Life's Greatest Tension: Despair vs. Hope
Sermon
The Courage to Carry On
Sermons for Lent and Easter During Cycle B
Today is Ascension Sunday.
Today we commemorate the day when Jesus bid farewell to his followers and friends and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.
In some ways it's an anxious day. "How will we go on without him?" they surely whispered among themselves. "How can we possibly maintain the strength and perspective -- the motivation to live according to his teachings and promises? How can we live with determination and purpose if he is not here to sustain us?"
We, too, have that concern from time to time when we sense an absence and share the notion that maybe the good Lord has left us to be alone with the demons of the world. We have that concern in times when the newspapers confound us and the events all around us seem to suggest that God isn't paying attention.
Fear and anxiety are realities in every age, but for the followers of Jesus so is the power and presence of the risen Lord, ascended into heaven.
The disciples would soon experience this positive reality as they separated and began to preach, teach, and heal throughout the existing world. The power of the risen Lord -- ascended into heaven would soon transform the world through them as they faithfully served in his holy name.
The apostle Paul was one of those stalwarts of the faith. His letter to the Ephesians was written to this new community in Christ. He was eager to be faithful but occasionally was also susceptible to the fear and anxiety that perplexes every Christian generation.
Paul encourages the church at Ephesus so beautifully. "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus ... may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with eyes of your heart enlightened you may know the hope ... riches ... the immeasurable greatness of his power" (Ephesians 1:17-19).
We gather again to be renewed and strengthened by this wonderful good news.
We gather amidst enormous tragedy in our world, our communities, and perhaps even in our very personal lives to hear a word of hope and truth. Christ is alive in power. He is fully present. He is fully active in bringing about his purposes in spite of what occasionally appears to be just the opposite.
Many years ago under the leadership of benevolent kings and queens, architects and builders were brought from Constantinople to an area east of the Black Sea to build huge churches out of local rock. Their Byzantine churches were monuments, full of exquisite arches, frescoes, and stonework, many of which survive today, but only as ruins. The age of Christianity is over in that part of the world. The Mongols conquered the area in the thirteenth century. Civilization moved west and east. The last baptisms took place in the 1800s. Now the area is predominantly Muslim, as is the rest of Turkey. Meanwhile, the descendants of those ancient builders have become farmers, who still pluck old roof tiles and gargoyle parts out of their fields as they plow in the spring.
If you go there today, you can find the remains of the great churches deep in the countryside with what is left of their high walls poking up through the canopy of trees. All of the good carvings have been carried away, along with many of the building stones, which local people have quarried for their own houses.
The churches are multipurpose buildings now, serving as soccer fields, sheep pens, and garbage dumps. The roofs are gone. So are the doors, floors, and altars. All that is left are the walls, a few broken columns, and here and there the traces of an old fresco that has somehow survived the years. Occasionally, you might see a part of a fresco with a faded scarred image of Christ with three fingers raised in a familiar fashion.
In a strange way, the Lord is still giving his blessing to a ruined church.1
We are not a ruined church by any means, even though we know of some congregations who have somehow lost traction and perhaps courage.
The point is the Lord Christ continues to give his blessing no matter what, in spite of us at times. His blessing will prevail, sooner or later. God is at work all around us. We are his chosen instruments of reconciliation in the world. Paul says the church shall be a community of heaven on earth.
From the heart of Christ's body shall flow all the transforming love of God, bestowing hope, bestowing courage and immeasurable power and greatness.
What does all that have to say to you and me in the great scheme of things?
May I suggest just this one thing? Because God is at work in Jesus Christ all around us, we will choose not to be fearful, negative, or hopeless. Instead, we will choose to be observant and alert to God's activity, his love and power, and his determination to bless and redeem all of us. We will choose to be confident in the Lord and constantly be on the look out for his work among us. All the while, the apostles and all the saints pray for us that the eyes of our hearts will be opened so that we can see the great power of God at work all around us.
Barbara Brown Taylor tells a touching story of this reality in her book, Home By Another Way.
There was a woman with recurrent cancer who was told she had six months to live. Her church gathered around her and her husband, extending help in all sorts of ways. It was even suggested by one to give the woman a foot massage and paint her toenails. That lifted her spirits, as you can imagine. She prepared for death but to her surprise, she got better.
On Christmas Eve, she was back in church for the first time in months with an oxygen tank in tow. After the first hymn, she made her way to the lectern to read the lesson from Isaiah. The sounds of her oxygen tank and her laboring voice were noticeable. Every candle in the sanctuary glittered in her eyes. "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God' " (Isaiah 35:3-4). When she sat down, the congregation knew they had not just heard the word of the Lord. They had seen it in action as well.2
Christ is alive in power. We will not fear because we know it is so very true.
____________
1. www.preaching.org/classroom/display_article/16.
2. Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications, 1999), p. 201.
Today we commemorate the day when Jesus bid farewell to his followers and friends and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.
In some ways it's an anxious day. "How will we go on without him?" they surely whispered among themselves. "How can we possibly maintain the strength and perspective -- the motivation to live according to his teachings and promises? How can we live with determination and purpose if he is not here to sustain us?"
We, too, have that concern from time to time when we sense an absence and share the notion that maybe the good Lord has left us to be alone with the demons of the world. We have that concern in times when the newspapers confound us and the events all around us seem to suggest that God isn't paying attention.
Fear and anxiety are realities in every age, but for the followers of Jesus so is the power and presence of the risen Lord, ascended into heaven.
The disciples would soon experience this positive reality as they separated and began to preach, teach, and heal throughout the existing world. The power of the risen Lord -- ascended into heaven would soon transform the world through them as they faithfully served in his holy name.
The apostle Paul was one of those stalwarts of the faith. His letter to the Ephesians was written to this new community in Christ. He was eager to be faithful but occasionally was also susceptible to the fear and anxiety that perplexes every Christian generation.
Paul encourages the church at Ephesus so beautifully. "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus ... may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with eyes of your heart enlightened you may know the hope ... riches ... the immeasurable greatness of his power" (Ephesians 1:17-19).
We gather again to be renewed and strengthened by this wonderful good news.
We gather amidst enormous tragedy in our world, our communities, and perhaps even in our very personal lives to hear a word of hope and truth. Christ is alive in power. He is fully present. He is fully active in bringing about his purposes in spite of what occasionally appears to be just the opposite.
Many years ago under the leadership of benevolent kings and queens, architects and builders were brought from Constantinople to an area east of the Black Sea to build huge churches out of local rock. Their Byzantine churches were monuments, full of exquisite arches, frescoes, and stonework, many of which survive today, but only as ruins. The age of Christianity is over in that part of the world. The Mongols conquered the area in the thirteenth century. Civilization moved west and east. The last baptisms took place in the 1800s. Now the area is predominantly Muslim, as is the rest of Turkey. Meanwhile, the descendants of those ancient builders have become farmers, who still pluck old roof tiles and gargoyle parts out of their fields as they plow in the spring.
If you go there today, you can find the remains of the great churches deep in the countryside with what is left of their high walls poking up through the canopy of trees. All of the good carvings have been carried away, along with many of the building stones, which local people have quarried for their own houses.
The churches are multipurpose buildings now, serving as soccer fields, sheep pens, and garbage dumps. The roofs are gone. So are the doors, floors, and altars. All that is left are the walls, a few broken columns, and here and there the traces of an old fresco that has somehow survived the years. Occasionally, you might see a part of a fresco with a faded scarred image of Christ with three fingers raised in a familiar fashion.
In a strange way, the Lord is still giving his blessing to a ruined church.1
We are not a ruined church by any means, even though we know of some congregations who have somehow lost traction and perhaps courage.
The point is the Lord Christ continues to give his blessing no matter what, in spite of us at times. His blessing will prevail, sooner or later. God is at work all around us. We are his chosen instruments of reconciliation in the world. Paul says the church shall be a community of heaven on earth.
From the heart of Christ's body shall flow all the transforming love of God, bestowing hope, bestowing courage and immeasurable power and greatness.
What does all that have to say to you and me in the great scheme of things?
May I suggest just this one thing? Because God is at work in Jesus Christ all around us, we will choose not to be fearful, negative, or hopeless. Instead, we will choose to be observant and alert to God's activity, his love and power, and his determination to bless and redeem all of us. We will choose to be confident in the Lord and constantly be on the look out for his work among us. All the while, the apostles and all the saints pray for us that the eyes of our hearts will be opened so that we can see the great power of God at work all around us.
Barbara Brown Taylor tells a touching story of this reality in her book, Home By Another Way.
There was a woman with recurrent cancer who was told she had six months to live. Her church gathered around her and her husband, extending help in all sorts of ways. It was even suggested by one to give the woman a foot massage and paint her toenails. That lifted her spirits, as you can imagine. She prepared for death but to her surprise, she got better.
On Christmas Eve, she was back in church for the first time in months with an oxygen tank in tow. After the first hymn, she made her way to the lectern to read the lesson from Isaiah. The sounds of her oxygen tank and her laboring voice were noticeable. Every candle in the sanctuary glittered in her eyes. "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God' " (Isaiah 35:3-4). When she sat down, the congregation knew they had not just heard the word of the Lord. They had seen it in action as well.2
Christ is alive in power. We will not fear because we know it is so very true.
____________
1. www.preaching.org/classroom/display_article/16.
2. Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications, 1999), p. 201.
