"Now. Hear. This." Ascesion

Acts 1:1-11

Saint Luke 24:44-53

It is entirely coincidental but fitting that we celebrate the ascension of Jesus during the season of commencements.  Those wonderful occasions when some really smart people don some really odd outfits to march across the stage and get their diplomas.  It is an important rite of passage that says whether it is high school, college, or graduate school that you have accomplished something.

This year these events have been marred as have most other events in society by “the virus” which while cancelling many and have caused others to think outside of the box and find new and interesting ways of honoring graduates.  

Reavus High School in Burbank was just one of many schools that held drive-thru graduations where the families of students watched from their cars as their son or daughter got out, walked across the stage set up in the parking lot, had their picture taken and got back in to move to a safe social distance to celebrate with their loved ones.  It was reported that this cumbersome process took six hours which, it should be noted, is only slightly less time than the average in person graduation seems to take.

Other schools resorted to online ceremonies and there was even a nationally televised graduation celebration featuring a speech by our former president, Barack Obama.  I watched and by the end I felt really, really old.  Of all the stars that were featured beside the President, I only knew of two, maybe three tops.  Had the Four Tops been there, I’m sure I would have recognized them. 

All commencement speakers are required to offer some words of advice and encouragement and so the President fulfilled his obligation by ending on this positive note

Because with so much uncertainty, with everything suddenly up for grabs, this is your generation's world to shape. 

I hope that  . . .  you decide to ground yourself in values that last, like honesty, hard work, responsibility, fairness, generosity, respect for others. You won't get it right every time, you'll make mistakes like we all do. But if you listen to the truth that's inside yourself, even when it's hard, even when it’s inconvenient, people will notice. They'll gravitate towards you. And you'll be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.1

That’s heady stuff for high schoolers  even with the optimism those years bring. 

It was probably a little too much for the band of adults who followed Jesus for the last time they are together formally, they ask him.  “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”2

Please note that the disciples are still putting the onus on Jesus.  They are still expecting him to do all the work.  It’s all wrapped up in that little word “you.” “When you will restore.”

We have a very good idea what the disciples think they are going to do when the kingdom is wrestled from the hands of the ruthless Roman occupiers and rightly restored to the people of Israel.  They are going to be members of Jesus’ cabinet.  They are going to get the corner offices and issue directives to their minions.  They are dreaming the dreams of the average high school senior.

They have waited long enough.  They want to have what they want to have and they want it here, now.  

Maybe that is why Jesus had to tell them to go home and wait.  “As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but ‘must wait for what the Father promised . . . ’”3

They had to wait until they were ready.  Jesus was turning their now into a not yet.  It’s not a “not ever” it is just a “not yet.”  It will take place but not on their timetable.

I have tried not to be partisan throughout this whole crisis but I must say I found what was said Friday afternoon about how the “governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now. For this weekend.” Was not helpful.  

Much as we would like. Much as I would like.  Our Savior’s is not ready to reopen. It is one thing to say “throw open the doors of the church!” and it is another thing to make it happen safely in a well-thought out manner.  

I assure you that the Metro Chicago Synod along with every other major denomination is going to sit down, listen to science, and when it can be done in a safe and sane manner we will reopen.  But it will be done wisely and carefully and not on a whim.

I have grown to love you and care too much about you for it to be otherwise.  And I trust you to know what is the right thing to do and when to do.

Sometimes, like the disciples we may just have to wait in the here and now until a message comes.   

Its delivery will be as over the head clear to us as it was to the disciples.

While we may want to join them in staring into space looking for help and waiting for an answer, I doubt very much that we are going to be the beneficiaries of the same kind of divine revelation.  We probably won’t have an angel show up and ask: “why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has gone away to heaven, and some day, just as he went, he will return!”4

Until then the gospel was to be in their hands.  They were now going to be the ones who had to do the sharing.  They were the ones who would have to do the telling. They were the ones who would have to do the acting on Jesus behalf.  Now it was going to all be up to them.  Now it is up to us.

How we share the gospel is going to make all the differences in the world.

A friend, a really good guy, proudly posted this story on his Facebook page.

It was about a young man who was checking out at a sporting goods store in Minnesota and wearing a cross around his neck.  The cashier was a Muslim who was wearing a hajib or head scarf. 

Supposedly she told him that he would have to put the cross under his shirt because it offended her.  He refused and suggested that she should remove her hajib. According to the story she refused and things escalated to the point where a manager was called to intervene as other customers became angry with some leaving their items behind and storming out.  The post concluded with these words:

“Kudos to the 17-year-old.  I pray that we would have the courage the young man had. What’s next?” the anonymous author wondered. “Are ‘they’ going to stop jewelry stores  from selling any item with a cross on it?” 

Then in all caps: “WILL YOU HESITATE TO PASS THIS ON?? OR BE READY TO DEFEND YOUR RELIGIOUS RIGHTS!!!  GOD BLESS YOU AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

I would hope that people would have hesitated or at least visited a fact checking website and found out that there was no truth what-so-ever in the story.  Sadly, it was reposted in countless forms by people who thought this “in your face” approach was an appropriate way to share their faith.  

To make matters worse, the story wasn’t true.  Fact-checking website and even Minnesota papers tried to find evidence of such an encounter and found none.  It brings to mind what both Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein said: “Not everything you read on the internet is true.”

Stories like this take on a life of their own and play to our emotions but, because they are untrue they do not advance the worthy cause of love of country or devotion to the gospel at all.  In fact, I would suggest, they do it great harm.

When the disciples left Jerusalem the had a great story to tell about God’s love and forgiveness revealed in Jesus Christ.  When we speak of him we must do so as the truest truth we know which does not need any embellishment.

The task Jesus put before the disciples is simply to tell the story of God’s love, forgiveness and redemption. That we can do right now, right here and this is how we can do it.

I don’t often find myself responding to these kinds of posts on Facebook so I must not have been at my best when I wrote back.  But I had to suggest to my friend and those who visited his page that their might be a better way to be a witness.  So I made up a conclusion to the story all my own.

These stories always seem apocryphal to me. 

Here would be my ending if the young man proudly strode into my office and told me how he appointed himself "defender of the faith."

 

"Young man, as your pastor I would have put the cross away. Then I would have explained that it was a symbol of my faith just like her head scarf was for her. Then, if there was no line, I would have asked her what her faith meant to her. Perhaps, she might have asked me the same question.  

This way both faiths would have been shared lovingly rather than antagonisticlly"

 

He's young. Maybe he'll learn. 

Maybe we all will learn that this faith we have been given is not shared by being flouted in another person’s face.  It is (God help us!) not promoted by government fiat. And it is certainly not helped by made-up stories.  

It is shared when others experience in us the love and acceptance we have found in Jesus.  

Done that way will prove that the former President’s words to graduating high school seniors will be true for us long ago graduated seniors were spot on. “people will notice” this. “They'll gravitate towards you.” now. And you'll be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.” 

This is what we can do right now, right here.

____________

1. “READ: Former President Barack Obama's 'Graduate Together' Speech,” May 17, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/politics/obama-graduate-together-speech/index.html.

2. St. Luke 1:6b.  (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

3. Acts 1:1-5. (MSG) [MSG= The Message]

4. David Smith. “Donald Trump Orders Governors to Allow Places of Worship to Reopen.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, May 22, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/22/donald-trump-churches-mosques-synagogues-reopen.

5. Acts 1:11. (TLB) [TLB= The Living Bible.   Carol Stream Illinois, 1971:  Tyndale House Publishers, 1971]