“Waiting for Power”

Seventh Sunday of Easter - May 21, 23

Acts 1: 1-11 - John 17: 1-17

Pastor Deb - BRCC

There’s a cute story about a Sunday School teacher that challenged her children to take some time and write a letter to God. They were to bring it back to class the next Sunday. As you can imagine, there were some pretty cute letters, but one little boy wrote this: “Dear God, We had such a good time in Sunday School today, I sure wish you could have been here!”

This is what is called, Ascension Sunday, commemorating that the Risen Jesus returned to the Father in Heaven by being lifted up in a cloud. Sometimes, don’t we wonder why Jesus had to leave the earth and return to heaven? Don’t we sometimes wish like that little boy, that Jesus would show up, in the flesh and be right here with us? But, of course, we know that within the gift of the Holy Spirit he is.

Our Gospel text from John shows how Jesus prepared his disciples to understand that their lives with him would now be eternally linked to God and they would be one, just as He and His Father were one, The disciples, we are told in Acts, were to wait to be clothed with power from the Holy Spirit so that they could carry forth the mission of announcing the Kingdom of God to all the ends of the earth.

I remember so vividly, feeling that sense of being clothed and sent out as I was ordained into the ministry nearly 30 years ago. Kneeing with many many hands laid upon your shoulders while being blessed and commissioned to serve God’s flock as a pastor was daunting as well as thrilling. But what did it mean to be clothed with the Holy Spirit? Would I have everything I needed to do ministry well…or would it be a process of learning…discovering… even floundering. Peter wrote: “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God…Cast all your anxiety upon him…discipline yourselves, keep alert….”

The Holy Spirit teaches us as we go,,, and there are moments along the way of faith when we may find ourselves haunted by things we didn’t get right…assumptions we made…people we may have hurt.

There is a moment that haunts me, a moment when I didn’t trust the Holy Spirit’s power, and, as a pastor, allowed one of God’s children to feel rejected and abandoned. It was while I was on my first call as a pastor serving Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Shoreview, a suburb of St. Paul MN. I was new to ministry, and like most first calls, I was energetic and excited, and totally engaged with all the possibilities ahead. We were in the midst of building a beautiful new sanctuary; growing a dynamic youth program and building an exciting future in one of the nicest suburbs of St. Paul. It’s hard to describe to you now, nearly 30 years later, just how exciting that time was for me. But it was probably a bit like what the disciples must have felt as the Risen Jesus tells them that they are about to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them so that they can become witnesses in Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth in our Acts text for today. To be called into ministry in a place pregnant with possibilities and enthusiasm to grow and thrive was a thrilling reality for me as a pastor at that time.

One day, however, a person I had never seen or met before came in to visit with me. I didn’t fully understand what transgender meant at that time, but it became clear as this person shared with me the journey she was taking to move from a gender identity as male to her deeply defined gender identity as female. She described her journey both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And then, she asked me a point blank question: WOULD THIS CONGREGATION WELCOME HER IF SHE WAS TO BEGIN WORSHIPING WITH US? To this day, I wish I could take back my answer! For I THOUGHT I was being honest and loving when I told her that I didn’t think our congregation was ready to welcome someone in gender transition, and that I couldn't promise that she would be understood and safe in our midst.

I’ll never forget the hurt on her face. Or the sinking feeling inside me as I watched her get up and leave, never to return. What had I done? That moment haunts me still, and I pray that she found a welcoming place and didn’t give up on her faith in Christ.

It seemed like God continued to put this struggle before me again and again so that I could learn and repent. I remember how I struggled with myself during clinical pastoral work in a hospital during those years when AIDS was so misunderstood. I had to visit a patient dying of AIDS one day. I remember vividly the fear and struggle to step into his room and engage with him. Once I finally moved into that room, I found a beautiful, hurting man, so hungry for hope and peace. I also had a journey with a shirt-tail relative, my sister’s brother in law, who died of AIDS he contracted in New York City when he sold his body to survive while trying to break into the professional world of dancing. He and his wife were incredibly brave as they faced his dying process, and came to share their story in the church I was serving at that time, so that others might not be so fearful and rejecting of those who were gay; or those who were hurting from the brokenness of human fear, rejection and violence.

These moments of “failure” to love the “other” changed me, and over the years, I’ve not only needed to repent of my ignorance and lack of love, but also open myself to UNDERSTAND, ACCEPT AND EMBRACE my brothers and sisters whose gender identity and sexual expression is different that mine. More recently, we learned that our Godson is Gay. Josh is not only very special to me and our family, but he is an amazing gift to others as both a nurse, and as an amazing organist for churches in the twin cities area.

In all these encounters in my own personal journey as a person who happens to also be a pastor of Jesus’ church, I have had to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to open my eyes and heart to the truth that Jesus’ grace and life giving love is for EVERYONE…but especially for those marginalized, condemned, misunderstood and hurt by societal judgment and exclusion.

Perhaps that is why coming to Baptism River Community Church, where we identify ourselves as “reconciling in Christ,” was important to me, for as I have walked this life, the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes to see the “other” differently. I now can see the other as a dear friend, sister, brother, human child of God, whose need to be SEEN and LOVED as they are, rather than how the world would want them to be, is to be witnessed and proclaimed. In some ways, my friends, perhaps we too are waiting to be clothed with power to be witnesses to God’s radical love in Christ in ways that we cannot yet imagine.

What does it mean to be Reconciling in Christ? That question has been asked by visitors among us, and because we haven’t been focused on understanding and claiming this identity, it has remained only a sign on our window and a statement on our welcome sheet. So,lLet me share with you MY UNDERSTANDING of what this kind of witness means to a “small but mighty” congregation like ours. To reconcile literally means…TO MAKE RIGHT AGAIN. That which has been mistreated, hurt, cast aside or destroyed out of ignorance is lifted up and SEEN as in need of healing and wholeness. We have heard slogans like “Black Lives Matter,” countered with the phrase, “All Lives Matter.” Yet the second phrase, all lives matter, misses the point of reconciling and making things right! That phrase was used to point to a segment of society that experiences prejudice and violent rejection and injustice at this moment of history as well as in the past. When the phrase Black Lives Matter is used, it literally means MAKE THIS RIGHT…MAKE LIFE FAIR…LOVE THE OTHER WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE BLACK.

Let me give you another example. Everywhere we go these days we hear about “Climate Change” and what it is doing to our planet, our weather, our water, and our future as citizens of God’s creation. There are prophetic voices everywhere telling us SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE! We cannot pollute our air with gas emissions; our seas with plastic waste; fill our ground with chemicals and wastes that are non biodegradable. To sustain these hurtful practices will eventually destroy ALL life and well being. Yet…politically, and even in the name of religious belief…our collective focus is on disunity; blame; hoarding and self-protection RATHER than working together to HEAL our planet while there is still time. If we were to commit ourselves to RECONCILING WORKS FOR THE BENEFIT OF OR CLIMATE, our focus would shift dramatically to ACTS OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY and SHARED SACRIFICE FOR THE GREATER GOOD. We would stop blaming one another and begin a work of reconciling…making right again…our precious home on this earth.

Similarly, Reconciling Works in Christ brings the same kind of shared responsibility and commitment to the greater good of MAKING RIGHT AGAIN, the lives of those most despised, rejected and unsafe within our human communities on the basis of their gender identification or sexual expression. Reconciling Works is not a work of judgment of sin…for who among us is without sin? But a work of reconciliation…opening our arms like Jesus to the most vulnerable among us.

For those of us who have been watching “The Chosen” film series together, we have been moved over and over again by the depiction of this “power” to love the marginalized of Jesus day. The lepers, lame, blind, mute, prostitutes; and hated riff-raff of that time in history. Not only do the filmmakers show us a Jesus who heals…but they show us a Jesus whose eyes show compassionate tears and whose gracious arms; joyful hugs and dancing moments of praise make REAL what reconciling in Christ truly looks and feels like.

Today, the church celebrates the Ascension of our Lord Jesus into Heaven. An obvious question might be WHY? WHY DID JESUS LEAVE US? Why didn’t Jesus stay to lead us ALL into full RECONCILED LIVES OF LOVE AND TRUTH? Jesus' answer to his disciples is the same answer that he gives to us today. “I go to the Father so that the Holy Spirit can come among you with Power to go out into all the world in my name. The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all I taught you while on earth. I give you my PEACE, not the world’s peace, but my peace. So do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid, I have overcome the world” (John 17 paraphrased)

Perhaps that is why the disciples, after watching Jesus ascend into heaven, no longer were afraid. Instead, Luke tells us that they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, continually praising God and beginning the greatest work on earth…RECONCILING ALL SINNERS TO THE ETERNAL LIFE AND LOVE we can all know in Jesus Christ. Amen.