Stick Together and Pray
St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
May 17, 2026
Year A: The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
John 17:1-11
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Yes, it is still Easter, but I’m very sorry to say that this most beautiful season of Alleluias is now drawing to a close.
This ending actually began on Thursday morning when, as we always do, a few of us gathered in the Old School Building for Morning Prayer.
But this was no ordinary Thursday. It was the fortieth day since Easter. And on the fortieth, we remember and celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
Our attendance is considerably better today, so I love that we get to hear the Ascension story in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
The Risen Christ gathers with his disciples one more time and, as usual, the disciples are not quite getting it – they aren’t asking the right questions – they want to know the timeline – is this when Jesus will finally unveil his kingdom on earth?
The Risen Christ tells them – tells us – that we don’t get any inside information about God’s time – that’s God’s business, not ours.
This unknowing may be unsettling or frustrating, but again, just like last week, we hear Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit – and the Spirit will transform the disciples from frightened people hiding behind closed doors into bold apostles, courageously going out into the world and proclaiming the best news of all time:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
But for the disciples, for now, the Holy Spirit is still just a promise.
For now, all they know is that the Risen Christ was taken from their sight.
And the poor disciples, who have been through so much, they are now in an in-between time.
And what do the disciples do during this in-between time?
Well, we’re told that they stuck together.
And they prayed.
They constantly devoted themselves to prayer.
And now here we are in our own in-between time.
We’re in a brief in-between time on the church calendar, between Ascension Day this past Thursday and the great feast of Pentecost which we will celebrate next Sunday.
We’re also in a much longer in-between time, stretching from Jesus’ resurrection and ascension until his return.
And really, our whole lives could be described as an in-between time – an in-between time as long as the distance between our birth to our death.
And what are we to do during our in-between time?
Well, I think what was true for the long-ago disciples is just as true for us today.
We stick together – week after week we gather here – we keep gathering even when church is in the Parish Hall – and we work together on so many good things – learning and serving and growing.
We stick together.
And we pray.
The gospels are clear that Jesus is a person of prayer.
Jesus prays with his disciples. And he teaches them how to pray.
And sometimes Jesus slipped away from his disciples, got away from the crowds, and journeying into the wilderness to pray alone.
In today’s gospel lesson, we hear Jesus praying – Jesus praying for his disciples – praying for us – that we will be protected and that we will be one.
And the truth is that Jesus never stops praying for us – that Jesus continues to pray beside us – giving us the strength and courage to face whatever comes our way.
In the in-between time, we stick together and we pray.
Yesterday afternoon, we had our annual Shoemaker event – and, as expected, John Frisch gave an excellent talk, filled with raw honesty and hard-earned wisdom.
As many of you know, I’ve been interested in Sam Shoemaker since even before the Holy Spirit nudged me here, to this church where he was baptized and grew up.
Whenever I read about Shoemaker’s life and ministry, I’m always impressed by – in awe of – his tireless energy.
He met and worked with so many people, started and led so many ministries – he was on the radio, wrote two dozen books.
He traveled widely, especially to college campuses and seminaries, encouraging young people to be bold in their faith.
Not to mention his most awesome legacy: providing much of the spiritual foundation for the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. How many millions of lives has he helped to save?
So, as I’ve said before, Sam Shoemaker makes me feel like a slacker!
But, as I’ve learned about him, I’ve realized that the deep source of his faith and his ministry was prayer.
All his activity was rooted in prayer.
He began each day with what he called “Quiet Time,” sacred moments set aside to read scripture, to pray, and to write.
Shoemaker also wrote a lot about prayer.
Here’s my favorite quote from him:
“Prayer may not change things for you, but it sure changes you for things.”
We live our lives in an in-between time.
It’s easy to forget that.
You know how it is: often we’re just going through our routines, just getting through the day, just trying to checkout at Wegmans and go home.
But inevitably, there are times when we’re startled out of autopilot, times when we’re awakened from sleep-walking – maybe it’s an illness or an accident, maybe it’s a betrayal or a setback.
Maybe it’s the state of our country, or the terrible suffering in so many places around the world.
But if we’ve been praying all along, the situations we face may not be easily fixed, but we will have developed the resources to face whatever comes our way, to cope, to trust that Jesus is praying beside us and God will not let go of us, no matter what.
“Prayer may not change things for you, but it sure changes you for things.”
This beautiful season of Alleluias is now drawing to a close.
We are in an in-between time.
The time in-between the Ascension and Pentecost.
The time in-between Jesus’ ascension and his return.
The time in-between our birth and our death.
The time in-between the start of our capital campaign and its successful completion.
The time in-between what is and what will be.
And in this in-between time, like Jesus’ first disciples, we are meant to stick together, and we are meant to pray – pray to Jesus, pray with Jesus.
These prayers may not solve all our problems, but they will give us all that we need to face the future.
An unknown future, yes, but a future that we can face with confidence, because…
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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