Sermon: We Have Work to Do

"We Have Work to Do"
Ascension of the Lord
Psalm 47; Acts 1: 1-11 by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
May 8, 2016


Clap your hands, all you peoples;
shout to God with loud songs of joy.
For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,
a great king over all the earth.
He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves.
Selah

God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm.

God is king over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted. - Psalm 47

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards 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.’ - Acts 1: 1-11


Jesus had left the building. The apostles had been with the Risen Christ for just over 40 days since the first Easter Sunday. They had been soaking up all the time they could with the Risen Rabbi. And just like that Jesus ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, as we say almost weekly in the Apostles’ Creed.

The apostles’ mouths were gaping open and they were looking up into the sky. They were stunned as they were left to be the body of Christ. I can imagine them looking at one another and saying, “What do we do now?” Let’s just be real for a minute. What chance would you have given these apostles at this point to be the body of Christ and really change the world? (1) A lot (2) Some (3) Very little.

Without any divine plan in place, I think the apostles would have had very little hope to carry on Christ’s work. But Jesus did give them instructions before he took the stairway to heaven. “You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses where you are now and on to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The plan was two-fold: keep in step with the Spirit and share the good news. The apostles were to focus on these two things in their immediate location in life and then start reaching out little by little. And of course God’s messengers were right there to reinforce the point with an extra nudge: “What are you looking up in the sky for? We have work to do!”

The mission of the greater and local church hinges upon the marching orders Jesus left. Many today are going back to the early church’s example as told in Acts. The early church followed the Spirit’s leading through lots of prayer and discernment. Those early followers were actually small house churches. They were small groups of people who were intentional to share the good news like Christ did – walking among the people and meeting them in their brokenness. The good news gave others hope, healing, and a hand up. And the mission of the early church was authentic because it was relational.

People today are looking for communities where they can tap into authentic faith. Being authentic in the church today means that faith is a verb. Faith is on the move. It grows in substance, energy, and passion as God continues to be at work in our lives and in the world. Faith seeks to understand others as it abides in hope and love. Faith takes risks to reveal God’s kingdom.

A faith that grows in substance, energy, and passion yearns for connection. The body of Christ is made of lots of individuals. We all are in various seasons of life. We all have various struggles. We all have unique passions and gifts. The strength of the body of Christ is dependent upon the strength of our connections. The more ways we can connect with one another to share our joys and struggles, our passions and dreams, our talents and abilities then we have more unity in community. And unity is key to partnering with God.

It is important to imagine new ways for us to connect that meet people in the busyness of life. A few weeks ago I gathered a group of women together to share the joys and struggles of working and parenting. Many said it was so meaningful to gather at a later time to just be still and listen to one another’s stories of life. We shared good food and a devotional together. We also talked about what is saving us right now in these hectic days.

The connections that night revealed the movement of the Spirit among us and everyone received a word of good news. Small groups like this, like Presbyterian Women, youth group, a weekly Bible study, the Men’s Group empower us to grow as the body of Christ so that we might share new energy and passion for God’s activity with others.

A faith that seeks to understand others moves us to get our hands dirty for hope and love. We follow in the steps of Jesus’ servant leadership. Jesus was the Good News on the move, always walking alongside another in hopes to lift them up in God’s love. But in order to do that authentically, let’s consider what is breaking our hearts in the community and in the wider world. We must be open for the Spirit to lead us to acts of understanding and compassion. That is what leads us to action - to roll up our sleeves and serve others.

I am grateful for the ways this church has felt God leading us to serve in local mission. Earlier this year a church member shared she had gotten to know a local family by tutoring one of the children since the previous year. This particular family had fallen on hard times. Conversations between the church member and the family opened a door for our mission team to also come alongside this family with compassion and hope. God’s Spirit opened the hearts of many here to be a part of serving this family.

As the mission team and I rolled up our sleeves to paint bedrooms and provide some basic needs, I was amazed how God’s love was lifting up all of us. That family and our body of Christ certainly felt the Spirit’s direction and presence and good news was shared through all these relationships. Our mission team continues to pray for God’s direction to share good news through meeting real needs. God definitely has work for us to do to use all of our skills, passions, and gifts in the hopes of making a difference in Van Wyck and beyond.

A faith that takes risks to reveal God’s kingdom needs persistence. We need to be persistent in praying for God’s will and the courage to follow it. In her book, “Sailboat Church,” Rev. Joan Gray says that “every congregation is called to be, in its own way, a demonstration plot of God’s kingdom on this earth.” She likens this image to a farmer that takes risks every season to plant new seeds to grow a crop. In an agricultural sense the farmer sees the demonstration plot grow and reach its potential first hand with lots of prayer, nurturing the soil, and patience.[1]

You and I are like this farmer and we too must take risks to grow our demonstration plot – a place where those who are here and not here yet can plug into the body of Christ and taste the fruits of God’s kingdom. It’s a place where we seek genuine ways to connect the body of Christ, imagine where God is calling us to go and serve others, and prayerfully consider God’s vision for our future. Each time the body of Christ gathers we are being prepared for God to send us out to partner with God in changing the world.

Some churches gather and only draw inward and become more inwardly focused, thus becoming more irrelevant in a time of unexpected change. But that is not who we are at Van Wyck Presbyterian. We have long been movers and shakers in the community. Through the generations we have been forward thinking and open to the creativity of the Spirit.

We are called to keep in step with the Spirit and share the good news. Prayerfully consider where you are finding connection in the body of Christ? Where is God breaking your heart in the community and wider world to nudge us to serve others in hope and love? Where is God calling you and me to take risks in order to reveal the kingdom here?

Let us be prayerful about these areas, because we have work to do!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources Referenced:
[1] Joan Gray, “Sailboat Church: Helping Your Church Rethink Its Mission and Practice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), p. 33.