Acts 1:1-14                                                    Ascension/ Last Sunday of Easter  

 Do you ever imagine yourself saying final words to your closest family and friends? We have final words before a trip or final words to children before they go to school. Richard’s best line to our children is “Remember who loves you the most.” He’s not talking about us, but God. We do not imagine that our final words to someone in the morning could be the final words. But there’s always that possibility. What do you want your children, your grandchildren, your friends, your church family to remember about you? What final words do you have for them? Perhaps you should write them today – not wait until you’re on your death bed and have no energy for such a project.

 We’re reading today the story of Jesus’ final words before he ascended into heaven. The church has long celebrated the Ascension on the 40th day after Easter morning. Ascension Day was Thursday. In the ancient churches of England, the choirs ascend to the towers and sing from there on Ascension Day, not that we really believe heaven is literally in the clouds anymore. We believe in heaven as the realm of life that transcends this earthly life. We believe that from heaven God has the big view, kind of like the view you have from the sky, while God can also zoom in, like Google earth and see the intimate details of your life.

 So on this last Sunday of Easter before Pentecost next Sunday when we celebrate the Holy Spirit, we remember that Christ, having been raised from the dead, appeared to his disciples, and then mysteriously disappeared, being lifted up into the clouds. Some fifty years later his followers were still telling the story of that day and this is what they recorded and what 2000 years later is still remembered:

Hear now the word of the Lord:
 

 ^NRS Acts 1:1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning ² until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. ³ 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. ⁴ While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. He said, "This is what you have heard from me; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." ⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" ⁷ He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ 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." ⁹ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. ¹¹ They said, "Men of Galilee, 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." ¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away. ¹³ When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴ All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
 

 For some of you the resurrection and ascension are hard to get your head around. I understand that. I try to suspend rational thinking because it is not very helpful in spiritual matters. And the spiritual matters are of much more value. This shift to believing spiritual things, which are not based on historical, scientific proofs, but are based on narratives of truth, does not happen automatically. I think you have to practice this faith to enter it deeply. You have to sing it, let it settle into your right brain, where you know things to be true and right just because they are, not because you have seen it proved or figured it out. How can you know that Jesus was really lifted up in a cloud or how? We don’t know in a “I saw it on CNN kind of way.” We never will. But we know it through the power of the Spirit and through the words of the witnesses.

 Jesus’ last words were “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 Power – the Greek word is dunamis, from which we get the word dynamite. You will receive dynamite when the Holy Spirit. Alfred Nobel could simply be known as the man who invented dynamite. Instead he gave away what today would be equivalent to 103 million dollars to fund the Nobel prizes. So now when the name Nobel is said, we automatically think “Peace prize.” What will be said of us when we are gone? Will it be the deadly stuff we did and said, like Alfred Nobel, who once was called “Merchant of Death” because he made so much money on an invention that was originally used for mining but then for warfare. Or will we be known for a greater good? For being filled with the Spirit of God, with the love of Christ, with peace for the world?

 The final promise of Jesus is that the disciples will receive power through the Holy Spirit and that they will become witnesses. He does not say, “Please, if you would, consider being a witness.” He says, “ You will be a witness to what God is doing in this world. To witness something is to see it. If you have seen something God has done, then you are a witness to the Good News.

 And a witness not just to your “Favorite Five People.” If you were here last week, I hope you are still praying for your favorite five using the prayer card. But it doesn’t stop with five. Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth – ever-widening circles. And we are called to care for ever-widening circles, to love more than our kind of people, to reach out to people different from us, far from us. As Christians our vocation is to witness to Christ – no matter what our job is. Job is the arena for your vocation of serving Christ. Whatever you do to earn money is really your opportunity to serve Christ and witness to Christ’s love. Your job is where you do it, but your witness is what you do. You are a witness. You can be a poor one or a good one.

 Some of us don’t like to talk about our faith in Christ because we think that being a hypocrite is the very worst of sins. Can’t talk about it, if I don’t live it completely. So what? I don’t live a perfect life. I don’t follow Christ as I should. More hypocritical not to speak of Jesus when you believe in Jesus, than to speak of Jesus, and not perfectly serve Christ. Listen to what Paul said about this in Philippians 1:15-18 “Some proclaim Christ from envy or rivalry but others from good will. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel. The others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but intending to increase my suffering and my imprisonment. What does it matter? Just this – that Christ is proclaimed in every way – whether out of false motives or true. And in that, I rejoice.”

 I saw a pastor from Lakeland doing a miraculous healing service on television the other night. I become disgusted at his ego and at what seemed to me to be a false representation of the healing power of Jesus. I thought to myself. “He is misrepresenting the Gospel!” Then I hear Paul’s words, “What does it matter? Just this – that Christ is proclaimed in every way” Jeremiah Wright has obviously been infected with selfishness, even as he was hoping to use his connection with Obama to gain a larger crowd for his prophetic words. But again, what does it matter, when you consider that the power of the Holy Spirit got hold of a man named Barack Obama some twenty years ago and filled him with great hope.

 The disciples received a promise of the Spirit’s power and a promise that they would be witnesses far and wide. After Jesus ascended they went off to pray, the men and the women together. The disciples were always having to adjust their misconceptions to Jesus’ way. Even after his death and resurrrection, they were still confused. “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus tells them that the times are in God’s hands, not theirs. God’s timing, not ours, Peace Presbyterian. Disciples still don’t really see who Jesus is. They want a political, national goal met. Jesus has cosmic goals. His Ascension connects with the cosmos. Perhaps he had to leave them for them to understand that his role is larger than Jerusalem, larger than Judea and Samaria. He is Lord over the whole creation. He wants everyone, everywhere to know the magnificent love of God. We sometimes think too narrowly too. We think “Oh, I should tell someone about our church because we need for Peace to grow.” Christ wants us to have higher goals than that. It’s not just about Peace Presbyterian, it’s about being a witness for Jesus Christ. It’s about Christian love and peace for the whole world, not just Lakewood Ranch or even the United States. It’s the good news of a God of boundless love, who came to us in Jesus Christ, a God who took on our humanity, died our death, and has been raised and taken our humanity back into the heavens. The final promise of Christ was no provincial promise to a small group. It was a providential promise for the whole world.