GAWKERS ANONYMOUS
Text: Acts 1:1-11
There is a political cartoon that was published in the so-called aftermath of Harold Camping’s failed prediction of the rapture. It shows a group of people standing on the shoreline, looking up, holding banners about the May 21st “scheduled” Judgment Day. One of them makes a comment that they’ve been told to keep looking up, while in the background you can see an artist’s impression of Camping in the background counting money.
It’s funny, but it also seems true. Two weeks ago, I said that I had little doubt that Family Radio would make some kind of statement that they’re still right, even if their math was off. I don’t know if you’ve followed it, but now October 21st is the set date. Well… that’s not quite true. May 21st was supposed to be Judgment Day, with October 21st being the day that the rest of the world would be consumed. So Camping is basically telling his followers to keep looking up.
I find that so ironic, especially in light of today’s theme, and the readings from Acts.
Today is an important milestone in the cycle of the church calendar: today is Ascension Sunday. 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
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? Well… they do something that has been finely honed, over thousands of years of human history:
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. Especially in that we have religious leaders actually telling us in some way to stare off into space.
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 the stories that we tell of Jesus. We then link our own stories to God’s story. Not only that, 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. We should remember that when we are tempted to simply stand and gawk.
Amen.
There is a political cartoon that was published in the so-called aftermath of Harold Camping’s failed prediction of the rapture. It shows a group of people standing on the shoreline, looking up, holding banners about the May 21st “scheduled” Judgment Day. One of them makes a comment that they’ve been told to keep looking up, while in the background you can see an artist’s impression of Camping in the background counting money.
It’s funny, but it also seems true. Two weeks ago, I said that I had little doubt that Family Radio would make some kind of statement that they’re still right, even if their math was off. I don’t know if you’ve followed it, but now October 21st is the set date. Well… that’s not quite true. May 21st was supposed to be Judgment Day, with October 21st being the day that the rest of the world would be consumed. So Camping is basically telling his followers to keep looking up.
I find that so ironic, especially in light of today’s theme, and the readings from Acts.
Today is an important milestone in the cycle of the church calendar: today is Ascension Sunday. 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
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? Well… they do something that has been finely honed, over thousands of years of human history:
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. Especially in that we have religious leaders actually telling us in some way to stare off into space.
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 the stories that we tell of Jesus. We then link our own stories to God’s story. Not only that, 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. We should remember that when we are tempted to simply stand and gawk.
Amen.
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