Acts 1:1-11            WHILE WE WAIT

          The book of Acts is the sequel to the Gospel According to Luke.  In the gospel, Luke shares the story of the life and ministry of Jesus.  And in Acts, Luke traces the beginnings of the Christian church and its spread through the Roman Empire during the first century A. D.  Luke begins his second volume the same way that he ended the first:  with an account of the ascension of Jesus.

          The ascension of Jesus was important for two reasons.  First, it makes absolutely clear to the disciples that Jesus has indeed been accepted by God.  There may still have been some doubt about that...even after the resurrection.  Jewish law taught that only those most cursed and abandoned by God would die by "hanging on a tree".  Crucifixion on a cross made of wood was said to be the fulfillment of that ancient curse.  Jesus died the death reserved for the worst of sinners.  If it were not for the resurrection, no one would have remembered Jesus...unless it was as a warning to their children about how not to act.  The resurrection is God's statement that such a judgment of Jesus is unjust.  He did not deserve to die, and certainly not in that way...and so he was raised.  The ascension of Jesus into heaven, returning to God, cements that declaration.  After he had spent 40 days opening scripture to his disciples so that they would have all they would need to know, they witnessed Jesus being lifted up, and a cloud taking him away, and two angels promising that "this Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

          And that brings us to the second point.  Luke's account of the ascension brings us face to face with the reality of the second coming.  Jesus leaves the disciples, but the good news that he will return one day, just as he has gone. 

          Life in this world is not going to go on aimlessly forever.  God has a plan and a purpose.  We are living in the time "in between" the first and second comings of Jesus.  At the first coming God has revealed his love for us and offered us the opportunity for forgiveness and new life.  At the second coming he will establish the Kingdom of God in its fullness.  All of creation is moving toward a day of final judgment and restoration.

          We live "in between".  It is a time when Jesus calls us to wait.  But we are not very good at waiting.  It seems to me as if we are getting worse...and that every day we are more in a hurry than we were the day before.  I have been teaching my daughter to drive.  This week we were on a back road near Flemington, and she had stopped to make a left hand turn into a park.  She signaled, waited for traffic to clear, and had just taken her foot off the break to start the turn when a young woman in a bright red sports car roared past on the left.  Sarah slammed on the brakes and missed her by about 2 inches.  The woman didn’t want to wait.  Not even for a few seconds.  In the process, she almost caused a serious accident. 

          I must confess that I'm not much better.  I get impatient waiting in line at the grocery store or the bank.  Maybe it’s a sign of my advancing age, but I remember being taught to let the telephone ring 10 times before hanging up.  Now by the third ring I've concluded that no one's home, and if it rings once more I'll have to deal with an answering machine.

          Ten years ago, I didn’t even have an e-mail address.  Now I don’t like waiting the nano-seconds for the DSL link to download my messages.  We don’t like to wait.

          But it wasn't really much different for the disciples.  When they gathered together for that final day, the disciples impatiently questioned Jesus.  "Is this the day when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"  They still believed that Jesus had come to make Israel an independent and powerful nation that would overthrow Rome and become the new leader of the world.  "Is this the day?" they impatiently wondered.

          But Jesus gives a very unsatisfying answer to people who thrive on deadlines and punctuality.  "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority."  Wait.  Be patient.  God will reveal the day when you need to know.  William Barclay wrote about this passage that "we would gain more power and courage and peace [from the Holy Spirit] if we learned to wait.  In the business of life we need to learn to be still...Amidst life's surging activity there must be time to receive."

          I am trying to learn to wait by listening to the wisdom of other Christians who have learned to wait.  On my bookshelves are works by great Christians contemplatives through the ages.  They are meant to be read and experienced.  We can learn to wait on God as we immerse ourselves in the traditional spiritual disciples of prayer and study and fasting.  These paths can teach us to be at peace and focus our vision on the way of God. 

          I like quiet.  There is rarely music or television making noise at my house.  Much of the time, the radio in the car is silent.  It drives other people crazy.  My kids close the car door and turn on the radio in one motion!  But I need times of quiet to rediscover myself and God.  We need to learn to wait.

          God's waiting is not inactivity, though.  It is channeling our energy in the right ways.  Instead of worrying about when the kingdom is going to be fulfilled, God has given us a task to do in the mean time.  Instead of getting all “out of sorts” when every little thing doesn't go just as we had it planned, we need to be able to step back and look at the larger picture and remember who we are and what God has called us to be and do.

          The one instruction that Jesus gives his disciples as they wait is to witness.  "When the power of the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  A witness is one who tells someone else what they have experienced.  A court doesn't allow witnesses to share "hearsay" evidence...but only what they themselves know.  Our call to witness is a call to share our experience of God and his goodness in our own lives.  "This is what I know and what I’ve experienced, and I want to share it with you."

          Jesus' call to the disciples was to witness in their own city of Jerusalem, in Judea, (their own country), in Samaria (the neighboring country made up of people of similar background and experience), and to the ends of the earth.  Not much needs to change as we consider that call for us today.  We must continue to share our story with those people who are closest to us.  We live in an increasingly secular world...and there are many right around us who are in need of a word of comfort and encouragement and hope.  We are each called to be willing and able to share what God means to us and how we find peace and fulfillment in him.

          And we must recognize that there is a vast world that is in need of the message of Jesus Christ.  We can help share that message even if we never leave this community when we offer financial support and prayer support to the many missions that are designated by this congregation. 

          We wait.  But our waiting is not an idle time of "vegging out" in front of the television or twiddling our thumbs.  Our waiting is filled with the presence of God and the sharing of our own story with others. 

          Let the story of Jesus' ascension renew your commitment to wait, and to witness, as you are filled with his grace and his love.