A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, June 5, 2011
“LIVING IN TENSION”
(Homily text: Acts 1: 6 - 14)
We begin with a question: How good are we at living in tension?
Naturally, the first thought that might come to our minds is, “We want to get rid of all the tension we can. After all, our doctors tell us that living with too much tension can be dangerous to our health.”
That sort of tension isn’t what I have in mind.
There is another type of tension which is absolutely necessary to living the Christian life. In fact, this sort of tension actually promotes spiritual health.
This sort of tension attempts to hold two seemingly opposing things, two truths that don’t seem to belong in the same thought (much less in the same life), together.
For example (and, by the way, these are the ones we will consider together in this homily), how about holding in tension:
- Kairos time and chronos time
- God’s “big plan” and God’s will for us in our daily lives
Our guide for the consideration of these two points will be our reading from Acts 1: 6 – 14.
To set the stage for the exchange between Jesus and His disciples, we need to remember that today’s account comes to us from the day of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Luke (who is the author not only of the gospel which bears his name, but also of the Book of Acts) tells us that Jesus’ ascension took place 40 days after Easter. So, Ascension Day occurs on a Thursday every year. We celebrated that event just this past Thursday.
But the matter of timing begins our passage today: The disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” (The italics are mine, of course.) Essentially, the disciples’ question is rooted firmly in a concept of time called chronos time. The disciples want to know the day and the year (and maybe even the hour) in which this event will take place. That’s chronos time.
But Jesus’ response has to do – essentially – with kairos time. He says, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
If we could characterize Jesus’ response another way, we might say, “This matter is echelons above your pay-grade.” (Of course, I’m using an old Army image here.)
You see, kairos time has everything to do with God’s time. God lives outside of time as we know it, for God is the one who has seen the beginning from the end, the end from the beginning, and the middle from both. Of course, it also needs to be said that God acts within chronos time. We can see that God is active within time as we know it chiefly in the life, work, teaching, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. We can see God acting in chronos time in other ways, as well. We can see God acting in our own lives, today.
Well, if this truth about God’s time is an important one to know, then somebody please tell Harold Camping about this truth.
The problem is that, from time-to-time, someone will step forward and say (in so many words), “I know the timing of God’s plans….I’ve figured it out.” That’s what Harold Camping did in predicting that the Lord would return on May 21, 2011. Of course, he also predicted that the Lord would return in 1994. Now, he’s saying that he was wrong in his calculations, and that the actual date will be October 21st of this year.
Such prognostications stem from the same desire to know everything about God’s plans. It is the same desire that the disciples pose to Jesus as they say, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” “When” is the operative word here “When will you work in time as we know it,” is a good way to rephrase the question and the concern.
Now here comes the healthy tension that we as mature Christians are called to live into. We are called to:
- Affirm as true the understanding that the Lord will return someday, that God the Father has a great, big plan. We affirm this truth in the words of the Nicene Creed, which we will say together in a few minutes. This truth is heard in the words of the two men who appeared next to the band of disciples, saying, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
- Recognizing that this truth will take place sometime in chronos time, we are not to be concerned about the exact date and the exact manner of its occurrence. I think that’s the gist of what Jesus wants us to know as we consider His response, “It is not for you to know…”
So, that’s God’s “big plan”, if you will. God knows the timing and the manner of the fulfillment of His plan. We can affirm that, allowing God to be God, and keeping in mind the possibility that His plans for us and for the world could actually take place today, even as we are not to know the exact time.
There’s a healthy tension in this understanding, which seeks to keep in view God’s big plan and yet, our not knowing the details of that plan.
Which brings us to the second point with which we began: How do God’s “big plan” and His plans for our daily lives come together?
For the answer to that question, we return to our text from Acts this morning.
Jesus continues His comment about not knowing the times or seasons by telling the disciples that they are to remain in the city of Jerusalem until they have received power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them.
The purpose of the giving of this power of the Holy Spirit is so that these disciples can be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Now this instruction has everything to do with God’s “big plan” and also His plan for our lives.
Put another way, God seems to be telling those original disciples (and us) “You have work to do!”
God’s big plan is going to be worked out in time, our earthly time, and in our world. Jesus’ disciples will be the agents of God’s plan, witnessing to what they have seen and heard in Jesus’ work and teaching to the ends of the earth.
The work given to these original disciples is also given to us today. We are called to be witnesses to what the Lord has done in our midst.
We do so (if I may repeat myself), focusing on the work at hand, the daily work God gives us to do, ever mindful that we are a small part of God’s great, big plan.
So here we have another sort of very healthy spiritual tension.
May God enable us, through the power of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, to live into the tension of being able to affirm the truth of God’s plans for the world, and our place in those plans.
AMEN.
