Get to Work

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

June 1, 2014

Get to Work

Acts 1:1-11

It’s quite a scene:

the disciples all gathered around Jesus,

having spent the past 40 days with him

since his resurrection,

when suddenly Jesus ascends:

he goes up into the sky.

Right in the middle of talking to them,

he’s lifted up,

gravity no longer holding him,

some heavenly force pulling him up, up, up.

The men stand frozen,

their eyes riveted on Jesus,

all of them gaping in disbelief,

heads craning back as they watch him rise,

until he disappears behind a cloud,

out of sight,

but surely not out of mind.

How long did they stand there,

all of them looking up,

silent, stunned,

wondering,

none of them understanding

what it was they had just seen.

It took messengers from the Lord God

to bring their attention back down to earth,

their gaze and their minds from out of the clouds:

two men in white robes who suddenly appeared

and said to them,

“Men of Galilee,

why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Where did they come from, those two men?

Who were they?

Were they angels of the Lord God?

Were they the same two men

who Luke tells us in his gospel

stood next to Mary Magdalene, Joanna,

and the other women

when they discovered the empty tomb

on that first Easter Sunday:

“two men dressed in dazzling clothes.”

(Luke 24:4)

Luke doesn’t tell us that they had the appearance

we’ve attributed to angels over the centuries:

flowing robes and of course, majestic wings.

But, clearly, they were God’s messengers,

sent to help the disciples turn their attention back to earth,

back to reality,

away from the mystery they had just witnessed.

“Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

But then, the messengers continued

to speak to the disciples,

“This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven,

will come in the same way 

as you saw him go into heaven.”

What did that mean?

What were the disciples supposed to do

with that statement?

Jesus had already given them the answer

to that question, though when he said,

“It is not for you to know the times or periods

that the Father has set by his own authority.”

All that really mattered

was their response to the messengers’ question,

“why do you stand there?”

Jesus’ time with them was done;

it was time for the disciples to get to work,

time for them to start leading,

time for them to be the teachers

and the preachers

and the healers

Jesus had taught them to be.

They’d followed,

they’d listened,

they’d seen,

they’d learned;

they were as ready as they were going to be.

Of course, they weren’t going out

into the world on their own:

As Jesus promised,

they would have help from the Holy Spirit

which was about to come upon them.

It isn’t just happenstance that Pentecost,

which we will mark next Sunday,

immediately follows today’s Ascension Sunday.

Followers of Jesus Christ are not called to lives

in cloistered confines,

with days and nights spent in contemplation and prayer,

eyes and minds fixed on the clouds above.

We are called to lives of active ministry and service.

We are called to plunge into the everyday world:

the beautiful and the ugly,

the good and the bad,

the easy and the difficult,

the joyful and the sorrow-filled --

wherever life,

wherever vocations

and wherever the Spirit calls us.

We are to live and reach out

with compassion and kindness,

especially to the weak, the vulnerable,

those who struggle with hunger, illness,

hopelessness, loneliness, fear.

We are to work for peace and reconciliation

especially with those we consider different, alien,

our enemies;

We are to learn how to set aside our own needs,

and live lives of true hospitality,

serving, and not being served,

as we follow our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what we are taught

from the moment we are baptized,

and at some point graduation comes,

at some point it is time for us to go out into the world,

like the disciples,

time for us to get to work.

As any wise graduate knows,

graduation doesn’t mean an end to learning;

Learning is a life-long calling.

So even as we go out into the world,

the Spirit calls us back not only

to renew and refresh us through worship and prayer,

but to help us continue to learn,

help us to grow in knowledge of God.

As we learn, we learn to live more and more

by the Spirit.

We learn to reflect those things

Paul calls the “fruits of the Spirit:”

love and joy,

peace and patience,

kindness and gentleness,

self-control.

And we also learn to look within ourselves

as we grow in maturity and wisdom.

We learn to recognize those times

when we say or do things that lead to

dissension, quarreling,

strife, division,

things that tear down rather than build up.

Jesus’ remarks to his disciples

before ascending to his place

on the right hand of The Lord our God

were simple:

“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.”

These are Jesus’ words to us as well:

reminding us that it isn’t for us

to try to determine when Jesus will come again,

or for that matter even to try to,

pull the curtain back on life in heaven.

We have work to do, you and I,

work we’ve been called to do,

work we’ve been empowered to do,

work grounded in love,

love given us by God through Jesus Christ,

love we are called to share with all the world,

even to the ends of the earth.

Jesus said nothing more to his disciples

before he ascended,

but I am guessing that if Luke had recorded

one more sentence,

a final few words from our Lord

before God took him up,

Jesus would have said three simple words,

three simple words spoken to his disciples,

spoken to you and me,

words spoken gently, lovingly, and yet firmly:

“Get to work.”

AMEN