I preached yesterday .... (in a church though, not just online :-)

Saturday night my husband got pretty sick with a stomach bug and by 8:30 Sunday morning had decided he couldn’t be away from the bathroom long enough to lead worship and preach.

And there’s only one person in the world willing to do those two things with 2 hours notice.  So I quickly prepared a sermon on the text that her had chosen for the day.  (Well actually what the Revised Common Lectionary had chosen for the Ascension, but I digress.

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.”  When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.  They said, “Men of Galilee, 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 into heaven.”

I talked about how this season of COVID has had all of us standing still.   We have been, in essence, looking up waiting for guidance — not always from God, sometimes from the CDC and sometimes from the governor.  But we had to do a lot of standing and a lot of waiting.

I mentioned the feeling we have as parents when we look at a group of small children or a group of teenagers (who have much in common) and say “It’s time to go” and they all just look up at us and stare and don’t even start to move.

The passage above clearly states that the disciples were going to receive power and then be God’s witnesses of who He was and what He did.   And then he was lifted up and disappeared.  

And the disciples kept looking up at the sky until two men in white robes asked them why.   Why are you still looking up?

And of course, I ended it with a story about CarePortal and said, it’s time to stop looking up and start going out to be witnesses to our community — our Jerusalem — by not only what we say, by what we do.   

My final words “Let’s stop looking up…. let’s continue to come to church to learn how to go outside of our walls to BE the church.  

So I say the same thing to you.   Stop looking up — the Holy Spirit has given you power to be HIS witnesses where you are.  Now.  Today.