May 20, 2012
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Our youngest grandchild, Canon who is 17 months old loves to push buttons. Many of his toys have buttons to push. After putting on the lock-key, I would give Canon my Blackberry and he would be pushing away on the QWERTY keys—sometimes he would even unlock the lock-key! Pretty soon, Canon will learn that pushing buttons makes things work. Or do they?
Imagine that you are late for church and you get into the elevator to drop off your child in the Nursery only to find that the doors aren’t closing fast enough for you. 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 elevator.
After worship and Sunday school, you go out for lunch and notice that there’s a push button there on the 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 San Francisco with the push of a button.
Or at least you think you did them. 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. Every day we’re encountering things that convince our brains that they should work, but actually don’t.
That “closed door” button in the elevator, for example, isn’t actually there for you to push. It only works when a firefighter or maintenance worker inserts a key in the elevator panel. 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.
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. Imagine how worst traffic can be in the Big Apple if people were allowed to direct the “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” signals! That doesn’t stop people from continuing to jab them incessantly in hopes of beating the traffic.
Three weeks ago when our water heater leaked and water streamed down the inside of our walls and pooled in our nursery, I pushed a lot of buttons on my Blackberry. I got hold of the insurance company, talked with the Service Master Cleaners, scheduled the adjuster, called the floor company and felt that I was getting things done. But as we can see, the walls and floors are still being dried, the nursery is not yet cleaned up or a new floor installed.
The bottom line is that there are a lot of things that we do in our daily lives that give us the belief that we can control and get things done. The buttons in the elevator or at the street post or on my Blackberry 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. In our human need to get things done, we overlook the need to wait on the Lord.
Prior to the passage we read today, while the risen Jesus was staying with the disciples, Jesus ordered them to not leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father (1:4). Before Jesus ascended to his Father, the disciples asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority” (1:7). Jesus is telling the disciples to wait and stop thinking that they can push buttons to control what is to come.
When the disciples returned to Jerusalem, they had this urgency to replace Judas who probably is the least missed and most unnecessary to replace. The disciples had this deep belief that there were twelve of them because there were twelve tribes of Ancient Israel. The term, “The Twelve,” is referred to in witness testimony after Jesus’ resurrection—“He was seen by Peter, the Twelve, and over five hundred others” (1 Corinthians 15:5). The Twelve is referred to in the between time, after Judas’ death and before Matthias’ election. The number twelve had a life of its own by the time the book of Acts was written down.
For the disciples, the number twelve represented for them an authentic gathering of the leaders of God’s people. Rather than waiting for the Lord to discern their next move, they went ahead to cast lots to choose Matthias as Judas’ successor. It’s the placebo effect of once completing the Twelve, they are now once again complete.
Or at least they thought they are. We know that in the very next chapter, Acts 2, we see the coming of the Holy Spirit who will completely transform them and take control of their tongues and give them special abilities that they never knew they had. They will no longer be just the special Twelve but there will be thousands of new believers from all parts of the world. And as we know, there will be Saul of Tarsus whom Jesus himself will choose and convert to expand the mission of Good News to go beyond ancient Israel to the ends of the earth.
Pushing Buttons
In Luke’s account of Jesus’ ascension, Jesus said, “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” (24:49).
We get the impression that the disciples want to start pushing buttons and take over Jesus’ mission. All through the gospels and in Acts, 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 the cross, and yet now there he was standing before them. They have even gone so far as to complete the Twelve by electing Matthias in casting lots. They are ready to launch. Everything is lined up for a mission that should work.
But Jesus tells them to stay in the city until they have been clothed with power from on high. In Luke 24: 44, Jesus reviews with them how his death and resurrection is the climax of the whole biblical story and opens their minds to understand scripture. He tells them that they will be heading out for mission to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem, but there is still something missing. It’s not time to begin pushing buttons because these buttons are merely placebos unless they wait for the power on high to come.
Can’t Hurry
Many of the dummy devices in our elevators and on the street poles 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 undergraduate diploma, but they still need the master’s degree.
A lot of Christians move through life believing that there are shortcuts to faith and success in mission. Some churches are always trying to push the right buttons by launching marketing campaigns and mission strategies, and four principles for this and five steps to that. But everything we try will be useless unless it’s invested with the power of the Spirit.
Faithful ministry 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 Scriptures. One of my favorite gospel singers, Eli Wilson said, “The Holy Spirit is like the wind cutting stone.” When Visal Sok candidates to be our new Associate Pastor in 3 weeks, it would have been 2 ½ years to find a pastor for the 9:00 congregation. We can push all the fast track buttons all we want but it’s waiting on the Lord to show us his will is when we are also blessed with the power of the Spirit.
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.
What might you be waiting on the Lord before making a hurried decision? Do you need to wait in prayer, fasting, silence, solitude, worship and studying before making a decision that is premature and is mainly rooted in your wanting to control your life?
For me, I feel that I have waited on the Lord for most of my life—but not all my life. Remember when I was here with you in the 1970s? I was with you for a mere 3 years. I think James is still angry at me for that. When I was in my late 20s, I was impatient and thought that I was capable of pushing the right buttons to put my career on the right course. So I left you thinking that I was in control. And it was only God’s grace that kept me from total failure. God sharpened my gifts and nurtured me by building on what I learned from you over those short 3 years and I survived and remained faithful.
After leaving you in 1978, I moved to Valley Forge and remained there for over 20 years. God kept telling me that he still had work for me to do there. God taught me about patience and knowing God’s plan and timing for my life. We know that in 1998, God was the one who stirred my heart and when I heard that FCBC was seeking a senior pastor, I felt immediately that I have waited on the Lord and he was now calling me to come to San Francisco.
I have matured and have come to understand what it means to wait on the Lord for God to direct my life and not necessarily that it’s up to me. Now that I have been with you for the past 14 years, I am waiting on the Lord and am happy to believe that God still wants me to be here. I hope that you also feel the same.
Remember the last time the power went out? How many of us just sit there and wait for it to come back on? Not many of us if any. We instead start working. We get out the candles and if we have one, we start up the generator to get the power back on. If it is the wintertime, we start building a fire in the fireplace. How often have we just finished doing all of these things than suddenly the lights come back on? How often have we said to ourselves maybe it would have been better if we waited a couple of minutes? But waiting and doing nothing is hard. We can understand the disciples need to start doing something instead of just waiting as Jesus asked.
Waiting on the Lord
Is there a decision in your life that you may need to wait on the Lord before making? From a website called, Intentional Living, here are twelve things to consider when you wait to make a decision:
1. The Mission question: Does this decision support my life mission?
2. The Vision question: Will this decision move me toward a life goal or toward solving a problem?
3. The Integrity question: Will this decision affect any commitment or vow I have made?
4. God’s Revealed Word question: Does the Bible speak to this decision or a potential consequence?
5. The Common Sense question: Do the results of this decision make sense?
6. The Others First question: How will others be affected by this decision?
7. The Legal question: Is it legal?
8. The Cost question: What will this decision cost me?
9. The Motive question: What do I get out of this decision?
10. The Timing question: Is this the best time to make this decision?
11. The Knowledge question: Do I have enough information to make this decision?
12. The Commitment question: Do I plan to commit to my decision?
When I am doing jobs around the house, I always remember the adage: “Measure twice and cut once” is good advice when facing a crucial decision.
Sometimes, our joy comes not in pushing buttons, moving forward recklessly confident that God will baptize our wonderful plans, but in waiting. In Luke, the writer tells us that after Jesus ascended, the disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy”—joy in waiting (24:52). They were “continually in the temple blessing God,” which isn’t a passive kind of waiting, but the active waiting in worship (24:53).
In Acts, Luke continues the story where the disciples were still waiting when the Spirit descends and powers them up for the work of mission (Acts 2).
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.
The United Methodist Bishop William Willimon said, “Show me a person who is not waiting (for something more to come), not yearning, not leaning forward, standing on tiptoe for something better, and I will show you a person who has given up hope for anything better, someone who has settled down too comfortably in present arrangements. And that’s sad. The future belongs to those who wait, for those who know we are meant for something better.”
And maybe I can still teach our grandson Canon that while pushing buttons might be fun for the moment but in the long view, he too will learn to trust his life in Jesus and to wait on him.
Let us wait on the Lord and discover the joy of God in our lives.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, as we gather in the light of your surprising resurrection, help us to resist the temptation that we are in control but that you are. Give us the patience to wait on the Holy Spirit that brings us together as the beloved community and gifts us with the abilities to speak your good news to others so that they might hear you speaking through us. Empower us to live lives whereby others will see you in us so that all might be brought to a saving knowledge of you. Amen.