Easter VII: Wait!

Today is traditionally called Expectation Sunday, falling between the Ascension, when Jesus returns to the Father, and Pentecost.  The reference to expectation is understood in the light of the Acts text where Jesus' crew ask: when will get this show on the road?  Jesus answers that they don't need to know, instead that they are to go to Jerusalem and wait.  The Holy Spirit will act at the right time, whenever that may be.  So the Apostles collect the Blessed Mother, and a few others, and go directly to Jerusalem to wait.

Waiting is something that we red-blooded Americans hate to do, isn't it?  We want instant credit, quality fast food, not having to queue up for anything.  We are not very patient people.  And we like to call God's hand, because we can't wait, pray, discern.  To complicate matters, when the Spirit does move us, there never seem to be the kind of pyrotechnics the apostles and Mary will experience on Pentecost -- theophanies like earthquake, wind, and tongues of fire on everyone.  We could dig that.   It is harder to follow that still, small voice.  But we have to try, as individuals, as a community, and a national church within the worldwide Anglican Communion.  In past decades we spent much time and nervous energy dealing with ordination for women and, more recently, full respect and equality for gay and lesbian Christians.  We were led by good science and good exegesis. Discernment can be hard.

The right kind of discernment helps us to get priorities straighter.  This week our United Methodist brothers and sisters are still fighting over who can love whom, while abuse, hunger, discrimination, violence, and injustice abound all around us.

For two thousand years Christians have been called to listen and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, but instead have listened to other voices.  Preferring war and imperialism, patriotism and nationalism, to the Gospel.  Preferring the accumulation of wealth and power.  Preferring racism, bigotry, and even slavery.  Preferring "Churchianity."   The good news is that every day is a new opportunity to make the right difference.

I want to close by illustrating my message with a passage from Testament of Hope by Saint Martin Luther King:

    "A voice out of Bethlehem two thousand years ago said all men are equal, that right would triumph.  Jesus of Nazareth wrote no books, owned no property to endow him with influence.  He had no friends in the courts of the powerful.  But he changed the course of mankind with only poor and despised people.  We will fight for human justice and brotherhood; we will secure peace and abundance for all.  And when we have won these in a spirit of unshakeable non-violence, then, in luminous splendour, the Christian Era will truly begin."