, knowing that we would struggle to get it right and that we would, like the disciples, be asking the wrong questions and seeking power and knowledge that aren’t ours to have. Despite all of that, God continues to love us and shows glimpses of grace and light in dark places.

With the anxiety and pressure at General Assembly and in dwindling and concerned congregations to “get it right” and to make decisions that honour God, we need to lean into God’s gifts already among us and to listen intently for the Spirit. God honours our faithfulness, our earnest seeking, our humility and desire to hand things over so that God’s will is done. May we trust that these things are enough, and that through them we will experience God’s grace and healing power.