May 12, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
If you have ever been in a car with little kids in the back seats, you have heard it. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re driving to the local supermarket or on a long trip to Disneyland, you would eventually hear it. Adults would say it too. Remember the time four old guys went to Yosemite without a compass? Well, only three old guys in one car went to Fairfield yesterday for the Men’s Fellowship—no compass! We have a natural need to want to get to our destination as soon as possible—instantly. We all have said, “Are we there, yet?”
While Dad who might be behind the wheel would say, “We’ll get there when we get there,” Mom would kindly turn around and reassure the kids that we are almost there. “Let’s sing that song you learned the other day!”
“Is This the Time?”
The disciples have been on a spiritual roller coaster ride from hope to devastation, from joy to terror, from doubt to disillusionment. First there had been their great expectations of Jesus. Then came Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s denial, and watching his tortured death at a distance. Next the disciples heard baffling reports of Christ’s being alive, which they dismissed as an “idle tale” until Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
After so many ups and downs, turns and dips, the natural human desire is for certainty, for assurance that the future will not be like the past, and the coming days will be stable and predictable. The disciples wanted assurance that after all of these horrifying crises that the future will be better. Like kids in a car, the disciples wanted Jesus to reassure them that wherever they were going, “They were almost there!”
So when Christ and the disciples had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?” It’s almost like they were saying, “Okay Jesus, we’ve gone on this ride with you for all this time, we’ve sang the songs, gone on these side trips, and even gotten into some fender-benders, but now is this the time that you will finally show us where our destination is—to restore the kingdom of Israel?” Nothing would have been more satisfying to the disciples than a clear and simple, “Yes.”
Instead, all Christ tells them is this: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 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.”
Then Christ disappears in a cloud! Gone. Vanished. No wonder the disciples stood there “gazing up toward heaven.” If we could listen to their hearts, we might hear them shouting: “Come back, come back! Don’t leave us here alone until we get to where we are going!”
Jesus is gone. The Holy Spirit has yet to come. The church is left between a memory and a promise. The disciples have lost the intense presence of Christ that had been theirs, and they have not yet received the new power that is to come upon them. They are in-between. They are left with only three things: a memory, a promise, and each other. Nothing more.
In-Between
On this Mother’s Day, I thought about the times in our human lives that are “in-between.” When children are at the eligible age and independent enough to go to school for the first time, they are often just as eager to return to the familiarity and security of the home. As mothers you stand at the bus stop with some apprehension seeing them go and anxiously waiting for them to come home. Both the kids and mothers are in-between.
Many of us can remember those awkward moments in adolescence when we knew that we were no longer children, but we were not yet adults. And as parents, we are walking on edge unsure whether we have spoken too little or too much for their own good as well as for ours.
One of the more recent in-between times in my life was when the years of giving counsel to our children were slowly coming to a close. When they went away for college, they sought the advice of their new friends. Now our children are seeking the counsel and companionship of their life-long partners. As parents, we know that our most important duty is to work ourselves out of a job! Although I would be honored now and then with the request to offer a second opinion on occasion!
For many of us here today, we find that we are the “sandwich generation.” We are caring for the needs of both our parents and our children. We are in-between the needs of younger loved ones and older loved ones.
We ask ourselves, “Are we there, yet?”
As we live between the memory and the promise, we find ourselves anxious to move to new visions, and yet eager to hold onto what has been familiar and important to us in the past. Living in the in-between can be frustrating and perplexing; it also has the potential to break us open as we seek creative and meaningful opportunities for our lives. Just as we are impatiently waiting to arrive at our destination, we also find ourselves longing for renewed and restored sense of hope of God’s plan for our lives.
The Ascension
Today’s Scripture in Acts as well as that in the Gospels report that Jesus ascended into heaven. After Easter, after the risen Christ had appeared to his disciples and comforted them, he rose, not from the dead, but from the earth, into heaven.
The same Jesus of Nazareth—carpenter’s son, teacher, crucified and suffering one—the same Jesus has now gone up to sit down at the right hand of the Creator. This Jesus now rules with God, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Mt. 28:18)
So now the disciples are left feeling in-between. They only have a memory of him and the promise of the Spirit. They stood gazing up in the sky—wondering what to do next.
This time between remembrance and promise is one of the most important times in the history of the church. It is time for coming to terms with the truth of our human situation: we are not in control. We cannot stop Christ’s ascension. We do not command the Spirit. We cannot tell the Wind to blow and the Fire to burn. We cannot order God to give us timetables for working out of the divine purpose or foolproof programs for successful ministries. All we can do is live between remembrance and promise.
In our own personal lives and family life, we can’t stop our children from growing up! So we live much of our lives in the in-between.
The disciples wanted Jesus to restore the kingdom of Israel. It’s understandable that the disciples wanted to return to a previous condition when Israel was God’s only people. The disciples thought that they were coming to their destination of inheriting a kingdom, but Jesus declares that they are receiving a mission which will not only involve God’s faithfulness to Israel, but will be the fulfillment of Israel’s prophetic hopes for the whole world.
The point of the ascension of Christ is that Christ has gone up. He didn’t abandon us or leave us, but he went up to take charge, to rule, to put all things under his feet. Christ is gone from earth, not to forsake us, but to continue to redeem us. He has gone to heaven to begin what is yet to be accomplished on earth.
But while Christ is in heaven, we are promised the Holy Spirit and to become Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But first we must wait—to live between memory and promise. Today we are to learn the meaning of having not yet arrived.
Praying Time
After the ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem and went to the room upstairs where they were staying. Peter and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas were there. Bartholomew. Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and certain women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus as well as his brothers were all there praying.
In this in-between time, we can discover the power of prayer in our lives and in the church. Although we have a natural desire to rush to our destination and have the illusion that our human abilities can come up with solutions to the problems that we may have, we can learn that the reality of the Holy Spirit is available only when poured out upon us as a gift. The disciples wanted to know when Israel would be restored. Jesus said, “It is not for us to know the Father’s time.”
The best way to use this in-between time is to do what the disciples did. They were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.
This in-between time is not purely passive. It is not empty time or downtime. When we gather in prayer, we are reminded that it is not just each individual heart that needs the spirit but the entire community. In-between time is when we recall all that Christ has done in the past. This time is when we keep before each other the promise that in God’s time the Spirit will come. The in-between time is when we are most vulnerable and afraid; so we come to pray. And in doing so, we become more authentically human, because we give up the illusion that we possess the powers that in truth belongs to God.
And when the in-between time is over and the gift of the Holy Spirit is upon us, we will be called in a new way to serve God. We are to become witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Heart Grows Fonder
It’s been said that, “Absence can make the heart grow fonder.” When a loved one is away, we start to see the world through his or her eyes. The disciples move from looking up to heaven for Jesus to looking for Jesus in each other. Likewise, while Christ has gone up to heaven, we come to worship looking for the Christ in one another.
From this passage, there are three things we can hold onto as we live in the in-between times of our lives. First, we are called to restore hope. Since much of our lives are lived in the in-between-ness, Christ invites us to journey with him to destinations we do not yet know. Our personal lives, our family relationships, our churches, and our world do not yet live in the hopes and possibilities of the peace of God that is promised. We are reminded that as disciples, we cannot give up hope of the ongoing restoration of our lives and our world.
Secondly, we are called to bear witness as a community with the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. We are not called alone. Instead, God creates the human community known as the church to become bold with the power of the Holy Spirit.
And lastly, we are called to pray. Just as the early witnesses returned to pray, we also are invited into prayer. When we find ourselves in the in-between times of our lives, wondering when we will be restored and yet believing in the promise of Christ’s words, we must remember to pray. Prayer will shape and give meaning to us especially in the struggles of living in the in-between-ness of life.
Are We There, Yet?
I can remember a time when my brothers and I were walking with our mother on Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury. It may have been one of the many times when we would shop at the Stop and Shop supermarket. And as children will be, we would walk on the edge of the street near all of the street poles. Poles for streetlights, no parking signs, parking meters, etc. But one time, as I was walking ahead and encircling each pole as we walk down the street, I stepped right into “you know what!” My mother was furious. She said, “While there’s a road to walk on, you choose to walk in the ‘you know what’ gutter!”
We are all on a journey of life of trying to get from one place to another. Sometimes between where we are leaving to where we want to go, we will experience struggles and challenges—like stepping into “you know what.” It’s at those times when we have yet to arrive that we can remember Christ’s promise that he was not going away but going up.
He has gone up to take charge with God who made us. God has gone up. And when the destination is unclear or there’s “you know what” on the road, it’s always good to know that Christ has gone to heaven to begin what is yet to be accomplished on earth.
Are we there, yet? Jesus said, “It’s not for us to know yet, but I promised you the power of the Holy Spirit.” We are in the in-between. And while we are there, we believe that Jesus will return and take charge of this world as he has done in heaven.
Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the memory and faith we have in our hearts for Christ. And we look forward to living in hope, in community, and in prayer as your people bear witness of your love in all the world. Bless us and inspire us with the memories and wisdom of our mothers today whom you and we honor. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.