EASTER 6C 

 May 9,  2010       

Acts 16:9-15. Paul responds to a vision to go to Macedonia, arrives at Philippi, and finds opportunities for witness and a leader (Lydia) ready to begin a congregation in her house.

Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5. In the Spirit, John sees a vision of the New Jerusalem and the way the whole world works in the fullness of God's kingdom.

   All of the post-Easter Gospel lessons, in all three consecutive lectionary years of the Revised Common Lectionary, are taken from the Gospel according to John. Only here one finds touching moments between teacher and disciples as they seek to prepare for a future after Jesus is gone. .......

 John provides several words of affirmation for this moment of confusion and abandonment: An assurance of continuing presence, a gift to carry wherever they go, and a destination to long for. Much of it is admittedly mystical, but if it deals with divinity, then our sights will naturally be lifted above our humanity....... 

When it is no longer possible to see Jesus acting out God’s love in word and deed, God’s presence remains with us in Word and Sacrament.  In John’s words, the Father comes to us and makes his home among us in ways we can understand......

Secondly, John has Jesus share a gift to accompany the disciples wherever they go. He gives them a good-bye greeting which they can continue to use, wherever they are, reminding themselves of his love. Don’t be troubled, don’t be afraid, Jesus says. Let this word hold us together: Shalom.

My “shalom” is different, however, he tells them. In the world, people can greet you as you come and go, but the greeting I ask you to use brings with it the understanding that peace and wholeness is not something which just anyone can give. It comes from a relationship with me, the one who has given you acceptance and forgiveness in God’s eyes. From this perspective you are whole, complete, accepted, forever. When you say “Shalom” to one another, when you use this gift.

Finally, John tells us that Jesus says there is a destination in this spiritual universe in which all live. There is not only this moment with all of its fear or uncertainty. There is the presence of God, the realm of the righteous, the place prepared for you. Don’t begrudge my going there, Jesus tells the disciples, because that is greater than this and better than this. It is also your destiny. I’m going to be where the heart and center of the universe finds its origin, meaning and goal, he tells them. Keep your eyes fixed on this; otherwise you have only a dead-end street!

All of the words in this context are meant to be comforting, supportive, affirming. He’s telling the disciples before he leaves them so they will understand it all when he’s gone. It’s like a hug to those who are anxious, a bold and generous embrace. Is there something for us here too, who look back on these words with our own questions and doubts and fears? Is there a way in which we who have become Christ’s own body as the church can touch and affirm each other to assure that God’s presence still surrounds us when we are feeling alone or abandoned?

There is something profoundly human in this text in which Jesus promises God’s presence in Word and Sacraments, shares his gift of Shalom and points us to the goal to which all of us are called.

There is no question that we are little different from the disciples of yore in feeling at times abandoned or orphaned in life. “What is to become of us?” is a very human question. As we in the Christian community seek to pass on Jesus’ compassionate concern for those often left behind with doubts, questions and fears, we need to remember to share with our children and our friends, here already, now already, before it happens, what they need to know about our love for them and our faith in God. We need to find the words and the times to say the things which cannot be left unsaid. We cannot assume that our children and our friends somehow always knew that we loved them. We dare not assume that those who mean the most to us somehow guessed, when the moment came, that it was God’s love which motivated us in life—and gave us courage to go one when all seemed lost. Just as Jesus did, before the moment came, we need to take the time and find the place to say the words of affirmation, comfort, and faith.

The reason we need to find the words and the time has nothing to do with us. It has to do with those who sometimes feel left behind. Or whom we will one day leave behind. It has to do with the moment when they feel abandoned, orphaned, and alone. When that moment comes, if we have learned to hug in the dark hallways of life, the moment will take care of itself. Love knows no orphans. God’s affirmation lives on through us and those we have loved.  Amen  Prof. Dr. Dr. David Zersen (President Emeritus Concordia University at Austin Austin , Texas)

Readings for Ascension Day  (May 17th)

• Acts 1:1-11. Jesus ascends into heaven, but not before twice redirecting the thinking of the disciples from kingdoms and glory to a Spirit-empowered mission (and the coming of the same Spirit) that lay before them — the body of Christ driven into all the world!

• Psalm 47

• Ephesians 1:15-23. Paul encourages the churches connected with the congregation(s) at Ephesus to remember the fullness of who they now are because of what God has made them in Jesus Christ, risen, ascended to the right hand of all power, and reigning in and through (and even beyond!) his body, the church.

• Luke 24:44-53. The story of the "last words" and the ascension in Volume I of Luke's edition continues the theme of Jesus "opening their minds to understand the scriptures" and provides something of an impressionist sketch of the details of what was to come. "Power from on high" (which is where Jesus was carried) will come to empower the apostolic ministry — a ministry of proclamation to the whole world.

-We do not have to go up to find God?

- Confusing scripture...so many threads: Three main threads:   We have close relationship  with God;  God comes to live in us (Holy Spirit); as a consequence there  is harmony and shalom in our lives.

-The Ascension is the taking of our human nature into the territory where we were never allowed to go

-How high is up? It is beyond our comprehension. Is that where heaven is? Could be, as long as we do not limit heaven to spacial dimensions  Dianne Bergant

-Why do you stand there looking at the sky? You have work to do. You have a commission to fulfill. From now on, you are the body of Christ; you must proclaim the good news; you must drive out the demons that hold people in their addicting clutches; you must embrace all people with the merciful love of God. You yourselves now stand as an answer to the question, just where did Jesus go? Dianne Bergant

-We do not go to heaven, we confront God.

- (sermon outline) Great ways are ascending ways Lindy

     a. evil to goodness

     b. ignorance to knowledge

     c. doubt to faith

     d. physical to spiritual

- Heaven is where God is; Hell is where God isn't. Lindy

- Pantheism: everything is God.  Affirms God's immanence and not His transcendence.

- Any God I ever found in church, I brought with me. The Color Purple

- Supernatural: to believe God is separate from the Universe. "Out there".  This was the thinking in Jesus' day

- We experience God in three ways:  Beyond us; among us and within us.  Buechner

- Oh world invisible we view thee

    Oh world intangible we touch thee 

    Oh world unknowable, we know the    Francis Thompson

-"a cloud took him out of their sight."  And that has been the problem for people ever since the Ascension.  Jesus has been out of sight and, for some, out of mind.  Mickey Anders

- God is not a unknown but a misknown.

-The Luke-Acts narrative isn't a 'beam me up' story. Rather, it conveys Jesus' lordship and freedom from space-time limitations.  Borg,

- Too often the pointers become more valuable than that to which they point.

.-See beyond the fly specs on the window. When you read the Bible get beyond the fly specs to greater than life issues.  Where is God?  Really!?        

- Who wants to celebrate being left behind?    B.B. Taylor

 

QUOTES

-Your life may be the only Bible some people will ever read." 

- Heaven...may not be up, exactly, as much as it is beyond  B.B. Taylor

 

HUMOR

-He who spits against heaven, gets it in the eye. Fulton Sheen

-Heaven is bliss; hell is a blister

-You must believe in God in spite of what the clergy say. B. Jewett

-You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in. Arlo Guthrie

-In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better. Ellen Degeneres

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. A minister once sent a number of books, among them a copy of the New Testament, to be rebound.  He was surprised on the return of the books to find on the spine of the New Testament a label in gilt letters, "T.N.T."  There was no room to spell out "The New Testament," so the bookbinder inscribed merely the first letters of the three words, "T.N.T."  That's not a bad name for the New Testament.  It is T.N.T.  It explodes, and pieces come down in unexpected places.  Luccock, Acts, p. 14-15.

 

 CHILDREN'S

-"In the World, but Not of the World,"  children sermon for  John 17 scripture

-Talk about how in Jesus time people believed in an three story Universe and that God was "Out there" beyond the Universe. Compare that with how we see the Universe today and how we like to think that God is everywhere, especially with in each of us. (Spirit)

- For Easter 7: the 5 finger prayer:
1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a "sweet duty."
2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.
4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger; as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
5. And lastly comes our little finger; the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, "The least shall be the greatest among you." Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.

 

 

PRAYER PHRASES

-Come, Holy Spirit, come to us in this time and place. Come to us when we sit in silence and when we are moving too fast. Surprise us, revive us, and shape us into the Body of Christ. Amen.

- We cannot reach to thee; reach thou to us

- Oh God, so high above us that we cannot comprehend  you and yet so deep within that we cannot escape You.  Make your self real to us today.

-Give us the courage to allow your Spirit to flow through our lives into our experiences so that you might be all that you want to be in the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you for his life in us. Amen.