Ascension Day… the day we remember and celebrate

Christ’s bodily ascension from this earth comes forty days

after Easter. For anyone trying to do math in their heads…

that means Ascension occurred this past Thursday.

Ascension is not a celebration we hear much about… very

few churches apart from Catholics and Episcopalians…

even have Ascension Day services. So we often miss out

on this story in our church year. But today… on this first

Sunday following the day itself… we hear the story of

Jesus’ Ascension as told in the book of Acts.

The disciples learn that it is not the time that God will

restore the kingdom of Israel… but promises that the power

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of the Holy Spirit is coming to guide them on the path

ahead… to continue the mission that Christ has started.

And then Jesus is taken up into the clouds. He

disappears… leaving the men alone… leaving them to their

faith and their work.

As I sat down early this week to read through the

lessons for today… it was this second half of our reading

from Acts that stuck out to me… and I found I kept coming

back to the last few verses. Jesus is gone… and they are

waiting for the coming of this Holy Spirit Jesus spoke of…

they return to Jerusalem… and they gather together for

prayer. And I can’t help but think… this small gathering in

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the upper room… //the remaining 11 disciples… a group of

women (yes there were women there too even if we don’t

get their names)… Jesus’ mother, Mary, and his brothers…

this is really the first gathering of what we might call the

Christian church.

Sure… we won’t officially celebrate the foundation of

the church until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

next week… but here in the book of Acts… we hear about

a gathering of men and women who come together and

profess Jesus their Christ crucified and risen. These men

and women… now have only their faith to rely on… and

their first action is to gather together in prayer. Imagine

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what it must have been like to be a part of that initial

gathering… to come together with these men and women

of faith… and wonder… now what?

I find myself standing in absolute and awe of this

group… I’m here… we are all gathered here this morning

to proclaim Christ crucified and risen… because this group

of men and women put their faith in Christ… they gathered

together in prayer and asked… now what? And I

realized… we have put our faith in Christ… and we gather

together in prayer… and we’re still asking that very same

question… now what?

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These early Christians were facing a world that didn’t

share their beliefs… a world where they would be called

blasphemers by some and social deviants by others. And

so they had to ask… now what? Our situation is a bit

different. The Christian church has become an

institution… Christians make up the largest cross section of

the world’s population… well over 2 billion… and to

think… it started with a handful of the faithful… gathering

together for prayer in an upper room…. Putting their faith

in Christ. It’s kinda cool… and is a testimony to the power

of the Holy Spirit in this world… //of course… now… as a

worldwide institution the church faces other challenges.

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A larger and larger portion of the world and

specifically our country’s population classify their faith as

“none.” Many see the institution of the Christian church as

corrupt… greedy… overly judgmental and rule obsessed…

and full of hypocrisy… and I can’t say as I blame them…

With Televangelists like Mike Murdock telling people to

send him $1000 as “seed money” that, given enough faith,

God will give back to them ten fold… and if you don’t

have $1000, that’s totally fine… because they accept credit

cards. Or prosperity gospel folks like Joel Osteen who live

in 10 million dollar homes and preach that it is completely

okay to live in a 10 million dollar home while the poor go

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hungry… and homeless… and without medical care…

because God wants them to be rich… which is the same as

saying, if you’re poor it’s because God wants you to be

poor… so don’t bother asking me to help you… God helps

those who help themselves. (Which is found nowhere in

scripture by the way).

And the church’s institutional problems are far from

all about money. All too often churches say, “all are

welcome” on their website or bulletin… but what sounds

good in theory isn’t always practiced in reality. For far too

many worshipping communities… that phrase “all are

welcome” should come with one heck of an asterisk. “All

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are welcome… who are like us.” “All are welcome…

unless you’re gay… or transgender… or have brown skin…

or are a woman who works outside the home… or are

divorced… or are an addict… or have noisy children… or

were in jail… or are from another country.”

The institutional Christian church is facing problems

of //decreased membership… decreased attendance by

those who are members… decreased giving and financial

resources… as well as decreased power and influence over

societal trends… and when you’re used to being in the

driver’s seat… sitting anywhere else can feel like

persecution. Plus we have this annoying tendency to

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splinter ourselves… and we get in fights over things that

don’t really matter… like what color carpeting to put in the

sanctuary and what time worship should start… //and what

we should be getting worked up over… poverty…

hunger… homelessness… oppression… racism… the

hatred that causes people to be killed at a concert or while

riding a bus... gets pushed to the sideline.

We live in a very different world than the early

disciples… and as an institutional church… we are facing

different problems than the handful of the faithful who

gathered in the upper room after Jesus’ ascension. But

we’re still asking ourselves the same question… now what?

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And the reality is… as the church… as Christians… as

people of faith who claim to follow the Word and Mission

of Jesus our Christ… we need to do better… we need to be

better… we need to be better at being the people of God…

loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves… //we

need to be better at forgiving and finding compassion for

others… better at welcoming… and reaching out to those in

need… we need to be better at representing Christ… for no

other reason than that is what we are called to do… and that

is who we are as followers of Christ.

I believe it was theologian Phyllis Tickle who said…

“Every 500 years… the church has a rummage sale.” What

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she meant by that was… every 500 years or so… the

church needs a good shake up… a time to really think

about what we need to hold on to… and what we need to

let go of. Well… it’s 2017… and we’re commemorating

the 500th anniversary of the Reformation… a time of

huge… re-formation… so I guess we’re due. It’s time to

shake things up in this institutional church of ours… it’s

time to have that rummage sale and really think about what

we need to hold on to… and what we really should just let

go of. I know that makes us anxious… the disciples were

probably anxious gathered that day in the upper room too.

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But the good news is… despite our anxiety… despite

our desire to hold on to old junk like judgments and

arguments that don’t really matter… despite the fact that

we are broken people who won’t do as good a job

representing Christ in this world as we should… despite the

fact that we will mess up… and be hypocrites… and hurt

people… and turn people away… the church is going to be

okay. And I know the church is going to be okay because

(thanks be to God) the church isn’t solely dependent on

us… we have an ace in the hole. We have the Holy

Spirit… and the power of the Holy Spirit is stronger than

we are… stronger than we can imagine… so we don’t have

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to worry about the longevity of God’s church… the church

will continue… it just may start to look a bit different than

it does now… and that’s okay… and it’s more than okay…

It’s time to really ask ourselves, “now what?” And to listen

and be ready for whatever answer the Holy Spirit has for

us.

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