Forgot to get this posted last week...
Enjoy
+I+N+I+
Last weekend
Sylvia and I got to spend time with our younger son Mike & his new wife
Ann. They are in there late 20’s and very much children of the internet
culture.
When I got
home after church I found them hunched together on Ann’s laptop. “Dad is there
something different about your internet? This is taking forever!”
I resisted
the urge to be Grandpa Grumpy. “When your mother and I were your age we didn’t
have wifi. All we had was dial-up and CompuServe!”
We don’t
like to wait. We are impatient people in an impatient culture. Even when the
quickness of life overwhelms us we get impatient with waiting.
Think of the
times when you been with someone – you’re ready to leave and they are not? Do
you stand there resisting the urge to tap your toe and mumble – “Time to go!
Let’s get a move on!”
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Maybe you
have been a little impatient with Easter. Seven weeks! Every Sunday “Christ is
risen!”
So it was
with the disciples. Luke (the author of Acts) tells us that Jesus gathered his
disciples around him for 40 days after his resurrection helping them assimilate
to their new reality – creations new reality after Easter.
But the old
impatience is there.
“Ok Jesus!
Is NOW the time you’re going to restore David’s kingdom?”
That was, of course, the job description
of the Messiah. No matter that Jesus had said over and over before his
crucifixion that he was not that kind of Messiah.
He was not going to rule with worldly
power, rooted in violence. He was going to rule as the one who takes all the
violence, sin and death of the world into himself and let it do its worse – and
forgive it all.
“It was
necessary that the Son of Man suffer for all.” That was the only way the circle
of violence and revenge could ever be broken. Forgiveness is the only power
that could ever fix a broken creation.
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“Wait here for the power of the Holy Spirit
to come!” And he was taken up from their sight into heaven.
So what
should we do while we wait?
·
Our Savior’s has been waiting during this Easter
season. What has God have in store for us as a congregation?
·
What is God calling us to do in this time and
place?
Prayer is
one excellent possibility! Doing it together could even be better.
Today and next Sunday we are going to
spend some time waiting and praying together – and talking together to try to
discern what God is calling us to be and do as a congregation. I know I speak
for your call committee when I say we hope that you will all take part.
Because we
have the word of Jesus - “You will be my witnesses – in Jerusalem,
Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth!”
Or we might
say, ‘You will be my wittiness to Albany
and Avon, to Stearns County and Minnesota, to the ends of the earth.”
Notice – it
is not, “How about it? How about being my witnesses?” NO! You will be…”
Because the
Holy Spirit will be with you – with us - giving us the power of the risen
Messiah
So, we will
pray, and will talk together.
“What is
this congregation’s mission, its witness to Jesus and the power of his
resurrection to be in Albany and Avon and Minnesota and to the ends of the
earth?”
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“You will be my witnesses.”
Maybe you
don’t think of yourself in that way. But if the Lord Jesus calls us to be
witnesses, we’d better not think that it is something optional.
But what do we
do? How can we get started?
Whenever God
commands something God always supplies the means to do it.
In the
Baptismal Covenant we are asked, “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching
and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?”
So here is a
prayer.
“Lord, show
me how you would use me – today and in the future – to witness for you?”
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We can do
nothing by our own power and we already have everything we need. We have the
promised Holy Spirit in our Baptism.
There will
be times of waiting in the life of faith…
But these
are not times of inactivity…
Let us pray
and talk, love and support each other…
Because the
wait will not be long!
Soon the
Holy Spirit will show her hand of power…
And it will
be time to go!
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