For Sunday
Easter 7B

Collect

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.Amen.

Reading

From John 17:6-19

“But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.”

Reflection

This Sunday falls between Ascension and Pentecost. We close out Easter in the in-between. Between Jesus going away and the Spirit arriving.

The Ascension invites us to deal with something we’d rather not: saying goodbye.

It has something in common with the crucifixion there, doesn’t it? Being forced to say goodbye, that present sense of loss, of losing a loved one for ever. It is obviously less tragic, but in ways, just as traumatic.

All goodbyes are hard. When we’re young, goodbyes always feel ridiculously permanent. As we get older, we worry that any goodbye could be permanent.

The Ascension is a happy permanent goodbye. And a necessary one. Like moving out of the childhood home. Or moving across a continent. A door to a new reality has opened and it is time to walk through.

This week’s gospel invites us to reflect on the way Jesus has prepared his students for a sort-of graduation. An obviously inevitable truth they’d rather ignore—that they won’t be following him forever. They would always eventually be on their own.

In this in-between week we have the same task. Like a wonderful opportunity. We get to say goodbye to what was and prepare to do something new. Together.

A sensation that is timeless and also certainly present.