Lifequakes

Sermon by Pr. Craig Mueller on the Ascension of Our Lord + Sunday, June 1, 2025

I heard that the Joffrey Ballet will be performing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland this month. I love this quote by Lewis Caroll from the original novel about Alice:
“Who are you? said the Caterpillar . . .

“I hardly know, Sir, just at present,” Alice replied rather shyly. “At least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but think I have must have changed several times since then.”

 Change and transition are always happening. Especially when you are a teenager. You are not really a child anymore. But not quite an adult. The teen years can be challenging for kids, parents, siblings, teachers, and yes, even for pastors teaching confirmation!

I have some good memories of being a teen-ager. Mostly around music and church and a few close friends. But it was also one of the hardest times in my life. I felt different than most boys my age. I wasn’t good at sport and it was humiliating to be the last one picked for a team in P.E. Yet eventually in college I found friends who shared my interests and finally felt like I fit in and belonged.

 Teen-agers Blake and Aiden affirm their baptism and are confirmed today. And we mark the high school graduation of Connor, Grady, J. and Ben. These are days of endings and beginnings. Change and transition.

 One gifted writer on transitions notes that we have an outdated way of looking at life as linear. The sense that we will have one relationship, one job, and one source of happiness from adolescence to assisting living is not realistic.

 Rather, the author’s research shows that we go through about three dozen disrupters throughout our lives. Life transitions that change the course and the trajectory of who we are. That’s about one every 12 to 18 months. Most transitions are not a big deal. But one in ten the author calls a lifequake—a huge burst of change that leads to a time of disorientation, upheaval, soul-searching and change. If the average person experiences three to five lifequakes and their average length is five years, that equals 25 years, half of our adult lives spent in lifequakes!1 The thing about lifequakes and major transitions is this: you don’t know who you are anymore.

So pay attention to the transitions. Learn from them. Be gentle with yourself and others. Find support systems. And accept that this is the way life is.

 We’ve got lifequakes in today’s readings! Today we celebrate the ascension of Jesus forty days after the resurrection. According to the scripture text, Jesus seems to sail up to heaven on a cloud. You can’t get any more dramatic a transition than that. But in a scientific age when we know that heaven is not up, it can seem that this feast is irrelevant. So we need to adjust our imagination. Not Jesus going up like a rocket launch. Or “beamed up” to use a phrase from Star Trek.

 A good Confirmation test question, then,  is: where is the risen Jesus if not in up in the heavens? I won’t put Blake or Aiden on the spot!

Our creed and scriptures say that Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father. It’s a way of saying that following Jesus’ death and resurrection, he is reigning in glory. But maybe a better way to think of it is that Jesus has gone from somewhere to nowhere. He has no earthly address! In other words, his presence is now everywhere. He fills “all in all” as we heard in Ephesians. Jesus is present in all places and all times. Now that’s a lifequake!

The ascension transition changes the early followers of Jesus, too. They are going through their own lifequake! They need to let go of some of their earlier expectations. They are told to not gaze up into the sky. They are to wait for what is next—the coming of the Spirit. And to be witnesses to their faith.

Lifequakes and times of transition involve grief and letting go. The disciples face sadness as Jesus departs but a whole new future is before them. They have a new calling and a new purpose.

Events like confirmation and graduation lead to new callings as well. Being a Christian in our society today is often associated with cruelty to migrants and trans people, for example. Many Christians do not share the values of this congregation: inclusivity, antiracism, and justice, care for the earth.

Aiden, Blake, J., Ben, Connor and Grady, and everyone: your baptism calls you to be witnesses.  But in a different way from the Christianity often in the news. One that is centered is mercy and treasures diversity.

Blake and Aiden didn’t know they would get quoted in today’s sermon! On their final assignment they were to reflect on what it means to live their baptism. Blake names helping people in need, composting, recycling, and using eco-friendly electric cars all as signs of care for the earth. Aiden names treating everyone equally, no matter their beliefs, their skin color, race, religion, sexuality, or gender. Have you heard that before? And standing up for what is right and speaking out against those who oppress minorities or suppress things like equal rights for all. Blake and Aiden, and graduates, you are all signs of hope for the lifequake our country seems to be going through now!

The good news is that you don’t have to do it on your own. You are part of a community, the church. Jesus promises to never abandon you. To dwell among us as the Holy Spirit. 

May you find strength and hope in a God, and in a community, that supports you through whatever changes, transitions, and lifequakes are yet to be.

1 Bruce Feiler,

https://brucefeiler.substack.com/p/5-tips-for-mastering-a-life-transition-22-06-02