End. Begin. - The Rev. Gigi Miller

Endings are difficult. I’m always a little disappointed when I finish an engaging book, movie, or series; I want to know what the future holds for my favorite characters. Even when there’s another installment, it’s tough to wait for the next book, season, or sequel, especially if it takes years to drop, like the House of the Dragon. I know I’m not alone in this since folks write fan fiction and debate plot twists to fill the story’s gaps.

Today’s reading from Acts finds Jesus’ followers in their own state of waiting and transition on the top of Mount Olivet. They’ve spent 40 days with the resurrected Messiah learning from him about God’s dream, what Jesus calls the kingdom of heaven. In response, the disciples ask Jesus if this means he’s going to restore Israel’s rule, presumably driving out their Roman occupiers. Their confusion reminds me of how I can lose the details of a particularly complex plot.

You can almost picture Jesus rolling his eyes and inwardly groaning “Have you understood anything I’ve said?” After all, the disciples weren’t just informed by Jesus’ teachings; they had texts like Psalm 68, part of which we heard today, which describes God as the ” father of orphans, defender of widows” and God’s reign as one that “gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom.”  So, while it’s true that God’s vision for the future isn’t the oppressive Roman empire, it also doesn’t sound like any of Israel’s previous kingdoms. Jesus reminds the disciples that they don’t control God’s plan or timetable. What they can expect is God’s Holy Spirit to help them spread the Good News throughout the world. And with that, Jesus disappears into a cloud. Though this ending is decidedly more reassuring than Jesus’ crucifixion several days earlier, the fact remains that his friends are left alone. Again.

The Torah states that two witnesses are required to establish the credibility of an event. Conveniently, two men in white appear and ask what may be the most rhetorical question in the Bible “Why are you looking up into heaven?” Let’s face it - Jesus’ friends have been through a lot. They’ve walked miles of dusty roads through villages and cities with Jesus, heard him debate religious leaders, watched as he healed the sick, fed the hungry, and brought life to the dying, and listened to his stories relating God’s vision to their everyday lives. Jesus’ followers witnessed his wrongful arrest and brutal murder by an authoritarian regime, then his glorious triumph over death itself. It’s no wonder that these friends unsteadily gaze up after at the vanishing Jesus, even as they hope for the Holy Spirit’s appearance. The two strangers comfort the awestruck disciples with the promise that Jesus will eventually return.

Before we get too far into Scripture, it’s worth noticing not just its narrative but its context. Most ancient civilizations had some idea of the heavens as the spiritual dimension as opposed to the more time-bound, earthy aspect. To the Israelites, clouds were Shechinah – manifestations of divine presence. God led them through the desert to the promised land in a pillar of cloud and affirmed Jesus’ divinity through a cloud during the transfiguration. Both the heavens and earth are created and loved by God and exist within each other.

When we feel God moving through our lives, the Divine landscape expands, and we’re aware of the Spirit infusing everything. Jesus, God in human form, is leaving his friends, but he takes with him his humanity – our humanity. As the third arc of Jesus’ story after his birth and resurrection, Jesus’ ascension gives God the perspective of a human in God’s creation with all its joy and heartache.

Endings are difficult, and Jesus’ disciples are left with profound uncertainty mixed with anticipation. They’re standing in the liminal place between what was and what is to come. The eleven disciples stumble back down the mountain to Jerusalem to wait and watch for the Holy Spirit within a supportive company of believers, including his mother and the women who were the first to affirm Jesus’ resurrection. As they pray for guidance, perhaps they recall Jesus’ prayer for them from our Gospel reading.

In it, John brings us back to the final meal Jesus shares with his friends in the same upper room in which they will gather after his death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus tries to tell them what’s in store and how they should move forward.

In preparing his friends for the future, I wonder if Jesus confronts his own death for the first time and realizes the impact it will have on his followers. Now he understands that this ending, even though it opens a new chapter for the world, will be heartbreaking for them. The disciples listen in as Jesus tenderly prays that God will take care of them – his dedicated companions - after he’s gone. “I am asking on their behalf,” Jesus beseeches God, “I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” This exchange reveals the deeply intimate relationship between Jesus and God and the depth of Jesus’ compassion. How would our outlook on life change if we understood that we too are in a community for whom Jesus prays?

In a few moments, we’ll be gathering our own prayers for the graduates in our church family. Their hard work is ending, and something new is on the horizon, whether they’re graduating from preschool, high school, college, or anything in between. Like the disciples, our graduates are transitioning from what was to what is to come.  Godly Play, our Sunday School curriculum, teaches God’s time isn’t a straight line but rather a circle with every ending containing a beginning and every beginning an ending.

So, we’ll thank God for the things we’ve learned from all our graduates and ask that they keep their St. Andrew’s community close to their hearts. As Jesus prayed for his friends, we’ll implore God to keep our graduates safe in the Divine embrace. We’ll send them off on their new adventures with the words in today’s letter from the apostle Peter, “Cast all your anxiety on God, because God cares for you. The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”