"You Will Be My Witnesses"

Below is the text of this morning's sermon and here is the video link:http://vimeo.com/97125684

Meditation on Acts 1:1-11

Ascension of our Lord

June 1, 2014

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     In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

      So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’

***

   The summer weather means that I am enjoying walks again! I think, pray, and listen to music on my IPOD as I walk. One day early last week, I took a break from walking and sat on the glider in the playground. This gave me a good view of the west side of our church building.  I thought about how pretty our church is. How it feels like home to me. And I thought about the kindness of people in our congregation. How I love my church and feel comfortable here.

    As I sat on the glider, I noticed a robin flying toward a nest built in the lower left corner of the sill of one of the stained glass windows. The robin landed and began feeding—beak to beak—another robin that I hadn’t noticed before—sitting on the nest. Then, the bird that came to feed his mate flew away, leaving the bird on the nest sitting silently, her wings spread slightly as she protected the eggs beneath her. How contented she looked—on her nest!

      I felt a connection with the bird on the windowsill of our church. I’m a nester! I like caring for my flock—and sometimes being cared for, too. I am most comfortable with ministry right in my own church and community. This is my “nest.”

      And I am not alone in my thinking and habits. In this area, where many of the same families have lived and farmed for generations, I am in a community of “nesters.” Many people who live here wouldn’t venture far from their own community and extended families to live and work if they had a choice.

     But with the story today of Jesus’s Ascension in Luke and Acts, we are reminded that being “nesters” may actually interfere with Christ’s call to be His witnesses. It was, indeed, a challenge to his earliest disciples, a group of “nesters”—raised as Jews in tight communities of extended families, outside of which they did not eat, worship, go to school, or marry. Jewish people differed from the rest of the world in language and diet and observed rituals and traditions unlike any other people.

      After the risen Christ appears to His disciples for 40 days after His crucifixion, teaching them about the kingdom of God and opening the Scriptures to them, he tells them to return to Jerusalem. Go back to the nest, Jesus says, to wait for the promise of the Father to be fulfilled. They will be, as Luke says in 24:49, “clothed with power on high.” The Holy Spirit is coming and this will be a new kind of baptism—not the familiar water baptism to repentance like John’s. This baptism will mean a whole new way of life.

      Jesus tells them only what they need to know. He doesn’t even give them a specific time when the Spirit will come. He leaves them in suspense, saying, it will be “not many days from now.”

       And they obey; they return to Jerusalem to gather, pray, and wait. Scripture leaves us wondering what they may have been thinking and feeling. Then, in verse 6, we discover that they don’t understand what they are waiting for. After Christ’s crucifixion, the empty tomb, and the resurrection, the disciples still don’t understand the kingdom of God is something that is not of this world! They can’t think beyond the “nest”! They ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?” meaning that they want the risen Christ to free them from political oppression and restore Israel’s national independence. They don’t seem to have come much further along from when in Mark 10 and Luke 22 they are captivated by the thought of their positions of authority in Christ’s kingdom. In Mark 10:35-45, James and John believe they should have a seat at Jesus’ “right and his left.” In Luke 22:24-27, the disciples argue which one will be greatest in the kingdom. Jesus tells them that the “greatest must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.”

    You would think that Jesus might be losing patience by now. But before He ascends to be with God the Father, his words are reassuring, at least the first part of what he says. He tells them, “It’s not for you to worry about. Just know that God is in control.”  They will have all the power they will need to do His work when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. But then comes the scary news. They will have to get out of the nest!

     The gospel must go out from Jerusalem—their beloved Holy City, with the Temple, their house of worship–out into Judea, which isn’t too far from home. But then they must go to Samaria, a place where no Jewish person would ever wish to go. And finally, Jesus says the most amazing thing—that His disciples must bring the good news to strangers way, way far out of the nest—“to the ends of the earth.” The message of salvation belongs to the entire world that God so loves. Christ’s salvation is offered to all people in places of which His disciples could not have imagined in their wildest dreams.

     But then Jesus reassures them that they will be able to do what He asks, with the Spirit to help them. It sounds like a promise when He says, “You will be my witnesses.”  

      Unlike the description of the Ascension at the end of Luke, Jesus doesn’t leave them with a blessing and the disciples worshiping him. We aren’t told that the disciples return to Jerusalem with great joy. The Ascension in Acts ends with two men in white robes, presumably angels, asking them why are they are just standing there looking up, as a cloud takes Jesus out of sight.

     When the angels tell them that Jesus will return the same “way” they saw him go, they don’t mean that Jesus will come to the same place when he returns for His church. This could be a reference to Jesus ascending at Bethany because that is where he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Or it may simply mean that Jesus ascended with power and glory.

     And in power and glory he will return.

 ***

     This week, meditating on the Ascension readings, I thought about the charge Christ gives as He ascends—the call to be His witnesses—to the ends of the earth. And how it is a scary message, challenging us “nesters”!  But how it is also a promise—that the Spirit will empower us to do what Jesus wants us to do, if we seek to be obedient to His call.

     Being a witness means serving Christ by living out the gospel, wherever we are and wherever we are led to go, showing kindness, generosity and compassion for people who are in need. Each person isn’t called to go to every place on earth! But if every Christian obeys the call of Christ and follows the Spirit’s leading, in God’s timing, the gospel will reach everyone—in every place and time. Being a witness also means telling Christ’s story to all you meet and all you know—and telling your own story of what Jesus has done for you!

      Today we will be commissioning a group of youth and adults that will be leaving for a mission trip to Duluth later this month. Although most of them have been to Duluth on vacation before, none have ever gone there with a group from church seeking to serve the Lord by helping people in need.

     Duluth may not sound as exciting as the mission trip that they had hoped to take to South Dakota, but then, at the last minute, were not able to do. But if their hearts are to love and serve God and help people in need wherever they are, then the Spirit will lead them, like the Spirit led Christ’s earliest disciples, to experience the unexpected with people in places they never imagined they would go. We will send them off, reminding them that this is not a vacation or a field trip. This journey is all about making time and space for the Spirit to work in and through them. This mission trip is about opportunities. The youth and the adults who are accompanying them will have opportunities to be servants of the Lord and one another, to share Christ’s story with others, and to share their own stories of what Jesus has done in their lives. And finally, this trip is an opportunity to be obedient to His call.

    We will pray today for our youth and the adults going on the mission trip. And we will pray for them while they are away. May this trip deepen their faith and grow their relationships with one another. May this trip open up to them a whole new way of life.  And may the Spirit empower them—and us—to be obedient to Christ’s call.

    As He promises when He says, “You will be my witnesses!”

Let us pray.

Holy One, we give you thanks and praise for what you are doing in our lives and in the lives of our young people in this congregation. May your Spirit lead and empower them to be Christ’s witnesses—to tell people about His power and glory—and how He was crucified, but then resurrected from the dead. And how He ascended to live with God the Father, then sent His Holy Spirit to be our helper, our guide, and our source of wisdom and comfort. Forgive us, Lord, when we choose to be “nesters” rather than obey your call to make disciples of all the nations, to be Christ’s witnesses beginning in our homes and communities and going out to the end of the earth. In Christ we pray. Amen.