A
Whole New Way of Thinking
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
May 8, 2005
Scripture:
Acts 1:1-11 and Luke 24:44-53
Last summer,
a rather quirky and funny Australian movie was released in the US. It’s
a fun, feel-good comedy called Danny Deckchair. It tells the story of
a guy who was tired of his life, his job and his girlfriend. To get
away from it all, Danny tied two very large bunches of helium filled
balloons to his favorite backyard deckchair. Lo and behold, he lifts
off. Rising higher and higher, his odd flying machine is caught up in
a storm and he’s blown far south. He floats to the ground, lands
safely in someone’s yard and decides to stay and begin a whole
new life.
That comical image of a guy in a chair floating gently up towards
heaven gives us a funny way to understand what the Ascension of Jesus
is NOT about. I sense that each year when we come around to this day
on the church calendar, forty days after Easter, and hear again the
story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, most of us are left with
something of a comical image of Jesus floating up into the heavenly
realm to begin his new life in a new place.
Since Copernicus, some 500 hundred years ago, we no longer believe
in a three-story universe, with a flat earth suspended between hell
and heaven. And yet we retain these images in our spiritual imagination,
do we not? So as we hear that Jesus is ascending, in our mind’s
eye, he is still going up into heaven. If, on the other hand, we believe
that heaven is more of a spiritual reality than a special place, then,
what are we to make of this old, old story of the Ascension? What
did the Gospel writers want us to understand about Jesus Christ? What
were they trying to tell us when they told us this story?
We learn at least two things. The most important is not that Jesus
is finally going away after the Resurrection, but much more importantly
that he is blessing and commissioning US now to do his work in this
world. Secondly, we are assured that the Holy Spirit will give us
all the skill and power and courage and faith to do whatever it is
that we are called to do.
It’s the
biblical story itself that gives us this meaning. It’s so interesting.
The Risen Lord had just been talking with the disciples. He had lifted
his hands and blessed them just before he was “lifted up”
and “a cloud took him out of their sight.” That’s
where we usually end the story in our minds. He’s on his way,
disappearing into that cloud.
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"A Whole New Way of Thinking" Sermon
by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 08, 2005
But it’s what happens next that makes all the difference in the
world. Two heavenly messengers appear to do what they are always sent
to do. Two heavenly messengers are sent to help them understand. “Men
of Galilee,” they call them, the name itself pointing them back
to where they live and work. Galilee. Men of Galilee, “Why do
you stand looking up towards heaven?”
Because
that’s where he went, we can imagine them replying--stammering,
fearful, gesturing…because that’s where our Lord has gone…But
the heavenly messengers reveal a new meaning to all of this. “This
Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the
same way as you saw him go into heaven.” That is, all this is
the work of the Holy Spirit now. The same power at work here today will
empower you to return to Galilee and do what he told you to do just
moments ago. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
to you and you will be my witnesses—in Jerusalem, in Judea, in
Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth.” YOU will be my witnesses,
empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Stop
looking up into heaven. The place to look for Christ is here, in us,
as we live in his name, as his witnesses.
So
now if we expand beyond those “men of Galilee” to us, “God’s
people in Santa Monica,” how do we claim this power? How do we
hear our call? How do we find our Christian vocation? How do we know
what God would have us do?
To
help us, our Lay Leadership Committee has made the month of May “Check
into Church” month. Please take time at the Coffee Hour to fill
out one of the interest surveys. Our deepest hope is that this be much
more than a lifeless form on a piece of paper, but rather that it be
an instrument to help each of us focus in a bit more clearly on where
God is calling us now to serve the church and to serve God’s people.
For this to be real and deeply spiritual, it will require some time
and some and some intentionality on our part, to hear what God might
be saying to us, to see where God’s Spirit might be directing
us.
You
know, our Prayer Quilt ministry, this powerful ministry that has touched
so many lives, grew out of a similar process of prayer and discernment.
It was created by some of the great “mothers of our congregation”
may I say on this Mother’s Day? Women who saw the leading of God
into a new ministry hear to comfort and strengthen God’s people.
Very
often, the claim of God on our lives can take us to involvements we
never could have imagined or predicted. When you fill out your survey,
don’t just settle for the things you already know about yourself
or our church. See what new things God might be longing to do in our
midst.
Because
it’s Mother’s Day, I want to lift up the mother of the woman
who founded Mother’s Day in America, another mother who was called
by God to begin new ministries of
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"A
Whole New Way of Thinking" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, May
08,
2005
service. It was Anna Jarvis’ mother who inspired her to push
for a day set aside to honor the work, the love and the commitment
of all mothers.
Anna’s
mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis, daughter of a Methodist minister,
was married in 1850 and bore eleven children, only four of whom lived
to adulthood. She was very active in the Andrews Methodist Episcopal
Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where the first Mother’s Day
celebration would be held in her honor on May 10, 1908. Grafton is
about 370 miles from where our ASP youth work team will be rebuilding
houses in July. Mrs. Jarvis was a Sunday school teacher there for
over a quarter century as well as an accomplished speaker who spoke
in many area churches on topics such as “The Value of Literature
as a Source of Culture and Refinement” and “the Importance
of Supervised Recreational Centers for Boys and Girls,” two
topics which sound remarkably contemporary, do they not?
In
addition to teaching Sunday school and speaking, raising her own children,
and managing their household, Mrs. Jarvis found her vocation, her
calling, as a disciple of Christ. She formed what were called “Mother’s
Day Work Clubs.” Enlisting the assistance of two physicians,
one her own brother, club members were trained and supervised to serve
families and children in many ways. They sent women to care for families
whose mother had tuberculosis. They provided medicine for the poor
and inspected milk for children.
By
1861, as the Civil War, the War Between the States, intensified, Grafton
had become something of an armed camp, home to both Union and Confederate
soldiers, known as the Blue and the Gray for the colors of their uniforms.
Mrs. Ann Marie Jarvis had a vision. She called the clubs together
and presented her plan: “To make a sworn-to agreement between
members that friendship and good will should obtain in the clubs for
the duration and the aftermath of the war. That all efforts to divide
the churches and lodges should not only be frowned upon but prevented.”
And so they did. When an epidemic of typhoid fever and measles broke
out among the soldiers, the Mother’s Work Day Clubs were called
upon to serve both the Blue and the Gray, for which they later received
commendation from officers on both sides.
After
the war ended, their work of reconciliation continued. Mrs. Jarvis
planned a Mother’s Friendship Day at the county courthouse.
Soldiers, Union and Confederate, and their families were invited.
She dressed in gray, another leader in blue. They led the crowd in
singing both “Way Down South in Dixie” and “The
Star-Spangled Banner,” followed by “Should Auld Acquaintance
Be Forgot.” Those in the crowd that day cried, and cheered and
shook hands. Mrs. Jarvis and her Mother’s Work Day Clubs had
become instruments of peace and reconciliation as well as service.
Ann
Marie Reeves Jarvis, wife, mother, daughter of a Methodist minister,
active member of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, had clearly
been blessed and
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"A
Whole New Way of Thinking" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris,
May 08,
2005
commissioned
by Christ Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be his witness
in this world. God continues to raise up among us teachers and leaders,
workers, servants, pastors, prophets, evangelists and healers. Through
us, through the body of Christ now on earth, the church…through
us, he continues to preach and teach and heal and serve. Through
us he continues to work for justice and peace.
As
Teresa of Avila said so long ago, “Christ has no body now
on earth but yours, no hands, but yours, no feet but yours. Yours
are the eyes through which Christ looks with compassion at the world;
yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; yours
are the hands with which he blesses people now.”
Next
Sunday we will gather here to bless and confirm and commission ten
new members of the Body of Christ, our 2005 Confirmation Class.
In the same way that Jesus just before his Ascension lifted his
hands and blessed his disciples, we will place our hands on their
heads and invoke the Holy Spirit to come and bless them for ministry
and service.
On
that day, we will see and remember that the church is of God and
is for all time and that this new generation will take its place
in the great company of servants which began with those disciples
long ago, those “men of Galilee,” and extends through
Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis and the Mother’s Work Day Clubs all
the way to us—men and women and youth and children of Santa
Monica.
“Christ
has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, but yours, no feet
but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks with compassion
at the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing
good; yours are the hands with which he blesses people now.”
Thanks
be to our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God and
the Holy Spirit, both now and for evermore.
Amen.
Notes:
Fleming Rutledge. The Bible and the New York Times. Eerdmans: Grand
Rapids, Michigan: 1998.
“The Mother of Mothers Day.” www.rootsweb.com/~wvtaylor/mother.htm.
Mary Ford-Grabowsky. Stations of the Light: Renewing the Ancient Christian
Practice of the Via Lucis as a Spiritual Tool for Today. Doubleday.
New York: 2005.
© Patricia Farris, 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation
with attribution. All other rights reserved.
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