| I pray that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit
of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so
that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may
know what is the hope to which he has called you, what
are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the
saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his
power for us who believe, according to the working of
his great power. God put this power to work in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his
right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule
and authority and power and dominion, and above every
name that is named, not only in this age but also in
the age to come. And he has put all things under his
feet and has made him the head over all things for the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills
all in all. |
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| Ephesians 1:17-23 |
| In the first book, Theophilus,
I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning
until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving
instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom
he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself
alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them
during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem,
but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he
said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized
with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now." So when they had come together,
they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will
restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It
is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father
has set by his own authority. But 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." When he had said this,
as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took
him out of their sight. While he was going and they were
gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes
stood by them. They 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." |
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| Acts 1:1-11 |
| The movie Million Dollar Baby chronicles the life of a man
who trains boxers, ending his career with the training of a
female boxer. Boxing coach Frankie is a devout Catholic although
his local Priest doesn’t think so. He goes to mass every
day, says his prayers and lives a life of integrity as far
as the audience can see. But Frankie’s Priest is tired
of Frankie’s constant theological questions. He refuses
to believe that Frankie is trying to reconcile with his estranged
daughter when Frankie honestly writes a letter a week to her.
At one point the Priest says to Frankie, “I have no idea
why you come here.” It seemed pretty apparent to me why
he came. Buried deep inside Frankie was a tiny bit of hope,
which Frankie clung to. He hoped that God could forgive him
for his failed relationships and that he could be reconciled
to his daughter. Frankie had boxes and boxes of letters to
attest to the depths of his faith. Frankie’s Priest forgot
the words of Augustine’s classic statement on our expressions
of faith and theology, “In essentials unity, in nonessentials
liberty, in all things charity.” Frankie’s daily
questions to his priest about the nonessentials of faith -
were just that, nonessentials. He seemed to be looking for
a word of hope, but rarely found one from his Priest. |
| Near the end of the movie Frankie’s Priest told him
that he could be lost to God forever. The Priest’s actions
toward Frankie reminded me how frequently we deny the mystery
of our living Lord by doubting that the Holy Spirit is at work
in the other person. It was the priest who lacked hope by refusing
to trust that God was at work in Frankie. He ceased to be a
witness to the Easter faith, which was to give hope to all
who believed. Jesus’ ascension—was the kicking
off point for the empowering of disciples to share the good
news—the priest had unfortunately substituted the good
news with the bad. This substitution is all too prevalent in
the church universal today. I often wonder why in the world
God risked empowering us to share the good news of Jesus, when
we so easily turn good news bad? |
| The opening line from the classic A Tale of Two Cities fit
the celebration and horror the disciples felt as Jesus departed
from them. “It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times.” There the disciples stood gazing up at the
sky, wondering how this news could be good. Jesus reigns, but
Jesus was gone! What the early church would come to claim as
a time of empowerment must have seemed anything but empowering
to the eleven who watched Jesus depart. For them, this was
a time of wonder tinged with fear. How would they fulfill the
vast commission Jesus left them? How long would it be till
he returned? |
| This was an awkward time! Instead of Jesus returning, those
annoying men in white robes showed up to further complicate
things. “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.” With
Christ’s ascension his disciples are to become an active
part of God’s salvation history! |
| Jesus left his disciples with a tall order. “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.” This message may sound
tame to us since Christianity has spread around the globe.
To the disciples the news was truly shocking. They were commanded
to take good news out of the holy city and travel throughout
Judea to share the gospel with pagans! They were to continue
into Samaria—the ancient kissing cousins of Israel, rivals
for land, and people Jews considered unclean. The ends of the
earth meant eventually reaching that pagan, emperor-devoted
city. Proclaiming the good news in Rome? Enemies, oppressors,
pagans, soldiers, prostitutes—Jesus commanded the disciples
to share the good news with all people regardless of their
ethnicity, social habits or political affiliations. |
| Standing there on the Mount of Olives the disciples stood
staring into the sky, knowing they were powerless to carry
out Jesus’ command on their own. They had no clue how
to spread a witness of good news to their enemies! They barely
believed the message themselves. How could they voice what
they believed to others when it was beyond logical explanation? |
| Near the end of Luke’s Gospel, the first part of the
two books written by the author of Luke/Acts, two men in white
robes met the women at the tomb proclaiming a shocking new
message that Jesus is risen! The women went to tell the other
disciples, and they scoffed at them. The apostles didn’t
believe the women’s testimony! Those who knew Jesus most
intimately laughed at what God revealed to the women. The Greek
word used means that the disciples believed the women were
talking rubbish, a bunch of bull, nonsense, trash. Who will
believe this story, their testimony? |
| Where does the strength to live in this world but not be
of it come from? There is a glimpse of it in the exaltation
of the risen Christ and his promise that the Spirit is coming.
He proclaims the day when there will be no more vacant gazing
into the sky. Latching onto this word of hope the eleven gathered
with the women and other disciples in the upper room to devote
themselves to prayer and unity. |
| They believed, so they waited. Times of waiting remind us
that we cannot make it on our own. Waiting means we are not
in control of our lives. The disciples knew they were powerless
on their own to fulfill Jesus commission. All this waiting
and wondering helped the early church to claim the reality
of being powerless without God’s Spirit. They had to
rest in God’s care, trust in God’s provision and
support one another through that hard time. |
| The confession of Jesus’ rule over our lives and the
cosmos runs counter to the culture it originated in and every
culture it has spread to since. Christians in America struggle
to claim our belief that we are powerless without God. Our
trouble, like the Priest’s in Million Dollar Baby is
that instead of knowing ourselves as powerless without God,
we like to believe we dictate where the Spirit of God is or
isn’t at work. We act and react too quickly to one another
because we neglect to wait upon the Spirit’s wisdom.
We place ourselves in a one up position over matters of faith
when we know all fall short of reflecting God’s glory.
Our awkward time results from being filled with notions of
power that have little to do with reliance upon God’s
call for justice, peace, care of creation and love for the
stranger. We forget we are made powerful when vulnerable and
weak. We forget that the Spirit is our power source, not our
minds. |
| Yet we can witness to the great power of God at work in us
as the Spirit unbinds us from this world. Martin Luther would
cry out when he was afflicted with temptations and mental angst, “Satan,
be gone! I am baptized.” The Spirit’s unbinding
worldly powers! Luther knew he was baptized not only by water,
but in the power of the Spirit. Hope placed in God breaks the
bondage of worldly power over us. |
| Jesus’ ascension marks a time between promise and fulfillment.
The early Christian community’s testimony gives us hope
that what mystifies and bewilders us can be transformed into
witness. To confess that Jesus “ascended into heaven” means
that we believe he is still alive; that he pours out the Spirit
upon us for ministry; and that he will return to restore all
things. In the meantime, the Spirit dwelling within us enables
us to share the riches of this joy as we wait. |
| Jesus left the disciples to ascend to God so he could be
present with us forever. As we wait and trust in God’s
faithfulness the Spirit shows us how to trust one another.
The impossible is made possible in Christ. We are never beyond
God’s reach and neither is anyone else. Live in hope
and refuse to let go of our belief that God empowers each one
of us with the Spirit. |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - May 28, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
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