Final Instructions From Jesus
Luke 24:44-53
by Jim Westmoreland
Have you heard about the woman who went shopping with her daughter? The crowds were awful. She had to skip lunch because the schedule was so tight. She was tired, hungry; her feet were aching; and she was more than a little irritable. As they left the last store for the car, she asked her daughter, "Did you see the nasty look that salesman gave me?"
Her daughter answered, "He didn't give it to you, Mom. You had it when you went in."
Sometimes, our anxieties, insecurities, and unhappiness with what is going on in our lives get in our way, and we look for someone to blame.
Julie Baines remembers her nine-year-old son calling to her one evening as she sat bent over her word processor in the corner of the family room, "Mommy, if you had a dog, and you really loved this dog, and you worked real hard to earn the money to buy him the fanciest dog house and the best dog food, don't you think it would be better if once in a while you played with that dog?"(1)
Parents, young people, grandparents, Jesus gave himself fully to his disciples, to you and to me, and He gave them and us some important instructions. Are there things in our lives that are causing interference for us in being able to hear and discern God's words for us?
This past Thursday was the 40th day after Easter, the day when the Jesus left His disciples and ascended into heaven. Since we do not use have a special service on Ascension Day, I have used those verses for readings today as we observe today for us to remember and celebrate the concluding of Jesus' earthly ministry with the disciples and His physical departure from their midst after the resurrection.
Surely the disciples were anxious as Jesus began to remind them that He must go away from them. As He met His last times with them, would they be able to hear and understand His final instructions to them?
The story of Jesus' Ascension contains things we will only see if we stop assuming that we know what we're going to find. This is not about where heaven is or about ascending up into clouds. There are no x, y, z or alpha coordinates to locate or point to where heaven is in our four-dimensional world. The Ascension is about the resurrected Jesus leaving the disciples and His last words with them.
We don't celebrate the Ascension because it's forty-something days after Easter and that's what the church is supposed to do. We don't celebrate the Ascension because people believe that Jesus rose into heaven to sit on the right hand of God. We celebrate the Ascension because we're no different from the early church who gathered around this story from the beginning to hear what they needed: to be reminded what their core purpose was and that they were going to receive power. And perhaps even more importantly, we celebrate this day to be reminded that we have no power of our own and never have.
At this time, the disciples were a fragile little community, anxious and bewildered, watching their Lord leave them, but they weren't distraught and sad, as we might expect. When it's all over, they were worshiping with joy. They had an advantage over us. They knew they had no power of their own.
Any power they would ever know would be given to them by the Spirit, and they aren't even told when or how. Someone in the group does ask the practical question--someone in a group always does. He or she asks Jesus, "Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?" It's not a faith question; it's a political question. It's the question you ask when your candidate comes out on top and you want to know when the platform is going to be implemented. It's the wrong question to be asking, but, thankfully, it's all right with Jesus to ask the wrong question. Jesus says. "Stop worrying about having things the way you want them and wait for something else, a power that is coming. A gift is on the way. Wait for it."(2)
We live in an era and in a nation which is deluded by the notion that everything is up to us. To join a church is a way of saying "that is not true." And, Ascension Day becomes a very good day to welcome new members into a congregation, because whenever people come to confess their faith in Christ as Savior and Lord for the first time, or when they come transferring their membership and remembering their baptismal vows, their coming is a witness to their repentance from an old way of life and to their decision to follow Jesus as His disciple. In this act of joining together to be part of the Body of Christ through a particular church we publicly proclaim that we rely on a power beyond ourselves and that we believe in God whose love and strength sustains us in all things.
We believe that all followers of Christ are ministers of the gospel, and we are to do the work of ministry. There are many gifts and ways that we minister. All ministry in the church is a gift from Jesus Christ. Members and officers alike are under the mandate of Christ, who is the chief minister of all. Jesus' ministry is the basis of all ministries, the ministry of "...one who came not to be served but to serve."
I read of a pastor who tells a story about a couple who came to see him with regard to possibly joining the church. He was excited about it until he felt the conversation turn into an interview with a one-sided checklist. The couple wanted to know just what the church was going to do for them and for their children. Believing that we are all called to minister, the pastor asked them, "What are you planning to do for church?" That was not on their checklist, and they left, and were not seen again.
All ministry, including church membership, is a gift from Jesus Christ. Without the gift, without the empowering Spirit that Jesus promised to the disciples at his Ascension, we can do nothing. We can make no claim. And nothing that we try to do that is all our idea and not God's can finally prosper in the end. Oh, our projects can certainly go a long way before they finally fade. A program or ministry or organizational decision that is our doing and not the Spirit's can look very successful and garner much support. But, if something is not a work of the Spirit, it will die when our power or energy to make it happen dies. The work of the Spirit, on the other hand, never comes to an end. God will accomplish what God sets out to do and will make use of us and our witness along the way.
Our final instructions are to proclaim the gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus' name to all nations, beginning where we live. There is one message at the heart of the Good News. "...repentance and forgiveness of sin in his name.." There should be no confusion about the central message of the church, since Jesus very clearly spelled it out.
There is so very much we can say as a church, but there is this one thing we must proclaim. It is amazing to hear churches struggle with questions like, "What is our purpose." Jesus allowed no wiggle room in the commission he gave to his followers. "You are witnesses of these things."
We have no new thing to offer. There are literally hundreds of ways the church can configure its ministry, but every expression of authentic ministry must have a direct connection to the central task of the church. We are witnesses to the forgiving grace of God in Jesus Christ. Our lives are distinguished not by our pride and accomplishments but by our repentance. The Christian response to sin, mistakes, is not indifference (it doesn't matter). The Christian response to sin is repentance forgiveness, acceptance, encouragement and newness of life.
Ascension Day is the day to remember that it is the Spirit at work in the church that makes all manner of impossible things possible- things a good deal more mystifying than Jesus rising into the air. Things like the woman who knew she couldn't face it when her husband became critically and terminally ill, who woke each morning for months wanting to fall apart and disappear. But she didn't. She survived and met what came each day. And not only that, when she looks back, she knows she didn't do it alone because facing her husband's death was not something she could possibly have done.
By the power of the Spirit of God, a man who had been addicted to alcohol for more than half his years stopped drinking and stayed sober. And when peopled asked him how he did it, the first thing he says is he didn't.
If we try to do our work in our own strength and wisdom, it is easy for us to jump the gun, to jump on our horse and ride off in all directions, to grow impatient with ourselves and others and become critical. It is easy to say we need to pray first, but hard to pray and wait to receive God's power. Too many of us live too busy lives without the power of God living with us. Perhaps, that can be said of churches also.
By the power of the Spirit of God, a Mexican priest took communion to the people of a town whose church was overrun with soldiers. They shot at anyone who came near, but the priest came forward to enter the church. They shot at the ground around his feet, and overcome with fear, he started to leave, but then stopped, came back again, and moved forward while the town watched. His courage, which was not his alone, inspired others to fall in step beside him until there was a collection of unarmed people moving toward the church. The startled soldiers no longer had the will to do them harm - so great was the power that was evident among them. So, the soldiers stood aside and the people went inside and shared the communion of our Lord, something that moments earlier had been impossible had been made possible by the power of God alone.
This week, let us remember to, not only pray, but to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, let us look for opportunities to proclaim repentance and forgiveness to people who feel distant from God. Don't we think that Jesus' final instructions were something He meant for us to live by? Amen.
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1. As quoted by Robert Wuthnow, "Maladies of the Middle Class," Princeton Seminary Bulletin 13 (1992): 291.
2. The Rev. Dr. Catherine Taylor, "Power Source," Day 1, June, 2003.