Scripture Lesson: Acts 1: 1-11
“So,
Jesus, you are leaving, we get that.
You’ve walked us through the whole thing. We never realized…who’d have thought that You
are literally all over the Bible? You’ve
taken us piece by piece, all the way through.
We know you gotta go, that’s part of the plan. We know we have work to do, that is also part
of the plan. But here’s the question, as
related in Acts 1:6, “Is this the time you will restore the kingdom of Israel?”
Is
this when it is done done? You died for
us, rose for us, are about to ascend for us.
Naturally end date to your work here on the earth…is this the moment
when the plan all comes together?
Seems
like a natural question for the situation.
And the disciples have made some progress. They are asking, not assuming. There is a natural break in the way things
are being done. Jesus is going to
heaven.
Jesus
response is, in essence, “Sorry folks, that information is on a need-to-know
basis only, and you don’t need to know.”
But he says it Bible-lee, verse 7, “It is not for you to know the times
or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”
But
Jesus does give them something. Jesus
reads them into the program to a certain degree, “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.”
There
are two pieces of note in that statement of our Lord Jesus, one looks back and
the other looks forward. The one that
looks back is the one that takes us back a few steps in Our Story, to Sunday,
January 12, was the moment in Our Story when Jesus was Baptized for us.
The
key to the Baptism of our Lord, for us, is in the baptism of the Holy Spirit,
as in the form of a dove, descending upon our Lord, and God the Father’s words
of confidence and encouragement. Because
what happened there, Jesus repeats here, “You will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you…” Jesus
received power when the Holy Spirit came upon Him. That marks the formal beginning of his
ministry. Looking back, what happened to
Jesus is about to happen to the disciples-but more about that next week with
Rev. Jonathan Miller in our celebration of Pentecost.
“You
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth.” This is the piece that looks
forward into the Acts of the Apostles.
It is an intentional four phase spread of the Holy Spirit. There will be a moment in Jerusalem, in
Judea, in Samaria, and then a moment where Gentiles (representing the ends of
the earth) will also receive the power of the Holy Spirit. As of right now, the First Presbyterian
Church in Merchantville continues in phase four of Jesus’ promise of the Holy
Spirit.
So
why won’t Jesus tell them when the kingdom of Israel will be restored? But before that, every time anyone ever
mentions that we do not know the day that Jesus is returning, could be before
we take communion, could be beyond our lifetimes, it all ties back to
this. The kingdom of Israel will be
restored, but there is a timeline. Our
Story today is that Jesus ascended for us.
And this if FOR US because Jesus will, someday, descend FOR US. And that’s when it is all fulfilled. In that, there will be a final blending, a
coming together of the creation and the Creator. When reading the gospels, we read more about
the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.
That is in line with the Kingdom of Israel and the spread of the Power
of the Holy Spirit. It starts in
Jerusalem, the center of Israel, and spreads to the ends of the earth.
But
that doesn’t answer the question.
I
think it is because this work is still be conducted in a sinful world. And even with the power of the Holy Spirit,
we are sinners and in danger of every trick of the devil to pull us off the
work that Jesus has assigned us.
One
response would simply be to stop. Consider
professional sports, football, baseball, hockey, basketball. Not everybody makes it to the playoffs. There is even a ‘magic’ number thing for
teams to gain a slot, to make it. If the
magic fails, it becomes “why bother”.
Attendance drops, teams go through the motions, no matter how much we
try to spin it into “rebuilding”.
If
we knew when the end was, how many people would be like “so why bother”? Why do I need to work at the faith
anymore? The best evidence that Jesus is
coming back and people better get their lives in order is on the calendar.
Why
not tell us? Another reason is because
of the very nature of the work that the Holy Spirit empowers us to do. Some Christians can get so caught up in the
language of saving people, that blinders can form around the Great Commission,
to go forth and make disciples of all the nations. The Bible speaks of the whole creation
groaning under the burden of sin. Our
job, in Genesis, was to tend to the Garden of Eden. Those folks messed up and got tossed, but the
job didn’t change.
What
is our work? What does it mean to make
disciples of all nations? To feed them,
to clothe them, to visit them in prison or in hospital-Matthew 25. We have been granted the gift of creation as
the means to feed everyone, to make sure our basic needs are taken care of,
that we can build dignified lives for everyone-even the imprisoned. But that means taking care of the gift of
creation as well.
There
is one strain of theological thinking that basically says “Let the creation go
to hell because Jesus will come to clean it up anyway.” How many places in history can we point to,
in our living history as well as across the centuries, where we have seen just
how hellish things can become here?
Despite the power of the Holy Spirit upon us. How much more hell will be inflicted on creation
by human, sinful neglect? How much worse
will it be if we Christians decide this is actually what God wants?
I
think that is why Jesus is very clear with his disciples about two things. The first is that Jesus will descend the way he ascended, in joy and
triumph and the end of time. The second
is that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to keep working for the day. There is a job to do, to care for all
creation. And in Christ Jesus, all God’s
children are invited to partake of the free gift of salvation, and all of us
who have are mandated to work in the power of the Spirit to bring them in.
The
piece that I truly love about ascension is that Jesus really does not leave us
alone. Yes, the human ascends, so that
God’s Plan will be brought to its final fruition, its final conclusion in God’s
own time. But the Spirit is not some
adjunct faculty member of the University of God that has been sent to teach us
how to be a church. When the Holy Spirit
came down upon Jesus, it opens the truth that Jesus speaks throughout the
gospel (although particularly in John) that “the Father is in me.” But then the Holy Spirit comes upon us and it
opens the truth that Jesus speaks throughout the gospels (although, again,
particularly in John), “that I am in you.”
It is extra clear in John 14, that the Spirit IS Jesus in us. There is the Hebrew word Emmanuel fulfilled,
literally “God With Us”.
So
we pray for those in need, Jesus prays along through us, as Holy Spirit. We serve our community, with food, with the
thrift shop, with direct aid to people and organizations, Jesus serves through
us. We sing to the Lord a new song,
Jesus sings through us. Jesus calls it
the Holy Spirit, well, Jesus is speaking of the things of the perfection of
heaven to we limited, created, sinful, broken people. He breaks things down, so that we may
understand more wonderfully.
So,
Jesus left, in human form, the form that could walk and talk and interact with
us. Didn’t tell the disciples when he
was coming back. But the key takeaway is
that He IS coming back. But Jesus hasn’t
left. He will come upon them, in just a
few days, in the power of the Holy Spirit, as fully God as Father and Son. And we are out here at the ends of the earth,
recipients of that same Spirit, our same Lord Jesus. Folks, there is work to be done. We are building the kingdom. We have the Spirit, we have our Jesus within
us. Let God worry about the when and
lets just get her done.
Amen.
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