One of the most important things for us 21st-Century types to understand is that the authors of the New Testament did not have the same world view we “moderns” do. The ancients viewed heaven as having geographic reality just like earth; that is, they believed that heaven is a physical place that has a relationship to earth you could point to, and that relationship of course is “up.” The abode of the gods was thought to be up above us, in the sky, and further, the Earth was thought to be an imperfect reflectionof this godly realm. This of course is seen in Greek drama, where what happens in heaven is mirrored on earth but—for us imperfect mortals—often to tragic effect. You can also see this in the New Testament . . . every Sunday we say: “Our father who art in heaven” – there’s heaven as a place – “Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We’re asking that things be done here on earth as they are done in heaven. In fact, the whole notion of the Kingdom of God is shot through with this. If God’s rule in heaven is just, if the poor are never hungry or oppressed, if the blind see and the lame walk in heaven,then the coming of the Kingdom of God is nothing less than making Earth – now an imperfectreflection – into a perfectreflection of heaven.
One of the problems many of us moderns have – although surelynobody in this room – is an overweening arrogance about it all . . . we’re convinced that our world-view is superior, we call it an “enlightenment” world view, for Pete’s sake, as in, aren’t we enlightenedcompared to those primitives in the pre-modern era, primitives like Michaelangelo or Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo Da Vinci or Plato or Martin Luther . . . and this arrogance filters down lo unto the very basics of our faith . . . my favorite Episcopalian Bishop, John Spong – who I seminary buddy of mine calls Spronnngggg!– has made a career out of it, a career out of ridiculing pre-modern beliefs . . . he’s written the same book over and over again, telling us that we’d better get rid of all these quaint beliefs like the virgin birth or the resurrection or the insert-your-miracle-here, and I suspect that this obsession tells us more about John Spong, and his embarrassment over his faith, than it does about that faith itself . . .
One of the problems many of us moderns have – although surelynobody in this room – is an overweening arrogance about it all . . . we’re convinced that our world-view is superior, we call it an “enlightenment” world view, for Pete’s sake, as in, aren’t we enlightenedcompared to those primitives in the pre-modern era, primitives like Michaelangelo or Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo Da Vinci or Plato or Martin Luther . . . and this arrogance filters down lo unto the very basics of our faith . . . my favorite Episcopalian Bishop, John Spong – who I seminary buddy of mine calls Spronnngggg!– has made a career out of it, a career out of ridiculing pre-modern beliefs . . . he’s written the same book over and over again, telling us that we’d better get rid of all these quaint beliefs like the virgin birth or the resurrection or the insert-your-miracle-here, and I suspect that this obsession tells us more about John Spong, and his embarrassment over his faith, than it does about that faith itself . . .
And of course this pre-modern guy Christ said something about how those who are ashamed of him and his words of them he’llbe ashamed, but aside from that, whenever I read this morning’s lesson I thinkof Spong, who singled this episode out in one of his books, deriding it as Christ lifting off like a rocket ship, isn’t that quaint, and I think it betrays a remarkable literalness about the modern mind-set, a remarkable lack of imagination . . . Luke’s audience would have had no trouble seeing this as symbolic, they would have had no trouble viewing it on more than one level . . . like biblical literalism itself, the obsession with debunking the miracles in Scripture is a purely modern affliction, a kind of literalism in itself. Only what it takes literally is the Gospel of Science, the Book of Philosophical Materialism, which states—chapter one, verse one—that something isn’t real if we can’t touch or measure it . . .
Be that as it may, our passage is in fact shot through with symbolism, beginning with its first line . . . Luke addresses it to Theophilus, and though there has been speculation over the years about this person’s identity – Was he Luke’s patron? Was he an elder of the church? – I like to think that Luke has written it to all of us, because after all, Theophilusis Greek for “God lover,” and we do all love God, don’t we? Even though the idea of God is itself a pre-enlightenment notion?
But the inscription reminds us of something else, it reminds us that the book of Acts is not just a history, not just a record of the activities of the early church, although it is surely that . . . the book of Acts is a Theological document as well, it has a viewpoint, an agenda, if you will . . . this is a story not only forthe God-lovers, it’s aboutthe God-lovers as well, it wants to project a certain image of them, it wants make certain theological points.
And one of the points it wants to make hereis the obvious one . . . Jesus Christ was lifted up into heaven . . . and note the passive construction, it said he was “lifted up” and that of course implies somebody doing the lifting . . . Jesus didn’t lift himselfup, he was lifted up, as the two men in white said he was taken up,and we all know by whom . . . and what aboutthose two men in white, anyway? White symbolizes purity, it symbolizes holiness and righteousness . . . in his Gospel account of the transfiguration, Luke describes Jesus’ clothes as “dazzling white.” And then again, at the tomb, the women find instead of Jesus two men in dazzling clothes . . . are these men in our passage the same guys? In a way, they’re acting like kind of a Greek chorus, telling the disciples what’s going on, giving them needed information . . . kind of like angels . . . are they angels? Angel means messenger in Greek . . . and they’re delivering a message, all right . . . and here’s the point: God took Jesus – now the risen Christ – God took Jesus up to heaven . . . and if we don’t get the point, it’s pounded into us: the last verse repeats the word heaven three times: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus who was taken into heaven, will return the same way you saw him go into heaven.” Where has Jesus gone? Into heaven,already . . . And of course, this gives us a clue as to his identity, doesn’t it? The messengers are telling us that Jesus is the Son of God, returning to live in the home of his heavenlyparent.
But even though Jesus has gone from them, even though his heavenly parent has reached down and scooped them up, the apostles are not left high and dry. As Jesus says “John baptized with water, but you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And of course, that is what we celebrate not all that many days from nowat Pentecost . . . but the disciples, there at that last meeting with him, want to know what’s going to happen, they want to know how it’s all going to go down, and so they ask the question they’d been asking from the beginning “is thisthe time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Is it finally here? And we knowwhat kingdom they’re talking about . . . it’s the Davidic kingdom, the kingdom of their once and future King . . .
After all this time they stilldon’t get it, they stilldon’t understand what’s going on . . . it’s as if they’re thinking “ok, we got that crucifixion and resurrection stuff outa’ the way . . . now let’s get on with the real deal, the real agenda . . . let’s get that kingdom restored. After all, you arethe Messiah, are you not?” But Jesus just patiently lays it on the line: it’s not for y’allto know the times or periods that God has set . . . sorry. I don’t care howmany Y2Ks come and go or howmany charts John Hagee puts up on the wall, it’s not for you to know. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins can write a whole libraryon being left behind– and trust me, they will– but you’re not gonna figure it out. It’s just not for you to know.”
And while they’re wondering who Tim LaHaye is and what he was left behind from,he goes on: But here’s what I willdo for you. I’ll give you powerwhen the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you willbe my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and everywhere, to the ends of the earth. And this witnessing business is no small potatoes, no small deal . . . it takes power to witness, the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon the disciples at Pentecost. And that makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, the Greek for witness is “martyr,” and that title came to be associated with Christians whose witness included the ultimate act of self-giving, the giving up of their lives . . . those Christians took Christ at his wordwhen he said “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their lives for my sake will save it.” Their witness was a sign-post pointing to Christ’s ultimate act of self-giving, his death on a Roman cross.
Of course, that kind of total witness, whether it involves giving up your physical existence on this planetor not, isn’t easy . . . and that’s what the power of the Holy Spirit is for, it’s to support Christians in this risky, difficult, downright-dangerousundertaking of being a witness to Christ. And this imbuing of individual people with the Holy Spirit’s power is something entirely new that God is doing with us Christians . . . the Hebrew scriptures – which we call the Old Testament – tell of the Spirit of God working in the world . . . Jesus himselftells Nicodemus that “the wind, the spirit,blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes,” and it’s stilllike that, the Spirit of God is still loose in the world, wild, unpredictable and free, but now – through the agency of Christ – we are able to wieldsome of that power . . . or at perhaps more accutately, that power can under gird our actions, it can support our witness to Christ.
Early on in the movie The Apostle,the title character Sonny Dewey is doing some tag-team preaching . . . y’all don’t know about tag-team preaching? Well, it’s when one of the evangelists is preachin’ and steppin’ and hollering about the Lord, and another comes up and pops him on the back or the arm, he comes up and tagshim and takes over, and it goes on like that sometimes for hours, and Sonny is tagged by this humongous preacher in a white suit who starts stepping across the stage yelling “I got the HolyGhost powah! I got the HolyGhost powah!” He’s happyabout it, it animateshim, it gives him joy. . . it gives him strengthto live in a world that’s not always sympathetic to three-hundred pound black men . . .
And you know what? We got the Holy Ghost powah as well . . . we got that high-steppin’, blowin’ in the wind Spirit power to uphold us as we undertake the dangerous business of witnessing to Christ . . . what? You say that you’ve never felt endangered by your witness for the Gospel? You’ve never been afraid, you’ve never felt like you might be called upon to actually take upthat cross and follow Christ to the end? Ok, maybe not . . . I’ll buy that. There’s at least a veneer of religious tolerance in this country . . . and it’s not like we’re Muslimsor anything . . . but we’ve allfelt the ridicule as we bear witness in public, as we give credit to Christfor a good work – we always say we’re doing it in Christ’s name, don’t we? – or we bow our heads in a restaurant to give thanks . . . if we haven’t – and again I’m sure all of us in this room have – but if we haven’t, perhaps we ought to examine our witness to Christ . . .
Our whole reason for beingis to be his witnesses in Cincinnati, in all Ohio and Indiana and even to the ends of the earth . . . if we are not fulfilling this, if we’re not witnessing to Christ in everything we do, in thought word and deed, then what good are we to God? After all, heaven is up there,not down here, and as that Greek angel chorus said “Why are we looking up into heaven? Christ’s gonna come back here,back to earth.” The action’s here on earth, the witness is here on this planet. Fix not your hearts on heavenly things, brothers and sisters, but on our witness here on earth. Heaven will take care of itself. Amen.
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