Odessa Christ Lutheran Church

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Pastor Nathan Bowman

Ascension Sunday Service

May 24, 2020 Sermon

Luke24:44-53

The Gospel of the Lord:

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

The best is yet to come!

Pr. Nathan

There are several contextual issues facing us today:

Pandemic Context:

When and how do we return to normal? - When can we worship again as a physically present community? When can we go back to having the things the way they were? When can we worship together again?

In Arizona, it is reported that about 75% of the deaths related to the pandemic happened in nursing facilities, where the senior residents were supposed to be safe. In spite of stringent guidelines, staff members, visitors or families would usually bring in this pandemic unintentionally (most of the time, they did not know they were contagious) into the nursing home. In some other states, Governors ordered that anyone who is a resident of a nursing facility or group home, who is infested with Coronavirus, must be sent back to the home, and are not to be kept in the hospital. When will we be able to trust our government, or the system again?

Those advocating for a return to normal are met with a list of requirements and conditions which are so abnormal, that this too will be met with some resistance. Is it safe, and who do we put at risk when we exercise our liberties and freedoms. At the same time, life must go on. Where do we find our strength to move forward? What do we have to look forward to?

The Memorial Day Weekend context:

There is a story of the first decoration leading up to the National Memorial events at Arlington National Cemetery. This actually took place in 1866 in Charleston, South Carolina in the late stages of the war. More than a thousand Union prisoners of war were held at the city’s race track and some 260 of them died from disease and exposure and were buried in a mass grave. As the war was coming to an end, and the Union Troops began to take over the South, Confederate troops abandoned Charleston, leaving mostly emancipated former slaves behind. The former slaves decided to give the Union Soldiers who died, a proper burial and exhumed their bodies from the mass grave and buried them with a proper service.

A crowd of 10,000 freed slaves with some white missionaries, held a parade around the track where the prisoners had been held. Another 3000 black school children carried bouquets of flowers. Members of the Union regiment that had included black soldiers were also present. Black ministers quoted verses from scripture. Their story would be discovered in 1996 by a professor of American History at Harvard, David Blight. In a city where the Civil War was to begin, the honoring of the deceased “enemy” soldiers was the first step toward a national reconciliation, but it was soon forgotten during our country’s long journey to understand what it means to live together and honor the gift of God in each other.

The disciple’s context:

Jesus had said “Peace be with you.”

Jesus had shown himself to over 500 followers in post resurrection

appearances

The disciples never knew when Jesus would show up again.

This resurrected Jesus would not allow things to return to normal or how they

had been before. The norm of “before” was not safe for the security of

our eternity.

The teachings of Jesus brought in a new understanding about the relationship

between men and women, Jew and Gentile, the sick and the healthy,

foreign and national, even black and white.

The Jew and the Samaritan, and the blind and the leper, the slave and the free, the rich and the poor, were now to be guided by the teachings of Jesus and not by the traditions of our ancestors.

Jesus highlights things that would not change, as well as the things that would change.

The words of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms would not change.

All would point to Jesus, and that in Jesus we have life with God.

The thing that would need to change is how we understood these words of

scripture. We could not see before, but now it is revealed to us. The

word of God points to Jesus, and we have forgiveness in Jesus’ name.

It is revealed to us but we do not understand. We are not trained to see the hand of God in our relationships with others, and we seldom see the hand of God in our relationship with God. We do not get it. God must open our spirit to understand. It is not with our intellect that we know God. It is with our spirit, For God, who is physical in Jesus Christ, is at the same time, Spirit. I pity the man who knows his wife only by intellect. I pity the believer who knows God only by theology and theological study. When operating in the realm of human intellect, we miss out on the mystery and beauty of the depth of God’s undeserved love for us. It is in Spirit that we know and worship God. It is in that same Spirit that we have fellowship with one another.

God is quick to hear our words of repentance, and offer forgiveness. Our challenge is that we are quick to forget that we repented and go back to our old ways. We easily revert to what is normal for us. The Spirit of God keeps us on track, comforting, guiding and directing our lives to be pleasing to God. We do not do it alone. Nor can we do it our way. We have been there, we have tried it countless times, and we have failed.

God wants us to share in His Joy. God is not sitting around waiting for our thanksgiving, even though he deserves to be thanked all the time. God wants us to share in His Joy. He wants us to celebrate who He is and what he has done for us.

It gave God Joy to send Jesus to us.

It gives God Joy when we repent, because only when we have repented

and received the gift of forgiveness can we have JOY.

It Gives our Father Joy to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us.

It Gives God Joy because amazing things are yet to come.

Through this He wants to love us even more.

The Spirit keeps us knowing God’s plan.

It gives God Joy to walk with us, and while we need to observe social

distancing, God does not do social distancing.

By virtue of our encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ, we are witnesses. The Greek word is “Martyr”. The calling to be witnesses to what God has done has not changed. This has been from the beginning. The Psalmist says: I will not die, but live and will proclaim what the LORD has done. (PS 118:17)

The Spirit of God transforms us to look for Jesus. Our witness ceases when we stop looking for Jesus! There are many clues that are evident and revealed by the Holy Spirit. They are in the context of an intimate relationship with God. They are declared in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations. When we learn to recognize Jesus’ fingerprints, we too will be filled with the joy that the disciples had when they returned to Jerusalem, to wait for the gift. In Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, the word of God comes to life, and gives our life more substance and meaning than it could ever have - our lives become an extension of the book of Acts. Quarantined, distanced, masked, gloved, shielded or in whatever condition we may find our daily life, none of this takes anything away from finding the presence of Jesus among us.

What has changed in the witness is that now there is even more. The best is yet to come. God never gives us a job without giving us the faith, love and strength to accomplish it. When Moses gathered 72 elders to represent the people of Israel, they were also commissioned to gather together in one place. Two of them did not know of this gathering (they missed the invite) and were out in the field. The spirit of God came upon the gathering and they all began to prophesy. The Spirit also came upon the two who had missed the meeting, and they also prophesied. They prophesied and then were silent. They would not prophesy again. This was a foretaste of the things yet to come. However, Jesus promises this same Spirit as “Power from on high” in which we need to be clothed to be God’s witnesses. It is a continual anointing.

Jesus is telling the disciples and us, that the Spirit will be coming upon us, and the Spirit will be there for the long run. This is a new life in God. Get ready for good and meaningful change! With God, the best is yet to come.

Finally, what would normally be a time of mourning for separation from Jesus has become a moment of great rejoicing. While Jesus is ascending, he continues to bless us. This is even now. As Jesus is being lifted up, He blesses. When we praise and bless God, Jesus blesses us. When we honor God with our love, faith and our life, we bless God. Jesus blesses us and wants us to know that the best is yet to come.

Pastor Nathan

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Share in my joy.

Mid-Week Devotional

May 28, 2020

When we get fixated on a thing that we cannot do, or are not allowed to do, our thoughts often run away with our minds and we go places that are not healthy for us. It is easy to fall into the trap of self pity and depression. At the slightest indication that things may return to normal, we tend to overreact, and throw all caution to the wind. Common sense is now on vacation.

On the other hand, there are some people in our lives that we are glad to be socially distanced from. So much for six feet or six miles! Six oceans are not enough to separate us from these people. These are the ones that hunt us down and want to be our friends on FaceTime or other social media, when we have already de-friended them time and time again. If this is you, you are not alone.

But it is time to move from sarcasm and overreaction to reality. Some things are going to change for the good. Things you used to celebrate in large numbers may still be celebrated in smaller numbers. We will share in each other’s joy. A baby’s first cry, a child’s first words, first steps, baptisms, dedications, confirmations, first communions, Bar Mitzvah, graduation from any grade, a seed that dies to itself to yield a bountiful harvest - these and many more give us reason to celebrate in each other’s joys. We celebrate recovery, health, birthdays and life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was in one of the lowest moments of his life on Earth. He knew the gravity of what was to come. No one else seemed to understand the ramifications of each piece of the puzzle coming together at this one moment. Those who were on the inner circle could not be bothered to share in Jesus’ struggle. This was the moment where there was the real “game changer.” Peter and the others could not stay awake. Judas Iscariot had already gone to carry out his betrayal. He had already negotiated the price.

The rest of the disciples had this opportunity to see the depth of Jesus’ love for them, being poured out. The battle against Satan and the power of evil was nearing a turning point. The finality of death itself was about to be destroyed. Jesus had to go to the one who shared in his Joy. Jesus had to be in the will of the Father. He wanted to share that moment with the disciples. Jesus would seal his own destiny when he prayed, “Not my will but Thine be done.” No one could change the outcome from that time. Jesus was going to the Father.

In the service of the Lord’s Supper which was instituted before this, Jesus commands his disciples to do this to commemorate His Death. The cruelty of the cross is followed by the victory and mystery of the resurrection.

Our resurrected Lord appears to many people, and as is often the case, the disciples have the most difficult time processing what has transpired. When Jesus is lifted up, (ascended), the disciples move in great Joy to Jerusalem to wait for the Gift of God. In the midst of all of this, there is exceeding Joy. The disciples’ marching orders have been issued.

Now, I encourage you to find someone who needs you to share in their joy, and do so in a way that you have never done before. Opportunity breeds creativity, and when set into motion, abounding JOY.

Pastor Nathan Bowman

Odessa Christ Lutheran Church

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