The End Of The Beginning
Sermon
Sermons on the Gospel Readings
Series III, Cycle C
Object:
Three decades ago my nephew, Nathaniel, was a toddler when he discovered the full moon for the first time. For a day or two he would talk of nothing else. Then a week later he was out on a summer evening and looked in vain for the moon. He was genuinely puzzled. "Where did the moon go?" his mother asked him.
After a moment's reflection he shrugged and said, simply, "Exploded."
That explanation covered the facts as far as he was able to observe, but it wouldn't be long before the moon again dominated the night sky.
There is nothing like the full moon if you live in the countryside. Away from city lights night is truly dark. The full moon nearly creates a second day. It's not as bright as the real day of course, but in the fall the full moon extends the time you can be out in the harvester. In winter the full moon casts wonderfully long, blue shadows on a perfect bed of snow.
The moon is the most visible and obvious object in the night sky. The sun is brighter of course, but we can't look directly at it. The downside is that the full moon obscures all but the brightest stars. Even when we can't see it, the moon still has a powerful influence through tides.
Thinking about the moon might just give us a way of looking at the ascension of Jesus, why it was necessary and why we can say in some sense that Jesus has not departed at all.
The ascension of Jesus into heaven appears in two places in the scriptures, in Luke and Acts. The accounts in the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the apostles include a few different details. We're used to that when dealing with stories from the gospels. Different witnesses notice different things and emphasize different points for different reasons. But the same author wrote the gospel and the Acts. Why are they different?
A lot has to do with the position of the two texts. The account in Luke's gospel caps the ministry of Jesus -- it's a time for blessings and farewell. But the account in Acts is the beginning of our part of the story, a book that is still being written today by every Christian who works as a missionary, volunteers in a soup kitchen, sorts clothes at a domestic violence shelter, or teaches in a Sunday school.
Far from being symptoms of some strange gospel that ignores the divinity of Jesus and his imminent return, these actions are proof that we take his words seriously and are doing exactly what we're told to do.
This day we will look at both passages, but we're going to begin with this morning's reading from the gospel of Luke. It comes right after Jesus eats with his apostles. In the face of their disbelief, standing before the risen Lord, Jesus asks the disciples for something to eat and is given a piece of broiled fish.
That fish not only confirmed that the risen Jesus was not a spirit or ghost, but a living, breathing, resurrected Lord, it also symbolized the unity of the earth church. Luke was writing some decades after the events he was describing and trying to assure the Roman authorities that the Christian faith was revolutionary in the spiritual and not political sense. It was not the intent of the first Christians to overthrow emperors. They were only temporary blips on history's radar screen. The disciples of Jesus meant to turn the world upside down in a different way. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, slave and free, men and women, were separated in the rigidly segregated Roman society, but fish, bread, and wine brought them all together around the table of the Lord. Whereas Jews and Gentiles could not eat the same meat, they both could eat fish -- and did. Frescoes depicting meals shared by Christians usually showed bread, wine, and fish. So this fish that Jesus ate before the ascension is a sign that something great is about to happen -- and God's people are the ones to do it.
Keeping in mind that the same hand wrote the ending of Luke and the beginning of Acts, it's useful to see what is written there.
Acts is the second volume of a larger work that began with the gospel of Luke. In the gospel individuals from all walks of life are introduced to the life and ministry of Jesus, who travels throughout Palestine and finally focuses on Jerusalem, where he is executed, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. The story of the good news in Acts, on the other hand, begins in Jerusalem and spreads throughout the empire, ending when Paul reaches Rome as a prisoner. The gospel of Luke brings us all to Jerusalem and Acts sends us out to the ends of the earth.
The introductions to both books are addressed to Theophilus, who is perhaps a patron lending financial support to the writing of the works. It seems clear that Acts was written by the biblical Luke who was mentioned by Paul in his letters and may well have been Paul's personal physician. In any case, Luke was writing to an influential and rich convert who is new in the faith.
In Acts, Luke begins where he left off, with the Ascension of Jesus, but in Acts 1:8 Jesus had commanded the apostles to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and then into all the world. As former missionary Chalmer Faw put it, "Jesus directs their minds away from the matter of times and seasons and onto the task that awaits them."1
And then to confirm this, while the apostles are staring up into the air in awe and wonder, two individuals, who resemble the angels in the empty tomb, tell the apostles that Jesus will return in the same manner in which he left.
The story as it continues is not one in which God's people meet simply to reverence Jesus and his ministry (although praise and worship are woven throughout the story), but that they go forth to the four corners of the world to take this message to all people.
A church that is turned totally inward is not ministering. Small group Bible study, support groups, and Christian education are all essential ministries of the church -- we are meant to encourage and support each other, but that must be balanced by the knowledge that not everyone has come to know the love we share as the body of Christ.
The church must be in mission -- to the community as well as to the world. This activity is blessed with a deadline to make us take it seriously, for sooner or later Jesus is returning.
Christians believe that if Jesus ascended into heaven it was with the intent to return. Even as Jesus prepares to vacate the scene the disciples ask the obvious question: "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). His reply is that "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority" (Acts 1:7).
Nothing could be clearer than the fact we are not to know the day and time of Jesus' return. Despite that, a lot of time and energy is wasted trying to figure it out.
I know there are plenty of people out there who are very concerned about the exact moment that Jesus will return. They spend a lot of time calculating, speaking about arcane minutae and obtuse calculations in some sort of incomprehensible Sanskrit even though Jesus made it clear that no one knows the hour, not even Jesus himself in his human form.
The late Vernard Eller, professor and writer, in his book The Most Revealing Book of the Bible, makes the point that everyone who has used Revelation as a calendar is batting .000.2 They've all been wrong. Each new crop insists they're the first ones to get it right, that they know something no one else could possibly know. But that assumes in some way God has intended everyone to get a portion of scripture wrong until the last days. I don't accept that assumption.
Sometimes it's easier to learn from the past than the present. One of the best examples of the futility of calculations comes from the nineteenth century.
On September 27, 1868, a small group of believers climbed a haystack to be closer to heaven as they waited for their Lord to descend from the clouds. Despite their fervent prayers, and their belief in the biblical calculations of William C. Thurman (c. 1830-1906), nothing happened. Eventually some local rowdies set fire to the hay, forcing the believers to come down, severely disappointed.
It wouldn't be the last time.
Thurman was a Virginia Baptist who wrote on many different subjects, including biblical nonresistance, foot washing, and baptism. But he was best known for his views on the end of the world. In Sealed Book of Daniel Opened, he set the date for the return of Christ on September 27, 1868. Many Christians were attracted to his ideas. Undeterred by the failure of his calculations he rescheduled the end of the world for a month later on October 28. Then on October 17, 1869. Then on April 19, 1875.
Even though his recalculations proved to be just as flawed, he attracted many followers throughout his life who left their churches and joined him. Some of these Thurmanites, as they came to be known, later rejoined their churches, but others may have been driven away from the faith through their disillusionment.
It is said that when one elder was offered one of Thurman's books he declined, wryly noting that he already had enough kindling. Thurman continued to predict the end of the world until he died, penniless, in 1906, by which time he had recalculated the end of the world for 1917.
The Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, may have said it best in his essay, The World's Last Night, when he wrote that the most important thing was not that we know when Jesus would return, but that we should be found at our post, doing the thing God meant us to be doing.
Let us return to the place where we began, talking about the moon. The risen Lord Jesus reminds me of the moon in that he shed light in dark places, transfigured the landscape, helped us to see the Father's kingdom that would only be truly seen with the dawn of the final day, and God's restoration of justice! And like the phases of moon, throughout his ministry and to this day Jesus seems to appear brighter and at times to disappear altogether, yet his influence, like the tides, is felt, whether we see him or not.
Most importantly, just as the full moon obliterates all but the brightest stars, so too I think that if Jesus had not ascended into heaven we might not have grasped our opportunity as disciples, at doing the work of the Father, of being the visible presence of the kingdom, the body of Christ. We might have stood, like turkeys who are said to stare up at the sky during the rain only to drown, staring with our mouths open, at the wonder of the risen Lord. There's an eternity for that. Right now the true confirmation of our belief comes from our resolve to be God's people here on the earth.
The preacher Chrysostom, whose name means "Golden Throat" in Greek, once said that "... in the resurrection (the disciples) saw the end, but not the beginning, and in the Ascension they saw the beginning, but not the end...."3 Every day is a new beginning to proclaim Jesus as Lord through mission, ministry, service, and proclamation.
This is doable because the real celebration of the Ascension comes when we stop looking at the sky and start looking around for what God has us to do. Amen.
__________________
1. Chalmer Faw, Acts: Believers Church Bible Commentary (Nappanee, Indiana: Evangel Publishing House, 1993), p. 30.
2. Vernard Eller, The Most Revealing Book of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974).
3. Saint Chrysostom, "The Acts of the Apostles," Homily 2, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, XI (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980), p. 13.
After a moment's reflection he shrugged and said, simply, "Exploded."
That explanation covered the facts as far as he was able to observe, but it wouldn't be long before the moon again dominated the night sky.
There is nothing like the full moon if you live in the countryside. Away from city lights night is truly dark. The full moon nearly creates a second day. It's not as bright as the real day of course, but in the fall the full moon extends the time you can be out in the harvester. In winter the full moon casts wonderfully long, blue shadows on a perfect bed of snow.
The moon is the most visible and obvious object in the night sky. The sun is brighter of course, but we can't look directly at it. The downside is that the full moon obscures all but the brightest stars. Even when we can't see it, the moon still has a powerful influence through tides.
Thinking about the moon might just give us a way of looking at the ascension of Jesus, why it was necessary and why we can say in some sense that Jesus has not departed at all.
The ascension of Jesus into heaven appears in two places in the scriptures, in Luke and Acts. The accounts in the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the apostles include a few different details. We're used to that when dealing with stories from the gospels. Different witnesses notice different things and emphasize different points for different reasons. But the same author wrote the gospel and the Acts. Why are they different?
A lot has to do with the position of the two texts. The account in Luke's gospel caps the ministry of Jesus -- it's a time for blessings and farewell. But the account in Acts is the beginning of our part of the story, a book that is still being written today by every Christian who works as a missionary, volunteers in a soup kitchen, sorts clothes at a domestic violence shelter, or teaches in a Sunday school.
Far from being symptoms of some strange gospel that ignores the divinity of Jesus and his imminent return, these actions are proof that we take his words seriously and are doing exactly what we're told to do.
This day we will look at both passages, but we're going to begin with this morning's reading from the gospel of Luke. It comes right after Jesus eats with his apostles. In the face of their disbelief, standing before the risen Lord, Jesus asks the disciples for something to eat and is given a piece of broiled fish.
That fish not only confirmed that the risen Jesus was not a spirit or ghost, but a living, breathing, resurrected Lord, it also symbolized the unity of the earth church. Luke was writing some decades after the events he was describing and trying to assure the Roman authorities that the Christian faith was revolutionary in the spiritual and not political sense. It was not the intent of the first Christians to overthrow emperors. They were only temporary blips on history's radar screen. The disciples of Jesus meant to turn the world upside down in a different way. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, slave and free, men and women, were separated in the rigidly segregated Roman society, but fish, bread, and wine brought them all together around the table of the Lord. Whereas Jews and Gentiles could not eat the same meat, they both could eat fish -- and did. Frescoes depicting meals shared by Christians usually showed bread, wine, and fish. So this fish that Jesus ate before the ascension is a sign that something great is about to happen -- and God's people are the ones to do it.
Keeping in mind that the same hand wrote the ending of Luke and the beginning of Acts, it's useful to see what is written there.
Acts is the second volume of a larger work that began with the gospel of Luke. In the gospel individuals from all walks of life are introduced to the life and ministry of Jesus, who travels throughout Palestine and finally focuses on Jerusalem, where he is executed, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. The story of the good news in Acts, on the other hand, begins in Jerusalem and spreads throughout the empire, ending when Paul reaches Rome as a prisoner. The gospel of Luke brings us all to Jerusalem and Acts sends us out to the ends of the earth.
The introductions to both books are addressed to Theophilus, who is perhaps a patron lending financial support to the writing of the works. It seems clear that Acts was written by the biblical Luke who was mentioned by Paul in his letters and may well have been Paul's personal physician. In any case, Luke was writing to an influential and rich convert who is new in the faith.
In Acts, Luke begins where he left off, with the Ascension of Jesus, but in Acts 1:8 Jesus had commanded the apostles to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and then into all the world. As former missionary Chalmer Faw put it, "Jesus directs their minds away from the matter of times and seasons and onto the task that awaits them."1
And then to confirm this, while the apostles are staring up into the air in awe and wonder, two individuals, who resemble the angels in the empty tomb, tell the apostles that Jesus will return in the same manner in which he left.
The story as it continues is not one in which God's people meet simply to reverence Jesus and his ministry (although praise and worship are woven throughout the story), but that they go forth to the four corners of the world to take this message to all people.
A church that is turned totally inward is not ministering. Small group Bible study, support groups, and Christian education are all essential ministries of the church -- we are meant to encourage and support each other, but that must be balanced by the knowledge that not everyone has come to know the love we share as the body of Christ.
The church must be in mission -- to the community as well as to the world. This activity is blessed with a deadline to make us take it seriously, for sooner or later Jesus is returning.
Christians believe that if Jesus ascended into heaven it was with the intent to return. Even as Jesus prepares to vacate the scene the disciples ask the obvious question: "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). His reply is that "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority" (Acts 1:7).
Nothing could be clearer than the fact we are not to know the day and time of Jesus' return. Despite that, a lot of time and energy is wasted trying to figure it out.
I know there are plenty of people out there who are very concerned about the exact moment that Jesus will return. They spend a lot of time calculating, speaking about arcane minutae and obtuse calculations in some sort of incomprehensible Sanskrit even though Jesus made it clear that no one knows the hour, not even Jesus himself in his human form.
The late Vernard Eller, professor and writer, in his book The Most Revealing Book of the Bible, makes the point that everyone who has used Revelation as a calendar is batting .000.2 They've all been wrong. Each new crop insists they're the first ones to get it right, that they know something no one else could possibly know. But that assumes in some way God has intended everyone to get a portion of scripture wrong until the last days. I don't accept that assumption.
Sometimes it's easier to learn from the past than the present. One of the best examples of the futility of calculations comes from the nineteenth century.
On September 27, 1868, a small group of believers climbed a haystack to be closer to heaven as they waited for their Lord to descend from the clouds. Despite their fervent prayers, and their belief in the biblical calculations of William C. Thurman (c. 1830-1906), nothing happened. Eventually some local rowdies set fire to the hay, forcing the believers to come down, severely disappointed.
It wouldn't be the last time.
Thurman was a Virginia Baptist who wrote on many different subjects, including biblical nonresistance, foot washing, and baptism. But he was best known for his views on the end of the world. In Sealed Book of Daniel Opened, he set the date for the return of Christ on September 27, 1868. Many Christians were attracted to his ideas. Undeterred by the failure of his calculations he rescheduled the end of the world for a month later on October 28. Then on October 17, 1869. Then on April 19, 1875.
Even though his recalculations proved to be just as flawed, he attracted many followers throughout his life who left their churches and joined him. Some of these Thurmanites, as they came to be known, later rejoined their churches, but others may have been driven away from the faith through their disillusionment.
It is said that when one elder was offered one of Thurman's books he declined, wryly noting that he already had enough kindling. Thurman continued to predict the end of the world until he died, penniless, in 1906, by which time he had recalculated the end of the world for 1917.
The Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, may have said it best in his essay, The World's Last Night, when he wrote that the most important thing was not that we know when Jesus would return, but that we should be found at our post, doing the thing God meant us to be doing.
Let us return to the place where we began, talking about the moon. The risen Lord Jesus reminds me of the moon in that he shed light in dark places, transfigured the landscape, helped us to see the Father's kingdom that would only be truly seen with the dawn of the final day, and God's restoration of justice! And like the phases of moon, throughout his ministry and to this day Jesus seems to appear brighter and at times to disappear altogether, yet his influence, like the tides, is felt, whether we see him or not.
Most importantly, just as the full moon obliterates all but the brightest stars, so too I think that if Jesus had not ascended into heaven we might not have grasped our opportunity as disciples, at doing the work of the Father, of being the visible presence of the kingdom, the body of Christ. We might have stood, like turkeys who are said to stare up at the sky during the rain only to drown, staring with our mouths open, at the wonder of the risen Lord. There's an eternity for that. Right now the true confirmation of our belief comes from our resolve to be God's people here on the earth.
The preacher Chrysostom, whose name means "Golden Throat" in Greek, once said that "... in the resurrection (the disciples) saw the end, but not the beginning, and in the Ascension they saw the beginning, but not the end...."3 Every day is a new beginning to proclaim Jesus as Lord through mission, ministry, service, and proclamation.
This is doable because the real celebration of the Ascension comes when we stop looking at the sky and start looking around for what God has us to do. Amen.
__________________
1. Chalmer Faw, Acts: Believers Church Bible Commentary (Nappanee, Indiana: Evangel Publishing House, 1993), p. 30.
2. Vernard Eller, The Most Revealing Book of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974).
3. Saint Chrysostom, "The Acts of the Apostles," Homily 2, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, XI (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980), p. 13.
