A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at Centenary United Methodist Church, Metuchen, New Jersey May 20, 2007

(Ascension Sunday)
Text: Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:1-11
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 wor-shiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. —Luke 24:44-53, NRSV

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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 prom-ise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with wa-ter, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will re-store 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 to-ward 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.” —Acts 1:1-11, NRSV
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Now what?! Everyone I know has “Now what?!” moments in their lives. And not just one, but a whole lot of them. Sometimes several of them in one day. “Now what?!” I ask myself that question frequently…do you?

A number of years ago, halfway through printing some important material from my com-puter, the printer ceased to put any ink on the paper. “Now what?!” I said. “The cartridge must have run out of ink,” I responded. And then realized I didn’t have a fresh cartridge in the office. “Now what?!” I asked yet again, and quickly answered myself: “Go to the store and get a fresh ink cartridge or two.” I did, and came back and installed one. The trip and the installation took about 45 minutes or so altogether. I instructed the computer to resume printing. The printer whirred, the paper started to move through it, and still no print. “Now what?!” I asked. “Get out the manual,” I answered (You know, “When all else fails…”), and began reading about ways to solve printing problems. Well, the long and short of it is, after about an hour of playing around with one solution after another, and a whole bunch more “Now whats?!”, the printer still didn’t work. “Now what?!” I asked in desperation. “Call the manufacturer,” I suggested to myself, which I did. That took another half hour or so (which really wasn’t too bad, considering). I de-scribed the problem, gave the technician the serial number of the printer, and was told that my particular printer sometimes developed this kind of problem and needed a part, which they would send to me in 6-to-10 business days. “Thanks a lot!” I said (not especially gratefully), hung up, gazed at this useless piece of modern technology and asked, “Now what?!”

Well, there was an unanticipated good outcome to this saga. By sheer God-incidence a neighboring pastor had an identical printer to mine and she graciously loaned it to me, which saved that particular day, and several more to follow. After three more weeks of using that bor-rowed printer, reverting to an old dot-matrix printer (remember them?), making another call or two to the manufacturer, the failure of the new part to solve the problem, and a long stay in the “printer hospital,” it finally came back and started to work right. But not before there were a thousand more “Now whats?!”

The phone rings in the middle of the night. “Now what?!” You expected your teenage child home by midnight. It’s now 1:00 A.M. and there’s no sign of him or her. “Now what?!” Mabel calls to tell you that she’ll be over in ten minutes to pick you up for the meeting tonight—and you’re in your most casual clothes and you’ve completely forgotten there even was a meet-ing, let alone that Mabel was picking you up for it. “Now what?!” You are sitting in the living room engrossed in a good book when there is a terrific crash from the kitchen, and you realize your cat is no longer contentedly purring beside you on the couch. “Now what?!” Your daughter walks in and defiantly announces that she and the young man you’d been hoping would be mov-ing to Tahiti are going to get engaged. “Now what?!”

And so it goes, life’s succession of “Now whats?!” That’s probably the feeling the disci-ples had standing there on that Jerusalem mountaintop watching the resurrected Jesus ascend, into heaven, leaving them behind. “Now what?!” It was bad enough when he was crucified, and they thought he had been lost to them forever. But in the miraculous 40 days since then, they have seen and felt his living presence so vividly, that their apprehensions were becoming stilled. Now, almost without warning, he is being taken from them…permanently. What were they sup-posed to do? “Now what?!”

The wonderful word picture Luke paints in Acts of the disciples watching Jesus ascend has both inspired and amused me. I sort of envision them standing there, necks craned, mouths agape, hands shielding their eyes from the bright sun, hoping to catch one final glimpse. “Do you still see him, Peter?” “I think so, John—a little off to the right there, isn’t that him?” And while they stand there gazing into the sky, two men in white—angels, I suppose—stand by them and basically ask, “What on earth are you doing just standing around here looking up toward heaven?” Often I have thought the next line out of the angels’ mouths should have been, “Don’t you realize there is work to be done? For heaven’s sake (for Christ’s sake?), get on with it! Don’t just stand there…do something!”

But that is not the way it reads, at least in the “official” versions. The angels reassure the disciples that while Jesus has ascended, he will return. It is a word of hope meant to answer a flood of “Now whats?!” forming in the disciples’ minds. And, in truth, the angels don’t order them to get on about doing anything. Neither did Jesus, really, in those moments of final conver-sation. Actually, he told them to stay in Jerusalem and wait. Wait?! Wait for what? For the prom-ised baptism of the Holy Spirit “not many days from now.” How many days? Not many days. Two or three days? Not many days. A week? Two weeks? Not many days. How long, O Lord?

Well, we know now that it was to be ten days from his ascension, on a Jewish festival day called Pentecost, fifty days after Passover and—God-incidentally or providentially—fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection. And when that day came, they were waiting, as they had been for what seemed like forever, in that crowded upper room in Jerusalem. And when that day came, they no longer had to be told what to do. They would probably still find themselves asking “Now what?!” on more than one occasion, but there was a new sense that the “Now whats?!” of life and faith had some answers to them. They would know what to do and what to say.

In truth,
“The early church never understood the ascension of Jesus as a departure ceremony for a beloved teacher traveling to a distant and unknown land. Rather it was seen as a further step in his glorification, from which the church could benefit. Luke, the only New Testament writer to give us a graphic account of the Ascension, also points out that after the event Christ was working with his apostles (Acts 14:3). For Luke, the Ascension did not mean that Jesus was no longer with them. Describing it, he gives no indication that the disciples were in any way saddened or disappointed. On the contrary, they were elated and glorified God. The Ascension did not only mean that Jesus had entered a new dimension. It also meant that through it they were going to participate in Christ’s universal reign through their preaching of the gospel. What God had been doing through Jesus in calling [people] to repentance he was now going to do through them.”

And so it has been for the followers of Jesus and for the Church ever since. We still have our “Now what?!” situations to face, both individually and corporately. Some of them are terri-bly trying and they challenge our faith. Some of them are extremely frustrating, and they chal-lenge our patience. Some of them are confoundedly confusing, and they challenge our wisdom. And some of them are undeniably joyful, and they challenge us to move on in new ways. But in all of them—the trying, the frustrating, the confusing, and the joyful alike—we are assured of the presence of Christ, working in, beside and through us.

Like the disciples, we do need occasionally to look toward heaven…to turn our hearts toward God. But, like the disciples of old in Jerusalem, we Christians may too often be found standing around, gazing off into space and wondering “Now what?!” Be assured, whenever we assume that posture for too long, God will send an “angel” or two—perhaps in the forms of homeless, hungry, hurting, hopeless humanity—to ask us what the heck we think we’re doing, and offer a nudge of the Holy Spirit to inspire us to get on with the business of being the Body of Christ. To turn our gaze from heaven and out at our neighbors, and see how we can share the love of Christ with them. A love that came to earth for us. A love that went to the cross for us. A love that abides with us forever.

“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.” The words of the angels are not only a gentle rebuke and a set of instructions for the early disciples; they are also a promise to all who follow the Savior. He will come again, the angels pledge, in a way as myste-rious and inexplicable as that in which he departed. Jesus Christ, our great high priest who ap-pears in the presence of God for us, will gather all the people of God to himself. The work to which we have been commissioned will be completed. By his mercy and goodness, we shall someday see his face, and praise him joyfully forever and ever.

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PRAYER
Almighty God, we thank you for revealing yourself through your Son, Jesus Christ. We confess our faith in his saving power, and acknowledge him as our risen and ascended Lord. By your Holy Spirit, teach us patience, that we may discern where you are leading. Give us courage to be steadfast witnesses to the gospel. By your mercy, grant us the assurance that you are with us now and forever; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reign with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
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