Nothing important ever happens or begins at the level of our conscious selves. Jesus doesn't tell the apostles that is us to act. He tells us to wait. Wait in the city until you receive power from on high.
A lot of people hate waiting. All the troubles of the world are caused, said Pascal, by people who cannot keep their own company waiting in a room. Waiting beside somebody's sick bed. Will they live or will they die? waiting for the results of health investigations.
We should have begun learning to wait from the very beginning of childhood. The wise ones tell us that children ought to be used to boredom. How could you tell anyone that the most wonderful thing in life is learning to wait on God? And God is unknown. So, we don't know what we're waiting for when we live in a world of incessant entertainment and no waiting.
So I have a question for you. Why was Shakespeare the greatest poet, playwright, writer who has ever lived? Of course, it's a disputed question. but why was Shakespeare the greatest poet, playwright, writer who ever lived? The poet John Keats thought he knew. Keats said that Shakespeare was possessed by something called negative capability. I don't know if you know this but negative capability is now in our language or in the language of some of it. And Keats went on to say what it meant. He said negative capability is the capacity to exist in uncertainties, mysteries and doubts without any irritable reaching for fact and reason.
It was essential for the apostles and it's essential for us if we are apostles. Jesus simply called them to follow us, follow him. He never explained what he was doing or why. Accepting waiting in bewilderment was an essential qualification for being a disciple, but not senseless bewilderment. The underlying bedrock was that Jesus is trustworthy.
Every important event in the Bible and probably in your life doesn't begin with acting but with being acted upon. The creation, the incarnation, the resurrection, the coming of the spirit are not our doing.
We just have to be able to receive them. We have been told that it's better to give than to receive. I say it's better to receive than to give. There is a level at which it's much harder to receive than to give. And people who can't receive don't understand the faith. They don't understand about receiving gifts.
Receiving gifts and not paying for them makes some people panic. Unless we face down our panic, we will never discover what grace is. You Galileans, why are you standing there staring at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken from you will come again in the same way as you saw him go there.
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The minister today explained to how horse chestnut flowers can be a reminder of the ascension because the flowers point upwards to heaven. Sycamore flowers can also remind us about Jesus’ humbleness because they put down to earth.
“Where do our feet take us to be those hands, those feet, those ears, those voices of Christ in the world today. That's not something that we can do in our own strength, of course. And that's why next week we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As we heard in that gospel reading, Jesus says, "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
