Real Faces Gathered--May 22, 2026
"Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers." (Acts 1:12-14)
It's like the calm before the storm... the silence of the orchestra before the conductor's first flick of the baton... the waiting between contractions in the delivery room. The community of Jesus' followers is in this curious in-between place in these few verses which conclude the story many of us heard this past Sunday, between the ascension of Jesus into heaven and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost ten days later. They are waiting for something, but they are not quite sure what it will look like when it happens. They are holding onto Jesus' promise that somehow they'll know it when they see it, and in the mean time, they are holding on to one another.
This is one of the details it's easy to overlook. We are so quick to focus on the big moments of action with supernatural special effects--the cloud carrying Jesus up to heaven, the rush of the wind and dazzling flames over the apostles' heads, the sound of people speaking in many languages--that we might not even give a second's thought to the way Luke has rattled off a list of names and mentioned that they stayed together in prayer while they waited for The Next Big Thing. But I think there is something really important about what's said here. In those in-between times of life, the thing that keeps us going is being together as the Christian community, as the family of Jesus. We keep gathering with each other, and we keep allowing ourselves to be re-centered and re-focused in prayer, so that when the next moment for stepping up in action comes, we will be ready to respond. And we find strength from being in the company of other real faces gathered and intentionally oriented to listen for God.
In other words, the first Christian community knew that it was more important to stick with each other and to stick together for each other than to each go home alone by themselves and wait in isolation for whatever Jesus meant by the "coming of the Holy Spirit." They didn't all just walk off in different directions. They didn't say to each other, "Well, I guess our work here is done--see you in heaven, everybody! Have a good life until then!" They stuck with each other, supporting each other, even when there wasn't a project to be done, a trip to be taken, or a goal to be achieved yet. Those moments would come soon enough--they would go on great voyages to spread the gospel, they would collect resources to feed the hungry in the community, and they would discuss important issues together. The whole book of Acts is full of those Big Actions, Major Projects, and Important Decisions. But in order to be ready for the next prompting of the Spirit--"Go here..." "Talk to that person..." "Do this..." and in order to be able to recognize when the nudge they are feeling is the Spirit of God rather than their own gut impulses or personal agendas, they need to be together, listening, praying, and sharing insights with one another. The first followers of Jesus knew that they needed to be with each other, not just for the climactic moments of history, but for the ordinary daily routines of life, which are the times that form the kind of people we are in the big decisive moments. We do the same because we are being formed still in the same way--together.
That's so important to take seriously. In a culture and a time when so many things are marketed to us as hyper-individualized experiences, the Christian life is decidedly communal. In a time when it is easy to just watch life from my own personal screen, the Christian community deliberately gathers together with one another to be shaped in Christ's likeness together. In a time when folks are increasingly turning to AI-powered computer chatbots for a facsimile of human conversation, we find ourselves drawn, almost as if by gravity, to real faces of real people. It is sometimes tempting to imagine that the Christian faith is just about "Me and Jesus," but Luke reminds us here that it always includes a whole family of believers with real faces, stories, and names--like Peter and James and John and Mary... and you and me.
Today may not bring obviously huge turning point moments in your life (although you never know), but it does bring the chance to be shaped more fully in the likeness of Christ, to be guided by the direction of the Spirit, and to be strengthened by the presence and witness of other disciples. That's why we still keep gathering together--this is the family in which grow to maturity.
Lord Jesus, keep bringing us back to the gathered community of your family, among whom we see your face reflected in the faces of others.
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