Sermon 5/20/12
Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:44-53
Changed from Glory into Glory: The Road
Divides
Here is
where the road divides
Here is
where we realize
The
sculpting of our God’s great design
Thru' time
you've been a friend to me
But time is
now the enemy
I wish we
didn't have to say goodbye
But I know
the road God chose for me
Is not the
road God chose for you
So as we
chase the dreams we're after
Pray for me and I'll pray for you
Pray that we will keep the common ground
Won't you pray for me and I'll pray for you
And one day love will bring us back around
again
Painted on
our tapestry
We see the
way it has to be
Weaving
thru' the laughter and the tears
But love
will be the tie that binds us
To the time
we leave behind us
Memories
will be our souvenirs
And I know
that thru' it all
The hardest
part of love is letting go
But there's
a greater love that holds us
Pray for me
and I'll pray for you
Pray that we will keep the common ground
Won't you pray for me and I'll pray for you
And one day love will bring us back around
again
Yes I know that love will bring us back
around again.
Here is where the road divides. These song lyrics,
slightly adapted, are from the song “Pray for Me” by Michael W. Smith, and they
were what I had in mind when I titled today’s sermon: The Road Divides. This
past week we had an Evangelism Committee meeting, and at one point, somebody
mentioned that it would be my last meeting with the committee. We talked about
whether we could schedule another one before I left, but eventually we realized
that was impractical – it wouldn’t be about doing the work of the committee,
but just about trying to be together one last time. I think I have, and maybe
you have, been pretty successfully avoiding thinking about it being the last of
this, and the last of that. The last meeting of this group. The last time I
might stop and visit so and so. The last newsletter article to be written. The
last worship grid to turn into Lynn and the Worship Committee. But, denial will
only work for so long, and we know that pretty soon it will be the last
rehearsal, the last bulletin, the last Sunday, at least in this configuration
of pastor and congregation. The road divides.
Today is Ascension Sunday. And it is the day in the midst
of the season of Easter, the Fifty Great Days of Easter, nearing the end of
that journey between Easter morning and Pentecost, when the baby church
receives the holy spirit, when Jesus returns to the heavens with God, and the
disciples have to carry on and continue the work with which Jesus has charged
them. I was flipping back through my past sermons from Ascension Sundays, and I
found that just last year at this time, I was talking to you about my Uncle
Bill, who was leaving his church in Boonville to become a District
Superintendent. I had just attended his farewell party, and I said to you: “When
all was said and done, plaques presented, presents given and received, speeches
made, my uncle was invited to say a few words. And in his comments, and in his
closing prayer, what he said was this: this church has been a place
where my dreams and God's dreams for me have come true because of how you
helped that to happen. So please make sure that you also partner with the new
pastor to help make his dream and God's dreams come true in the future, in the
years ahead as well. Because if this twenty year ministry has been all about
me, I’ve been doing something very wrong. This ministry is about building up
the kingdom of God. Because I know that for my uncle, the thing that
would make him feel the worst would be to hear that Boonville United Methodist
just couldn’t continue without him. The worst thing would be watching what he
worked so hard to build fall apart. To know that the lessons he tried to teach
hadn’t really sunk in after all, that the gifts he shared and
cultivated had been in vain.”
These words that I shared have taken on a new meaning as
this year, we unexpectedly find ourselves in the same position. I haven’t been
with you 18 years, like he was with Boonville, but I resonate with his prayer –
what happens when I leave here is as important to me, maybe more important to
me, as what has happened in the last three years. Because the last three years
hardly count if you and I don’t continue to live into the dreams God has for us
once we are headed down these separate paths. The road is dividing. But the
paths are still God’s paths, and I believe they are still heading in the same direction.
Friends, I do not mean to compare us to Jesus and the
twelve! But I can’t help thinking that we can better understand the Ascension
when we think about our own situation today, and we can better understand our
situation today if we understand the ascension. Our two scripture lessons
today, both describing the Ascension, come from one author – passages from the
gospel and from Acts both written by Luke, who writes to explain Jesus’
ministry and the infant church that Jesus’ early work births. In our text from
Luke, Jesus reminds the disciples that his time with them has been a fulfilling
of the law and the prophets and the psalms – Jesus brings into fullness all the
promises laid out by God in God’s story with the people. And then, we read,
Jesus “opens their minds to understand the scriptures,” a conversation we’d all
surely like to have overheard. Then Jesus tells the disciples the task: to
proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem, in
Christ’s name. He tells them they have a little bit of time yet before they
begin, while they wait to be “clothed with power from on high,” but then they
will be ready to begin their work. He blesses them, and then is drawn away to
heaven.
Our
scene from Acts overlaps somewhat with our passage from Luke, but the focus is
the same. Jesus has gathered with the disciples and is speaking to them about
the kingdom of God. He tells them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
But still, they have questions. “Lord, is this the time when you will restore
the kingdom to Israel?” He tells them not to worry about that, but to
concentrate on the coming of the Spirit, and the fact that they will be
witnesses of Jesus’ work to the ends of the earth. Then he leaves them to
return to God, and they watch him go. Finally, a messenger from God rouses
them, asking, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven?” urging
them to trust that Jesus will still be a part of their lives.
During
Lent I shared with you a passage from one of my favorite books, Christopher
Moore’s hilarious novel, Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s
Childhood Pal. (1) The book takes a comical look at what Jesus, called
Joshua in this book, might have been like as a young child, a teenager, a young
adult, coming to terms with his identity as Messiah, all from the perspective
of Biff, Joshua’s best friend. There is another scene that is apt for our
Ascension discussion today. In the book, once Joshua has begun his ministry, he
gets ready to send the twelve out to the towns and villages to preach. Joshua
says to them: “Okay, who wants to be an apostle?” “I do, I do,” said
Nathaniel. “What’s an apostle?” “That’s a guy who makes drugs,” I said. “Me,
me,” said Nathaniel. “I want to make drugs.” “I’ll try that,” said John.
“That’s an apothecary,” said Matthew . . . “Apostle means ‘to send off.’” . . .
“That’s right,” said Joshua, “messengers. You’ll be sent off to spread the
message that the kingdom has come.” “Isn’t that what we’re doing now?” asked
Peter. “No, now you’re disciples, but I want to appoint apostles who will take
the Word into the land . . . I will give you power to heal, and power over
devils. You’ll be like me, only in a different outfit. You’ll take nothing with
you except your clothes. You’ll live only off the charity of those you preach
to. You’ll be on your own, like sheep among wolves. People will persecute you
and spit on you, and maybe beat you, and if that happens, well, it happens.
Shake of the dust and move on. Now, who’s with me?” And there was a roaring
silence among the disciples . . . [so] Joshua stood up and just counted them
off . . . You’re the apostles. Now get out there and apostilize.” And they all
looked at each other. “Spread the good news, the son of man is here! The
kingdom is coming. Go! Go! Go!” They got up and sort of milled around . . .
Thus were the twelve appointed to their sacred mission.”
Disciples
are students. And we are always
students of Jesus, certainly. But apostles are ones who are sent by God. And
eventually, we have to be brave enough to go where God is sending us. Yes, I am
making a physical move, but that isn’t always how God sends us of course. Where
is God sending you, spiritually speaking? The disciples, I’m sure, had their
doubts and fears and questions about becoming apostles, being sent. But if
their fears kept them from becoming apostles, where would we be? If they never
felt ready enough to be ones sent, to be the ones to take over the preaching
and the teaching, who would hear the good news about the kingdom of God?
There’s
always more we can learn, isn’t there? That’s why as a pastor, and probably
many of you in your careers, I am required to do a certain amount of continuing
education each year. My learning is not just finished because I have a degree
to show for my time. But, can I ever learn enough to feel like I know
everything I need to know to be a pastor? When I was starting at my first
appointment, I had some real moments of panic before my first day. One day I
wasn’t a pastor, and the next day, it seemed, I was! I wasn’t ready for this.
Sure, I’d been to a lot of school, but what did I know about being a pastor? I
couldn’t have responsibility for a whole church! What was I thinking? Was there
still time to back out? But I didn’t back out, not because I suddenly found
some burst of confidence, and not because I suddenly felt like an expert, and
not because I knew I would do everything right. I became a pastor because, from
the start, I felt called by God to do so, sent by God to this place in this
time. I had to transition from being a student of ministry to being a minister.
I had a lot to learn still. We will always have a lot to learn. But if we wait
until we learn it all to start teaching others and inviting them to join the
journey, we will always be stuck where we are now, never moving forward or
growing. And as much as we might like where we are now, if we aren’t growing, we’re
dying.
We’re
all working at discipleship. And we never have to stop being disciples. We’re
always students of the living Christ, seeking to be like him, molding ourselves
after his spirit. But we have to start being apostles too. The message has to
be delivered. The good news aches to be preached. We are the witnesses. We are
the ones sent. We are the apostles. And yes, the road is dividing. But since we
carry Christ with us, we’re still going forward together. Amen.
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