When we leave the disciples on Ascension Day (Today!), they are bewildered and dazed. They just kept staring up into the sky, looking for what was coming next. They were told to wait for the coming of the Spirit.
Most of us don’t do well with waiting. We live in an impatient, instant society. We want results immediately.
After Ernest Hemingway was wounded during the war, he waited through long periods of convalescence. During that time, he observed that some of his fellow hospital patients were strengthened by periods of recovery, while others were shown to be shallow and immature. From this experience Hemingway developed the basic story line for his novels. He would put seemingly strong people into difficult situations in which they were forced to wait.
On the day of Ascension, it was not immediately apparent what all the waiting was about. But in the days and years to come they would become aware of the transformation taking place; those eleven consented to become the church and nothing was ever the same again.
Could that be said of Bethesda-by-the-Sea? With nothing but prayer and each other, that congregation consented to be the church, and nothing was ever the same again.
Bob Dannals
Interim Rector