"Open to the Spirit" - Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

This Sunday we begin regathering for worship after 14 months of worshipping online during this pandemic.  Shannon and I could not be more excited about the prospect of finally worshipping in person with you all.  Still, we are taking it slowly, beginning with only 30 congregants the first two weeks and then raising our limit to 50.  We are also taking many safety precautions- like mask wearing, social distancing, and no congregational singing for the moment.  Despite all this there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the future.  After a year off of in person worship will all of our members return?  As we continue to livestream what will a “hybrid” service look like for those in attendance?  How soon will we be able to return to indoor meals, to service projects in the community, to singing together?  I believe we are making the right choice to move forward with our regathering, but what exactly our future looks like remains largely uncertain.

In this week’s text from the first chapter of Acts, the apostles are trying to move forward in the midst of great uncertainty.  Jesus has now ascended to heaven, leaving them with only vague instructions to await the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  They are also one apostle short after Judas Iscariot’s betrayal and death.  Peter and the other disciples believe that a new apostle should be named in his stead and two of Jesus’ followers, Matthias and Joseph are nominated.  And how do the apostles’ make this all-important choice?  Do they take a vote?  Does Peter exert his authority as their leader and decide himself?  Nope.  They cast lots.  They leave it to a game of chance.  On this most important decision they ask God to help make the decision for them.  They choose not to take control, but to give space to the Holy Spirit to guide them.

With as much uncertainty as we are facing today, I believe that our moving forward will require us to trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit as well.  We can’t know the future, we can’t control much about what a peri/post pandemic world will look like.  Yet we do have a call from God to worship and love Her and to love others as ourselves.  To meet this call we will have to both plan and prepare for a safe and effective regathering and remain open to the movement of the Spirit, trusting that the future is in God’s hands.  May we find the faith to trust the future to God and the courage to open ourselves to working of the Holy Spirit in the present.

Pastor Andrew Greenhaw