Download worship folder for Sunday, May 21, 2023.
Presiding: Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Preaching: Vicar Mollie Hamre
Readings and prayers: Al Bostelmann, lector; David Engen, assisting minister
Organist: Cantor David Cherwien
Download the readings for next Sunday for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.
We don’t look up to the skies for God to save all things; we look around at each other, filled with God’s Spirit, and see God bringing healing and hope to all through us.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Ascension of Our Lord
Texts: Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53, plus John 16:7
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away.” (John 16:7)
Much of what Jesus says in John’s Gospel on the night of his betrayal is words of encouragement to these women and men who follow him. He tells them he’s leaving them, but they’ll be alright. The Spirit will be with them, they will be one with the Father and the Son, they will not be orphaned.
But in the midst of that encouragement are these strange words, that Jesus leaving them is to their advantage. Not just “you’ll be OK when I’m gone,” but, “you need me to go.”
And that’s hard for us to understand, much less to trust. It was hard for this group of followers, too. In fact, angels feel compelled to appear and ask them just why they’re standing there, gazing up to heaven. They’re looking where Jesus disappeared because they don’t understand it yet.
We’re not that different from the disciples, or anyone expecting help from God.
Don’t we look up to the heavens – if not literally then spiritually – when things go wrong, wondering where God is, why God allowed this or that, what God intends to do to make things right? Like most humans throughout history, we tend to hope for magic more than relationship from God. Prayer is a way to get God to do what we want.
Some of the Jewish people expected a Messiah who’d restore Israel, end oppression, kick out Rome, and Jesus didn’t do any of that. But we who follow the risen Christ didn’t really learn from that.
Even after they faced the reality of Jesus’ death, once he is raised, Luke says, the disciples ask, “Now will you restore the kingdom to Israel?” It’s as if they’re saying, “OK, we missed that part where you were going to die. That’s our bad. But now that you’re alive again, we’re back to you fixing all our problems, right?
Little wonder they gaped at the sky when he left.
But we should answer the angels’ question, too.
Why would we stand idly in the world wondering why God isn’t fixing all the oppression and suffering, ending the rise of authoritarianism and fascism, bringing all peoples together as one? Wondering when God’s Son will return to fix things? Jesus says leaving us to deal with this ourselves is to our advantage.
This is the heart of Luke’s theology of today. He ends his Gospel with this story, and begins the sequel, Acts, with this story again.
Because in the Gospel, he tells of God’s Son, who, filled with the Holy Spirit, did amazing wonders, taught of God’s love and unlimited grace, sacrificed himself in love and rose to new life. The world began to be changed in this Spirit-filled Son of God.
And in Acts, Luke says we’re the same as Jesus. We’re promised the gift of the Holy Spirit and become, like Jesus, like the first believers, Spirit-filled children of God who change the world. Who do wonders in Christ’s name. Who love the world with vulnerability and so transform death into life, make God’s reign happen here. All with the power of God’s Spirit.
Jesus had to return into the life of the Trinity, or we’d just keep looking in his direction every time something needed doing.
After all, he’s the Son of God. He’s got all the power and ability.
But tonight it becomes clear: God’s transformation of the world will happen in the same way Jesus began, continued in us, through self-giving love, through re-creating relationships between the people of the world and God. As more and more of God’s children are transformed in that love, all the broken things, the oppressive things, the evil things, all that work against God, will crumble and fall. Unless we all just keep looking up at the sky.
It’s not terribly efficient, but the means are as important as the end to God. Forcing the world to love each other and God wouldn’t be worth anything. Jesus showed the power of God in his sacrificial love. And now for us in the world, the only way to show God’s power is by our sacrificial love. By the Spirit making us new from within so that we can love others, because in that love everything can be changed.
Tonight Jesus says, “tag – you’re it.” Or, “keep up the good work I started.”
Jesus promises that if we trust in him, if we abide in him and so in the life of the Triune God he’s opened up for us, we’ll do even more amazing things than he did. Because spread throughout all God’s children, the Holy Spirit can be working in every corner, every crack, every broken place in this world, bearing God’s redeeming, vulnerable love for the healing of all.
Because Christ has ascended, we don’t look up for God to fix everything. We look at each other, filled with God’s Spirit, the power of God, and say, “What can the Triune God do through us, now that we are Christ, now that we are called, now that we are sent?”
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Download worship folder for Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m., May 18, 2023.
Presiding and Preaching: Pastor Joseph Crippen
Readings and Prayers: Andrew Andersen, lector; Art Halbardier, assisting minister
Organist: Cantor David Cherwien
By office
Vicar Mollie Hamre
The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Texts: Acts 17:22-31, Psalm 66:8-20, 1 Peter 3:13-22, John 14:15-21
Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Where do you think God is found?
When I was younger, I would think that God’s presence was found in my dog who would lick the tears off my face when I was crying. I would imagine God being the wind that would sweep through the trees and the breathtaking views at the top of a hike. Today, I see God in the people that surround me, encouraging me in my studies and reminding me that I am brave.
But notice that all of these ideas, all real ways to see God, were separated from one thing: myself.
What if I said that Jesus tells us that our Triune God is not something separate from us, but found within us? Jesus tells the disciples that even though he will not be physically present soon, that does not change Christ’s presence in the world, because you are here. You are in relationship, in connection–a vital part of our Triune God. This part of you is not something you need to be perfect to access or reach a certain level of faith to understand, but simply a part of you. A part that is alive. Right now.
The Gospel picks up from where we were last week with Jesus speaking to the disciples.
Where we heard our Triune God’s promise to the whole community. Bringing them together in Christ, healing them, telling them to not let their hearts be troubled because this whole community is being brought into the life of God. And no one is being left behind. We heard Jesus comfort his disciples for the days ahead and note what is to come, which then leaves them asking the question: what does it mean for Jesus to be present with us, when we do not see him physically? When the words of comfort are difficult to hear and life gets messy. When our hurt, competitive, and isolating world becomes too much? Where is Jesus then?
The answer that Jesus gives is that Christ is found within you.
Jesus promises that the Spirit of Truth is within us, within all of you. The spirit that is promised in our baptisms, even before our baptisms, proclaiming our relationship to our Triune God. The Spirit that promises we are the body of Christ, nurturing one another, trusting God, working towards peace and justice. This love is given freely for you. For all people. And the key in these words is the relationship part.
“If you love me,” Jesus says “you will keep my commandments.”
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” This is not Jesus saying that you have to do something extraordinary or within criteria to receive the Spirit of Truth. Know, again, that you are already deeply loved and held–that has been taken care of. The “if” comes into play because we still have a choice in this.
This “if” is not conditional about your salvation or acceptance into God’s Reign. The “if” is about the relationship between our Triune God and God’s people. Our Triune God is in a relationship with us to lean in closer and to connect with us. Being within us, working through us, coming to be with us. That is the presence Jesus is talking about in the Gospel.
But how are we embodying the spirit of Christ in the world? What choices are we making to care for the neighbor? Are we working towards justice and peace? How is this congregation, as a community, called by the spirit?
Jesus is reminding us that “if” we are to live with our Triune God it is in relationship. We are participants with our Triune God, not bystanders. When Jesus, God with us, tells the disciples that the holy spirit abides in them forever–you are a part of this forever. But just as the disciples had to make choices about the ways they entered into their relationship with God, we have to too.
And we do that Together.
Just as we spoke last week about the word “you” being plural, it is this week too. And that is wonderful news. Because that means that when you are struggling, heartbroken, and weighed down, Christ comes to heal and abide with you through the community. And when that brokenness is found elsewhere, you are a part of that healing and abiding. It is what Christ did and calls us too. Which means that when we look out into our world, God is continuing to move throughout people and creation.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. In a little while the world will no longer see Christ, but you [all] will see Christ; [and] because Christ lives, you [all] will also live.” And on that day, you all will know that Christ is in [God,] and you [all] in Christ, and Christ in all of you. Our Triune God is here and present because of the love you show one another, the way you care for each other, the ways you all work for justice and peace.
That is where God is found.
In the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
MOUNT OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH
3045 Chicago Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612-827-5919
welcome@mountolivechurch.org
