Jesus has taught about and lived out the Kingdom of God for three years before being supposedly silenced as he is executed. Yet he is raised from the dead, has provided a 40-day tutorial about the Kingdom of God—which his followers now understand in a different way than they did before his death and resurrection—and has ascended into heaven. His followers are left to do the work themselves (guided by the Holy Spirit)—to bring about the spreading of the message of the Kingdom of God.
This is a new and different approach to what their religious faith has been about up until now. Now it is about something else besides their regularly proscribed practice of Sabbath worship in the synagogue (or Temple, since at this point they are in Jerusalem, where the Temple is). For the living out of their faith in Yahweh God, proclaiming Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God, eventually all over the known world—that is an entirely new thing, seemingly in an entirely new world—at least a broader world than they’ve been attentive to before as a place to live out and proclaim their faith.
This is new, and with Jesus no longer present to them as flesh and blood—with their leader and guide and teacher no longer “available”—it’s scary. So what do they do?
Acts 1:12-14 tells us what they did. All eleven remaining disciples returned to Jerusalem, to the place where they were all staying, and “all these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.”
They prayed. Constantly. And not only them, but others with them, including Jesus’ mother Mary and his brothers.
They knew this was a huge thing they were being sent to do. And they knew that their world was different, in many ways, and that they needed discernment and divine guidance to do it, since it was something none of them had ever done before. Of course, they had gone out two by two before, but that was when they could return to Jesus and “debrief”. And they didn’t have to figure it out without him right there. But this—this is a new thing, in a new world, unprecedented.
That’s kind of where we find ourselves, post-pandemic. It’s all different. It’s a “new normal” rather than a return to how it was. Life is different. Our uses of technology are different. Who will “be back” and who will not, and the reasons why and why not—unprecedented. What mattered before, what we valued before, may not have value any longer (or it might; we need to sort it all out). It is so different that we’ve never encountered it before. So how should we respond? How should we prepare to start—even in ways to continue—this task we are called to?
The same way the disciples did, in starting the movement of “The Way”—as it was called. Prayer. Constant prayer. Those of us called to lead, and others with us too. For discernment, guidance, inspiration.
Over the next weeks, for July and August, up to Labor Day, we’ll be looking at what those in the spread of “The Way” prayed about as they sought to faithfully respond to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in this “new normal”. I pray it will be a model for us in our “new normal” living out our calling to spread the Good News.
NEW TESTAMENT Acts 1:12-14
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.