We are undergoing a type of revolution here in the United States. The "Supreme" Court's decision in the Callais case out of Louisiana, stripping away the final portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has led to a cavalcade of Southern state legislatures hastily redrawing their Congressional districts in an effort to disenfranchise black voters.
Blacks tend to vote for Democrats, and the Republican Party is desperate to use any means possible to stop the inevitable thrashing they're about to get in the wake of this horrid regime and its greed and grift at the expense of working people.
On Saturday, May 16th, thousands assembled in Montgomery, Alabama for All Roads Lead to the South. This was a rally to motivate all people of goodwill to stand up and fight for the rights of black and brown people to have their voices count at the ballot box this election year. I had really wanted to go, but having done so much driving lately...and the prospect of having to do seven hours round trip to Montgomery and then have the energy to drive back and forth to Valdosta the next day....nope. The spirit was willing but the flesh said, "Are you nuts?!"
But the evil being done in state legislatures, and my own grief still present at the loss of friends, was very much on my mind as I read through the scriptures assigned for this Sunday after the Ascension. Rather than isolated one pericope, I found that the Spirit was drawing on pieces and parts from three of the four.
See what you think.
Texts:
Acts 1:6-14; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
I recently reconnected with an old
colleague and friend from my days working in radio.
In our back-and-forth exchange…she
shared with me an interview she had done with her husband for the StoryCorps
program.
StoryCorps is an independent audio
production company that travels the country by silver bus.
They set up shop… usually for a couple
of weeks in a location… and offer to record people who want to share their
stories about anything…and then StoryCorps distributes a copy of the recording
to the participants.
The originals are housed at the National
Archives in DC.
Some of those recordings are also played
on National Public Radio on Friday mornings.
My friend had signed up with her husband
to meet with StoryCorps when they came to her city.
And they reminisced about how they met.
As part of their discussion… they talked
about death.
He was much older than she was…so the
presumption was that he was going to die first.
He told her that when he died…he wanted
her to be happy…and to do whatever things would make her happy.
“But what if I’m not going to be happy
when you’re gone?” she asked.
“Well, you’re going to have to figure
that out, kiddo.”
He did die…about six years ago.
And my friend is still striving to
figure it out…and to find happiness in a life without her beloved.
Grief…and the sense of a profound
loss…of a spouse…a lover…a job…or even fundamental rights…can plunge us into a
liminal space.
The world keeps spinning on its axis…but
we don’t feel as though we’re traveling at the same speed as everyone else.
It’s that odd time of knowing that
something has ended…and yet we are stumbling our way toward the beginning of
something new.
That’s the place where we find the
disciples right now…as we move from the season of Easter…and the joyfulness of
the resurrection… and head toward Pentecost…and the next act in God’s dream for
the world.
This past Thursday…the fortieth day
after Easter…we marked the Feast of the Ascension…which we heard about this
morning in the Book of Acts.
Jesus’s time on earth has come to an
end…and like the prophet Elijah…he is lifted up and away… to take his seat at
the right hand of God.
Our Gospel lesson from John this morning
recalls Jesus’s concluding prayer for his friends…a final appeal to God to
watch over them…be with them…protect them from the storms of life that will
come their way.
Jesus has done all he could do in his
time on earth.
Now it’s their turn to figure it out.
It’s also our turn.
As we have listened to these words of
Scripture today…and over the past many weeks…months and years of our
lives…we’ve been given countless lessons in how to live into Love.
All the prayers…the hymns that we
sing…and this meal that we share at this table…they’re all meant to reinforce
and remind us that we already have the tools in our proverbial toolbelts to do
the sometimes frustrating…and yet important and joyful work of repairing the
breeches in the world around us…loving our neighbors…no matter who they are…in
the way that we want to be loved…cared for…and treated.
We heard Jesus’s prayer in John’s
Gospel…but Luke’s account of the ascension gives us some more color around that
moment with disciples as he left them for the last time.
Luke tells us that Jesus spent his last
hour opening their minds to understanding the Scriptures…connecting the dots
between the prophets of the Old Testament…and everything he had shown and
taught them.
And just before he ascended into
heaven…he was offered them a blessing.
But rather than being in despair…Luke
says Jesus’s friends “returned to Jerusalem overwhelmed with joy.”
Not moping.
Not handwringing.
They were overwhelmed with joy.
That’s such an interesting observation.
And yet it makes sense.
Because something had shifted in them.
Deep in their hearts they understood
that this ending of Jesus’s earthly ministry wasn’t an end….like “Well, that’s
over!”
No, his spirit…his words…his mission was
with them…and in them…in the same way that it’s within us.
We are the new hands and feet and mouths
of Jesus.
That’s really good news…especially as we
face the challenges that are before us.
The author Anne Lamott used a phrase in
a recent Substack article that resonated with me, “Life is getting so much
lifeier than I was prepared for.” (“Gold” from Hallelujah Anyways, May 2, 2026
on Substack).
She was writing about all the things
happening at the global level of life as we know it: wars…billionaires using
and abusing people and systems…and…while she didn’t name this one… I would add
to her list the breakneck speed at which Southern state legislatures are
undoing all the heavy lifting of the civil rights movement.
Add to those troubles…the more personal
things that affect us: the surgeries…the troubling diagnosis…the death of loved
ones. And Lamott says, “that’s more lifeier than I was prepared for.”
But even with those realities that
sometimes can come at us in rapid fire succession…we aren’t hopeless when we
remember and return to the root of our being: the Love of God that is in
us…with us…and around us always.
That’s what our Epistle reading from the
First Letter of Peter is driving at.
Peter acknowledges that ordeals will
test and challenge us.
We are going to face health crises…and
bad days at work…and gerrymandered political maps that deepen the rifts between
us…and make us turn on one another.
As Peter so aptly put it: “Like a
roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to
devour.” (1 Peter 5:8b)
But when such trouble arises…we must
resist it…and stay steadfast in our faith.
One of my favorite theologians…Howard
Thurman…wrote that “the evilness of evil isn’t about destroying the body or
reducing cities to rubble;
Its real target is to corrupt the spirit
and give the soul the contagion of inner disintegration.” (Thurman, Essential
Writings, quoting The Meditations of the Heart, 110-111).
Now.... I admit…when something big has
happened that makes it seem as if the ground beneath my feet is shifting every
which way…I find it hard to remember to slow down…and as Peter says “Humble
myself,” meaning…enter that prayerful place… and lean on God to seek help.
Or…more accurately…I get so caught up in
my own mental wrestling that I forget that God is waiting and ready to remind
me of those things that I already have learned.
So when I have finally have worn myself
out with my thrashing…I ask for God’s guidance…and taking some deep breaths…I
make my plea to the Holy One:
To tell me again those truths…that the
real nature of God is love.
And Love is stronger than hate.
Help me to hear those words… so that it
fills my heart and mind with balm of God’s peace.
Ground me in the goodness that is always
there…
Open my eyes to take in the wonder of
God’s artistry in the rising and setting of the sun and the song of the birds
in the trees.
And with my soul now calm and the noise
in my head quieted down…again show me the way so that I may help lead others
with strength…courage…and kindness…so that I may
not
be a stumbling block to those seeking the freedom that comes from God’s love.
As Pentecost draws near may our hearts
and minds be primed as we seek God’s peace…and hope…so that we’re ready to do
the work of Love that’s before us.
In the name of our One Holy and
Undivided Trinity.
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