“Working from Home”
It’s well over two months now since the pandemic emergency was officially declared in New Jersey. For many of us that means that the last 9 weeks, give or take, have been spent working from home, cooped up in our houses, spending our time avoiding people as best we can. Maybe only venturing out to buy food or take a trip to the drugstore.
We don’t have to strain our imaginations too much to think about how our lives have changed these past two months. Right now I’ve got two things on my mind that have driven home how different the world is. The first is that on Saturday, I watched the online graduation ceremony for the New Brunswick Seminary class of 2020. And it was a far cry from the graduation I went through 4 years ago. No crowd of family and friends packed into Rutgers Kirkpatrick Chapel. No walking across a stage to receive a handshake and a diploma. To say nothing of the pain I felt remembering that the man who handed me my own diploma 4 years ago, Dr. Gregg Mast, is no longer with us – one of the tens of thousands of victims of this pandemic.
The other thing that’s really thinking about how different the world is, is that before I watched the Seminary graduation, I spent the morning fixing my own toilet. Now, maybe you know, or maybe you can guess that I am not the most handy guy in the world. I know that there are flathead screwdrivers and Philips-head screwdrivers… and that’s about all I know. Normally, a leaking toilet means a call to the landlord, they send someone out, and it’s not my problem, aside from keeping the water mopped up.
These days… well… it just seems a bad idea to have unnecessary people coming in and out of the house. Especially when the YouTube tutorials assure me that fixing a leaking toilet is an easy job that can be done in a few minutes.
Well… it’s true that if you’re a professional, or at least a competent person who knows what they’re doing – a repair like this can take 10 minutes.
On the other hand, if you’re me – and you’re not so competent.. well… let’s just say it took significantly longer. But it’s done. It’s fixed. And now, the next time it happens, I’ll have a better idea of what to do and hopefully get it done quicker.
We’re all making adjustments to our lives. Some big and some small. Some of us are reading more, cooking more, pursuing different hobbies, and taking intentional steps to learn new skills, learn a new subject, or broaden our interests or abilities.
Others of us, are hunkering down, sticking to familiar routines as best we can, and having new skills thrust unwelcomingly upon us.
Whether we’re working from home, spending retirement at home, or quarantined with relatives away from our homes, we’re all navigating unfamiliar waters and doing new things.
Which has me wondering about our scripture readings about Jesus this morning.
Our reading from the Gospel of John is basically Jesus’s closing prayer in his farewell address to the disciples. This is before his arrest and crucifixion, but at a time when he knows his days on earth are coming to an end. Jesus prays for himself to be glorified by the Father, but mostly he prays for God’s people, that they may know God, that they may know eternal life, that they may be protected in God’s name, because God and God’s people are now united in Christ.
Jesus prays this because he knows that he is going home.
Christ’s departure is recorded in the Book of Acts where it says that he was taken up into heaven on a great cloud.
And as the cloud took the risen Christ out of their sight, all the people could do at first was to gaze, to watch him ascend.
And all I can think as the people watched Christ ascend to heaven… is that they must have been thinking, “Now what?”
What do we do now that Christ is no longer with us?
What’s our next step now that our God is no longer here?
What’s in store for us now? What’s next?
Think about the position that those people are in, having just watch Jesus disappear on a cloud. They don’t know what’s going to happen next.
They’re in this transitory period of time between knowing the flesh and blood certainty of Jesus Christ being with them, living among them. And the knowledge of Christ to come. One moment the God of Israel, King of Kings, Savior of all humanity is there with them. They can see God; they can point to God – God’s right over there.
And the next moment… God’s presence becomes abstract. Intangible. Mystical.
God is still here with us, of course.
But God is no longer something or someone we can just point to.
And so the disciples are in that gray area – the transitions between God as they knew Jesus to be. And God who is in all places at all times, even as there isn’t a physical entity we can point to.
So, of course, to put ourselves in their shoes, we must ask, “what’s next?”
It’s a question that Jesus himself stokes, just before he departs in Acts, when he is asked, “Lord, is this is the time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” and he simply replies, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” The people flat out ask him, “what’s next?” and he basically shrugs his shoulders and says, “I can’t tell you.”
Which has got to be a deeply unsatisfying answer to the disciples in that moment.
And yet, the scriptures tell us exactly where Jesus is and what he is doing.
From Luke 22:69 – “But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
From Colossians 3:1 – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
From Hebrews 8:1 – “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty of heaven…”
Christ leaves earth to return to the heavenly house of God; to be at the right hand of the Father.
Not to be glib – but Christ’s visitation on earth is done. And in his ascension, he’s gone to begin working from home.
And as we all know from our own experiences, that means that there are adjustments to be made. Jesus isn’t up there trying to figure out why Zoom meetings keep glitching out or shouting at the slow internet speeds. But it does mean that the way in which Jesus interacts with people fundamentally changes. Christ’s job to show love to the world and guide us back to God – that job doesn’t change. But the way in which he does it changes. The days of the blind and the sick being healed at the touch of his cloak are no longer, because there’s no longer a cloak for us to touch.
Yet still the healing, loving, miraculous work of Jesus continues.
It continues through prayer, as we pray to Jesus, Jesus prays for us – He is our eternal advocate before the Father; he is our closest friend and ally in heaven. He bends the will of God towards mercy and forgiveness, to treat us according to God’s own loving kindness, and not with coldness or lack of mercy.
It continues through people. God has put loving, generous hearts into so many people. If you want to know who loves Christ, don’t just look at who goes to church – but look at what people do; how people treat others; how they care and where they put their energy.
Jesus’s work continues through the Church. Even though so many of our buildings are closed (or are supposed to be), we all know that the true church has never been about the building but about the people - and about faith. And yes, we love to gather and sing and join our voices in praise. But one of the many miracles of faith is that even when we can’t gather – even when we’re in the season of Ecclesiastes where we’re not in a time to embrace, but a time to refrain from embracing – that the church still endures – that faith still endures.
Christ’s work continues in countless different ways, in thousands of different manifestations, all around the world. And that hasn’t changed just because he’s been working from the past 2,000 years.
It means that our experience of Christ has changed. Even as the work God does, the love God shows us, and the faith we are blessed with, stay the same. As it has from the first spark of Creation, through the days of Christ on earth, down through us today. The work of God’s love remains eternal in all things. And this is to God’s glory. Amen.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we look to you on this Memorial Day weekend, this day when we celebrate the Ascension of your Son into your kingdom, this day when so much of our world is as we’ve always known it; yet so much seems to different. Lord, we pray that you keep us attuned to the needs and cares of the people around us; keep our focus on the love you pour into our hearts; make us ever-mindful of your constant work in our lives and in the life of the world. Though it seems as though we walk on shifting sands, we trust you to guide our feet along your steadfast path. We pray this in the name of our eternal Advocate, Jesus Christ. Amen.
It’s well over two months now since the pandemic emergency was officially declared in New Jersey. For many of us that means that the last 9 weeks, give or take, have been spent working from home, cooped up in our houses, spending our time avoiding people as best we can. Maybe only venturing out to buy food or take a trip to the drugstore.
We don’t have to strain our imaginations too much to think about how our lives have changed these past two months. Right now I’ve got two things on my mind that have driven home how different the world is. The first is that on Saturday, I watched the online graduation ceremony for the New Brunswick Seminary class of 2020. And it was a far cry from the graduation I went through 4 years ago. No crowd of family and friends packed into Rutgers Kirkpatrick Chapel. No walking across a stage to receive a handshake and a diploma. To say nothing of the pain I felt remembering that the man who handed me my own diploma 4 years ago, Dr. Gregg Mast, is no longer with us – one of the tens of thousands of victims of this pandemic.
The other thing that’s really thinking about how different the world is, is that before I watched the Seminary graduation, I spent the morning fixing my own toilet. Now, maybe you know, or maybe you can guess that I am not the most handy guy in the world. I know that there are flathead screwdrivers and Philips-head screwdrivers… and that’s about all I know. Normally, a leaking toilet means a call to the landlord, they send someone out, and it’s not my problem, aside from keeping the water mopped up.
These days… well… it just seems a bad idea to have unnecessary people coming in and out of the house. Especially when the YouTube tutorials assure me that fixing a leaking toilet is an easy job that can be done in a few minutes.
Well… it’s true that if you’re a professional, or at least a competent person who knows what they’re doing – a repair like this can take 10 minutes.
On the other hand, if you’re me – and you’re not so competent.. well… let’s just say it took significantly longer. But it’s done. It’s fixed. And now, the next time it happens, I’ll have a better idea of what to do and hopefully get it done quicker.
We’re all making adjustments to our lives. Some big and some small. Some of us are reading more, cooking more, pursuing different hobbies, and taking intentional steps to learn new skills, learn a new subject, or broaden our interests or abilities.
Others of us, are hunkering down, sticking to familiar routines as best we can, and having new skills thrust unwelcomingly upon us.
Whether we’re working from home, spending retirement at home, or quarantined with relatives away from our homes, we’re all navigating unfamiliar waters and doing new things.
Which has me wondering about our scripture readings about Jesus this morning.
Our reading from the Gospel of John is basically Jesus’s closing prayer in his farewell address to the disciples. This is before his arrest and crucifixion, but at a time when he knows his days on earth are coming to an end. Jesus prays for himself to be glorified by the Father, but mostly he prays for God’s people, that they may know God, that they may know eternal life, that they may be protected in God’s name, because God and God’s people are now united in Christ.
Jesus prays this because he knows that he is going home.
Christ’s departure is recorded in the Book of Acts where it says that he was taken up into heaven on a great cloud.
And as the cloud took the risen Christ out of their sight, all the people could do at first was to gaze, to watch him ascend.
And all I can think as the people watched Christ ascend to heaven… is that they must have been thinking, “Now what?”
What do we do now that Christ is no longer with us?
What’s our next step now that our God is no longer here?
What’s in store for us now? What’s next?
Think about the position that those people are in, having just watch Jesus disappear on a cloud. They don’t know what’s going to happen next.
They’re in this transitory period of time between knowing the flesh and blood certainty of Jesus Christ being with them, living among them. And the knowledge of Christ to come. One moment the God of Israel, King of Kings, Savior of all humanity is there with them. They can see God; they can point to God – God’s right over there.
And the next moment… God’s presence becomes abstract. Intangible. Mystical.
God is still here with us, of course.
But God is no longer something or someone we can just point to.
And so the disciples are in that gray area – the transitions between God as they knew Jesus to be. And God who is in all places at all times, even as there isn’t a physical entity we can point to.
So, of course, to put ourselves in their shoes, we must ask, “what’s next?”
It’s a question that Jesus himself stokes, just before he departs in Acts, when he is asked, “Lord, is this is the time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” and he simply replies, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” The people flat out ask him, “what’s next?” and he basically shrugs his shoulders and says, “I can’t tell you.”
Which has got to be a deeply unsatisfying answer to the disciples in that moment.
And yet, the scriptures tell us exactly where Jesus is and what he is doing.
From Luke 22:69 – “But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
From Colossians 3:1 – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
From Hebrews 8:1 – “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty of heaven…”
Christ leaves earth to return to the heavenly house of God; to be at the right hand of the Father.
Not to be glib – but Christ’s visitation on earth is done. And in his ascension, he’s gone to begin working from home.
And as we all know from our own experiences, that means that there are adjustments to be made. Jesus isn’t up there trying to figure out why Zoom meetings keep glitching out or shouting at the slow internet speeds. But it does mean that the way in which Jesus interacts with people fundamentally changes. Christ’s job to show love to the world and guide us back to God – that job doesn’t change. But the way in which he does it changes. The days of the blind and the sick being healed at the touch of his cloak are no longer, because there’s no longer a cloak for us to touch.
Yet still the healing, loving, miraculous work of Jesus continues.
It continues through prayer, as we pray to Jesus, Jesus prays for us – He is our eternal advocate before the Father; he is our closest friend and ally in heaven. He bends the will of God towards mercy and forgiveness, to treat us according to God’s own loving kindness, and not with coldness or lack of mercy.
It continues through people. God has put loving, generous hearts into so many people. If you want to know who loves Christ, don’t just look at who goes to church – but look at what people do; how people treat others; how they care and where they put their energy.
Jesus’s work continues through the Church. Even though so many of our buildings are closed (or are supposed to be), we all know that the true church has never been about the building but about the people - and about faith. And yes, we love to gather and sing and join our voices in praise. But one of the many miracles of faith is that even when we can’t gather – even when we’re in the season of Ecclesiastes where we’re not in a time to embrace, but a time to refrain from embracing – that the church still endures – that faith still endures.
Christ’s work continues in countless different ways, in thousands of different manifestations, all around the world. And that hasn’t changed just because he’s been working from the past 2,000 years.
It means that our experience of Christ has changed. Even as the work God does, the love God shows us, and the faith we are blessed with, stay the same. As it has from the first spark of Creation, through the days of Christ on earth, down through us today. The work of God’s love remains eternal in all things. And this is to God’s glory. Amen.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we look to you on this Memorial Day weekend, this day when we celebrate the Ascension of your Son into your kingdom, this day when so much of our world is as we’ve always known it; yet so much seems to different. Lord, we pray that you keep us attuned to the needs and cares of the people around us; keep our focus on the love you pour into our hearts; make us ever-mindful of your constant work in our lives and in the life of the world. Though it seems as though we walk on shifting sands, we trust you to guide our feet along your steadfast path. We pray this in the name of our eternal Advocate, Jesus Christ. Amen.