Saturday, June 21, 2025

Sacredness of Sadness & Acceptance; Acts 20:1-24

 

Rev. George Miller

June 22, 2025

Acts 20:1-24

 

Last Fall, we shared a new tradition- Stump the Pastor Sunday.  Y’all embraced it, submitting scriptures to prod my spiritual neurons.

 

This Summer we’ll hear some of the texts you suggested, getting to learn and grow together.

 

Together, because that is such a beautiful way to be, especially knowing that life can feel so confusing, so alone, so melancholy at times.

 

Confusing and melancholy are not words we often associate with worship.  They are often what we want to ignore and not feel.

 

Yet they are emotions that all people of our faith family have experienced, from Abraham on that starry night, to Mary at the garden tomb.

 

Just as God’s love is limitless, there is space in our sanctuary to welcome and honor these emotions.  This sacred moment we experience together is one in which our joy and praise is welcomed AND so is our melancholy and loneliness.

 

There is sacredness to our sadness and our struggles.  There is a sacredness in accepting things that we cannot change or avoid.

 

So into this time, surrounded by history and stories of those who came before, we step into our scripture to hear what Paul has to say. 

 

The church in Jerusalem has been bustling.  Paul has been hustling, going all over the globe. 

 

He’s enjoyed the culinary tastes of lentil stew in Asia, bread broken in Galatia, and hopefully he got to have a horn of honey mead.

 

Paul has accomplished much, being a part of new beginnings and transformed lives.  He’s had successes and celebrations, monumental failures and epic uproars.

 

He reached out to the disciples in hopes of going back to Jerusalem by Passover, but plans change when word get out that people are threatening to hurt him.

 

Paul takes a detour.  But 5  days becomes 12 days then weeks.  Paul is anxious, hoping that he can at least make it back by Pentecost.

 

There is such a relatable-ness to this story- Paul just wants to make it back home; he wants to be amongst his spiritual, emotional core where he has roots and understands the ways of the city.  But situations are preventing him from getting there.

 

How many of us have had that experience- of being away from family/ friends, not being there for an important moment?

 

That sad ache that comes from not being where you want to be?

 

Paul does, and it’s not because he lacks faith, but because he is human and he can feel.

 

A second factor of Paul’s journey emerges- his own mortality.  He is aware that when he arrives in Jerusalem, he could die.

 

This is not Paul being chaotic or dramatic.  This is Paul well aware of what’s unfolding around him. 

 

In this scripture we witness things that are so personally sacred- a person trying to make it back and one who is facing their own death.

 

The sadness of deferred plans and missed gatherings.  The sadness of facing life’s changes and our mortality.

 

We experience the way Paul lives with these realities; the sacredness of his acceptance.

 

Though not in control of what may happen, Paul chooses how he responds.

 

He gathers the elders, shares his story, lifts up how they served the Lord, changed lives, helped others.

 

Although Paul just wanted to go back and celebrate the holiday, he uses this moment to display such a raw and faithful way to embody divine acceptance and be at peace.

 

He says to the elders “Held by the Spirit, with no idea what will happen next, I am on my way.  I know it won’t be easy.  I hope that at the end, I can finish knowing I accomplished what Jesus asked me to do and testified to the Good News of God’s grace.”

 

After he speaks, they kneel, pray, embrace, kiss, grieve … and then they escort him to the ship that will take him away.

 

Wow…This moment from 2,000 years ago is so real that it feels as if it is happening right now, and we are there.

 

Paul is so aware of what may happen next.  No one changes the subject, ignores it, or tries to make people laugh.

 

They allow this moment to be.  They allow the sacredness of sadness.  They honor the holiness of Paul’s acceptance.

 

It is so beautiful.

 

Many of us know what it is like to have those moments; when things don’t go as planned.

 

What it’s like to miss home; wanting to go back but there is an issue beyond your control.

 

We know what it is like to battle with acceptance of things that we do not want or feel so unfair.

 

The acceptance that the job you dreamt of said “No.”  The acceptance of aging; that now you need glasses to read, a cane to walk.

 

Acceptance of when it is time to move from your house or move into a facility.

 

Paul could have run away from what awaited him; but running would have only added time and anxiety.

 

Instead, he accepted the journey he was on.  He stepped forward onto that boat. 

 

In his bravery, Paul was not alone.  The elders were there.  With tears in their eyes and prayer in their hearts.

 

In his bravery, Paul was not alone.  The might of Moses and Miriam were there as were the voices of Esther and Isaiah.

 

In his bravery, Paul was not alone.  The resurrected Christ was there, surrounding him with comfort and grace.

 

Sometimes life can feel so confusing, so melancholy, feelings we don’t often want to feel, and may try to ignore.

 

Yet they are worthy of being recognized.  These feelings can be sacred and are holy.

 

That’s why it is so good that we can gather, either online or in this space and be together.

 

Together, we get to be honest, we get to be strong.

 

We get to say that even when we feel melancholy, confused, or facing a reality we just don’t want to face, those feelings are sacred.

 

God is in the space with us.  The Holy Spirit is giving us the strength to face what is next. 

 

Jesus is reminding us that a life lived in him can never be a life that is without meaning.

 

For that, let us say “Amen.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This message spoke clarity to my present state of being.