Sunday
05/13/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “This is what we do church!”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 47
New Testament
Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 24:44-53
Welcome again friends, visitors, sisters and brothers, on
this our Mother’s Day and this our Ascension Sunday. On this day we celebrate
mothers, and all women who have or still do take on a mothering role to kids,
animals, people, and etc. Most women that I have met are a mother in their own
right. Melissa for example, is a dog mother.
This Sunday is also Ascension Sunday, as the United
Methodist Church and many other churches celebrated this past Thursday the
Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. That moment where Christ left his disciples
physically, to ascend to heaven, to then sit at the hand of God the Father,
until he returns in victory. Since we generally don’t have an Ascension Day
service on the Thursday that is Ascension Day each year, we also often call
this Sunday Ascension Sunday. We also have a couple of baptisms this morning to
(Freeville UMC only).
With everything that is going on today then, I don’t think
that we will get bored! With this said, since Ascension Day was this past
Thursday May 10th, I decided for this Sunday to use the lectionary
scriptures from Ascension Day. We do have scriptures for today, which is the 7th
Sunday of Easter, but I decided to use, as I said, the Ascension Day scriptures
from this past Thursday May 10th.
Specifically therefore, I want to focus on the gospel of
Luke reading for this morning that I just read. Inn our New Revised Standard
Version Pew Bibles, this gospel reading falls under the sub-heading of “Jesus appears to His disciples,” and
then under the sub-heading of “The
Ascension of Jesus”.
Let us hear again this reading from the gospel of Luke. It
says:
“Then he said to them, “These are my
words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written
about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then
he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus
it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on
the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be
proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 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.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands,
he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was
carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God”
(Lk. 24:44-53, NRSV).
So
the Ascension Day, that was this past Thursday May 10th, that we are
in part celebrating this morning, is the day that Jesus Christ physically left
this earth, and went into heaven.
In not being
there to witness this event, as recorded in Luke’s gospel, I was struck that
this reading ended again saying:
“And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with
great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God”. (Lk.
24:52-53, NRSV)
So after Christ rose the dead, and then appeared too many
for 40-days, he is ascended, and is physically just gone, like that. Yet in the
scripture, it says they:
“returned
to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing
God”(Lk.
24:52b-53, NRSV).
Jesus promised them that the Holy Spirit or the “Advocate”
would come and fill them and guide them, which is what we will celebrate next
Sunday on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church,
the day that the disciples finally said, we will go forth and preach and live
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So I get the joy that the disciples had on the one hand
this morning, but on the other hand, Jesus is physically gone, and he will not
return until he returns in glory. I am struck that there wasn’t more remorse,
or maybe there was. Maybe it hit some of them later, that there savior, there
messiah, their leader, would no longer physically be in their presence on earth.
Nearly two-thousand years later the millions and millions
of us who call ourselves Christians have never seen Jesus in bodily form, as to
be able to touch him. Yet we believe in him, his gospel, and the hope that it
provides.
Jesus himself said in the gospel of John 20:29:
“Have you believed
because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come
to believe” (Jn. 20:29, NRSV).
Jesus is with us spiritually, Jesus is
with us when we partake of Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. Jesus is with
us right here and now, just not physically. For me then, I wonder if there
wasn’t at least some remorse that disciples might have felt when Jesus, the
savior of the world, was no longer physically with them. For everything Jesus
said, did, all the miracles that he performed, his death, resurrection, and
ascension were the events that the disciples would teach, live, and influence
the world that they sought to build.
I wonder though, if they had moments
of despair after Jesus was physically gone?
I still remember the day in my life very
clearly. My father in Northern Illinois called me, and I could hear right away
that his voice was shaky. I could tell that he was upset, and I knew in that
moment he was about to tell me something that I probably didn’t want to hear.
He then told me that his father, my Grandpa Harold Winkelman has just passed
away. I was asked to do the funeral service in Northern Illinois, and it was a
great honor and a privilege. Through that process though, I felt like our
family and me specifically had lost a great leader, a great man, and a great
man of faith. I had great remorse that my grandfather would no longer be with
us physically. I mourned, and still sometimes will think of him and miss him
greatly. Yet, I believe he is alive spiritually with God.
Some folks might have had this feeling
recently, when the Rev. Billy Graham, nicknamed “America’s Pastor” died. When
we lose people we love, whether they be our grandparents, our own parents, or
others that we love it is possible that we might fall into remorse. What we
might forget in those moments of sadness and remorse however, is that the sun
will rise tomorrow. That people will get up and go to work, just like they do
every work day. Life for us, like that of the disciples this morning has
changed, but what do with this life that we have left. We have a new pastor
soon, and much like the sunrise, this church will continue on doing the great
work that it always has in Jesus name.
I really like the movie with Morgan
Freeman called, “The Shawshank Redemption”. In that movie is great quote said
by the character “Andy Dufrense”. This quote is one of my favorites, and it is:
“get busy living, or get busy dying”
(https://www.biography.com/news/shawshank-redemption-quotes-anniversary).
Whenever I read this morning’s gospel
of Luke reading, I am always struck that none of the disciples had remorse over
Jesus leaving physically, and I think that I might have. Yet the work of Jesus
Christ in a hurting and a broken world continues.
In this church and all churches, we
have had many great saints, many men and women that we celebrate that have been
through these doors for years. Pastors, lay people, and some of them are people
that we dearly miss, yet this church and many others continues. This church
will continue, through the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy
Spirit.
We continue because of the great hope
that we have in Jesus Christ and his gospel, and because of what God is using
us to do in the world each every day. My sermon for this morning is called,
“This is what we do church!” because our faith, the hope we have in Christ, and
the gospel continues. It continues on to eternity, as this morning the
disciples lose physically, there savior, there Messiah. Soon though, they will
go forth preaching, teaching, loving, forgiving, and healing.
Whenever a new person comes into this
church, whenever we have a baptism, we are continuing the great hope that we
have in Jesus Christ, continuing to live out his gospel, and continuing to
transform the world.
Living out our faith and making the
world better through the life giving power of Jesus Christ, is who we are as
Christians. Or as my sermon title says, “This is what we do church!”
As you may have heard me say many
times before, I as you do, stand in a line of heroes, great men and women that
loved, healed, sacrificed, and believed strongly in our faith. Men and women
who loved Jesus, and boldly shared that love with the world.
This great gift from Jesus Christ that
is the church, is I believe the best hope humanity has to build a world of
peace, love, mercy, hope, and justice. The great news then, is that while Jesus
isn’t physically here with us, he is risen and is alive and well. For nearly
two-thousand years we have lived out this faith, followed Christ, and worked to
transform the world. For “This is what we do Church!”
When this church feeds the hungry,
provides clothes to those in need, helps families with Christmas gifts, visits,
loves, brings communion, helps flood and natural disaster victims, helps the
oppressed and suffering, and loves the least of these, we are strong and
transforming the world. For “This is what we do Church!”
In 20-years though, some of
the saints that are with us here this morning might not be here with us physically
anymore, but God is eternal, and those saints will be with God. Until then however,
we live in a broken and a hurting world, and when we come together in faith and
live it out, we transform the world everyday. Or as Andy Dufrense said in the
movie “The Shawshank Redemption,”
“get busy living, or get busy dying”
(https://www.biography.com/news/shawshank-redemption-quotes-anniversary).
For
this broken, hurting, and dying world needs Jesus Christ and his gospel. Our
work then continues. For “This is what we do Church”! Amen.
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