Sunday, May 4, 2008
Acts 1: 1-11, Ephesians 1: 15-23, Luke 24: 44-53
Do you ever get confused about how to follow Jesus amid the stresses and challenges of your life? Are you ever uncertain about what Christ expects of people who are part of a Christian Community of Jesus Christ amid the global challenges of our generation?
These are the same kind of questions and challenges faced by the first followers of Jesus as they struggled to follow Jesus after he left them bodily and ascended into heaven. The Scripture lessons today speak about Christ’s ascension, Christ’s return to his Father in heaven.
Let’s see if they give us any clues about how Jesus wants us to live as we follow him in this generation, with our questions and confusions.
Let me begin by inviting you to feel the confusion felt by the first disciples after Christ had ascended into heaven. After Christ died and rose again, his disciples would see him occasionally when they gathered, as they walked along the road, as they were engaged in their daily work. But then, 40 days after his resurrection, Christ gathered them on a hill, said some last words to them and ascended into heaven to the right hand of God the Father. Can you imagine the confusion those first disciples must have felt?
What those first disciples felt is a lot like what we often feel as we seek to follow Jesus in a time of rapid global change.
On the first Ascension Day, Jesus left three gifts, three words of wisdom to guide his disciples as they began the adventure of living as his followers without his bodily presence with them.
The first word of guidance Jesus gave his disciples was to wait, to stay in Jerusalem until God sent the Holy Spirit to guide them. The disciples were confused about their next steps. They were afraid that those who killed Jesus might also kill them. The disciples did not want to wait. They wanted to get on with their lives. They wanted to know what would happen next and when. Jesus said, “It’s not for you to know times and seasons…but the Holy Spirit will come to empower and guide you.” That is all you need to know.
Often you and I go through difficult times. Our church goes through difficult times. Our society and world go through difficult times. We get frustrated and impatient, angry and discouraged. We want the problems to be over. We want everything to be clear and right.
Jesus says to us over and over again the same words he said to his disciples. Wait. Wait. Just wait. The time is not right yet. My Spirit will guide you in God’s time, not yours. Keep looking for my Holy Spirit. I will guide you in the right way and at the right time.
This past week I had the privilege of listening to your vestry tell me some deeply moving stories about how God has guided this parish over the past few years as you have waited for the time to be right to call a new rector. Can you think of times in your life when God has blessed you and guided you because you were willing to wait for guidance of God’s Spirit?
The second gift of Christ’s ascension is the vision and reality expressed in the book of Ephesians, that Christ not only rose from the dead, but he went to be with his Heavenly Father at the control center of the universe where he now reigns with God having power and authority over everyone and everything.
When the early Christians were overwhelmed by persecution, poverty and the challenges of life, they kept remembering that Jesus had ascended and reigns over all people, powers and authorities…and they took heart. As long as you and I live and seek to follow Christ, we will face challenges and struggles.
What sustains us through challenges? What keeps us looking forward to the goal of God’s coming Kingdom and prevents us from being overwhelmed and discouraged by the struggles? We know that because Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of God, Christ reigns over all. When we are faithful, Christ reigns. When we are NOT faithful, Christ reigns. When everything falls apart, Christ reigns. No matter what happens, we have hope because Christ ascended and Christ reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Can you hear echoes of Handel’s Halleluiah Chorus here?
Christ prays for us and for people all around the world. Christ continues to send the Holy Spirit to guide us. The ultimate power of the universe does not rest with the rich or with the political authorities, it does not rest with the bombs and guns of the world’s armies or with terrorists, no mater how evil their actions. Our worst enemies and even death does not have the ultimate power. Recently, you’ve had to face the death of several members of this parish. You know that death does not win the final victory. God has the ultimate power. Christ has power to give life on the other side of death.
And God wants to give us his Spirit of power and love while we are alive on this planet, so we can live as servants of God and servants of our neighbors. Christ’s ascension makes clear where the source of ultimate power and hope comes from…Jesus has ascended to be Lord of all.
The third gift Jesus gave to his disciples before his ascension was a mission assignment: “Go be my witnesses…go tell the story of my death and resurrection, the story of repentance and forgiveness. Go share the Good News and live the Good news among all nations…beginning with your neighborhood.
You and I, like those first disciples, have experienced the love of Christ touching and transforming our lives. We have experienced the death and resurrection of Jesus forgiving us and healing us. We have experienced the power of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in our minds and hearts and bodies guiding us in the midst of all the challenges of our lives each day.
To be loved, healed and guided by God is extraordinary Good News. There is a desire in the heart of every human being to experience the love, the healing and the guidance of the God who made us and made all things. Christ says, don’t keep this Good News to yourself. Go into the streets! Go to the people and places where you live and work, especially where the needs are great! Go to the whole world! Tell them that our hope for the future both in this life and in eternity comes from our relationship with Jesus and from allowing Christ’s Holy Spirit to guide every area of our lives. Our mission is to live and share this Good News.
In a few moments special people from this congregation will be confirmed and received. They will reaffirm their baptism vows by making a public promise that for the rest of their lives they will seek to make following Jesus the central priority which directs every area and every decision of their lives. Second, they will seek to make loving God and their neighbor the guiding principle and practice of their lives. Third, they will see themselves as Christ’s witnesses, Christ’s representatives, sent to tell others by words and deeds the Good News of Christ’s love and power to help and heal and reconcile all people to unity with God and each other.
There is much more we all have to learn about how to follow Christ, how to love God and our neighbors, especially our enemies, how to be public witnesses and representatives of Christ. This morning we are all renewing our promises to be life-long learners, life-long seekers, and life-long participants in Christian community and ministry. We recognize that we cannot live this mission without God’s help, without the help of the Holy Spirit. So, beginning again today and this week, God invites us all to focus and seek to live each day as followers of Jesus, depending constantly on Christ’s Spirit to empower and guide us.
I invite you to close your eyes. Let us take a few minutes of silence to talk with Christ who has ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Let us listen to what Christ may want to say to us personally – reminding us of his message to wait…. Is there an area of your life when the Holy Spirit wants to remind you to trust that in all things God reigns. Are there situations where the Holy Spirit is encouraging you to go as witnesses, telling and living the Good News of Christ with people nearby and around the world?
A Prayer attributed to St. Francis
O Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.