Since right after Christmas, we’ve been dealing with questions. For four Sundays, I endeavored to answer your questions in a series of sermons that approached some difficult thinking. My apologies for rephrasing some of the questions, but I think we got some things nailed down.After that challenging series, I put together my answers to Maxie Dunnam’s Lenten Questions series. You may have read a few of those answers here in this blog. If you haven’t, I recommend them highly–but, then again, I’m a little biased.
So now that’s done. And I’m glad to get back into the Lectionary. The Revised Common Lectionary is defined as “a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion.” What it really does is keep me from preaching from my favorite books of the Bible, which include John, Acts, and Ezekiel depending on the mood that strikes me. In all actuality, the Lectionary provides a guide across the landscape of the Christian year.
With Lent and Easter behind us, we are living in the season of Easter, or Eastertide, so the Lectionary points us to the passages which point to the response of the Church to the Resurrection of Jesus. Its a great time to reflect on what the Disciples did when Jesus more or less began the process of kicking them out of the nest. Most, if not all of the disciples had grown quite accustomed to having Jesus lead them. I daresay that quite a few of them had grown comfortable in their role of wandering around behind Jesus, watching the crowd and listening to the Master do the teaching.
Imagine the roller coaster they were on. One day they were all in the zone, following Jesus and listening. Then, suddenly, he is arrested, tried, convicted, and killed. Less than two days later, they find that he isn’t dead anymore.
If I were a Disciple, I’d be a little relieved. The Boss is back, and we can go back to business as usual. He’ll resume the mantle of teacher and leader, and I can go back to showing up and helping with the crowds.
That plan makes perfect sense–except for the fact that after the Resurrection nothing would ever be the same again. These days after Easter were something of a wake up call. They had to adjust to making decisions on their own. More importantly, they had to make the transition from follower to leader; from interested observer to dedicated doer.
And now, like these Disciples, we find ourselves looking up into the sky anticipating the Ascension–or in our case, the Second Coming. Maybe we need to realize that there is a pretty good chance that we’ll be expected to get by on our own for a while before the Master returns. Don’t forget, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would accompany us on this journey. But we’d have to meet the Spirit and accept his guidance.
That means that this just-after-Easter season is a good time for disciples of every age to take a good look at the road ahead and behind.
Where are you in your journey? Are you ready to strike out on your own, Disciple? The Spirit beckons each of us to strike out on our errand of ministry, our journey of faith.
I urge you to prepare yourself to make the transition from dependent disciple to dependable friend
Recent Comments