We are in an intense period of the liturgical year right now. Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. This Sunday is Pentecost, followed by Trinity Sunday on May 26. The narrative cycle of the church year is coming to a close, and we are transitioning to the rhythm of “ordinary time”—where we will remain until Advent begins again.
Each of these three holy days presents us with myriad sacred mysteries, one of which is the idea of community. The disciples must decide who they are going to be, individually and together, once Jesus is no longer physically present with them. It was a strange, evolving process to figure that out then, and it remains so for us in our faith communities today.
In honor of this powerful season, I offer this quotation from Barbara Brown Taylor. She is writing specifically about the reaction of the disciples when Jesus is taken up to heaven before them at the Ascension, but her words could apply to the process of building community anywhere and at any time:
No one standing around watching them that day could have guessed what an astonishing thing happened when they all stopped looking at the sky and started looking at each other instead…But in the days and years to come it would become very apparent what had happened to them. With nothing but a promise and a prayer, those eleven disciples consented to become the church and nothing was ever the same again, beginning with them. The followers became leaders, the listeners became preachers, the converts became missionaries, the healed became healers. The disciples became apostles, witnesses of the risen Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, and nothing was ever the same again…They stopped looking up toward heaven, looked at each other instead, and got on with the business of being the church.
May we know the blessings of the Spirit as we do the same!
