Acts 1:6-11
Star Wars, I know
not all of you have seen Star Wars and many of you probably have no desire to
ever see Star Wars, but I have seen Star Wars . . . once or twice in my
lifetime. So when I think of final words
some scenes come to mind. In the first
Star Wars movie (A New Hope) one of the last things Obi Wan Kenobi says to Luke
Skywalker is, “Run, Luke, Run.” Later on
in the series right before Yoda dies he tells Luke, “pass on what you have
learned.” And then in the final scene of
the third movie, after Darth Vader has turned from his evil ways and is dying,
he uses his final words to say to Luke, “you were right, you were right about
me, tell your sister you were right.”
I find it
interesting that in this story about the young Luke Skywalker and his experiences
in the universe as he strives to become a Jedi is that two of his mentors and
his nemesis/Father, when leave Luke they do not give him a treatise on what is
means to be a Jedi. They do not instill
in him the principles of what is good and what is evil, they do not give him a
list of dos or don’ts, nor do they give him guidelines on how to be a good
Jedi. Obi Wan simply tells Luke to run,
to protect himself to get out of there.
Yoda tells him to pass on what he knows, to make disciples, so to speak,
so that others may know and others too can become what Luke is still in the
process of becoming. And the series ends
with Darth Vader telling Luke to go tell his sister the good news that Luke was
right, there was the possibility Vader’s redemption. With their final words none of these
characters instilled in Luke proper theology of what is good and evil; they
gave no commandments, no platitudes. They simply gave instructions to go, to
share, to tell.
Now many would say George
Lucas, the writer behind the Star Wars series, made many mistakes as he made
his movies, but I would argue he is onto something here, when it comes to how
his characters use their final words. Although fictitious, Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda
and Darth Vader follow a pattern when it comes to last words, which is the
pattern of our Lord as recorded here in Acts. Jesus says some final things to
his disciples. He says, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my
Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with
water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit,” and “you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth." Jesus gives
them instructions about what they should do. They are to wait in Jerusalem and
then they should go out and be witnesses first in in the city they are in and
then to the surrounding areas and eventually as they move out, reach toward the
ends of the earth.
Obi- wan told Luke
to “Run,” Yoda told him to “pass on what you have learned,” and Darth Vader
told him to go “tell” his sister and here Jesus tells his disciples to go and then
go some more. Jesus does not give them proper theology, memorable aphorisms, or
guidelines for Holy living. He does not give them a business plan; he does not
outline a target demographic he gives them simple easy to follow instructions. Go to Jerusalem, receive the Holy Spirit, and
then go and be witnesses.
Once Jesus is
finished saying this, he rises into the sky and is taken from their sight. It
is interesting to see what the disciples do then. They stare into the heavens. Directly after
saying these words, Jesus leaves them. He rises into the sky and is hidden from
their vision by a cloud. This is similar to what happened during the
transfiguration, when Jesus was hidden by a cloud while he is chatting with Moses
and Elijah. Last time Jesus did this,
cool things happened. Last time this happened, Jesus was temporarily removed
from their site, he was not gone forever as he was this time. So there is some
reason they might have been waiting there expecting Jesus to re-emerge. Although
unlike last Jesus gave them explicit instructions on what to do next. He had
told them to go, and instead they were standing there staring into the sky.
When my girls were
younger I could give one of them an explicit instruction. “Take this to the kitchen. Put it on the kitchen table and then come
back here.” Not even five minutes later
I would find her on the front porch playing with her jump rope and the item I
handed her is nowhere in sight. “Where
is it? “I don’t know.” “What did you do?” “I went into the kitchen and saw my rope and
came out here.” “What and where did you
put the thing I gave you?” “You gave me something?” “Yes.”
And where do you think we finally find it? On the table?
NO! In the kitchen? Of course not. Somewhere between the kitchen and the porch?
No that would make too much sense. I
would find it upstairs on her bed, where she had put it after picking up the
rope and going in search of shoes and socks.
At least she had shoes and socks on, I guess.
In my imaginings Jesus
must have felt very similar to the way I did when these things happened in my
household, that day as he looked at his disciples after his ascension. Were they doing what he told them to do? Were they going to Jerusalem? No they were just standing there. Standing there looking at the spot where they
had seen him last. Staring at the sky,
doing nothing. Not going, not waiting, and
not going to Jerusalem. Who knows how long they would have stood there, not
doing anything, not doing what they were explicitly told to do, just staring at
the place where Jesus had been, waiting for him to come back, expecting him to
appear. Standing there, looking for
Jesus in a place where he was not to be found.
Thankfully we will
not know the full extent of the disciples’ foolishness as stood there looking in
to the empty sky for an undetermined amount of time, because their skyward
meditation is interrupted by an angel, who took their eyes off the empty
heavens and reminded them that they were given instructions. The angel asks them why were they are still
standing there staring at the sky. He tells them they needed to get about doing
what Jesus had told them to do. Before they go the angel reassures them that
although Jesus will return, it is not going to be right now, so stop staring at
the sky and move along.
It is easy to laugh
at how silly the disciples were, how ridiculous they must have looked staring
at a vacant sky. It is easy to roll our
eyes at their thoughts that Jesus was going to reappear right there, where they
had last seen him. But the fact of the
matter is, far too often we are not all that different than the disciples. We too can find ourselves staring at the
clouds looking for something that is no longer there, instead of moving forward
and acting upon what Jesus is calling us to do now.
Whenever we find
ourselves sitting around waiting for something that is gone to come back,
whenever we are hoping for something we can no long have, whenever are looking
backwards at the way things used to be, wishing for them to return, we are the disciples staring at the sky, staring at
the place where Jesus used to be. Too often we spend our time staring at the
sky so to speak; looking for Jesus to appear, or waiting for him to reappear in
a place he once was. Jesus’ call upon the church, upon the lives Christian is
always call to go forward, it always a call to go.
Too often we are
figuratively staring at the sky wondering when Jesus is coming back or when we
get to join him. We spend our time, and energy focused on self-preservation, and
perpetuation. We spend so much of our time and thoughts on whether or not we
will continue to be as we have always been; about mere existence, surviving as
an entity. We want to get things back to the way they have always been, the way
they used to be.
We as believers can
find ourselves distracted, distracted by Jesus of all things, distract by
looking for Jesus in the places where Jesus no longer is. That is what happened
to the disciples here in this passage.
They were so distracted, focusing on where they had last seen Jesus;
standing there waiting for him to continue to be where he once was, instead of doing
what Jesus had instructed them to do. Any time our focus is on anything that is
not on the call Jesus has for his Church, for his people, no matter how good,
or important it might seem to be, it is an improper focus.
Right now it is
easy to get distracted with our desires to return to the familiar things, to
get life and the things we do as a Church body back to they was they used to
be. But trying to find Jesus in all the familiar places he used to be is
turning our focus off of going and making disciples in the places we are right
now. Our call is not to our Church buildings, to our sanctuaries to church the “way
it has always been.” Our call is to going and to making disciples now, being
the Church right now, the way things are now. Our gaze is a forward facing
gaze, looking to where Jesus is calling us to be, and not looking backward
facing gaze, focusing on where Jesus used to be. Jesus is directing our
attention to the places to new places, to new things, not on the old ways and
the old things.
The disciples were
looking for Jesus to reappear where he used to be focusing on getting Jesus
back, so things could go back to the way they were before, traveling around the
countryside, listening to Jesus as he taught and watching when he healed them.
But after the resurrection, after the ascension, things never went back to the
way they were and that was fine. Thing did not need to go back, in fact they
could not go back.
Jesus called them
forward to something new. Jesus called them to go, to be the Church to make
disciples. And it is turning away from the way things had always been and in
the going, doing and being who Jesus was calling them to be now, that the
Church was born. The church would never have come to be, as long as they stood
there waiting for Jesus to return (they would still be there, standing, doing
nothing, waiting for things to return to the way they were before).
We will go back to
our sanctuaries but we should never be working or striving to get things back
to the way they once were. Instead we are to always be focusing on where Jesus
is calling us to go now. What new opportunities for discipleship does this “new
normal” give us which were never open to us before?
Jesus had called his
disciples to go and be witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judah, in Samaria, to the
ends of the earth. They were told to go, be witnesses, make disciples, first in
the city where they were, then to places nearby, and then to continue on until
they had been everywhere and made disciples throughout the world. Sounds like
something we might hear around here every once in a while. Love God, God one another, and love our
world, so that we can Christ-like disciples in Cambridge and all the world.
We do this by
living the love of God, sharing the love of God and allowing people to
experience the love of God in us and through us. Let us all stop looking at the sky, trying to
get back to the way things were, wondering when we can go back to our “old
lives” putting our focus on returning to our sanctuaries, to our old activities
and the way things used to be. Let us stop worrying about that which is not our
goal or our focus our calling and move to do and be the disciples who are
witnesses beginning in the places where we are now.
