Parting Words (Mothers’ Day; Ascension)

Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47, Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53

This is my last planned Sunday in the pulpit before maternity leave, which is oddly appropriate since it’s also Mothers’ Day.   I want to tell you one story about preparing my family for the new baby:  I was snuggling with Sophie (my 3 year old) earlier this week and asking her if she remembered how we went to the hospital a year or so ago to get Sam.  She said yes.  I explained that when [Maya] was ready, we’d go to the hospital and get her too, but only when she was ready--and we wouldn’t know when to go until she was ready!  Sophie repeated, “when Maya is ready, we go to the hospital.”  Wow, Good, I thought.  She understands.

Twenty minutes later, after breakfast, Sophie stands up from the table, looks at me and says, “I’m ready, let’s go to the hospital!”  She looked at me like, “what are you waiting for?”  But, as we all know, it just isn’t up to her or me!

Pregnant Expectations: Patience and Waiting

If we can understand a child’s impatience to see her new sister, or even if we know the feeling of waiting for a baby to be born and not quite knowing when--which I know is a theme for many families in our church this spring and summer--then maybe we can understand how the disciples felt, standing on that hill on Ascension Sunday.  Jesus told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Holy Spirit, which would come to them, “not many days from now.”  And the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  They really were anxious to know--not only when they would see Jesus again, but also when the world would be made just, when the Roman military would be gone from their country and they’d be in charge again.  A lot was wrapped up in their expectations of what was coming next.  So we can understand their disappointment when Jesus told them, “It is not for you to know the times which the Father has set by his own authority.”

Still, there was something in store for them as they waited.  Jesus also said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Basically, they will be given an incredibly important and massive task.  This seems like a lot of news to absorb, so we can understand why they all stood there gaping when Jesus then is lifted up to heaven and out of sight!  

Same Story, Way Different Endings: Choose Your Own Adventure?

Now, I want to back-track for a moment, because maybe you noticed that there were two Ascension stories read this morning.  I would like to point out that they were even written by the same author--the same guy wrote both Luke and Acts, which are really to be read as Book One and Book Two.  Luke covers what Jesus did, and Acts covers what the disciples did, and this story sort of overlaps.  However, did you notice the difference in how the story ends?  In Luke, the disciples hear what Jesus has to say and head on down the mountain worshipping God and with great joy and spending all their time in the temple blessing God.  But in Acts, the ending changes, and the same disciples are just dumbfounded that Jesus has left after giving them this huge task, so much so that two angels come and say, “What are you waiting for? He’s gone, and he’ll come back when he’s ready!”

To be honest, if I put myself in their shoes, I’d be more like the second version.  And I might be thinking, ‘And you want me to do what?  And you want me to do it how?’  

As one of my colleagues put it recently, this sounds an awful lot like the day you learn to ride your bike without training wheels.  Sure, you’ve gotten good at it with the supports there, but this is a major step.  There is a real risk of falling, or failing.  And yet, we’re not entirely powerless--just as Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will give the disciples power to be witnesses, even to the ends of the earth.  It is not a hopeless task for people abandoned by God.  Although Jesus had physically disappeared from their sight, the Holy Spirit was still present, equipping them to make a difference in the world.  And certainly the Holy Spirit is present with us now, whether we realize it or not, equipping us also to make a difference in the world!  This is a good reason to go out with joy, and whether here or anywhere, to continually bless and praise God.

Go, My Children, With My Blessing:

I’d like to take a moment and talk about this blessing, which is a word used throughout the scriptures today.  Jesus is blessing the disciples, the disciples are blessing God--at least in one version of the story; and Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, which is in Turkey, that he does not cease to give thanks for them.  Everyone is blessing one another, or giving thanks or praising them, and that’s kind of neat.  And also I think kind of essential for everyone keeping up each others’ spirits in the work that they are doing.  I might also say that I wonder what Jesus was thinking in that moment of taking leave.  After all, he knew the disciples, probably knew well that dumbfounded look, knew what hijinks they had been up to before and what mistakes they might make in the future.  Still, he blessed them, and commended the Holy Spirit to them to help them--as human as they were, and with all their foibles.

Which brings me back to us here in this church.  Just as the scripture has a lot of parting words, I suppose at least for a time, I have a few parting words about the next few weeks of my leave.  You’ll probably still see me with our family on Sundays, though we’ll be hanging out in the back pew.  I give thanks for all the people who will lend a hand while I’m taking time to focus on our family, because I know that the church is in good hands, between the Session, and Pastor Nancy who is coming to help, and with the Deacons, and in the office with Priscilla and Sue and Dave and Marge.  I know that during this time, I’ll get to experience our church from a different view, and hear someone else preach, and those will both be blessings to me.  There will be some days when I’m away--for example, one weekend I’m co-presiding at my best friend’s wedding in Chicago; another Sunday I’m accepting an invitation to visit our neighbors over at Hillcrest [Bible Church, also here in Oregon].  If we’re up to it, I might even spend one Sunday back at my home church in Iowa.  These opportunities to be in different places are also blessings to me.  We’ve got plenty of plans for when I get back to work, what with camp and the mission trip and even the Mallards game, and those are all exciting as well.  But whether I am away or I am here, I give thanks always for you, because I know of your faith and your love in this congregation, and I know that the Holy Spirit is with you in all your efforts to serve the Lord.  Let us bless one another and give thanks for one another, knowing we are not alone in our tasks, but continually aware of God’s presence.  And let us go forth from this place in joy.  Amen.

Visions...of Peace (Peace I Leave With You)

Acts 16:9-15, Psalm 67, Rev 21:1-10, 22:1-5; John 14:23-29

Today, we hear about visions, dreams, and hopes for the future.  Paul has a vision which he believes is God calling him to Macedonia, which is Europe, from the Middle East, and begin missionary work there.  John’s vision is of a new heaven and new earth, something different from the present troubles and persecutions he and his people face--one in which there will be no tears and will be abundant life.  Jesus offers in his parting words and farewell to his disciples a vision of peace within them, rather than troubled hearts, and the hope that they will be reunited in the future.

Before we talk more about these specific visions and where they lead, it wouldn’t hurt to talk about visions and dreams themselves.  Probably we all have dreams and visions, and perhaps some of them have held special meaning for us.  However, at least for our branch of mainline Protestantism or Midwesternism or whatever you want to call it, I think I’m safe in saying, we don’t like to talk about vision, and we’re worried maybe of what others would think of us if we did talk about it.  Would we ever admit it if we’d had a vision?

Would You Know A Vision If You Saw It?

I think there have been times in my life, where I’ve been on the brink of some major decisions, where I have had a dream or if not a vision, then an overwhelming sense of peace, that the path I’m about to go down will turn out okay in the end.  They’ve been comforting and allowed me to move forward when the way seemed difficult if not impossible.  I’ve heard people say the same thing to me when they’ve been about to undergo things like surgery, or chemotherapy,  or even when they have lost a job that provided a steady paycheck, and about to set off on a new or uncertain venture.

I believe it is good to ask ourselves on a regular basis, what God is calling us to do with our lives, and whether we have felt the movement of the Spirit, perhaps a vision or dream, moving us in that direction.  And certainly, it is worth asking that of our congregation--meaning the whole of us people here together, working together.  What is God calling us to do?

Now, that’s not always easy to figure out, and sometimes we can also feel quite overwhelmed and alone.  Yet it’s too easy to get into analysis paralysis and never actually try to do something new.  Being too afraid to fail that we never try to follow our own callings, can be our own greatest obstacle.

Dream Big and Be Bold!

Lydia, who features in the Acts reading today, was a successful, wealthy businesswoman who was head of her household and many employees. You may not know that dealing in purple cloth, which is expensive to produce and moreso to sell, means that you are very wise and very wealthy.  And yet this woman of considerable status was searching for more.  In spite of all she had, she was moved to become baptized, and have her household baptized, and welcomed Paul and his companions into her household.  I would think that took a lot of guts, but she went ahead and did it.  She acted boldly, and through her actions, the church grew throughout the region and beyond.

It’s also worth noting that when the man we know as John has his Revelation, and speaks to us this vision of the healing of the nations, of the new heaven and the new earth, of the Lord God being all the light we need and there being no more night and no more tears, and where those who do harm to others do not win out over those who suffer---that God will be the end as much as the beginning, no matter what has happened in between--that the vision was to comfort those who were very much afraid and doubting and feeling overwhelmed and alone--not only from the common crime of the day, but also of the very real wars and injustices that were going on at the time, and illnesses, and everything else that we fear in life.  And yet, the people did persevere, and thrive--not because the circumstances they lived with were perfect, but because they found comfort and purpose in the vision, enough so to keep moving forward.

There are certainly many places in our lives where we are called to work for peace--whether peace among nations, or within our own relationships, or perhaps even within our own selves.  Places where the visions communicated to us in the Scripture today can be especially helpful.  

It’s helpful to remember what the vision is--and isn’t.  As one pastor in our lectionary group said, “Jesus did not say, ‘I leave you with tortured guilt and endless shame.’”   Rather Jesus offers peace.  Also promises that the Holy Spirit will come as an Advocate and continual teacher.

Discovering Our Path By Walking It

I don’t know how early you get up on a Sunday morning but I like to be up at 6 for NPR and a program called ‘To the Best of our Knowledge.  This morning an author wrote about how her mother bequeathed her journals to her when she died--and there were many of them, but they were all blank.  She was distraught, because she thought that finally she would know so much about what her mother had been thinking all these years.  But they were silent.  ‘Silence is the pathway to peace through pain,’ she said about this, and began to write in the journals herself.  Eventually, she became a published author.  The blank journals had given the daughter her own voice.  

I thought, that’s worth adding here because maybe it speaks not only to some of the unmet longings we may have in our own relationships with our parents, since both Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day are coming up; but also because it speaks so well to some of our own faith struggles, and perhaps those of the disciples, standing there, listening to some of Jesus’ final words with them.  With Jesus’ ascension, which we celebrate next Sunday, the disciples don’t suddenly get bestowed with all the answers.  They don’t know all that Jesus knows.  And they won’t, at least not in their earthly lives.  I bet that was enormously frustrating and painful.  But Jesus does say this,

And those disciples did find their own ministries and their own voices and even their own disciples to pass on the things they did know.  We hear about several of them this morning, through the origins of these books of Scripture--Acts and Revelation and the Gospel of John.  We know Jesus’ disciples continued to go through all manner of persecution and hardship, and even mistakes and arguments they had.  They were still very much human, even though they followed God’s calling and did great things.

And perhaps that is the most important testament that they leave to us today--that God calls us and speaks to us, that God grants us vision and dreams; that God has not given us a perfectly peaceful world in which to live but God calls us to respond to the needs of our world.  As we work for the healing of the nations, or for the healing of our own relationships, or even simply for peace within ourselves, it is good to reflect often on Jesus words for our own lives:  

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Peace to you, friends, and may you carry that vision of peace, guided by the Holy Spirit, who is your Advocate, in all times and places.  Amen.

Children’s Message:  

What do you know about dreams?  Do you ever have dreams?  How about when you’re sleeping?  What was it like?  Do you remember them?  Sometimes, our dreams carry special meanings to us.

Do you have any dreams for the future?  What you might want to be when you grow up?  These dreams also have meaning for us.

Today in our scripture readings, we’ll hear about dreams, or visions--ideas about the future. These are designed to teach us, to give us courage, to help us to feel less worried about our future.  Especially for people who were really worried about their lives, dreams provided a lot of help for them.  Today, we’ll also hear about the Holy Spirit, which God sent to us after Jesus returned to heaven, to help guide us.  Many people feel that Holy Spirit communicates with us through dreams and visions.  This isn’t anything to be afraid of, but we should listen and pay attention for what the Holy Spirit may be saying to us.  When we’re unsure, we can always ask a trusted adult, and we can always pray for God to help us understand what God wants us to do.

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Prayers This Week:

For Wiota Lutheran (southwest Wisconsin), a congregation mourning the loss of three members due to a random act of violence, and prayers for the young man who committed the murders.

For the people of Bangladesh, following the collapse of the building and the deaths of hundreds of workers trapped inside.

For all places in the world in need of peace.