WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:04.500 The text is from the Acts of the Apostles and as they were gazing intently 2 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:06.500 into the sky while he was going. 3 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:10.700 Then behold, two men and white clothing stood beside them and they 4 00:00:10.700 --> 00:00:15.800 said men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? 5 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:19.300 This is our text. Congregation maybe seated. 6 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:27.000 It is an awkward moment. 7 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:33.700 The last in a long succession of amens has been spoken, the sign of 8 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:35.200 the cross has been made. 9 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:40.400 And the pastor has been bent to share quiet personal words of comfort 10 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:42.800 with the family seated in the front row. 11 00:00:43.900 --> 00:00:48.300 The other mourners standing under the under the cemeteries portable 12 00:00:48.300 --> 00:00:53.100 awning and around it in the blazing sun shift, restlessly but 13 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:56.800 silently unsure, what to do next. 14 00:00:56.800 --> 00:01:02.300 They aren't familiar with the protocols surrounding committal 15 00:01:02.300 --> 00:01:03.000 services. 16 00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:05.700 And to everyone's great relief 17 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:09.500 the director, the professional who knows 18 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:14.900 well every protocol steps forward from his inconspicuous place to the 19 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:17.900 side and clear and authoritatively declares. 20 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:21.800 This concludes the graveside services. 21 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.900 At last, the cue has been given. 22 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:32.800 After a moment of reverent restraint, people move conversations, begin 23 00:01:32.800 --> 00:01:38.100 gain confidence and soon erupt in ordinary interactions 24 00:01:38.100 --> 00:01:39.600 and even subdued laughter. 25 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:44.100 It's over, it's time to move on. 26 00:01:44.100 --> 00:01:47.600 Time to get back to ordinary life. 27 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:53.500 It must have been that way for the 11 as they stood there on the Mount 28 00:01:53.500 --> 00:01:58.400 of Olives, with their next bent backward, their eyes squinting and 29 00:01:58.400 --> 00:01:59.700 their heads spinning. 30 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:05.300 Perhaps, first their heads had reverently bent down as Jesus raised 31 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:09.400 his arms and declared his benediction, but they could not have helped 32 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:13.900 looking up when Jesus voice was suddenly coming from above them. 33 00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:20.800 And there right before their eyes on or in or with with the cloud Jesus 34 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.300 kept ascending up up into the sky. 35 00:02:23.300 --> 00:02:28.700 And the disciples kept staring looking straining piercing, the 36 00:02:28.700 --> 00:02:32.900 motionless space until it seemed to start swirling. 37 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:40.800 Still they kept on straining, staring, trying to fix the exact spot 38 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:43.800 where they had last seen him. 39 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:46.800 Wondering no doubt 40 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:48.700 what to do next? 41 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:54.200 They weren't familiar with the protocols for an ascension. 42 00:02:56.500 --> 00:02:57.700 How long do you stand there? 43 00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:02.900 What's an appropriate amount of time before you say something? 44 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:09.700 And what could you say anyway? Who would dare to break that sacred 45 00:03:09.700 --> 00:03:14.000 spiritual moment with a word or even a movement. 46 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.100 And so they just kept standing and staring. 47 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:23.100 And then somehow the 11 had become 13. 48 00:03:24.100 --> 00:03:26.600 A Baker's Dozen all standing there 49 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:29.000 not moving anchored in place. 50 00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:35.900 But the newcomers knew the protocol, they knew what to do. With just a 51 00:03:35.900 --> 00:03:40.400 touch of chiding, share their understanding with the stiff-necked 52 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:41.400 disciples. 53 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:45.100 It was time to stop staring. 54 00:03:45.100 --> 00:03:48.300 The disciples had seen enough. 55 00:03:49.600 --> 00:03:50.900 It was time to move on. 56 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:53.700 Time to get on with life. 57 00:03:56.100 --> 00:03:57.000 It would be easy enough 58 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:01.300 I supposed to find an immediate connection for all of us gathered here 59 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:06.200 in the middle of May eagerly counting down the few remaining days 60 00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:08.000 until the end. 61 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:09.800 Whether for you 62 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.300 it's just the end of another school year that will soon ramp up again 63 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:20.399 in another new beginning, all too soon or maybe the end of your 64 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:22.000 student years altogether. 65 00:04:23.500 --> 00:04:26.000 Either way, it is good to get to the end. 66 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.900 Good to get on with real life. 67 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:36.800 It's a common assumption often asserted as a wise axiomatic dictum 68 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:42.000 life at the Seminary is a fantasy experience. 69 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:47.700 A time for detachment from the ordinary. A time to think carefully 70 00:04:47.700 --> 00:04:49.400 about spiritual truths. 71 00:04:49.400 --> 00:04:54.900 A time to dig deeply into text. A time to gaze in wonder at long 72 00:04:54.900 --> 00:04:59.500 hidden truths and to contemplate mysterious confounding realities that 73 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:01.000 blow your mind. 74 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:05.800 You spend your years, we are told according to the old adage at the 75 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:09.700 Seminary and years of contemplation with your head in the clouds and 76 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:14.100 eyes fixed on spiritual mysteries, and Heavenly marvel's. 77 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:17.700 And then at last, it all comes to an end 78 00:05:17.700 --> 00:05:25.200 and the time comes to turn your gaze earthward. Time to focus on the 79 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:25.300 here 80 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:31.400 and now. Time to deal with mundane realities. Time to get a job and earn 81 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:32.000 some real money. 82 00:05:33.200 --> 00:05:37.000 Time to deal with a real congregation with real people, and real 83 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.200 problems. Time to get on with life. 84 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:44.300 It is as I said a tempting and easy application. 85 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:46.900 In fact, it's too easy. 86 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:49.500 It's simply cliche. 87 00:05:50.700 --> 00:05:53.200 The dictum is wrong. 88 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:55.200 The real world 89 00:05:55.200 --> 00:05:59.500 is not just out there waiting for you to finish your time of 90 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:03.000 contemplation, reality is in here as well. 91 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:09.400 All day, everyday, real life intrudes, into sacred spaces. 92 00:06:09.400 --> 00:06:15.100 Seminaryor not all the real problems that come with real life 93 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:16.700 come here too. 94 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:19.300 You know, it. 95 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:25.100 On the other hand you also know that it's certainly not just those 96 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:31.300 parked in a seminary who are tempted to lose touch with reality and 97 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:38.600 obsess over ancient linguistic riddles, baffling historical quandaries, 98 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:45.500 distant doctrinal disputes, wonders of homiletical rhetoric, lofty 99 00:06:45.500 --> 00:06:49.900 metaphysical mysteries and dizzying Heavenly dreams. 100 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:57.100 Whether a seminary Professor, a parish pastor an accountant, a 101 00:06:57.100 --> 00:07:06.000 barista, a physician, a farmer, a sales clerk, homemaker, or student we are all prone to it all the time. 102 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:14.100 We are all inclined to obsess over some inconsequential patch of 103 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:20.100 existence, we can't quite see clearly enough. And so we continuously stare 104 00:07:20.100 --> 00:07:25.900 and strain trying to see trying to understand until the world around 105 00:07:25.900 --> 00:07:30.500 us and under begins to swirl and spin into confusion. 106 00:07:32.200 --> 00:07:33.000 This 107 00:07:34.200 --> 00:07:36.500 is the real point of application. 108 00:07:37.700 --> 00:07:42.200 It's not that we need to leave the Sem and get on with real life. 109 00:07:42.200 --> 00:07:50.300 It's that we all must be careful, not to fixate on the trivial and the 110 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:52.500 insignificant and the irrelevant 111 00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:57.300 and ignore completely the things that do matter. 112 00:07:59.200 --> 00:08:04.600 Like staring into the sky, trying to find a point that has already vanished 113 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:05.200 forever. 114 00:08:05.200 --> 00:08:12.700 It is far too easy for us to become consumed with things that do not 115 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:14.600 finally matter. 116 00:08:15.900 --> 00:08:19.500 We need someone to come and tell us the obvious truth. 117 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:24.000 This concludes the time for staring into heaven. 118 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.200 That's what God sent the angels to tell the 11. 119 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:31.100 They had seen enough. 120 00:08:32.400 --> 00:08:34.000 It's time to stop staring. 121 00:08:34.900 --> 00:08:36.000 Start speaking. 122 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:42.100 10 days later filled to overflowing with the promised spirit 123 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:47.400 the disciples would do just that, they would start speaking and 124 00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:50.500 they would never shut up. 125 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:52.900 They were the witnesses. 126 00:08:52.900 --> 00:08:59.000 So they kept telling people what they had seen mysteries and miracles 127 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.000 and marvels and throughs that blew their minds and that changed 128 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:05.700 everything forever. 129 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:10.600 The Angels were not sending disciples back into ordinary life. 130 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:12.000 Ordinary life 131 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:13.900 no longer existed. 132 00:09:13.900 --> 00:09:19.700 Jesus had been crucified, and had risen and now Jesus had ascended 133 00:09:19.700 --> 00:09:21.000 and was coming back again. 134 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.100 Everything was changed forever. 135 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:29.600 The disciples had seen all of this, and now they were to declare all 136 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:32.200 of this, they were witnesses. 137 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:36.000 That's crystal, clear 138 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:42.600 message of Luke's account. Our text does not teach us to leave a life 139 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:45.000 of contemplation for a life of service. 140 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:51.700 We all know, there's always some of both in any well-ordered life. And 141 00:09:51.700 --> 00:09:56.900 this text is not a call to be done with Seminary theories and get busy with 142 00:09:56.900 --> 00:10:05.100 parish realities that is at best an ignorant foolish, false distinction. 143 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:12.400 No, the text provides the connection between witnessing with your eyes 144 00:10:12.400 --> 00:10:18.700 and meditating on marvel's and then witnessing with your life and 145 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:23.800 speaking the truth and reality of those marvels to people around you 146 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:24.100 today. 147 00:10:25.500 --> 00:10:30.700 The point of the story is that you must not lose your focus and 148 00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:35.700 perspective by staring too long into the heavens too long into the 149 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:41.600 trivialities. The point is not to try to discern where Jesus has been 150 00:10:42.500 --> 00:10:45.500 but to know, and declare where he now is. 151 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:52.800 The two angels came to announce the conclusion and nudge the 11 toward 152 00:10:52.800 --> 00:10:54.100 the life, that awaited them. 153 00:10:54.800 --> 00:11:01.300 The Disciples were witnesses, not of a funeral and burial and life, 154 00:11:01.300 --> 00:11:07.400 bitterly broken forever, but Witnesses of a resurrection an ascension and life 155 00:11:07.400 --> 00:11:11.900 gloriously restored forever. 156 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:14.400 Angels made it clear. 157 00:11:14.400 --> 00:11:17.100 The disciples have seen enough. 158 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:20.600 They did not need to keep straining their eyes 159 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:24.600 racking their brains staring into heaven at a spot where Jesus had 160 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:24.800 been. 161 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:29.600 They had already seen and grasped all that they needed to see and 162 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:29.800 know. 163 00:11:31.100 --> 00:11:33.200 The message is the same for you. 164 00:11:34.300 --> 00:11:35.200 You have seen enough. 165 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:39.900 Through the witness of the 11 and countless 166 00:11:39.900 --> 00:11:45.000 faithful witness since and personally and directly in the waters of 167 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.800 baptism that made you a living witness. 168 00:11:48.700 --> 00:11:56.700 You have seen the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, you 169 00:11:56.700 --> 00:12:01.800 know, this reality and you know that you don't need to stare off into 170 00:12:01.800 --> 00:12:04.000 the heavens to find Jesus. 171 00:12:05.300 --> 00:12:06.400 You know, where to find him. 172 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:08.200 He's here at 173 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:11.500 this altar. Here in 174 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.200 this bread. Here in this wine. 175 00:12:17.500 --> 00:12:20.100 He's here for you and in you. 176 00:12:21.500 --> 00:12:23.500 Contemplate that vision. 177 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:26.500 Marvel at that wonder. 178 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:28.300 And go 179 00:12:29.300 --> 00:12:30.300 be his witness. 180 00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:34.500 Amen.