Ascension Day 2010 - Waiting on the Lord

Written by the Rt. Rev. Mark W. Leavell, Th.D., and

Preached at All Saints Chapel, Dinwiddie, Virginia

16 May 2010

In the Name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is the last Sunday of Easter for this year. It is also observed as Ascension Sunday, the day we celebrate the return of Jesus back into heaven after his Resurrection.

The message of Easter is that Jesus is alive. He is risen! The grave could not hold him. Death had no power over him. He rose again from the dead, and gave us the promise of everlasting life.

If the message of Easter is that Jesus is alive, then the message of the Ascension is that Jesus will return. Earth could not hold him. Gravity could not keep him from returning to his Father. And now, he sits enthroned in glory and majesty at the right hand of his Father. He is being worshipped as the King of kings and Lord of lords. This same King and Lord, will return from heaven some day, not as a baby in a manger; not as a humble, suffering servant; but rather, as the king and judge of all mankind.

When Jesus does return…

- He will not come back in poverty, but in power.

- Not in meekness, but in majesty.

- And not to suffer, but to separate…

o Separate the sheep from the goats; s

o Separate the believers from the non-believers,

o separate the true contenders for the faith from the pretenders of faith…

o and he will judge the living and the dead from all human history – some to eternal life and others to eternal separation from God.

When Jesus does return, whether it is today, or a thousand years from now, we who believe will also experience the power of his resurrection, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead; for the dead will hear that last great trumpet, and they shall be raised to life immortal. Our bodies – and the bodies of all our loved ones who trusted him for salvation – will burst out of those graves, out of those cremation urns, out of the seas, and out of anyplace folks’ mortal remain may rest… and we will be changed into the same kind of glorious body like Jesus has; and we will live and reign with Jesus Christ for ever and ever! This is the Blessed Hope of all who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

So the logical question is “When will Jesus return?” Well… No one knows… except the Father. In the first lesson from Acts this morning, the Disciples asked Jesus when the end would come, when the Kingdom of God would arrive. Jesus told them it was not for them to know, but that the Father was in control of when that would happen.

No one knows when Jesus will return. The early disciples and early Christians lived each day as if Jesus would return on that day. They expected it. They woke every morning with the expectation that Jesus might come back today…and it affected everything they did. The Ascension of Christ and the promise of his return made a huge impact on the disciples and the early believers.

After all, they hadn’t really expected his resurrection, as we have seen during these past few weeks. They doubted, and some didn’t believe until right up to the end. But when Jesus had finally convinced them that he really was alive… those same disciples were changed. Once they believed that Jesus really was alive, it was easier to believe that he would come back. So they lived every day expecting just that – the return of Jesus. It motivated them to do what Jesus had commanded them to do. Do we have that same expectation? Are we as motivated in our hope and assurance?

Do we live each day with the hope and expectation that today – maybe today – Jesus might come back? If we did, it would change our entire perception of every day life and would immediately realign our priorities for living life every day.

As Jesus was about to return to Heaven, he had given his disciples that great Commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He was handing over to these simple men, the continuation and actual completion of the work that he himself came to do. But Jesus also knew they would need some divine help if they were to actually do this work. So as Jesus was leaving, he told his disciples to go back to Jerusalem and WAIT; wait for the power they would receive through the Holy Spirit. So for the next 10 days, after Jesus went back to heaven, the disciples waited and prayed. Then on Pentecost – which is next Sunday – the Holy Spirit came with great power and great wonder, and filled those Disciples with heavenly power. With the power of this Holy Spirit – the SAME Holy Spirit that fills us today, those simple, uneducated men went out into the world and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and Christianity spread like wildfire, even in a world where it was illegal to be a Christian.

We could learn something from that. In our world today, we hear Christians whining and crying about the Government restricting this or that; we see Christians pouting and protesting because there is no government endorsed National Day of Prayer, or no prayer in schools, or no ten commandments in the courts. We have become so complacent and so dependent upon the Government that we even rely on the Government to protect and promote and proclaim our faith. But my friends, the early church did not enjoy government sanction and protection; Rome did not promote a National day of prayer in the Empire; and the early Christians certainly did not enjoy any special status except to be marked as traitors, seditionists, rebels, and enemies of the empire. Because they believed and worked – even at the cost of their lives, they built the Church and thousands were saved; but because today we whine and whimper – because it may cost us two hours on a Sunday morning, the Church is dying and thousands are lost.

So I say we need to follow the example of the disciples, follow the example of the multitude of saints and martyrs, who instead of looking to the emperor for protection, looked to the King of glory; who instead of depending on the authorities in Rome to protect their faith, they depended the authority in the Scriptures; and who instead of seeking special days and proclamations from the king, went out seeking souls to save, and proclaimed the message of the King. Imagine a world were Christians today stopped pouting and started praying… stopped whining and started working… stopped pretending and started contending… and stopped depending on the power of the Government to save their faith and Churches, and started depending on the power of the Gospel to proclaim their faith and FILL their churches.

The early Church knew this, lived this – even when faced with certain death for knowing and living it – and they changed the world because they had received the power of the Holy Spirit and cherished the promise of Christ’s return… a promise that made as he was taken up into heaven.

But Jesus also gave the disciples some specific instructions before he was taken up. He told them first, to go back to Jerusalem and second, to wait… wait for the power that would come to them and enable them to do all these things in a world filled with hostility and obstacles. Go back and wait.

Sounds kind of strange at first, to be told to do something, but first, before you being, go back and wait. But waiting is an important ingredient in how God works in our lives and in the world.

We don’t like to wait. Waiting can be tough. Waiting can be exhausting. Waiting can be aggravating. Waiting can be maddening. Anyone who has ever served in the military will be familiar with the expression, “Hurry Up and Wait!” Hurry up and wait is the soldier’s standard response to almost everything that happens in the Army. From mail call to chow call… from preparing for a parachute jump to just reporting in for guard duty, it seems, as I recall, that we would rush to get ready, be pushed to be on time, be yelled at to get the lead out, only to end up in some line somewhere, and having to wait. Sometimes that wait would be long… and sometimes that wait would even be longer! In the 11 years I spent in the Army, I don’t remember a single occurrence where we rushed to get ready for some activity, and that activity or mission start immediately. There was always a period of waiting.

The same is true in regular, every day life. We do a lot of rushing around, only to find ourselves waiting. We rush to the supermarket before it closes, only to stand in line. We rush out of the house in the mornings to go to work, only to sit and wait in traffic. We rush to the emergency room, only to sit there for hours on end, waiting to see a doctor. We rush to a certain retail super-mega-store, because prices are “falling again”, and then we end up having to wait in line at the registers…. 22 registers to be exact, which are staffed by only 3 of the slowest people on planet earth. By the time we get to actually check-out, it seems we’ve waited so long that the expiration date on our milk has already come and gone.

At every stage of life, we are faced with the sometimes annoying prospect of having to wait. And sometimes, it’s really hard to wait. We’ve all heard and said, “I can’t wait for…” whatever it is we are waiting for.

Children can’t wait until Christmas, or for school to end. Teenagers can’t wait until they get their driver’s license or their first car or for graduation. Young adults can’t wait until they finish college or get married. Couples often can’t wait until their children are born, and then can’t wait until they grow up and move out. Older folks can’t wait for retirement, or the day they can finally draw Social Security. And then, in the end, many folks can’t wait until they get to heaven and are reunited with all their loved ones who have gone on before.

All through life, we are faced with the prospect of waiting. And often times, we get impatient when we have to wait. That impatience can lead us to make snap and hasty decisions, in an effort to rush things along a bit. It can lead to frustration, and stress and high anxiety and even mistakes. But waiting is an inherent part of being alive; and how we wait, and what we do while we wait, is often just as important as realizing the thing we are waiting for.

Jesus told the disciples to wait. He didn’t want them to go off half-cocked, but to wait for the power they would need to do the work he wanted them to do. That’s an important lesson for us to remember and to practice in our lives. We have to be careful in our hurried, rushed, impatient lives, not to go off half-cocked, and attempt to do what God wants us to do, in our own strength and power.

Too often, we try to rush God along… we pray once or twice about something, and then expect an instant answer… like instant messaging or email. We ask God to show us his will, and fill us with is wisdom and grace, and then we get impatient because we have to wait.

But there’s a reason that God often makes us wait for the answers… and most often it’s because we are not really ready to receive that answer or to experience what God has in store for us, or to do what he wants us to do. And sometimes, we are made to wait, because what we’ve prayed for is not what’s best for us – and God knows that. Our heavenly Father knows what’s best for us, and he knows what we’re ready to do and to receive…. And he knows when it’s best to receive it. So he makes us wait… and when the answer does come, we’re ready for it.

This is true even in our little Church. For almost 5 years, we waited and prayed for a building… a permanent home. Several times, we came close – there was that Jehovah Witness Hall for sale that we tried to get… but it fell through. Then there was the Ace Hardware store that we waited for and waited for and waited for… it it fell through. We would get all excited, make all kinds of plans for raising money, talk about ways to pay for it, and were convinced that WE could do it. We even prayed and asked God to show us his will. And you know what… God answered those prayers… he made us wait.

And looking back, it was exactly what we needed, because at the time, we really weren’t ready – and God had other, more wonderful things in store for us – if we would just wait…

God gave us the answer he wanted us to have… wait! And look what that prayerful, patient waiting did for us… here we are in this magnificent, historic old Church, where the Gospel has been proclaimed for almost 170 years – and God has brought us here to this place at this time so that we may continue that proclamation.

I know that waiting for the Lord can be tough. It’s like waiting at the DMV… frustrating. And the scriptures are full of folks who tried waiting on the Lord and ended up taking matters into their own hands… and made a mess of things. But waiting on the Lord is important if we are to know the full power, and receive the full benefit of his grace for our lives. The Scriptures teach us this…

In Isaiah 40, we read these words…

²⁸Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The LORD is the eternal God, Creator of the earth. He never gets weary or tired; his wisdom cannot be measured. ²⁹The LORD gives strength to those who are weary. ³⁰Even young people get tired, then stumble and fall. ³¹But those who wait [trust] on the LORD will find new strength. They will be strong like eagles soaring upward on wings; they will walk and run without getting tired.

That phrase “Wait on the Lord” in this passage could also be translated “Trust” or “Hope in the Lord.” If we truly trust the Lord, if we have placed our hopes in him, then we should be more willing to wait on him, and to wait… and to believe that ultimately we will know his wisdom and will.

The Disciples were told to wait… and if they did, they would receive the power necessary to be the witnesses that Christ wanted them to be…. And have the strength to accomplish all that Christ had commanded them to do. Christ wants us to wait too… to wait on him. To Trust him.

For all of us here at All Saints, even though we find ourselves blessed by this new location and wonderful facility, we still must wait on the Lord for a lot of things; and we will indeed realize them – when we’re ready and when God is ready for us to have them.

But as we wait, we need to stay busy, doing what we know already to do. During this summer, we have a wonderful opportunity to step back and reflect a bit, to prayerfully and carefully define and sharpen who and what we are and what we want to be as a Church, and what we want to do in the future, especially when Fall comes.

We are entering a time of waiting… but while we wait, we will stay busy planning and praying and waiting for God to lead us and empower us in our efforts to reach this new neighborhood with the message of God’s love, joy, and peace. This, I believe will empower us and reinvigorate this ministry, and bring a breath of revival to this area. Folks around here will sit up and take notice – because we waited patiently on the Lord.

So this summer, as we scale back a little bit in a few of our programs, and look to reinvent things… we will have a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our families, to pray, to meet, and to discuss our programs and direction; and to grow – spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.

This summer will be a time of waiting, a time of refreshing, a time of renewal… because when fall comes, we’ll be busy again. So use this time wisely, and wait on the Lord with me. It really is a luxury, that many Churches never seem to grab onto – the opportunity to pause and pray and wait on the Lord to show us what he wants us next to do.

And while we wait… we don’t want to worry, don’t want to get anxious, don’t want to get impatient, and don’t want to go off half-cocked. We’ll just keep your eyes on Jesus, and when we’re ready, just like those Disciples, we will receive the power and wisdom and grace we need – both in our personal lives as well as in our life together as a Church – to do all that Jesus wants us to do. Amen.