Not Another Mission and Vision Statement !!!

In Acts 1:12-14 we find the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, being of the same mind, praying, and seeking the Lord.  Considering the context of this passage, this is a remarkable response.  Just prior to this prayer service, the disciples were chided by two white robed men (angels) for star gazing.  The disciples had just witnessed the ascension of Jesus.  Perhaps they were waiting for Jesus to return; certainly this would explain why they remained in the same posture.  However, the disciples’ mission was not for them to stand indolently staring into the heavens.  There was work to be done, people needed to hear the Gospel of Jesus, repent, and be saved from the wrath to come.  This is why they were reprimanded so austerely.  Yet, when these follows of Jesus return to the city, one does not find them pouring into the streets with passionate proclamation.  Rather, the disciples return to the upper room and commence in what would become a continual prayer meeting. 

Is this apparent “inactivity” another expression of ignorant disobedience to the instructions of Jesus, or is this a reality altering embrace, of what it means to define one’s personal mission and vision in this world.  Perhaps the disciples simply needed to have a business meeting, and produce a strategic plan on the matter of evangelism and church planning.  If any corporation of people needed a mission and vision statement, it was the disciples.  After all, they had just lost their “CEO” in the person of Jesus, and their organization was in great disorder.  Upon entering the upper room, one might expect to find a conference table surrounded by eleven chairs.  Additionally, one would expect to observe a single chair at the head of the table, reserved for the disciple who could manipulated his way to it first.  This would be the expected behavior of a group disputed so often concerning who should be second in command to Jesus. 

Yet, we find neither a passionate proclamation nor an intense business meeting.  To be sure, both of these have great value, but only when enacted in the proper order.  The disciples begin with prayer, by why?  Initiation!  The disciples had come to understand one of the greatest truths about reality which is, God is the initiator.  Before a person can know what he/she is supposed to do, or see where he/she is supposed to be, he/she must see what God has already done and has been doing before them.  Eugene Peterson expresses this so clearly in his book The Contemplative Pastor. 

“We misunderstand and distort reality when we take ourselves as the starting point and our present situation as the basic datum.  Instead of confronting the bogged-down human condition and taking charge of changing it with no time wasted, we look at divine previence and discern how we can get in on it at the right time, in the right way…God has been and is the central reality in that process.  The biblical conviction is that God is ‘long beforehand with my soul.’  God has already taken the initiative.  Like one who walks in late to a meeting, I am entering a complex situation in which God has already said decisive words and acted in decisive ways.  My work is not necessarily to announce that but to discover what he is doing and live appropriately with it.”

It is intriguing to note that what followed this prayer meeting was Pentecost!  The Holy Spirit was poured out, and thousands embraced Jesus on that day.  When the people of God turn their gaze to the face of God, the life and culture transforming power of God is overwhelming.