Good Morning.
Look! Up in the sky. It’s a …. If you are of a certain age, you know the rest of that phrase. It was the introduction to the old Superman show on television.
In the reading in Acts today, we learn a little bit about some of the post-resurrection activities of Jesus and then His ascension. As Jesus was taken up from the apostles, they were apparently left gawking up in the sky. Were they having trouble believing what they had just seen? Had they hoped that they would have gone with Him? Had they hoped that He would have stuck around in His post-resurrection victory and led them to some earthly conquest? Or were they just confused? “What are we going to do now?”
Then the reading says: “Two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven?’” So the apostles returned to “an upstairs room” somewhere in Jerusalem and they prayed … a lot.
The apostles were both confused and frightened. They were in Jerusalem, between religious holidays, and the Jewish officials were certainly hostile to them. The Romans were not aggressively opposed to them. The Romans didn’t want to see anything disturb the general peace of the community, and if they had to crucify a few more of these followers of Jesus, well, then, that was just the price of peace! So the apostles prayed … a lot.
Much is written these days about the “post-Christendom era.” It doesn’t mean that we are in a post-Christian time. It simply means that the era of “Christendom,” a fictitious construct created by historians and other academics, has past. The time when it might be assumed that being Christian got you special privileges in the non-religious world has passed. Living here in the United States we may be slower to see the dramatic impact of that, but little by little we see more and more of it as well as the efforts of some people to fight to hold onto that social advantage. It’s not that Christendom has been replaced by some other socio-religious power. It has been displaced by a rising tide of secularism.
One could certainly argue that several different religious traditions – including Islam – are feeling the world-wide rise of secularism. The all too frequent response is a rise in extremism within nominal religious groups reacting with fear and aggression. That extremism is rarely rooted in religion – they are not defending the faith – but rather it reflects the socio-political defensiveness of groups that are wrongly identified as being “faith-based.”
There are many examples in our own society. School prayer is one. The loss of what may have been mandatory prayer in schools has upset some people. I’m not sure how many of those who seem to be publically upset engage in regular prayer disciplines at home? As a pastor I’m more concerned about the loss of daily prayers in the home than about school prayer. As a pastor I’m concerned about the number of people who cannot bring themselves to lead prayers in church – either in worship or in committee meetings.
The early church didn’t have the socio-political advantages of Christendom. Those early Christian were required to act out their faith in a social and political setting that was often violently hostile to them. But the church grew. The Gospel spread. And when they couldn’t figure out what to do next, those early Christians prayed … a lot! They didn’t need some political structure to approve of their faith. They needed the guidance of the Holy Spirit and prayer. We do too!
Prayer: Holy Lord, lead us. Fill us with Your Spirit that we might more fervently pray. Fill us with the desire to fill our hearts and our lives with You. When there is no earthly advantage left to being Your disciple, grant us the faith, the courage and the wisdom to choose You. In the name of Him Whom the powers of this world rejected, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Today’s readings are Judges 3:12-30; Acts 1:1-14; Matthew 27:45-54; Psalm 72 & 119:73-96.
May you choose the Lord when there is no earthly advantage to do so. He is our redeemer, our strength, our hope, and our life.
Blessings to you.
Pastor Jim
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