Future Present

Seventh Sunday of Easter

May they be one as we are one - John 17:11

In recent years, the prefix "post" has become popular to describe our situation: postmodern, post-cold-war, post- Christendom. The expression "post" betrays a certain nostalgia to a past (either for better or worse) long since gone. In the church year calendar, and in the reading from Acts, the first disciples of Jesus are in a time of "post-resurrection."

But they are also waiting for the future, for the power from God Jesus promised to them before his ascension. We, too, are in an in-between time, a time of expectation and wonder. What form will this new power take? What are we to do in the meantime?

In today's gospel Jesus anticipates the work of his disciples in the world after he has physically departed form them. Just as Jesus was sent by the Father to the world for the sake of the world, so are we sent to proclaim good news.

For us who are present-day followers of Jesus the players is a reminder that Jesus still prays for us, for the life of the church, and for the future of the world. And this is a future to which Jesus has already ascended, and which is already breaking through in the present.

It is also a future we experience at the Lord's table. As wine pours and bread is broken we engage in "anticipatory nostalgia," a wishful recollection of a life not yet fully visible, but nevertheless on the way. We can imagine the fulfillment of Christ's prayer that all may be one in him.

We anticipate the time when all swords are forged into plowshares, and when God's love is written on all hearts. This is nostalgia in the kingdom of God. We may not yet experience the kingdom in its fullness, but for now we can taste and see that the Lord is good.

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