Feast of Ascension (transferred)
2015 Annual Meeting
5/17/15
Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:15-23
Luke 24:44-53
This
morning we come together and celebrate the Feast of the Ascension. Ascension to God being the final sign to
those disciples that truly, this Jesus is God’s son. It marks the end of one story and the
beginning of another. And interestingly
enough, we just heard the story twice, from two different books, told in two
different ways.
From
our reading in Acts: “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that
Jesus did and taught from the beginning” (1:1) Let’s start there, “In the first book” – what’s the first
book? Josh, can’t answer. Luke – the gospel of Luke. We are pretty sure that the same author wrote
both books and there are several reasons why, but an obvious clue is in how
they both begin.
Luke
1, verse 1, “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the
events that have been fulfilled among us….I too decided, after investigating
everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you,
most excellent Theophilus.”
Theophilus
– theo, means God – philia means friend.
Friend of God. Now perhaps the
author was writing this for a particular person named Theophilus – but probably
not. More likely, given the style of the
times, is that it is a term of endearment towards the reader. Oh, you want to hear the story of Jesus – well,
you must be a friend of God. Theophilus
is you – and me.
When
you think about it, it is a story, more so than a person that we follow. I never met Jesus. I don’t think any of you have. We believe in the truths of the stories.
Stories like we heard today that point towards something we can’t describe any
other way.
So
why don’t all the stories harmonize? Why would the same author tell the same story
twice and in two different way? In Acts
– the Ascension takes place 40 days after the resurrection. In Luke – Jesus ascends maybe three days
later – a little while after they’ve been to the empty tomb. Why don’t the stories add up?
Well
a little something about the author of Luke-Acts that I think is important for
us to know. He clearly believed in the
power of a good story. Because the
people he wrote the gospel for, those early gentile followers of Christ, needed
one. Most of Luke’s audience, we think, weren’t Jewish. They did not know the story of God that fills
the whole of the Hebrew Bible.
And
lots of those stories doesn’t add up either. Adam and Eve – the garden, stories
of Creation – and there isn’t one version, but 2
Noah
and the flood and rainbow – great story – made into a movie – and is there one
version? Nope – there’s 2!
And
the list goes on – Abraham and Sarah – Moses – burning bushes – calf idols –
tablets on mountains – Elijah, Elisha – Solomon, Bathsheba, David, Samuel, Ruth
– on and on and on. Story after story of
people and persons – doing what? Making
sense of their experience in the context of a relationship with God.
And
of course you know that all the stories in the Old Testament – and the New for
that matter – are what you could call revisionist history. Written after the fact – sometimes presented
as eyewitness accounts – but written after the fact. I don’t mean it in a negative way – I mean –
its narrative theology. It’s trying to
articulate and share the truth of God through how we interpret individual human
experiences and through generations of social movement.
The
author of Luke-Acts knew the new experiences of Jesus’ followers needed to find
their truth in an ongoing narrative. Which
is why no gospel has better stories than Luke.
How was Christ born in Luke?
Doesn’t just appear like in Mark or John – but there are angels and
shepherds – there is Mary’s cousin Elizabeth who she runs to greet and they hug
and sing – there is Simeon, Elizabeth’s husband, who is rendered speechless in
the temple when he doubts, Zechariah, Anna – so many more characters and sub
plots. You see any movie, watch any pageant – it’s based on Luke’s version because
it conveys the most human drama of Jesus’ story.
So
it’s not all that surprising that Luke dramatically portrays the Ascension
twice. In Luke it’s the end of Jesus’
story which leads to the beginning of ours.
But why aren’t the facts of the stories the same – wouldn’t that help
our belief in something as fantastical as a person being lifted into the
heavens?
Who
would you say makes the greatest documentaries – the greatest stories of our
more recent history? Ken Burns. Civil
War, Baseball, Lincoln, The Dust Bowl, The Roosevelts. He’s has defined the genre for our time as to
how we tell the story of our history. Why
are his films so good?
Ken
Burns says, good stories, one that speak truth, don’t add up. 1 and 1 equaling two, that’s not a story,
it’s a fact. A genuine story about 1 and
1 equaling 3
Love,
God, reason – whatever you call it – the whole of the story is greater than the
sum of the facts.
Abraham
Lincoln wins the Civil War, and decides to go to the theater – that’s a good
story.
When
Thomas Jefferson says – We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal – he owned 100 human beings and never saw the contradiction,
never say the hypocrisy, never saw fit in his lifetime to free any one of them
– that’s a good story. Good people who
are flawed, villains who aren’t entirely bad - that’s a good story.
Truth,
Burns said, is a byproduct of the best of our stories. And yet – there are many different kinds of
truths. (Ken Burns: On Story, vimeo.com/40972394)
In
one version of today’s story – Jesus ascends 40 days after the
resurrection. In the other – 3 days
later. Both numbers have significance
that you know and I don’t need to explain (or ask me later). The story needs to connect to the Old and the
New – because the truth of the story is that Jesus is literally God. Did he literally ascend? Does that matter? In your life experience – have you come to
faith because 1 and 1 equal 2? Or because of those times when something totally
unexpected happens and you find that 1 and 1 equal 3?
So
here’s my report – we’ve had another good year at Good Shepherd. When you read and hear about what we’ve done
– and where we are – we are engaged with creating a sanctuary for God and God’s
people – many of us are committed to working towards systemic change around
poverty and trying to deepen relationships in our community. We offer classes and Christian education for
young and old alike. We walk with people
through baptisms and funerals and joys and sorrows of all kinds. We pray.
We know how to put on a great party – and enjoy getting together to eat,
drink and be merry.
But
the story of our times is that church as we traditionally think of it, is being
called to change. The latest Pew
Research study of this week has (www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/)
– that we’ve heard about in headline after headline with the news that people continue
to leave the church in droves, especially the millennials among us.
Even
while we are a country where 70% of us say we are Christian. Clearly then, we are a country of Christians
who do not go to a church. And I think
that’s because traditional church is no longer what people want.
We
don’t want institutional hierarchy to tell us how to behave and what doctrine
to believe. We want the truths in
stories, our stories. And we want to be belong to communities where we can tell
our story. Where we can hear the stories
of others – and find the truths that resonate between us.
Let
me talk about how this specifically played out for me this year. Maybe some of you – I imagine many of you –
knew that this year the vestry and I were considering a change to our Sunday
worship schedule. I was – and stress was – of the strong belief that changing
when we worship on Sundays might bring the suburban families that surround us
flocking through our doors.
But
mostly I thought, maybe finally we as a community can stop having a conversation
that has been going on since long before I came: which service schedule is the “best”
one, the “right” one.
So
after a year of meetings, conversations and discernment it finally dawned on
me, “There is no best one! There is no
right one! And actually changing our service schedule right now does not resonate
with scripture story truth.”
Listen
to what the disciples as Jesus as he ascends, after all this time with him,
they are still fixated on knowing the “right” answer, the fix to their problems,
“Jesus, please tell us, when is the time when the kingdom will be restored?
(Acts 1:6)” When is the time the problems will be fixed? And Jesus, surely dumbfounded that they are
still so focused on quick fixes – replies, stop asking that question!
Simply
changing the times we worship on Sunday we will not restore us to perfection. All
it will do is ensure we spend more time debating what the “best” service
schedule is. And most of our answers are based on our own personal preferences,
what works best for me and my family.
Which is fair enough, its how we make most of our decisions.
But
my friends, faith communities that focus on those questions are exactly the
places that people not going to church label “religious, but not spiritual.” And spiritual is what people today are
longing for.
Before
Jesus ascended he tells us – spend all our time spreading the good news (Lk
24:47). Which is the truth at the heart
of every single story of scripture.
Every single story of scripture can be boiled down to a story of
forgiveness and restoration.
Individuals
are forgiven and restored to wholeness within themselves and within
communities. And that is what people are
longing to hear. Those are the stories
people are longing to tell. All the
spiritual but not religious – which is the fastest rising label in our very
Christian country – want to connect their spirit with the spirit of truth! We find the truth in our stories. We are called to create community that makes
space for that to happen.
The
Rev. John Grainger, 2nd rector of this community preached that The Church of the Good Shepherd can never
confuse the busyness of being church with being and sharing the story of Christ
outside our walls. (A. Machen, A Big Little Church on a Hill, 2000) That is what we
are called to do. That is our mission
and our reason for being. That is what
enables each of us to draw ever closer to the grace of God that we are blessed
with each and every day.
So –
as a community that is always looking forward – that is always following a
Savior who did things that didn’t add up.
So let’s have committees and meetings and ministries that focus on the truth
of the story. Let’s find more ways to look at our own holy narratives – share
the forgiveness and restoration that we’ve experienced in our lives with one
another. And let’s invite people to be a
part of our story. Amen.
The Rev. Arianne R. Weeks, Rector
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