Finding Joy in the In-between Time

The Rev. Robert P. Travis

Sunday after the Ascension Sermon – 8:00 and 10:30am Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN

RCL Year B 5/20/2012

Scripture Text: Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53

Sermon Text:

Our music, readings, and even this message

all celebrate our patronal feast today.

Actually Ascension Day was Thursday,

but we don't celebrate it on that day,

and I really don't know why we don't.

We're celebrating it today, but you know,

it's kind of a struggle to celebrate,

because what is Ascension really?

It is not a patron saint, the Ascension can't pray for us.

If you've thought about it,

you come to see it's an ambiguous time,

an event in the life of Christ,

that is sandwiched between two much bigger events,

the Resurrection on the one side,

and the Pentecost on the other.

Or maybe you've never really thought about it at all.

Some of you might wonder what we

as Church of the Ascension are,

in a similar light,

where have we been,

and where are we headed.

or some might have never really thought about it.

I've given it a good deal of thought,

and want to share those thoughts with you today,

in the hope that you will reconsider who we are together,

and what we are called to become.

The Ascension of Jesus takes place in an in between time,

a sociologist might call it a liminal time,

Jesus rose from the grave,

and spent forty days with his disciples,

and as we see the scene in Acts,

he tells them that they are to stay in Jerusalem,

because they will be baptized by the Holy Spirit,

not many days from now.

Come next Sunday to hear and see what that was all about.

The disciples ask him if this is the time,

when he will restore the Kingdom of Israel,

which is something they had been thinking about,

at least since Palm Sunday

and Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem.

He answers that question by saying,

that time for that is not for you to know,

look to what is happening next,

that I already told you,

you will receive the Holy Spirit,

and be my witnesses . . . but not yet.

Then he is lifted up into heaven in bodily form.

It's an event that happens between other events,

a grey area in which there is expectation,

and memory,

a time of unfulfillment.

And we would expect that living in a moment

like that, would fill those present with anxiety.

Because isn't it more comfortable to be

in one place or the other, and not to be in between?

But the witness of the disciples in our text,

is that this experience filled them with joy,

and lead them to worship the one who had just left them.

Maybe the joy comes from the promises

that Jesus gave them before he left.

He promised them that he would send the Holy Spirit

to baptize them and empower them,

and they were promised that Jesus would return

in the same way he left them.

Without these promises,

it might have seemed like the story of Jesus was over,

once and for all,

and that certainly would have been more

an occasion for panic and despair than for joy.

And of course, for us,

in this time, having already witnessed that the promise

of Pentecost was fulfilled, and continues to be fulfilled,

by the filling of the Holy Spirit,

and the development of the Church all around the world.

All of that fulfillment

gives us much greater hope in the second coming,

since both of those promises were given at the same time,

and one is already fulfilled,

we can trust that the other will indeed come to pass.

But still we find ourselves living in an in between time,

in the time of the already, and the not yet.

How do we live in that time with Joy?

I've wondered about that in between time with this place,

this Church of the Ascension.

On a personal level,

I already told you last time I preached,

something of the low place I was in before I got here,

and how this has been a place of healing for me,

a place of coming to know what it means to be

one of God's beloved children.

But I also wondered if there was a significance to coming

to a place called The Ascension.

At first, when I realized that things

were on the up and up here,

that maybe this would be a place of Ascension,

in a literal sense, for me as well.

A place where I would be prepared

for whatever would come next in my life as a priest.

In a way that's what I came looking for.

I had already been an assistant rector,

and certainly there were opportunities for becoming

a rector of another church.

But I did not feel ready for that.

And I came here looking for what I needed

to develop further into who God was calling me to be.

Though that was partly true,

it was not completely correct to see this place

as just an in between.

I have come to understand over the past few years,

that there is real value in the present moment,

and that being truly present here,

and witnessing the great things Christ is doing here,

has a greater value than simply moving

from one place to another.

There is joy to be found, in the present moment,

even if it is between moments that seem greater,

and in finding that joy,

because it has to be found,

it seldom just happens,

we discover the value of living, and are inclined to worship the one who gives it.

And isn't that what we find so annoying about

people who are just climbing from place to place anyway?

That they don't seem to appreciate where they are

in the current moment,

or the people they are presently with?

You all know people like that, right?

Well, I certainly do not want to be like that.

So I learned that The Church of the Ascension,

was much more to me than a place in between

places of greater significance,

This place, all of you,

have come to mean so much to me,

and my family.

And in many ways because of that,

I would like to stay,

exactly where I am.

Perhaps some of you feel that way about this place as well.

We're in a good place now,

why can't things stay exactly how they are right now?

Well, we all know that is not the way the world works.

That is certainly the story of God and his people,

that we read in scripture.

It is good to be in the present moment,

to enjoy it and be grateful for what it is,

but we cannot hold onto it as if there

was nothing else to come.

The story of this Church has been like that.

At first we were just a vision at St. John's downtown.

They wanted to have a chapel in West Knoxville.

We were named for the mosaic over the altar at St. John's,

a mosaic showing Jesus ascending into heaven.

We started out as a little worshipping community,

a Chapel of the Ascension.

But much as that was probably very enjoyable,

and Christ was present with us then,

we couldn't stay there.

We had to become more than just a mosaic on another church's ceiling,

to become our own church in this place,

to become Church of The Ascension.

There was an in between time there as well,

and we were called from being a small church,

to building this magnificent building,

and becoming the large church of the Ascension.

But even that had its in between times,

as we struggled with whether we would be a community that worshipped primarily in a contemporary way,

or with the traditional patterns we inherited.

And for a while there was the in between time of worshipping in two different places at the same time.

And then the struggles over identity,

and whether we could include great diversity of beliefs

strongly held,

and the great split over those differing beliefs.

There was an in between time when we wondered,

whether we could make it without those dear friends

who left to form their own community.

Whether we could still be Church of the Ascension

without them.

Or whether we would be something different.

We found healing, and that we could indeed continue

as Church of the Ascension,

but there is a sense that we

are heading into something different.

And so we come into another in-between time right now.

When we wonder if we will grow into the next level

of large church,

and stay connected to one another,

growing deeper in faith through vital smaller groups of people supporting one another

in the midst of a large worshipping congregation.

It seems like as a church we have spent more time

in the in-between times,

than in one big event or the other.

Perhaps your own life has been much like that.

We think there is a destination we are headed,

and we set our sights on that destination,

whether it is graduation from high school,

or college,

or a career track with a definite goal in mind.

Or maybe it's having a family with three kids.

Whatever it is, when we set our sights on the goal,

there is danger in missing out on the blessing

of the in-between time,

which is really the time in which we live most of our lives.

Look at the time we're living in theologically.

The Resurrection happened,

and the Pentecost happened,

but Jesus has not yet returned.

So we have been living in the in-between times,

living in the already and the not yet,

for the last two thousand years.

And yet there is so much life to celebrate in that time.

It may seem like a gray area,

like a time that is not defined,

but it is the place in which we live,

and it is a place in which joy can be found

Life can be celebrated,

and the source of life, God, can be worshipped.

The challenge we all face,

is to live in the present moment,

cherishing the memory of the great things

in life that have past,

our lives,

and even more importanly,

the lives of the people we belong to,

looking with hope to the future that we know will come.

But also we must seek the joy of the moment,

that would not be joy without the past and the future.

When we're detached from the bigger story,

and the story yet to come,

what we find in the moment may be mere happiness,

and that is elusive at least,

and dangerously addictive at worst.

The joy we seek is in finding the connections between

our story and the greater story,

how we fit our lives into the ancient story of

the children of God,

and set our hopes on participating in that great story

in the future.

I pray that you will find your place in that story,

and live in this in-between time with joy,

memory and hope.

If we can do that, each individually,

and as a community of faith,

then I am certain we will be faithful,

to the next place the Lord wants to lead us.