Heavenly Minded
Text: Acts 1:1-11
Today is one of those days in the life and work of this congregation where a number of days, dates, and events all converge together. The trouble is, many of the events that we are considering are so diverse that it seems they have nothing in common, and therefore compete for our attention. In the secular world, today is “Mother’s Day” –the second biggest shopping season next to Christmas. Originally created as “Mother’s Day for Peace” during the American Civil War in the 1860s as a protest movement against the ravages of war, it has since been co-opted to simply celebrate motherhood in general. With this week also being the 60th Anniversary of the Victory in Europe… VE day, the original context of Mother’s Day might be good to remember.
The trouble is, Mother’s Day has always been a secular holiday, it may surprise many of us that has no footing within the Christian year at all. Yet who would want to say anything against motherhood? As a way to address this pressure, a number of protestant churches began to celebrate today as “Christian Family Sunday” to remember that Christ’s church comes in many different forms and shapes all around the world. The unity of Christ’s family was developed as an answer to this now widespread, secular “day.” It was very much in celebration and remembrance of the church family that it seemed appropriate to dedicate the latest group of windows.
Yet as one more competing voice that today entails is an important milestone in the cycle of the church calendar: today is Ascension Sunday. In addition to everything else, today is the day that we mark the occasion of Jesus returning to God’s side. Today is the prelude to next week, one of the most important days of the Christian year: Pentecost. The challenge today is to take all of these different, sometimes competing voices, all vying for our attention, and try to draw out that one thread that will make it all work.
The question is, where to start? Usually the best answer to that, is to start with scripture.
Following his resurrection at Easter, Jesus has been spending time with the disciples. He has been preparing them for the real work that lies ahead. Until now, the disciples had spent much of their time listening and learning. At some point, they would have to take that responsibility for themselves, because it was only a matter of time until Jesus would no longer be with them in a physical sense. Jesus was preparing them to finally take up their calling, and become the leaders that he was calling them to be.
From the beginning of the story in Acts, Luke tells us that the disciples were with Jesus on a hillside. He is lifted from their sight, hidden by a cloud, and presumably returns to heaven. After all that training, all that preparation, all the work that Jesus had done with his followers to prepare them for their mission, what do the disciples do?
Stand there and gawk.
Yep. Just stand there, gazing off into the sky… waving goodbye with a befuddled stare, oblivious to the world around them. Now if there were a list of things that Jesus had wanted his disciples to do after he left, we can probably be pretty certain that standing there and gawking would not be very high on the list!
The trouble is, maybe the disciples see this as the end of the story. After all, here Jesus is riding off into the sunset, majestic music is playing, and we should see the credits beginning to roll at any moment. Things have been brought together and wound up. That’s all folks… Look up and wave goodbye to Jesus!
But the credits don’t roll. Instead, like a needle dragged across the soundtrack, it comes to a screeching halt; two messengers suddenly appear beside the disciples.
Yo! Wake up… get with the program! Why are you standing there and looking into heaven? Jesus has spent all this time preparing you for something greater, not to just stare off into space.
It would seem that the disciples have yet again missed the point. This time Jesus isn’t there to straighten them out. It takes a pair of angels to snap them out of their trance. They continue to say to them,
Jesus has ascended, so don’t waste your time looking for him. Don’t look up to heaven, look around you! Pentecost is coming, there is a church to build! This story is just getting started, and there is an awful lot of work to do.
The words of the angels are a bit harsh, but it is something that we need to hear. There is a good reason why this book of the Bible is called “Acts.” From the beginning, Acts shifts in focus from the work of Jesus to the apostles and the beginning mission of the church. It shifts our point of view from heaven, and brings us down to earth. It reminds us that while the story of Jesus draws to a close, the story of Christ’s church is just beginning.
Maybe we need to listen to the words of the Angels again:
“Why do you stand looking into heaven?”
Their words are probably even a better said to us 2000 years later than even to the disciples.
We have become so individual in what we are and what we do that we continue to lose our sense of community. This is perhaps even more true with our faith. We tend to think that God in Christ can only be encountered and experienced individually, that our relationship with God is so intensely personal that there’s no real point to having a community. We become so focused on God “above us” that we don’t see Emmanuel, God with us. We become so “heavenly minded” that we are no earthly good.
I think it is an important reminder that the words of the angels in Acts mark a very important turning point in the story. Without their words, without their question, the church would never have been built… because the disciples would have been far too busy staring off into space. God was calling the disciples to build communities of faith in this world, not to stare off into heaven and gawk. They were called to be “witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!”
One of the most important things about this story in the Bible is where we find it. It comes right at the very beginning of the book of Acts. While it has all of those hallmarks of a story’s conclusion, this encounter at the open verses of Acts reminds us that God’s story is just getting started.
The words of the angels to the disciples are also words to us. God is calling us to be disciples, to be an active part of Christ’s family. To be a part of the ongoing story that merely gets started in these windows. In these windows, the story of Emmanuel, God with us, starts here, and goes around to there, but our stories as followers of Christ continues on well beyond this place. It seems rather appropriate that the names and memorials that we have in these windows are one way of linking our own stories to God’s story. We have done so in a very physical way today, as we dedicate these windows. Yet it doesn’t have to be just today. After all, God continues to call us to do this in our lives and our community, our own church family. God’s story continues on in our life, no matter how insignificant we might feel. Like the angels remind us, God isn’t calling us to stare off into heaven, but to make a difference in the life and community that we have here and now.
Amidst all of the competing messages that we have today, the one that is most compelling is the reminder that the story of Christ continues… today.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, May 8th, 2005
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; the Rev. John Crowdis
Today is one of those days in the life and work of this congregation where a number of days, dates, and events all converge together. The trouble is, many of the events that we are considering are so diverse that it seems they have nothing in common, and therefore compete for our attention. In the secular world, today is “Mother’s Day” –the second biggest shopping season next to Christmas. Originally created as “Mother’s Day for Peace” during the American Civil War in the 1860s as a protest movement against the ravages of war, it has since been co-opted to simply celebrate motherhood in general. With this week also being the 60th Anniversary of the Victory in Europe… VE day, the original context of Mother’s Day might be good to remember.
The trouble is, Mother’s Day has always been a secular holiday, it may surprise many of us that has no footing within the Christian year at all. Yet who would want to say anything against motherhood? As a way to address this pressure, a number of protestant churches began to celebrate today as “Christian Family Sunday” to remember that Christ’s church comes in many different forms and shapes all around the world. The unity of Christ’s family was developed as an answer to this now widespread, secular “day.” It was very much in celebration and remembrance of the church family that it seemed appropriate to dedicate the latest group of windows.
Yet as one more competing voice that today entails is an important milestone in the cycle of the church calendar: today is Ascension Sunday. In addition to everything else, today is the day that we mark the occasion of Jesus returning to God’s side. Today is the prelude to next week, one of the most important days of the Christian year: Pentecost. The challenge today is to take all of these different, sometimes competing voices, all vying for our attention, and try to draw out that one thread that will make it all work.
The question is, where to start? Usually the best answer to that, is to start with scripture.
Following his resurrection at Easter, Jesus has been spending time with the disciples. He has been preparing them for the real work that lies ahead. Until now, the disciples had spent much of their time listening and learning. At some point, they would have to take that responsibility for themselves, because it was only a matter of time until Jesus would no longer be with them in a physical sense. Jesus was preparing them to finally take up their calling, and become the leaders that he was calling them to be.
From the beginning of the story in Acts, Luke tells us that the disciples were with Jesus on a hillside. He is lifted from their sight, hidden by a cloud, and presumably returns to heaven. After all that training, all that preparation, all the work that Jesus had done with his followers to prepare them for their mission, what do the disciples do?
Stand there and gawk.
Yep. Just stand there, gazing off into the sky… waving goodbye with a befuddled stare, oblivious to the world around them. Now if there were a list of things that Jesus had wanted his disciples to do after he left, we can probably be pretty certain that standing there and gawking would not be very high on the list!
The trouble is, maybe the disciples see this as the end of the story. After all, here Jesus is riding off into the sunset, majestic music is playing, and we should see the credits beginning to roll at any moment. Things have been brought together and wound up. That’s all folks… Look up and wave goodbye to Jesus!
But the credits don’t roll. Instead, like a needle dragged across the soundtrack, it comes to a screeching halt; two messengers suddenly appear beside the disciples.
It would seem that the disciples have yet again missed the point. This time Jesus isn’t there to straighten them out. It takes a pair of angels to snap them out of their trance. They continue to say to them,
Jesus has ascended, so don’t waste your time looking for him. Don’t look up to heaven, look around you! Pentecost is coming, there is a church to build! This story is just getting started, and there is an awful lot of work to do.
The words of the angels are a bit harsh, but it is something that we need to hear. There is a good reason why this book of the Bible is called “Acts.” From the beginning, Acts shifts in focus from the work of Jesus to the apostles and the beginning mission of the church. It shifts our point of view from heaven, and brings us down to earth. It reminds us that while the story of Jesus draws to a close, the story of Christ’s church is just beginning.
Maybe we need to listen to the words of the Angels again:
“Why do you stand looking into heaven?”
Their words are probably even a better said to us 2000 years later than even to the disciples.
We have become so individual in what we are and what we do that we continue to lose our sense of community. This is perhaps even more true with our faith. We tend to think that God in Christ can only be encountered and experienced individually, that our relationship with God is so intensely personal that there’s no real point to having a community. We become so focused on God “above us” that we don’t see Emmanuel, God with us. We become so “heavenly minded” that we are no earthly good.
I think it is an important reminder that the words of the angels in Acts mark a very important turning point in the story. Without their words, without their question, the church would never have been built… because the disciples would have been far too busy staring off into space. God was calling the disciples to build communities of faith in this world, not to stare off into heaven and gawk. They were called to be “witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!”
One of the most important things about this story in the Bible is where we find it. It comes right at the very beginning of the book of Acts. While it has all of those hallmarks of a story’s conclusion, this encounter at the open verses of Acts reminds us that God’s story is just getting started.
The words of the angels to the disciples are also words to us. God is calling us to be disciples, to be an active part of Christ’s family. To be a part of the ongoing story that merely gets started in these windows. In these windows, the story of Emmanuel, God with us, starts here, and goes around to there, but our stories as followers of Christ continues on well beyond this place. It seems rather appropriate that the names and memorials that we have in these windows are one way of linking our own stories to God’s story. We have done so in a very physical way today, as we dedicate these windows. Yet it doesn’t have to be just today. After all, God continues to call us to do this in our lives and our community, our own church family. God’s story continues on in our life, no matter how insignificant we might feel. Like the angels remind us, God isn’t calling us to stare off into heaven, but to make a difference in the life and community that we have here and now.
Amidst all of the competing messages that we have today, the one that is most compelling is the reminder that the story of Christ continues… today.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, May 8th, 2005
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; the Rev. John Crowdis
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