Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before.
This phrase comes from our opening Collect this morning, and it points in two directions: looking ahead, it refers to next Sunday, the feast of Pentecost. But it also looks back to Ascension Thursday, exactly forty days after Easter.
When we recall Christ’s ascending from this earth, we’re marking a departure date. The Ascension of Jesus means that the person of Jesus Christ has gone from earth. We’re not completely abandoned. Next Sunday we’ll celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, who reminds us of all the teachings and the powerful deeds of Christ Jesus.
Next Sunday’s we’ll hear about the number of new Christians baptized that day, and when we do, recall the number of Christians present in today’s first reading. It’s not a large number, considering all the redeeming work that Christ Jesus did.
After all his teaching and healing and leading by example, those who remained after the experience of Easter were, St. Luke tells us, “about one hundred twenty persons.” 120 persons constitutes a small group, the size of many parish churches.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. A sociologist, Margaret Mead wrote that.
Margaret Mead worked as a cultural anthropologist in Samoa, among other places. And in her own life, some of her ideas, shared with her small group of friends, did indeed change a lot of minds, and hearts as well — not without controversy!
To repeat her insight: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Next Sunday, on Pentecost, we’ll see what became of that small group of 120 persons.
Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before.
It’s worth pointing out that Jesus did not leave any organizational plans for a church. In fact, more than one theologian has made the ironic observation that “Jesus came preaching the reign of God, but what arrived instead was the Church!”
To my mind that’s a little too cynical, as if the church were a human mistake and that God had something else in mind entirely. But my point is that Jesus didn’t give specific instructions on how human beings were to carry on his work.
So Peter and the other early church leaders figured out the church as they went along, not without heated disagreements about who’s in and who’s out — and how you tell. And you know, we’re still doing that two thousand years later, re-creating the church.
As I mentioned at the start of this sermon, Ascension marks a departure date. We cannot get to know the human Jesus in the same manner his first followers did. But the sacraments — especially the Eucharist we are about to celebrate — keep Christ’s presence lively for us — as individuals and as a community.
This day, this week, is full of potential. Recalling what is past, we can be looking for finding the love of God at work in new ways in our lives.
