| The Book of Acts 1: 3 – 11 In this opening section, Luke summarizes the apparitions of the Risen Lord, and how he presented himself to his disciples by many proofs, instructing them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit. The disciples are coming to deepened understanding, yet their questions remain unchanged and fundamentally political: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Now, having finally and definitively revealed yourself to be the Messiah, the Christ of God, will you vanquish the Roman occupation and restore the nation of Israel…indeed make it glorious in all the earth? Christ’s answer might be tailor made for us in this strange period: “It is not for you to know the times and the seasons….” I’ll say! One of the frustrations of this necessary period of self-isolation and social-distancing is that we do not know how long it will last, or what will be required of us to endure. For people accustomed to setting our own agendas and daily wend, this is quite a change. There is learning to be had and good to be taken from times of challenge. For people as privileged as most of us are, able to pick-up stakes and live somewhere other than the village of our birth, indeed, in a lovely town in a foreign country; we learn that there are limitations also for the privileged. I wonder if this might render us more attentive to the many limitations faced by those among whom we live. The constraint of uncertain employment, the lack of job-security, food-security, financial-security, adequate medical care, educational opportunity…are daily realities for a wide swath of Mexicans. There aren’t many employers offering 401-k plans and medical insurance in San Miguel de Allende. We know this intellectually, but move blithely through the population offering such gracious hospitality to so many foreigners. Perhaps this new awareness of our own limitation will sensitize us to the greater limitation circumscribing the lives of our hosts. Power is promised to these disciples lingering confused in Jerusalem. They must wait. They are to stay put. During our own staying put, perhaps part of the power on offer is a deepened awareness of our cultural context. Sometime during this period of waiting, the disciples experience the Ascension of Christ into heaven. This is not my favorite passage in Scripture. It gratingly reminds me that Luke bought into the ubiquitous first-century idea that the earth was flat with God’s heaven above and who-knows-what below…Sheol perhaps. The Ascension reminds us that the Book of Acts is a story, a sense-making narrative. It is not history the way people came to think of history after the Enlightenment. The Church is formed by stories of becoming a particular people among whom God is acting. Human beings live by stories…we weave narratives of our own lives, and of the events we experience. Ezra Pound once defined a novel as “news that stays news.” The news of the day is one thing (and we’ve got enough of that just now), but news that continues to influence whole swaths of humanity over the course of generations…that is news worth paying attention to. The story of the Ascension redeems itself for me after Christ’s ascent. The disciples are staring into the clouds. Two men in white robes come up next to them and say, “Why do you stand looking into the heavens?” We’re not to be so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good. Even within our present season of limitation, there is learning to be had, power to be had. Ask and ye shall receive. Grace and peace, The Reverend Canon George F. Woodward III For the Mission of the Church “Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.” BCP page 838 |
| St. Paul’s Anglican Church Calzada del Cardo, 6 Centro 37700, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 415.121.3424 www.StPaulSMA.com |