We are being asked to recognize a great many things this the seventh and final Sunday of
Eastertide. You recall that seven is always the number of completeness in scripture, just as forty represents a
significant period of time on the earth. We find those numbers repeated symbolically throughout the old and new
testaments. This past Thursday marked the fortieth day after Easter and was the Feast Day of the Ascension of the
Lord. Today also serves as a prelude to Pentecost which will be celebrated next Sunday, a day to recognize the
Ascension, and within the United Methodist Tradition to also celebrate the Christian home. In the secular world
it is also Mother's Day.
Perhaps the one thing that all of these celebrations have in common is that they recognize how the certainty of
changing situations play an important part in all of our lives. People come and go, we play one role and then accept
another. One chapter is complete…a new and uncertain one about to begin. Questions that accompany such times are
always :How to start...and where to go…what to be?
I attended a commencement service recently with its vast crowd of young hopefuls in caps and gowns spread out like
a sea of blue and white. Memories of my own sense of excitement and uncertainty were revisited in the faces I saw
before me. You must remember how ambivalent one can be when thinking about leaving the safety of a secure environment
for the real world. The speaker picked up on that when he began his address tongue in cheek with the following
plea. "Please don't leave us…it will never be the same without you!" In high school it would have been
stay, you can keep your locker, and the familiar home room. You can still have your seat in the cafeteria…as if
that would be enough. Clearly the whole purpose of all of those years of education and preparation would be null
and void.
As we hear Luke tell the story of the risen Lord's departure from his disciples we have to know that they were
all feeling that same kind of angst. The Ascension is probably not the best known of the feast days on the calendar,
but it is one that takes on increasing depth and importance the more you think about it and experience it. If you
believe modern day scholars like John Dominic Crossan, from a historical standpoint, the event as Luke pictures
it probably never happened. It was a later interpretation of the importance of Jesus rivaling that of the Roman
emperors who always had their posthumous image rising like a comet up to heaven stamped on the back of commemorative
coins. Such coins were the familiar propaganda of the state, and this could well have been Luke's way of competing
with it.
Theologically however the importance of the ascension is undeniable. The first thing to get clear about the Ascension
is that it is about God. It is not about gravity, or the physical location of heaven, or any of that. It is about
God. In fact, even though it comes toward the end of Eastertide, the Ascension is most closely related, in meaning,
to Christmas. At Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation, God becoming flesh and living among us. The divine become
human.
What we say today is that what was begun at Christmas is brought full circle, and proclaimed again in a different
way, at the Ascension. At the Incarnation, at Christmas, what it means to be God became fully a part of what it
means to be a human being. In Jesus, the human and the divine become united in the person and life of one man.
That's Christmas.
At the Ascension, this human being-the person and the resurrected body of Jesus-became for all eternity a part
of who God is. The life of a single, individual human being is forever joined to the life of God the Creator, the
one who made the heavens and the earth. God so approving of humanity the God brings a portion of humanity back
to heaven.
He becomes the forerunner for us all…the perfecter of the path we would all hope to travel. But what happens when
he is no longer visible to us? What if we are no longer visible to him?
What does it mean to be a "faithful witness" today?
Adjusting to change generally takes one of two responses. We can find ourselves just staring off into space, looking
at the clouds where he had gone, or the space left behind by whatever the change took away. The second response
is to get on with it yourself, to realize the value of the experience that cannot be held but also cannot be denied,
and to believe that you can actually do what you have been challenged to do on your own!
Sometimes the change is just a subtle way of seeing a new reality. A teacher asked a boy this question: "Suppose
your mother baked a pie and there were seven of you-your parents and five children. What part of the pie would
you get?" "A sixth," replied the boy. "I'm afraid you don't know your fractions," said
the teacher. "Remember, there are seven of you." "Yes, I know my fractions," said the boy,
"but you don't know my mother. My mother would say she really didn't want any pie."
Need changes us. In 1738 Wesley wrote in his Journal, "I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh, who
shall convert me? who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I have a fair summer religion.
I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near. But let death look me in the face, and my spirit
is troubled. Nor can I say, 'To die is gain'!"
John Wesley also noted, "All my works, all my righteousness, my prayers, need an atonement for themselves;
so that my mouth is stopped. I have nothing to plead. God is holy; I am unholy. God is a consuming fire; I am altogether
a sinner, meant to be consumed."
Then, on May 24th 1738, Wesley records that he went very unwillingly to the society in Aldersgate Street, where
one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. "About a quarter before nine, while he was
describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I
felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my
sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Wesley's experience of the converting grace of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit at that time is the
key to what happened in and through this man of God. The Life of God was in him and reaching out through him to
others wherever he went.
Those of you who have been a part of this congregation for many years must know that you have been blessed with
a treasury of faithful witnesses. People who have lived out the reality of their struggle with faith before you,
with an honest balance of both the strengths and weaknesses in their character. While it is not my custom to lift
up one such individual as opposed to others, I think it is appropriate to speak of Nancy Lynott this morning. Those
of you who know Nancy, and I can't imagine anyone who has been here very long who doesn't know that she has battled
cancer not once, not twice, but three times. On each occasion throughout her chemotherapy and radiation Nancy would
come to worship and fulfill all of her responsibilities, often completely bald, wearing jaunty hats, and wild outfits,
and would be one of the first to walk up to a newcomer, stick out her hand and say "Hi, I'm Nancy Lynott."
No doubt some of those people were wondering what kind of character is this, and with her bold and clearly stated
opinions I think most of us would admit Nancy was and continues to be to this moment quite a character. Thank God
that she is, for it is such people who change our lives…when we let them in.
Such is the nature of all Support Group ministry, whether it be a formalized one hour a week, or just lived out
in the context of a congregation. Being real, being open, being who we are with all our flaws as well as our gifts…allowing
change to happen as we grow into one family together.
The modern Christian martyr, Dietrick Bonhoeffer, says in his book, "Life Together" these words about
the importance of Christian fellowship and "rubbing elbows" with one another as we share ourselves in
the community of faith. On page 23 he says: " God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word
in the witness of a brother/sister, in the mouth of a man/ woman. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian
who speaks God's Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself
he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine
word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than
the Christ in the word of his brother, his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure."
When Jesus came into the world he changed it for the better. The same truth should be easily spoken about each
one of us who claim to follow in his steps. May the proof of that statement be clearly seen in the way we live
each and every day.
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