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Sunday, May 4, 2008

Scripture: Acts 1:6-12

⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel ?” ⁷He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem , in all Judea and Samaria , and to the ends of the earth.” ⁹When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. ¹¹They said, “Men of Galilee , why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” ¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.

Clip from Bruce Almighty:

GOD: It's a wonderful thing! No matter how filthy something gets, you can always clean it right up!

BRUCE: They were so many... I just gave them all what they want....

GOD: Yeah.. But since when does anyone have a clue about what they want?

BRUCE: So what do I do...?

GOD: Parting a soup is not a miracle Bruce... It's a magic trick! A single mum who's working two jobs and still finds time to take her kids to soccer practice... that's a miracle... A teenager who says no to drugs and yes to an education.... that's a miracle..... People want me to do everything for them, but what they don't realize is... they have the power..! You want to see a miracle son? BE THE MIRACLE!!

....God leaving..

BRUCE: Wait... Are you leaving?

GOD: Yeah... I figured you can handle things now!

BRUCE: But what if I need you? What if I have questions?

GOD: Haha! That's your problem Bruce... That's everybody's problem!! You keep looking up!!!

Many of you probably recognize this scene from the movie, Bruce Almighty.  In the movie, Bruce, who had plenty of criticism for God about how God handles things is given Divine powers and learns quickly that he isn’t quite up to the task.  He has tried desperately to make everyone happy but the end result is absolute chaos, so he goes searching for God to fix the mess he has made, which results in this challenging conversation with God that echoes our scripture passage for today:

Men of Galilee , why do you stand looking up toward heaven?

That’s your problem, Bruce . . .That’s everybody’s problem!! You keep looking up!!!

Which begs the question:  “What in the world is the problem with looking up?!”

After all, isn’t that why we have gathered here today—to look up, to lift our voices not only in song and in prayer but also to lift our eyes  God for guidance to live our lives?  In fact, I suspect many of us come here each Sunday because we—like Bruce—have learned the hard way that we do a very poor job of ordering our own lives, let alone the universe. And we need to look to something bigger than ourselves for guidance and for help. 

So what’s the problem with looking up?

Today is Ascension Sunday—the day in the church year when we remember and reflect on the fact that not only was Jesus crucified and resurrected for us, but he also ascended into heaven and left us here with a job to do. 

Not that Ascension Sunday is one of the big days in the church year!  In fact, we seldom talk about the ascension of Jesus.  It’s briefly mentioned in the Apostle’s Creed.   But in this service we only recite the creed a couple of times each year.   And we talk about ascension even less than we recite the creed.  Yet, the fact that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God and left us here under the guidance of the Holy Spirit says volumes about what he expects of his disciples and what our role is to be in this world.

So let’s put ourselves in the disciple’s sandals for just a moment.  They had recently experienced the grief and pain of Jesus crucifixion and death.  Then they had experienced the fear, the surprise, and the joy of seeing Jesus, who had in fact been dead as a doornail, resurrected and walking with them and teaching them yet again.  And being good Jews who had been waiting expectantly for years for the Messiah, they knew what this must mean:  Jesus was the Messiah!  They may have believed this before but now they KNEW it!  And if Jesus was the Messiah, then he had come to usher in the Kingdom of God --NOW.

The Kingdom of God —that time and place where God’s will for the world would be realized on earth as in heaven.  The Kingdom of God —that place and time when everyone would live in the presence and glory of God.  The Kingdom of God —that time and place where the poor would be rich, the lost would be found, orphans would have families, strangers would belong; the sick would be healed; and all would be right with the world.

So they asked, “Lord, is this the time that you will restore the kingdom of Israel ?”  assuming that Jesus was about to do the great thing and usher in the last days in which all would be made right and everyone would see the glory and grace of God.  But Jesus responded in a way they never would have expected!  He said, “I can’t tell you when that will happen  In fact, I’m going away. I’m leaving you here.  But in just a few days, power will come upon you and YOU will be my witnesses here, in Judea , and, in fact, throughout the world.”  Then he suddenly he was gone, the sky was empty, and they stood there with their mouths hanging open trying to make sense out of the inconceivable.

Men of Galilee , why do you stand looking up toward heaven?

That’s everybody’s problem!! You keep looking up!!!

You see the problem isn’t that they looked up, but that they kept looking up.  Jesus had given them very clear instructions and promises.  Go to Jerusalem , wait, and you will be given power.  In fact, you may remember from last week’s scripture, he not only promised power, but he promised that when they received that power and acted upon it that they would do greater things than Jesus did!  

But instead of doing what Jesus commanded, they stood there like Bruce in the film peering up into the sky and wondering how they would be able to manage without him.  They kept looking up expecting another miracle.  And while God did have another miracle was in the works, it wasn’t the one they expected or thought they wanted.

You see, if they had stayed on that hill looking up into the sky, they would have missed the next great act of God.  That was not where they were going to find God at work.  God had already gone ahead of them and was waiting for them to be God’s next great miracle.

So the problem was not that they were relying on God to help them do what needed to be done. The problem was that they were standing around waiting for God to do it without them and, for whatever reason, that isn’t how God operates.

Don’t ask me why, because I’m not sure it makes any sense whatsoever.  But God has chosen to make a difference in this world through the actions of ordinary human beings like you and me!  God’s way of bringing his kingdom on earth is to work within us to make a difference in the world!  And God promised that we would find that power—not up there somewhere—but here within us—within this community called the church.  Therefore, the problem with looking up for the answers and for the power to make a difference in this world is that power will not be found in some other-worldly place or event.  Instead the power to make a difference is found within ourselves and  within this very human and broken group of people that gather each Sunday. And the kingdom of God, for now at least, will not come from a great supernatural miracle from on high, but from our daily attempts to witness to our belief that because Jesus Christ died and was resurrected that the world can be and, in fact, is different because he lives.

There is yet another problem with looking up.   Sometimes when we keep looking up, we become so focused on the sky that we miss the needs of those around us.  As the old saying goes, we risk being “so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.”  And Jesus clearly came to be of earthly good.   He healed the sick.  He accepted the outcast.  He came to proclaim good news to the poor and deliverance to the oppressed.  Everything about the way Jesus taught, healed and interacted with people makes it clear that he intended to be of earthly good.   Yet all too often, his followers spend way to much time talking and singing about Jesus and not enough time doing the things Jesus did.  Or we sit around praying for an answer instead of working for one.

I remember sitting in the waiting room at Crestwood Hospital one day listening to an older woman reflect on something she had heard on the news.  I don’t remember the particular event, but whatever had happened had caused her to think of the many things that were going wrong in the world.  I remember she said something to the effect that the world was getting worse and worse.  So she prayed that Jesus would come again soon so he could fix it all.

As she spoke, I could almost hear the angels shouting, “Woman of Huntsville, why are you looking up?!  You have been given the power to make a difference.  Go and be the miracle you want the world to see!”

Of course, the problem is that we have a hard time seeing how we can possibly make a difference.  The world’s problems are so huge and what we have to offer seems so small.  Yet, this is the way that God chooses to work.  It is the widow’s small coin that ushers in the Kingdom.  It is the smallest of seeds and the bit of yeast that yields the greatest harvest.  And it is through the church, the body of Christ, that God chooses to make a difference in this world.

That means we have work to do. And as important as it is to gather to worship, to study, and to pray together, God is asking us to do more than just talk about him.  God is asking—no commanding us—to do more than stare heavenward waiting for God to fix our world.  God is calling—calling us to go from this place of worship and work to make this world a better place—not because we are capable of doing it on our own—but because Jesus has commanded that we love this world as he has loved it.  And Jesus told us that we are witnesses to his love when we show his love to the world by our acts of love and mercy.

This past week, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church —with members from all over the globe—met in Fort Worth to discern God’s mission for our denomination.  At the conference Bill Gates, Sr., father of THE Bill Gates, spoke about the Nothing But Nets campaign, a project which hopes to eradicate the world of malaria by providing mosquito nets to people who can’t afford them.  And he shared a story of a small United Methodist church, where an employee of the Gates Foundation is a member.   They didn’t have much to give, but the children began bringing pennies to church and placing them in a birthday bank.  At the end of the year, they had collected 6700 pennies!  Enabling them to send $67 to Africa .  Mr. Gates reflected on John Wesley’s commitment to seeing the entire world as our parish—our community—and he said, “You teach children in Nebraska that they are in the same parish as children in Zambia . That's the power you have. That's how you will end malaria.”

Thanks to the smallest gifts of the smallest members of a small congregation, nearly seven families on the other side of the world will not grieve the loss of one of their members to malaria!  Little is much in God’s Kingdom!  If those children can make that much difference, what more can we do?

One other thing happened in Fort Worth last week that I want to share.  As you know when someone joins a United Methodist congregation, they are asked if they will support the congregation with their prayers, their presence, their gifts and their service.  But we will soon be expanding that pledge to a fifth, and I think very important act:  witness.  After all, that is what Jesus said would happen when we received his power—we would become witnesses to our community, our city, our state, our nation and our world.

That’s why what we are about to do this afternoon is so important.  As we leave this building and disperse into our community to make a difference, however small, we are following Jesus' command to be his witnesses in our community.  For the last hour, we have allowed Christ’s power to fill us up as we lifted our eyes and our voices to him, but now we are called to be his witnesses to this hurting world, by taking our eyes off the sky and walking firmly and expectantly out into the world knowing that because of the power of God we can make a difference.

In Bruce Almighty, God put it this way, “You want see a miracle?  Be a miracle!
Ghandi said it this way, “Be the change you want to see in the world!”  But Jesus put it this way, “As you Father, are in me and I am in you, may [my followers] also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21b)

The time has come to quit looking up and to go out into God’s broken, hurting world and be God’s miracle in our world!