Let us pray:

Holy God, one of Jesus' final earthly acts before he ascended to be with you was to open the minds of his followers so they might understand the Scriptures. He wanted them to know how his life and ministry had fulfilled everything that was written about him. We, too, desire to understand your word to us. We want to know the meaning of your life and death to our daily experiences. We ask for wisdom and understanding as this sacred text is read and proclaimed. Speak to us, we pray, the message of life and hope and faith. Instruct us in the way you would have us go.
Amen.

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Congregation: Amen.

Pastor: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Congregation: But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Silence for reflection on God~ Word and for self-examination.

Pastor: Let us then confess our sins to God our Father.

Congregation: Most merciful God, we confess that we are hy nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have merey on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name.
Amen.

Pastor: Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Congregation: Amen.

 

The Nicene Creed

I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light: true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made: Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man; And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried; And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; And ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life; Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the prophets.

In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, And the life of the age to come.
Amen.

 

 

 

 

The Second Lesson is from:

Ephesians 1:15-23

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
( KJVA)

 

 

 

 

The Sermon text is from

Gospel of Saint Luke in the 24th chapter and verses 44-53

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
(KJVA)

       

The title of today's sermon is:

That Should Work

And concerns the theme of:

There are plenty of items in our everyday world that look like they should work, but actually don't. Jesus gives his disciples instructions that shouldn't have worked, but actually did.

We assume that because there's a button to push, that pushing it makes a difference. We assume that what the advertiser tells us is true, is true. Not always the case. Are we sometimes too willing to follow conventional wisdom? Jesus has some counter-intuitive advice for his followers as they prepare to carry on his work, and it's advice we often are not willing to accept. His advice is: WAIT!

So, imagine the typical scene: You're late for work at your office on the 10th floor of that generic building and you jump into an open elevator, only to find that the doors aren't closing fast enough for you so that you can get on with your business. So, you jab at the "close door" button four or five times and, after a slight delay, the doors ease closed, leaving you satisfied that you have exerted masterful control over the recalcitrant machine.

You get to the meeting, and you realize that someone has forgotten that the month of May can still be chilly in these parts and has left the air conditioning on. You get up from your chair and adjust the thermostat, believing that you have saved the poor administrative assistants from chattering teeth.

At lunchtime, you decide to take a walk around the park across the street so you put on your special rocker-ized shoes that are supposed to tone your calves and quads and glutes while you walk. You think of it as double-dipping in the fitness department. On your way back, however, you get stuck at a crosswalk where the light is against you. No problem, you think to yourself. There's a push button there on a post that you can push in order to make the light change and allow you to cross. You jab at it a few times, just to be sure that it registered, and even though it takes a minute or so, the "Walk" sign changes and you go merrily on your way, once again believing that you have mastered the traffic pattern of the city with the push of a button.

When the day ends, you get back in the elevator, close the doors again with your magic finger, go to the parking garage, get in your car and head home, where you can't wait to watch, ironically, The Office on your high-definition (HD) TV. You settle into your easy chair, flip on the remote and marvel at just how crystal clear Scranton, Penn., looks on the screen. Later, you go to bed secure in the knowledge that you have successfully negotiated another day because all the things that should have worked for you actually did.

Or at least you think they did.

See, all those things you thought you were doing, causing, controlling, you really weren't.

You've heard of the "placebo effect" in medicine, where doctors in a study give a control group of patients useless sugar pills but tell them they are painkillers, and the patients' brains convince them that they're the real deal and they begin to feel better. Well, the truth is that the placebo effect isn't just for medicine anymore. Indeed, every day we're encountering things that convince our brains that they should work, but actually don't.

That "close door" button in the elevator, for example, isn't actually there for you to push. It only works when a key is inserted in the elevator panel by a firefighter or maintenance worker. Push it all you want, but the door will close when it's programmed to do so every time. Ever since the Americans with Disabilities Act, the doors wait a little longer to close no matter what. Manufacturers could put a sign on the button saying something to that effect, but that's a hassle. It's easier to let the public believe they are the masters of elevator control.

That thermostat on your office wall is very likely a dummy that actually controls nothing. Think about it: What would the cost of heating and cooling be if every individual in the building had access to the real thermostat! That dummy thermostat is there to give workers the illusion of control; the thinking being that if you believe you've set the thermostat higher, you'll actually feel warmer even though the real temperature remains the same.

Your tushy-toning shoes? A USA Today article quoted a doctor calling the shoe manufacturers' claims "utter nonsense," and the Federal Trade Commission ordered Reebok to pay out $25 million in refunds to consumers for false advertising. Even so, there are still plenty of people who claim that the shoes work, or at least they think they do.

The "walk" button on the street corner might actually work, but not everywhere. In New York City, for example, all the buttons have been deactivated because they've been replaced by automatic timers. That doesn't stop people from continuing to jab them incessantly in hopes of beating the traffic.

And the technology that makes your TV HD may be real, but people who buy an HDTV and don't realize you need special hookups for it don't seem to know the difference. Just telling people they have HD is enough for them to believe the picture is sharper.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of things that look like they should work, but really don't. Their purpose is to get us believing that we're in control while, actually, something or someone else is -- someone who has a bigger picture in mind than our own personal need to get something done. While it's sometimes done under dubious circumstances, often we need to be managed this way for our own ultimate good and the good of others.

As the final verses of Luke's gospel, this pericope reiterates many of the themes present in the gospel itself as well as points forward to Luke's subsequent work, the book of Acts. The pericope exists in the middle of a narrative of Jesus' appearance to the disciples who, while discussing the astonishing events that have occurred following Jesus' death, see Jesus himself in their midst proclaiming peace to them. Yet, Jesus not only proclaims peace, allows them to see his hands and feet, and eats with them, but also reminds them of his former words. He reminds the disciples that the events that have taken place have occurred according to everything written in the law of Moses, and the prophets and the psalms. The author of Luke uses similar language to describe Jesus' interaction with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: "Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures." Jesus' instruction to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus is repeated to the larger group of disciples, suggesting the importance of understanding the continuity between Israel's Scripture and the new event God has enacted in Jesus' death and resurrection.

Moreover, the theme of prophecy and fulfillment highlighted in these verses appears in several places in the very beginning of the gospel. For example, in Mary's song of praise, she recalls the promises God made to the ancestors, to Abraham and to all of his descendants and announces God's faithfulness to this promise. Moreover, Zechariah in his prophecy proclaims that God has shown the mercy he promised long ago and has remembered his covenant. The Savior he promised through the holy prophets has been raised up. One of the pivotal moments of the prophecy and fulfillment theme in the gospel occurs in 4:18-21 when Jesus takes the scroll of Isaiah, reads it aloud in the synagogue and announces, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Thus, Jesus' declaration to the disciples continues the motif of God at work fulfilling OT prophecies and expectations. Consequently, Jesus' words not only cause the disciples to remember what he has revealed while he was with them but also what the prophets have testified concerning him long ago.

Furthermore, Luke has documented several places in the gospel in which the disciples did not understand Jesus' words. Jesus announces to the disciples that he will be betrayed, yet they fail to understand the meaning of his prediction and are afraid to ask for an explanation. Interestingly, Luke writes that the meaning "was hidden" from them. The verb parakluptw is a perfect passive participle and its passive voice may indicate a divine passive in which God conceals the meaning of Jesus' words from the disciples. Also, Jesus again predicts his death and resurrection and once again the disciples do not understand. Once more, Luke uses the passive voice -- another perfect passive participle -- to describe the disciples' inability to grasp Jesus' sayings. Although he uses a different verb, kruptw, the connotation is the same: what Jesus meant was hidden from them suggesting another divine passive. Additionally significant is the occurrence of the verb sunihmi "understand" because the same verb reappears: "Then he opened their mind to understand "sunihmi" the scriptures" (my translation). While the disciples do not understand in chapter 18, Jesus now opens their mind so that they can now understand. Most notably, this act of opening their mind occurs only after Jesus' death and resurrection, suggesting that only after the Christ event can their minds be opened. The reality of Jesus' death and resurrection is the event and the lens through which Israel's Scriptures can be understood. The Christ event continues God's faithfulness to Israel and at the same time enacts a new understanding of what that faithfulness entails. Moreover, if the passives in the previous passages are in fact divine passives, then God's act of concealment gives way to revelation after Jesus' death and resurrection, indicating that only after the Christ event can the disciples fully grasp God's word. The disciples' understanding is foreshadowed in the previous Emmaus episode.

What is more, while the NRSV translates the word nouV as minds, in the Greek it is actually singular: "He opened their mind to understand the scriptures" (my translation). This occurrence of the singular noun here along with the plural pronoun corresponds and anticipates Luke's theme of unity in the book of Acts in which the disciples are constantly depicted as being with one mind and unified. The beginning of this unity takes place here as Jesus expounds the word of God to them.

That Jesus' suffering brings salvation to the entire world and that this is to be proclaimed to all nations coheres with the rest of the gospel in which Jesus is declared "a light for revelation to the Gentiles", a centurion has more faith than Israel, and a Samaritan stands out as the hero in a parable related. Moreover, this language overturns the disciples' understanding that Jesus' advent was only about redeeming Israel as well as presages Acts' emphasis on all nations receiving the gospel. Important to note, however, is that the gospel proclamation begins in Jerusalem, indicating that while the gospel goes out to all nations, it remains tied to Jerusalem, God's holy city and holy people; the nations do not replace Israel.

The writer of this gospel begins and ends with the temple and with the theme of rejoicing. As the story commences, the readers encounter Zechariah offering incense in the temple, and they hear along with him the amazing pronouncement of his son John's birth. In addition, in the opening chapter, Mary's song of praise echoes aloud with joy in the God who "has done great things." Similarly, Luke relates that the disciples "returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God" (NRSV). Luke, therefore, shows continuity with Israel's Scriptures in that while God has inaugurated a new age through Christ, the disciples continue to go to the temple and they return to Jerusalem. Moreover, Luke provides his readers with the assurance that the God who met Zechariah in the temple and caused Mary's rapturous melody is the same God who raised Jesus from the dead and now calls all nations to repent. This God of Israel, who conceals, reveals, promises and fulfills, has now become the God of all nations. This new reality evokes "great joy" for indeed God "has done great things!"

The disciples are ready to push buttons

At the end of Luke's gospel, the risen Jesus seems to recognize that his disciples might be feeling that they're now ready to start pushing buttons and take over his mission. All through the gospels we see the disciples believing that they have it all figured out, jostling with each other for position, vying for who would be the greatest, and thinking that being associated with Jesus would get them recognized by others. They had lived with Jesus for three years, saw the miracles, heard the teachings, and a few even saw him transfigured before them. They had watched him die on a cross, and yet now there he was standing before them. They'd been to the ultimate school of discipleship and now had their practical undergraduate degrees in mission. They're ready to launch. Everything is lined up for a mission that should work.

And yet, Jesus knows their senses of control, the way they know how to walk, their spiritual thermostats, and their analog worldviews just aren't ready yet. He reviews with them how his death and resurrection is the climax of the whole biblical story and opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. He tells them that, yes, they will be heading out on a mission to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to "all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." They now know how it all works, and yet there's still one thing missing.

"You are witnesses of these things," says Jesus. "And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Heading straight to the mission field should work, but it won't -- not unless you wait for "power from on high."

No shortcuts

Interestingly, many of the dummy devices out there on the street are designed to satisfy our sense of always being in a hurry by giving us the illusion of control. Jesus, on the other hand, tells his disciples right upfront that being in a hurry will get them nowhere. The only power you have, the only control you will ever exert, comes from being empowered and controlled by the Holy Spirit. That's the only way the mission is going to work. The disciples had the undergrad diploma, but they need the master's degree.

A lot of Christians move through life believing that there are shortcuts to faith and success in mission. Churches are always trying to push the right buttons by mashing away repeatedly at things like marketing campaigns and mission strategies, and four principles for this and five steps to that. But everything we try will be inert and useless unless it's invested with the power of the Spirit. Mission isn't about being in a hurry or about being efficient and in control; it's about waiting in prayer and fasting, solitude and silence, worship and studying the Scriptures.

That's the only way discipleship works. It's about God's plan, God's timing, God's method and God's mission. Everything else is a programmatic placebo.

Take stock

It's simple. Kids getting married, for example, are well-advised to stop, look and listen. Google "100 questions to ask before getting married" and you'll get tons of suggestions as to things couples should ask themselves before taking this huge, life-changing, paradigmatic relational shift. Why should not the church or Christians be advised to act the same way? Here are some sample questions to ask:

- What is the need?
- What is the harm in waiting, or delaying this project?
- What is the desired outcome?
- What is the motivation?
- How will this proposed action benefit others?
- How will this proposed action advance our mission?
- Is this proposal in harmony with our core values?
- Is this action sustainable?
- What is the cost in terms of time and financial resources?
- What are the chances this proposal will be greeted with wide-ranging support?
- Can you move forward with integrity?

Sometimes, our joy comes not in pushing buttons, moving forward recklessly confident that God will baptize our wonderful plans, but in waiting. Luke goes on to tell us that after Jesus ascended, the disciples "returned to Jerusalem with great joy" -- joy in waiting . They were "continually in the temple blessing God," which isn't a passive kind of waiting, but the active waiting of worship. Luke continues the story in the book of Acts, where we find the disciples still waiting when the Spirit descends and powers them up for the work of mission.

Truth is that we can mash all the buttons we want, but ultimately it's the Spirit who lifts us up, gives the "walk" sign, strengthens our steps, warms us with grace and sharpens our vision.

 

 

 

 

Psalter:

Psalm 47

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

(KJVA)

Let us pray as our Lord taught us;

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Benediction

As Jesus was lifted up and disappeared in a cloud, the disciples were asked a question: "Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go." In the meantime, friends, while we wait for his return, there is work to be done. Go. Go to share the love of Christ, to bind the wounds of the brokenhearted, to be peacemakers, to tell what you yourselves have seen and heard -- that Jesus Christ offers forgiveness and salvation to all.
Amen.

   

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