"Telling the Story"
A sermon by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville United Church of Christ, May 16, 2010
Ascension Day, Year C; Acts 1:1-11 & Luke 24:44-53
“Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them... ‘You are witnesses of these things.  And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’”
(Luke 24:45-49)

Every family has their rituals of goodbye.  I come from a family that believes in long goodbyes.  When we’re talking on the phone, you can always tell when we’re getting ready to hang up.  There’s a certain cadence and rhythm to the process.  There’s a gradual kind of leading up to it.  The Barrett Family Goodbye usually includes an awkward moment of silence when we all realize that there’s really nothing more to say, but we’re just kind of ‘hanging out’ on the phone together.  Then we circle around the goodbye a few times like a plane circling around a busy airport.  And then we finally bring that ‘goodbye’ in for a landing so that, by the time you actually say goodbye, everybody in the conversation is absolutely clear that the goodbye is coming.  That’s one way to say goodbye.

Now my husband’s family does it a different way and, I have never been able to get used to it.  After almost 25 years of marriage, I still find it jarring.  You could be deep in what you thought was the middle of the conversation – or at the very least, you could be at the very beginning of the Barrett-family goodbye process – and they will, out of the blue, say, “Well, goodbye.”  And that’s it.  It’s over.  The phone is dead.  There’s nobody on the other side.  They don’t let the grass grow under their feet.  If there’s a little pause in the conversation, the call is over.  The Scarrow Family goodbye is swift and final.  If you blink, you could miss it.  And that, my friends, is another way to say goodbye.

My husband and I have just returned from several days in California where, in the best manner of the Barrett family, we shared in a very long goodbye to my father, who passed away in October.  Our family waited until now to scatter his ashes in a place that meant a great deal to him and to us.  My heart is full of gratitude for your kind support.  Everything worked out exactly right and there was real healing in our time together.  It is amazing how powerful such rituals can be – to stand together and say a few words, to remember a life, and tell a few stories, to gather up what can be gathered and to let the rest go -- it’s a kind of bearing witness that has can shift our hearts and our spirits in profound ways.

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

This past Thursday was Ascension, and this morning our lessons come from that occasion in the Church’s life.  This is the story of how, after making himself known to his people, Jesus “ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty – from thence he shall judge the quick and the dead.”[1]  It’s a good story with a lot of truth in it. 

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 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.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

For forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples over and over again.  Luke tells us that he “presented himself alive to [the disciples] by many convincing proofs,” that he appeared to them during forty days and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and then (I guess when he felt that the goodbye had gone on long enough) “he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them…he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50-51).

“So when they had come together, they asked him,
“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

One of the things about those disciples of Jesus is that you’ve got to give them credit for being persistent.  No matter how much Jesus tried to teach them about the Kingdom of God and what it meant and what it means, they just couldn’t help themselves.  They just kept thinking that when Jesus was sitting at the right hand of God, they’d be sitting there with him and that that configuration would mean power and glory and earthly privilege beyond their wildest imaginings.

Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?  Will you promise me Lord that, when you do, I’ll be sitting at your right hand and my brother here will be at your left?  We’ve heard this story before.  Jesus has stuck around for 40 days to give the disciples his final “Master Class” on how to walk in his footsteps, and now, finally, it’s time to go.

You can just see them, can’t you?  Can you see them standing there, gazing into heaven, with their mouths hanging open when the angels appear and say: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Which is to say, “He’ll be back – so get busy.”

The story of the Ascension is the story of how Jesus gives the Church her marching orders.  It’s not about restoring the kingdom in the ways that the disciples think it is.  It’s not for us to know the how and the why and the when of God’s plans.  But we will receive power through the Holy Spirit, and we will be His witnesses, and that’s what we need to know.

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles tells the story of how the early church got its start.  It’s the story of what happened to the disciples after they no longer had the daily, physical presence of their Lord to accompanying them on the journey.  It’s the story of how they stood up to the challenges of an anti-Christian culture, and how the Holy Spirit emboldened them to speak of their experience of God and in so doing, to spread the good news, even to the ends of the earth.  They had to be willing to be a witness for their faith in order for all of us to be here today.

There is power in being a witness for the faith.  We need people who are willing to do that in our lives.  In the church, we call this kind of witness “testimony.”  For some, to “give your testimony” means to tell the story of how you became a Christian.  For others, to testify is to share the story of something that God has done in your life that you think is worth sharing.  I think we give our testimony every time we talk about our experience of God.

Testimony is the foundation of the Christian faith.  The word “gospel” is the Greek word meaning “good news.”  It can’t be good news unless somebody tells it and virtually all of the writings of the New Testament are the efforts of the faithful to tell the good news to those who haven’t heard it, to persuade those who don’t believe it, and to encourage and console those who are doubting it.  At some point in our lives, that’s pretty much all of us.

Today, as we reflect on the story of the Ascension – when Jesus told his disciples to get busy being witnesses for the faith – we are also acknowledging the ministry of those who have been teachers among us.  Because every time we take the risk to share with one another what we believe about God, we are fulfilling Jesus’ commands to his disciples to ‘go and get busy.’

When Jesus gave the church her marching orders, he meant that we should share everything that we have heard from God with one another.  Sometimes that kind of witness can be the difference between life and death for someone.  When we can proclaim with every fiber of our being that:

Goodness is stronger than evil;
that love is stronger than hate.
that light is stronger than darkness
and life is stronger than death[2]
then, there is every possibility in the world that we can save a few lives.

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

We are all strengthened by sharing our faith with one another – not just the young or those who are hurting.  When people share from their heart what they know and believe about life with God, the Holy Spirit is present with power and we are all emboldened to live with greater confidence and courage.

Friends, we have received our marching orders.  It’s time to get busy.  May it be so.  Amen.