On the Spot..
Where now is your God?
Many people look around and conclude this is a world without God. Despite the Millennium goals, children still die in poverty of preventable diseases. In some parts of the world tyrants, as they have for centuries, secure their power through force and fear. Natural disasters occur all too frequently, and leave people in their wake. Anyone will surely understand why so many are driven to say: ‘well it feels like a world without God’.” Perhaps as Christians - even if in secret - we are forced agree.
On May 9th we will be remembering the Ascension. This speaks of the departure of Christ. The friends of Jesus had to face the fact that they were going to have to get used to living in a world without Jesus – or at least living in a world without the Jesus they had known. Those frightening and exhilarating weeks of Easter were over, when amazed and confused in equal measure, they had almost got used to the possibility of Jesus turning up in unexpected places. It was as though he was saying to them, “It’s going to be different now. Don’t expect to see me in the old way.”
In John’s Gospel we read how Jesus had already said to them, “It’s going to be better for you if I do go away.” What the disciples made of that we don’t know. They may well have asked, how can it be better when the visible sign of God’s presence is gone? But Jesus also promised that when he had gone his followers would be filled with his spirit. They would be energised with the same power that he had, and be able to express his compassion and energy.
As Rowan Williams commented, “Jesus hasn’t just gone away. He has gone deeper into the heart of reality – our reality and God’s. He has become far more than a visible friend and companion; he has shown himself to be the very centre of our life, the source of our loving energy in the world and the source of our prayerful, trustful waiting on God. He has made us able to be a new kind of human being, silently and patiently trusting God as a loving parent, actively and hopefully at work to make a difference in the world, to make the kind of difference love makes.”
In May, as well as Ascension, we also celebrate two other significant events: Pentecost and Christian Aid Week. Pentecost reminds us of the pouring out of God’s Spirit on the disciples then, enabling, enthusing and empowering them. It reminds us too of the same Holy Spirit at work in us! Christian Aid points us to the fact that we are called to offer ourselves as signs of God in the world today. We are called to make the face of Christ known.
So during May we remember not a God who has left the building, but a Lord who is risen, ascended and glorified – and passionately still involved in the world today!
Catch this—May
With Love and Prayers
Tim Hawkings
