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Redford Aldersgate
United Methodist Church
Sermon
“Lord I Lift Your Name on High” ... Hopefully, that has been our reaction during this Easter season as we have been visited by people who experienced Close Encounters of the Risen Kind. Through the venue of dramatic monologues, we have explored the feelings and learnings that took place as people encountered Jesus after the resurrection. There were two monologues with Mary Magdalene, from two different perspectives. We met Thomas, who missed his first chance to encounter Jesus because he had separated himself from the community of faith, but who responded with great faith when the opportunity presented itself again. We also met one of the people who had tunnel vision as they walked to Emmaus. They were Really Pessimistic and Rather Preoccupied with their Rigid Preconceptions, but when Jesus broke the bread, their eyes were opened and they were Ready to Proclaim the good news that Jesus was alive. We missed seeing Peter, but his mother-in-law told us all about him and how he finally got over all the guilt he felt because he had let Jesus down. He got over it and got on with his life when he accepted Jesus’ love and forgiveness and began to go about the business of “feeding sheep” by serving God’s people.
Today, we come to the last encounter
the physically resurrected Jesus had with his disciples. There will be a
multitude of encounters with the spiritually resurrected Jesus. But this
is the last one with a physical body that eats food. This time there is
no one person we can pick out as having had this encounter. It happens
to an unidentified group of people who are referred to as “they.” The
account we are using is in the Book of Acts which is a continuation of
the Gospel of Luke. In Luke when the people on the road to Emmaus come
back they find the eleven and their companions. So it is a group bigger
than just the eleven disciples. Today’s encounter is recorded in Luke
and in Acts. Like any T.V. show that is a sequel to a previous show, the
first few minutes are spent recounting what happened in the last
episode. That’s what Acts does. It mentions that Jesus had appeared to
them during a period of forty days with many “convincing proofs.” This
the only place where we find out how long Jesus was around in a
physical-type body, encountering people. Over and over again Jesus came
to them essentially saying: Look I’m alive. No really, I’m not kidding
here I’m Alive. I’m not a Ghost, or a figment of your imagination I‘m
alive … I’ll have something to eat to prove it to you. He was a
physically resurrected Jesus. But now something newer and even more
powerful was about to happen. So during this last encounter, we find the
disciples last question, Jesus’ answer, his promise and his last
command. Since the encounter is with “they,” I want us all to imagine
that we are the “they” in the scripture. So when “they” say something, I
want you to say it. Your question will be on the screen. Hear now the
account of the last encounter the physically resurrected Jesus had with
his followers.
Acts 1:6-11
The last question they had for Jesus: Lord is this the time when you
will restore the
kingdom to Israel? Is this the time? We can understand that
question can’t we? Don’t we wonder when Christ is going to make
everything nice? When is the world going to be put in right order? It
sure would be nice if it was now! But it obviously wasn’t this week. The
news this week seemed so horrible. Just a few blocks away from here, to
have someone start shooting at the garbage men. Or at least that was the
way I first heard the story. He started shooting and then the police
came and he shot some more. He ended up killed as well as a policeman
with a young child. That is horrible... unthinkable ... right here in
our wonderful little corner of the world. And then a
few
short miles to the north, still in Redford, a real estate agent made an
appointment to show a house and was beat up and forced to withdraw money
from the bank. What is happening? In Livonia, a person out on parole
robbed several senior citizens. It’s terrible! Then there is the problem
of all that tainted drug that has killed 25 people in the last 5 days,
including several teenagers. That was all the way over in Birmingham...
but still! Like our opening song said, “Daily news is so bad it
seems”... The news this week has certainly been bad and it’s not just
across the world or the country or even across the town, it’s here. So
like those followers gathered on the Mount of Olives, we ask: Lord is
this the time that you are going to make everything right? But the
answer is the same for us as it was for them - It’s not for you to know
the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. We
don’t know. We have to live with the ambiguity. Yes, God is in control.
Yes, God is always working for good. Yes, the day will come when God’s
kingdom is established ... but it’s not for us to know the time.
Meanwhile,
let’s listen to the promise and the command that was meant not just for
the people gathered on the mountain top 2,000 years ago, it is meant for
us. The Promise: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you. The Command: You will be my witnesses in this city, in this
region, in enemy territory and to the ends of the earth. So here we are
in this little corner of the world where there is a lot of trouble going
on. But we are Easter People, the Holy Spirit is at work! We have power.
And we are called to be witnesses.
Sure, there are lots of skeptics out there, but what’s new about that?
Actually the disciples themselves were the first skeptics. The world
today might argue that the disciples were so gullible that they believed
some magic trick or hallucination. Or that they themselves made up the
resurrection. But the truth of the matter is that in the beginning they
were some of the biggest skeptics of the resurrection. They knew Jesus
had died on the cross and they had trouble believing their own eyes. We
saw that in our monologues. So Jesus had to show himself over and over
again to them to prove to them that he was in fact risen from the dead.
In order for them to be strong witnesses… in order for them to go out
and tell the world … Jesus had to break down their own disbelief. You
see, some of the greatest skeptics have become the strongest witnesses
when they were willing simply to open up their eyes to the evidence that
was right in front of them. For instance, there was Saul, whom we call
Paul ... his job was to track down and kill Christians, before he saw a
vision of Jesus and was blinded by the Risen Christ. Then he became one
of the strongest witnesses. But let’s go to modern day...
For
instance two authors, Lee Strobel and Josh McDowell, who have written
numerous books on the evidence of the resurrection, started off as avid
atheists and skeptics.
So if you meet a skeptic or you yourself are rather skeptical, know that
Jesus is not afraid of skeptics’ questions. The main issue however, is
whether the skeptic is willing to be open to seeing Jesus in their
midst. And whether or not they are willing to give the Bible and the
Resurrection at least a fair hearing. Because many times people dismiss
the Bible even before they are willing to hear out the evidence. It’s
been like that for a long time. Even back in Benjamin Franklin’s day.
The story is told of the time Franklin was in Europe meeting with some
anti-religious people who were reviewing various pieces of literature.
Mr. Franklin read his piece and everyone was very intrigued. T
hey
all said, ‘This story must be published!” They wanted to know what the
title was. Franklin replied, “This is only part of the story, and it’s
from a book that you have often ridiculed.” The group protested,
insisting that they would not have rejected a story of such impact. So
Franklin replied, “The story that has so moved you all is the book of
Ruth from the Bible.”
So, it’s not just people in today’s society that dismiss the Bible, pre
judging it as not as interesting or not able to stand up against
scrutiny. They’ve been doing it for a long time. However, if we are open
to the ways the Holy Spirit gives us opportunities, we will find ways to
be witnesses to the power of the Bible.
I
was so pleased a few weeks ago when our daughter told me about our
granddaughter Sarah and how she was witnessing to their neighborhood.
They live in a very friendly neighborhood on a cul-de-sac There are
quite a few kids, all unchurched, and Sarah is the oldest. Being 13 now,
she doesn’t always want to go “play” with the younger kids in the
neighborhood. But one day she was outside and somehow Esther came up in
the conversation. The kids had never heard of Esther. So she organized a
little play and they acted out the whole story with Mordecai, Haman and
the King. The kids thought it was really great fun and asked if they
could act out another story the next day. So the next day they acted out
Ruth and Naomi. She told her mother: “They don’t know these stories are
from the Bible. I think I’ll get them hooked, then I’ll tell them it’s
from the Bible!” So, here’s our 13 year old granddaughter having her own
little Sunday School in the middle of the cul-de-sac. There are lots of
ways you can witness.
Sometimes the witness can come from response to something that the world
sees as anti-Christian. For example, there is a lot of controversy over
the new movie, The DaVinci Code. People are all up in arms because they
think it is going to destroy people’s faith. I got a kick out of what
Tom Hanks said on Jay Leno. He said something to the effect that if
people’s faith is shaken by a book they buy from the fiction section of
Barnes and Noble, then they didn’t have much faith in the first place.
Actually, Bob and I have found that the book brought about quite a few
opportunities for witness that we would not have had otherwise. We read
the book about three years ago when we were on vacation in the Cayman
Islands. Bob loves to read and I have a little problem reading for long
periods of time. (My eyes have trouble focusing that long.) So we have
found that one thing we enjoy doing is have Bob read to me. On this
particular vacation, we were taking it very easy. We’d do a little sight
seeing and then we would find a nice shady spot under a palm tree by the
ocean or the swimming pool and Bob would read me the story. Sometimes he
would read ahead while I would go off and do something else like work on
my scrap book or swim or shopping or something. Then, he would summarize
the part he had just read, reading me the especially exciting parts and
then go on with the story. O.K. so maybe that’s not your idea of fun,
but we enjoy it. Anyway, you wouldn’t believe all the conversations we
had from people as they walked by and saw what we were doing. They would
stop and say, “Where are you now?”
No one ever wanted to give away the ending. No one ever told us who “the
teacher” was. But they had lots of questions. We talked about the
humanity and the divinity of Jesus to total strangers. We talked about
the Council of Nicaea to people who had never been to seminary. My
experience before was that stuff like all those Councils were only
talked about in seminary ... and there, only before the final exam in
Church history. But here we were talking about it on the beach in the
Cayman Islands! I just read the other day that the Council of Nicaea is
one of the most looked up topics on the internet.... Who would have ever
thought?
It’s a book of fiction. It’s a movie based on a fictional book. There
are lots of things that are completely fictional. There are some things
that are misleading. There are some things that cause us to stop and
think and question what is basic and fundamental to our faith. And there
are some things that are inspiring and helpful to our faith. I loved the
part near the end of the movie (I think they added it because I couldn’t
find it in the book) when the main character, played by Tom Hanks, says
to the female lead, “What’s important is what you believe.” Then he went
on to tell her about a time when he was a child and he fell into a well.
He had to tread water all night. That horrible experience led to a
severe case of claustrophobia. But he said that during that night he
prayed and he experienced the presence of someone with him in that well.
That was a close encounter of the risen kind. He didn’t call it that,
but I do. There are skeptics all around us. There are people testing our
faith all around us. There is bad news all around us. Sometimes if feels
like we have fallen in a well and all we can do is tread water. But what
is important is what we believe. What is important is what we have
experienced. What is important is who is there with us during those
trying times. Christ is risen. He appeared to many people during 40 days
of skepticism. Then he ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit came,
filling us with power. Now, because he is no longer bound even by a
physically resurrected body, he can encounter thousands of people, in
thousands of different places, all at the same time. And we who have
experienced those encounters are the witnesses.
I have heard many of you tell about times you have experienced God’s
presence in a special way. I’ve heard people tell about a time when they
were at the point of death and they saw Christ and heard instructions.
I’ve heard people tell about just missing a terrible car accident
because they felt Christ telling them to turn a block before the
accident occurred. I’ve heard people tell about experiencing Christ as a
group has been praying for them. There are many, many stories of
encounters and our job is to be a witness to them by the things we say
and the way we live our life. It’s not a secret. One of the objections
to the DaVinci Code is that the people in the know keep the secret.
That’s not the way Christianity works. It is not a secret. It is meant
to be shared. Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you and you will be my witness” everywhere you go. We each
are sent forth in Jesus name to share our experiences in the best way we
can. It will be amazing how the Holy Spirit will use our efforts.
I
loved the story I heard about a prominent British preacher in the early
1900's named Alexander Maclaren. He convinced a man who was very
skeptical about faith and religion to come hear him preach for four
Sundays. The great preacher thought, “If I just have four Sundays, I’m
sure I can convince him to become a Christian.” So for the next four
Sundays, Maclaren worked extremely hard on his sermons and he did an
eloquent job of presenting convincing arguments as to the validity of
the Christian faith. And wouldn’t you know it, on the fourth Sunday, the
former skeptic came forward and asked to join the church because he had
received Christ as his savior. The great preacher was delighted. He’d
done it, he thought. But his curiosity got the best of him. He asked the
man which of his four sermons had brought him to accept Christ. The man
replied, Your sermons, sir, were helpful, but they were not what finally
persuaded me." He said that after church one Sunday as he was helping an
elderly lady on a slippery walk, she looked up into his face and said,
"I wonder if you know my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is everything in the
world to me. I would like you to know Him too." It was a simple comment,
but with the working of the Holy Spirit, it changed a skeptic’s heart as
no power filled sermon could do.
“You will be my witnesses,”Jesus said. Maybe it will be a smile, a
question, a discussion over a book or a movie, maybe it will be playing
with neighborhood children, maybe it will be sharing a story of how
Christ has encountered you.... who knows? We live in difficult times.
“Daily news is so bad it seems the Good News seldom gets heard. But we
are one of the Easter people. God’s in charge, spread the word.” That’s
what we sang as we entered here today. We have many unanswered
questions. We wonder when God will restore the kingdom. But that’s not
for us to know. What is for us to know is that Christ is Alive!
We
have been given the power. Surly the presence of the Lord is in this
place. We can feel his mighty power and his grace. Can you see glory on
each face? I can because I know Christ is here, offering us numerous
encounters. We will be his witnesses in Redford, Garden City, Livonia,
Farmington and to the ends of the earth. We are sent out in Jesus name!
We are the Witnesses! Amen!
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