The promise

Promises

We grow up believing in promises. Promises that our parents will always be there for us. Promises that there will always be food on the table. Promises that we will be safe. In essence, promises that our basic needs will be met.

As we get older, some of the promises we hear begin to be broken. People don’t show up when they say they’re going to. Going to the grocery store sometimes doesn’t yield the food we were looking for. Assuming our healthcare situation in this country can handle anything thrown at it becomes something we can’t begin to completely trust in.

We live in such a difficult time. How does one plan for the future, how does one make a promise that they know they can hold, how does one hear a promise and believe that it will be fulfilled? There is so much that is changing each and every day.

The same was true for the early church. So much had changed. From being disciples of Jesus, learning from him, watching him, being able to call out to him for help and have him still the storms of life, now the disciples are thrust into a new role — instead of disciples, they are leaders; instead of learning, they are teaching; instead of watching, they are doing; instead of calling out, they are the ones who are called out for. It must have been a difficult time.

And the added support they have for this is:

Acts 1:4–5 NRSV

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

A promise. A promise that some ethereal being will come to them soon, and that things will be OK as a result.

Action

Last night, there was a concert of sorts on TV. A number of musicians and celebrities gathered together to put on an event — well, gathered together might be a confusing way of saying it — for each person was in their own place, and the footage was edited together to bring them into one. The final piece had five different musicians in it, each in their own home, brought together by the magic of editing.

I had assumed it would be something like the Live Aid concerts of decades ago. It wasn’t. The biggest difference I noticed was, it wasn’t a fundraiser. It was a call to action. Right at the beginning, they said to put your wallets away, for that wasn’t the purpose. Instead, they promoted a website: www.act.me that they hoped people would visit.

Fear

Right now, many of us are afraid: afraid for ourselves and our loved ones — afraid for their health, for their financial security, for their safety; afraid for the economy in general; afraid for the healthcare workers who are putting their own lives at risk; afraid for everyone who is at risk — which quite frankly is all of us.

Fear can either inspire action or inaction — too often the action inspired is too dramatic and too often the inaction is too deep. So how do we deal with the fear? How do we begin to act in a way that helps others? How do we begin to trust that we will get through this difficult time?

Looking towards heaven

Acts 1:10–11 NRSV

While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

This passage, along with the one mentioned before — about being baptized with the Holy Spirit, brings me think Jesus’ baptism, and eventually my own. In Jesus’ baptism we hear:

Luke 3:21–22 NRSV

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

We have all been baptized with the Holy Spirit. God has spoken to each of us with these words: “You are my Child; with you I am well pleased.”

While we may know our failings, God still speaks to us about love. Let us look towards heaven, let us look towards Love — for the promises of God are never broken — we will get through this time — we will be changed by it — our one and only focus is the promise of love, and for that we give thanks. Amen.