Sermon - Easter 7A - May 4, 2008

Before I start, I want to say that I don't know why this sermon worked. I wrote it through a haze of sickness last week and yet, it seems to have inspired people to give me more feedback than any other sermon... if you can guess why I would love to know.

Look at your hands.

Take a good long long look at your hands.

What do you see? Little scars, smooth areas, rough areas.

What story do these hands tell? Where have these hands been?

Make a small group... between 2 and 5 people.

I want you to share the most charitable thing that your hands have ever done.???

Eg: In Madagascar we were visiting a neighborhood in a village where there was an organization working with the community on sanitation issues. They had limited access to sewer and... ... ...


I hate long goodbyes...
In fact, when I’m getting dropped off at the airport now to go on a trip, I prefer if the people dropping me off just leave me on the curb. Drive up, unload the bags, a few final words, and then get on with it. There is just that awkward half hour if everyone comes inside. You’ve said the goodbye, you know that at any moment the flight will be called, and there is really nothing else to say. All people involved want to get on with the grieving of begin apart and, that half hour of small talk you have to make - asking about the coffee, looking at the magazine racks... and yet... there is a part that wants it to last as long as possible. To delay the inevitable parting what when that flight number is called.
I hate long goodbyes...

Well there is the hand again... hands are good at this... waving goodbye. They can be used to hold on - to give that last goodbye embrace, and then to let go - to wave.

Tomorrow is the Sunday where the church celebrates the ascension. Luke tells us in Acts what those final few moments are like and, with 2000 years of Christian tradition we celebrate tomorrow as the symbolic day of the year that Christ ascended into heaven - and it all seems to be very good news.

I wonder if we aren’t making this a little happier than it was for those first disciples... I see this ascension event as incredibly stressful.

To understand what is happening you need to see the feelings that are involved. Imagine that someone very dear to you has died. Imagine the funeral home, the meetings with all the different family members, the grave side. Imagine the pain of the hushed conversations at the lunch following the funeral. You have to live for three days of loneliness without this person - thinking that they are gone forever. Then, on the three days after the funeral you awake to see what can only be a vision. Your loved one has returned - has returned and has good news to share. And shortly, just a few short days after this miracle, you are sitting and having coffee. You loved one rises and walks out of the room.... you follow and you walk to a hill. And then, with some parting words of comfort, your love one leaves again..

Ascension is being left behind.

In one moment Jesus was walking into Jerusalem, the King of Kings, on top of the world. Within the next few days the world is turned upside down. He goes from high to low. From place of reverence, to place of whipping boy. He is hung out on a cross to die, his body left cold in a tomb. The disciples are devastated. Then Jesus re-appears three days later - There is much celebration... and now we come to this moment. This moment on the hill, this moment of parting words of comfort, Jesus saying good bye. Jesus ascending into heaven... and now, forever mixed with the Joy of Easter resurrection, is the lonliness of the reality that Jesus has to leave again.

Ascension is loneliness.

Loneliness is one of the greatest sorrows we experience in life, and all of us have experienced loneliness. We can handle much physical suffering. We can handle much emotional suffering. But loneliness in its barren solitude rips out the floorboards. We stand in a cold draft with no one to surround us with warmth, left suspended with no one to share the pain.

But now the promises come:

Because Ascension is a sending out -
I can just imagine what it was like to see all those people staring up at the sky - and then the angel gets the best line “PEOPLE! 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.”

I wonder what there hands looked like - reaching in a longing way? Hung low in astonishment? Perhaps making checklists of what now needs to be done. New information has come to light and perhaps they all had to reach for their black berries and palm pilots and start work... There was work to be done.

Ascension is vocation:
So let’s take a look at these hands. Are they starting something new? For many, this time of year marks a change. Change from university to a summer job - might mean getting your hands dirty. Change to the new chores that spring is bringing - might mean your hands are going to finally keep warm outside. Seeds are planted - dusty hands, gardens and lawns are being watered - wet muddy hands assisting in God’s ongoing rejuvenation of life.

Today we remember the prayer that Jesus said “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

So look at your hands. We talked earlier about some of the amazing things that these hands have done. Look at these hands. These hands are part of the mystery of God becoming human.

And more than that, these are the hands that the Spirit uses to accomplish the work of God in the world. Jesus makes the promise to not leave us alone - and we aren’t alone. Christ in the promised Holy Spirit has come, and God’s is at work to love and bless the whole world. These hands - Your hands, are the hands of God in the world.

In a world filled with loneliness and change, look at your hands, these are the hands of God in the world. These are the hands of the people whom Jesus promised to never leave. These are the hands that reach out into the world. Hands that God uses to heal, Hands that God uses to plant seeds of new life. Hands that God uses to restore creation.

And... hands are used to bless. Place your hands on your head. Press them in and hear the words that Jesus, is praying.

“Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” Amen.

And now, may God inspire us to use our hands to be about the Spirits work - so that all our hands can make more stories of God’s work - just like the stories we told. May we use these hands to love, to bless, and bring wholeness to all of creation. Amen.