The Ascension

Did you know that a big part of the training of guide dogs is getting them to look up? They are great at looking all round, waiting at crosswalks is no problem, leading blind people around fences and potholes is no problem but they are so focused on the world right around them that it never occurs to them to look up for low hanging branches and the like. They are so sure that their work is before them right at ground level that they don't feel a need to look up.

In our lesson from the book of Acts today the disciples have exactly the opposite problem. They are with Jesus getting some final instructions and then they watch as he ascends to heaven in a cloud. And they continue to watch,... and they continue to watch,.. and as they are still watching, finally, some messengers of the Lord appear and ask the disciples why they are standing there staring.

Now at first this seems like a silly question. They are staring because Jesus just went away in that cloud and they would really like to be where Jesus is. But when we you look back even at this very lesson the question why are you just standing there staring into heaven is a good question.

It is a good question because the last thing Jesus said to them, not an hour before was "you are to be my witnesses in the world". Jesus really wasn't interested in followers who contemplated heaven all the time. Who sat around doing nothing waiting for the kingdom to come, Jesus wanted his disciples to be doers, people who would show the world the kingdom of God already in existence.

Just before our gospel text, right before he went to the cross to die Jesus said a prayer for his disciples and included in it an assurance they they could and would know him even as he was absent from them. Ministry was never meant to be something that the disciples did alone. It was meant to be something they did with the knowledge that Jesus was there with them supporting them and guiding them. This is why the messengers wanted to know why the disciples were standing there staring, wanting Jesus to come back when they were told many times that Jesus would be present in God's people on earth if only they would look to the world around them.

I remember a sister church to one that I worked at in Philadelphia. The church, called Reformation, was dying. It had a small number of very affluent members who gave plenty to keep the church budget going and the church had a large endowment that increased significantly each year with the interest that it made. So the small congregation at Reformation was very comfortable. They wanted to come to church on Sunday, sing a little, pray a little, look toward heaven and go home with light hearts and minds.

But they were losing members and no one who came to visit wanted to stay people felt disconnected from the church and from God. So people at Refomation began to get concerned and because the membership was aging and wouldn't be around forever they decided to try one last ditch effort at surviving as a church, they figured if it worked great, if not they would go out with a bang.

The effort was based on the realization that, as a church, they had been looking up for too long looking into the clouds after Jesus and had forgotten to be the church on earth. The one that Jesus called to feed his sheep and minister to the world. So the church decided to work hard to stop looking up at the sky after a distant Christ and started to look to the community around them.

They made a five year plan. The plan included giving 50% of their yearly income to mission support. 50 %, this a lot for a church that had been pretty happy to use their budget for very nice Easter dinners and Christmas pageants. It was hard work at first, people had to think about what they did with church money and they had to dig a little deeper to give a little more.

But it turned out people loved it! they loved giving away what they had sought after for so long, it gave them energy and all of a sudden they wanted to give more.

First they started to support two missionaries. They liked that but wanted to do more. They made a pledge to support any young person in their sister synod in Africa who makes it into secondary school by offering aid with tuition and living expenses, guaranteeing each young person in that synod a good education.

They even started a recycling program in their community, deciding that they must be stewards not just of money and possessions but of the very earth.

It turns out that they are in need of a building project. They need more space, because as their ministry came to life in the world around them so did their little church! But they learned their lesson about spending money in the place of listening to God's call, so, instead of rushing the project or simply finding the cheapest bid or even looking to spend their money on something a little extravagant. They have determined that they will wait a while, do a lot of research and build the most eco-friendly and energy efficient building that they can.

Every action that this church is involved in is steeped in the needs and concerns of the world around it, they don't spend a lot of time looking up but any one of them will tell you that they have seen Christ. They have encounterd him so many times in the people that they have met by being witnesses of the kingdom of God in the world around them.

That was the real point that the messengers of God were trying to make when they asked what the disciples were doing looking up into heaven. There was nothing wrong with looking for Jesus, but the truth that Jesus left them with, the truth that Reformation has learned, is that Jesus is present in all that we do in the world around us. Jesus is most discernibly present when we witness his kingdom on earth.

I think that the modern day equivalent to gazing up into the sky after Jesus is looking ahead to the point that it prevents us from acting today. When we want to do something as a church or as individuals like
start a new ministry
hire a new person
go back to school
start a new job that will be more fulfilling and more to the glory of God

we get so caught up wondering and worrying about how we will ever be able to maintain it, whether or not there will be people to staff it, how others will receive it, what they will think of us if we change who we are to do it, and if we even have enough to pay for it, that we never start planning. We never allow ourselves to believe that Christ will be with us, not in some far off future but here, right now in our every step and move.

The problem with the disciples wasn't that they were looking at the sky. It is that they weren't willing to see Jesus anywhere else. It was keeping them from the great mystery that is Jesus at our side when we are waking and Jesus walking before us as we act.

How great it is to know our savior here on earth with us today even as we look forward to his return. What a great gift it is to see him in our children, in our leaders, in our friends and in perfect strangers. And what a shame to miss it while we watch for a distant God in the clouds. So by all means let us celebrate our gift of eternal life by looking around, not simply gazing upward. Surely this is where we will see Christ today. This is good news.

Thanks be to God. Amen