A few years ago, as part of the Book of Faith or Engage the Bible initiative, the synod announced a biblical storytelling contest for the youth of our congregations. The kids choose the story they want to tell, decide their props and costumes and create a video to tell the story. In February when the youth are all together for LYO they vote on the videos, and then at the annual synod assembly – which just happened on Friday and Saturday in Greensboro – everyone gets the chance to see the winning videos.
This year, one group was telling the story of Elijah and the worshipers of Baal that we hear in First Kings Chapter 18. If you don’t know the story, the prophet Elijah meets up with the 450 prophets of Baal, a foreign God, different from the God of Israel, and he challenges the people of Israel to pit him against the other prophets in a contest. Each of them lays a bull on an altar, calls on the name of God and waits for God to answer in fire. They agree that the first prophet whose altar is consumed by fire is the prophet of the true God.
The story sounds strange enough to our ears hearing it in worship on a Sunday morning, but imagine being a neighbor or someone driving by Macedonia Lutheran Church in Burlington and seeing a half-dozen youth out in the church yard, dressed in flowing robes and dancing, or limping, as the Scripture says, around a centerpiece that looks like an altar. Then another robed person, who is the character of Elijah, comes out and builds a second altar and suddenly it erupts in fire!
It couldn’t have been something they see every day.
I wonder what they thought was happening.
Today we are celebrating the Ascension of our Lord, which is always forty days after the Resurrection on Easter morning. On this feast day, Luke tells us that Jesus bodily leaves the disciples and is carried to heaven. (Luke 24:51) and then in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke gives another account of what the disciples experienced when Jesus was lifted up. (Acts 1:10)
There Luke tells us that, as Jesus was going, the apostles were gazing up toward heaven and two men in white robes appeared and questioned them, asking,
“Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” (Acts 1:11)It couldn’t have been something they saw every day.
I wonder what they thought was happening.
Were they just pausing to catch their breath and puzzle out what God was doing in their midst?
Or perhaps, did they know they had seen God, and now they were waiting expectantly for God’s return?
Or were they afraid to move because they might miss a holy encounter?
Like the disciples who traveled with Jesus, we too are witnesses of all that God is doing. We have heard the stories of what God has done, and what God promises. We have received the bread and wine given for us and we remember God’s gifts of new life and forgiveness.
And yet, how often do we also stand still in our lives?
Unsure of God’s grace. Uncertain of what’s next. Unconvinced that God will fulfill God’s promises for us.
Gazing wistfully to the heavens for help to arrive, or back at the comfort of the past.
The stories of the Ascension call us to bring our gaze back to the present, to the people in our neighborhood and community who need our help and care here and now![i] We must remember that as the body of Christ on earth, we are the living witnesses, kept in faith by the Holy Spirit and sent out to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
But we don’t have to know all of the answers to all of the questions to be faithful witnesses. It is ok that sometimes our experiences of God are overwhelming or hard to explain. It is ok when our faith practices – whether it’s praying at meals in public places, crossing ourselves in the name of the Father, ☩ Son and Holy Spirit or video-recording a Bible story – make people stare and wonder. Perhaps their curiosity will be stirred and they will ask about this Jesus whom we know.
And, it’s ok when we make mistakes. One of my favorite quotes from this year’s assembly came from the ELCA’s Director for Congregational Vitality, the Reverend Rubén Duran, who said, “Don’t just make the same old mistakes. Let’s make new mistakes together. Let’s risk a little!”
God guides us and provides abundant grace for each one of us and there is nothing we can do to separate ourselves from that love.
And last but not least, we are not alone. Our witness is stronger together. When we build relationships with each other and listen to each other’s stories we discover new ways that God is working all around us. One of the joys of synod assembly is hearing from different ministries and leaders about the work that is happening in congregations all across North Carolina. This year that included the story of a child whose family is homeless who went to summer camp for the first time, two congregations who have yoked and are sharing ministry, a Sudanese teenager who serves on the LYO board and stories of rebuilding and hope from the congregations in the eastern counties that were affected by Hurricane Florence last year.
We cannot always see where God is or what is happening, or make sense of it, but we can have confidence in God’s promises and refuse to be afraid of what we don’t know or whether we can follow well.
Saint Teresa of Avila was a Spanish noblewoman with Jewish roots who lived in the 16th century.[ii] A Carmelite nun and a mystic, she wrote the following words that I believe are an Ascension Day commission for us and for all who follow Jesus:
Christ has no body now, but yours.Let us pray…
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
With compassion on this world.
Holy God,
We give you thanks for Your Son Jesus who lived and died here on earth, showing us what it means to love you and the world.
In his absence, keep us in faith and forgive us when we stand still, when we are disoriented or confused, or we are afraid. Give us courage and confidence in Your promises that we would be lively witnesses to Your grace and the world would know your abundant love.
We pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
[i] “Overview.” Sundays and Seasons Day Resources.
[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_%C3%81vila
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