Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The twelve disciples had an important decision to make on that suddenly lonely hill following Jesus’ ascension into heaven. There they stood, looking up into heaven, tracing with their eyes the trajectory that His glorified body took, but then witnessed the cloud that came up from below Him and hid His body from their sight. It must have been a while, because it took two men dressed in white to break their intense, searching silence and startle them with their question, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking intently into heaven?” And although it would have been comforting to know that Jesus would return in the same way those apostles saw Him ascend, there had to have been the question, whether it was said or left unsaid, “Now what?”

They could have done lots of possible tasks, and some of them could have been quite useful. Their statement of mission could have been quite clearly written out and each apostle could have walked away with their own specific job description. And there could have been something good that might come out of an organized plan like that. Or the followers of Jesus could have remained paralyzed, looking upward, completely disregarding the entreaties of the two heavenly white-robed gentlemen. The Lord could not be seen anymore. The temptation could have been there to put somebody else in Jesus’ place and simply follow him as if nothing changed. It could have been like when you head out on your vacation and you ask somebody whom you trust to pick up the mail and water the plants. Is that what Jesus is asking us here? We already know that the Lord will return, but what do we do during this time when we don’t see Him with us?

These questions are quite appropriate for us on an occasion like this- not to mention Mother’s Day! Ascension is past, but Pentecost is not yet. This is the Sunday “in between.” The Paschal or Easter candle is temporarily extinguished. This Sunday on the liturgical calendar can give you the impression or feeling that most Christians experience in their day-to-day lives. Is Jesus gone? Did He leave me with instructions while He’s up there somewhere enjoying His vacation? Hasn’t He noticed that I’ve got my struggles here on earth, or is He too busy to listen to my prayers? Isn’t He aware that nations and economies, churches and Synods are in desperate need of His help at a time like this? The Lord answers these questions and more with his directions for His disciples, now apostles, as recorded at the end of the Gospel of Luke. A little bit before His ascension, Jesus reminded them of the “promise of my Father,” speaking about the coming Holy Spirit, and He specifically instructed them, “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

What the apostles did in those few days between Ascension and Pentecost is written for you in the rest of Acts chapter 1, as was just read. They followed the directions of Christ the risen and now ascended Savior. They did not decide to take matters into their own hands, for they did not suddenly imagine themselves to be in charge, now that they couldn’t see Jesus. They recognized that Judas’ betrayal had cut into their original God-given resources by a full twelfth, so by following the clear direction of Scripture, they filled his vacated office with another apostle, namely Matthias. They stated unmistakable qualifications, presented the candidates, then as indicated by the prayer they prayed, left the choice in the hands of God, who knows the hearts of all, and Matthias joined the eleven. That order of business, along with their continual praising God in the temple and worship of the ascended Lord Jesus, was what occupied their time until Pentecost came.

How simple it is! Just wait until the Holy Spirit comes. Replace a vacant position, and worship God, telling of the kingdom of God that has come in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. That’s it. Sounds so passive; it doesn’t have any human initiative or ingenuity in it. Where are the programs? Where are the mission statements and great plans to cover the globe with good news? Where are the blueprints for their impressive buildings to stand as permanent testimonies to the saving Gospel message? They had none of those things, at least not yet. What they had, though, was the Father’s promise. They had the promise of Jesus that, “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20) They had the Lord’s own breath breathed upon them together with His command to forgive the penitent and retain upon the impenitent. All the other things, as important and helpful as they can be, are secondary. They know that the church depends completely on its number one priority, and that is God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, who comes to us through that Word.

That’s where we often go wrong, in thoughts if not also in actions. What the disciples did in these unique and crucial first days can instruct us very well today. The secondary stuff that we have now gets in our way to such an extent that we can often forget the priority of the Word. We would like our human institutions, our buildings, and policies to be better put-together, and that’s all well and good, and may even be necessary, but we dare not crowd out the Church’s one foundation, which as the hymn sings is Jesus Christ her Lord. The Holy Spirit is here among us. We are not as alone as those first followers of Jesus were, looking up into the sky on Ascension Day. We’re not left here on this earth, taking messages for Christ on some “While You Were Out” notepad. Yet you may have acted as though this were still an “in between” time for you; as though God has not yet fulfilled a promise that you thought He had made to you. Perhaps the secondary things, the added blessings of your heavenly Father, have become your highest priority over His Word and promise to you. Trials and struggles have pushed you to doubt God rather than to turn to His Word, praying to Him for what He has already promised to give.

Let the forgiving breath of Jesus remove your doubt and comfort you. You are not alone, you have been washed clean and reborn as a member of the kingdom of God, the Body of Christ. We all must rely on the name of Jesus no matter what life will throw our way. You are called by His name, which is the name the Father bestowed upon the Son, and together with the Holy Spirit, that same name is combined with water in Baptism. You call on this very name when you pray in any situation, both in good and bad times. You are not in some “in between” time, the same way the disciples were, because Jesus is with you, not in your imagination or your intangible “religious thoughts,” but He’s really here in flesh and blood because His Word promises it. Many Christians long for this connection with Jesus, yet they unfortunately are not taught that He has provided what they are seeking. He is here in His Word of Truth that you hear preached, He is here in His Words that are combined with the bread and wine, for He promises that they truly are His Body and Blood given for you for the forgiveness of sins. He has provided all of these things, and you didn’t have to make any of it up. Sure, there are secondary things and added blessings that none of us deserve, but most important of all you have that all-important Word of Christ’s promise from the Father.

Let the Priestly prayer of Jesus in today’s Gospel, John 17, be a comforting word for your soul on this day. Just as a God-fearing mother would pray every day for her child, our Lord prayed for you, for you are His Bride the Church, a congregation of saints who gather together to hear the Word of truth preserved for us by His Apostles. He continually prays for the Father to guard you from the Evil one, and those in the world who will hate you on account of the Word. He prays for your sanctification in the truth. That means that the cleansing and forgiving Word of Christ that you hear in church, and privately from the pastor and from the forgiveness you receive from your fellow brothers and sisters in the faith, that same Word renews you in the image of God and makes you a holy people, consecrated and set apart from the sinful world in which He has placed us temporarily. These things Jesus accomplishes for you now simply by speaking the Gospel to you. The Holy Spirit offers your sometimes feeble prayers before God’s throne, for as St. Paul assures us, “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words… [and] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8) Being a saint, and therefore receiving the benefit of intercession by the Holy Spirit, is not a status toward which you and I work to attain, rather it is a privilege of sonship that you already have by Divine decree. Believe with all your heart that your Savior prays and works daily in His ascended glory for your forgiveness and holiness and growth in faith, until the time comes when you depart this life and join Him.

So in between then and now, you have an important decision to make. Of course, it’s not the decision to believe or not, because you couldn’t have done that—the Holy Spirit accomplished that miracle for your sake. Rather, the decision is whether you dare or not to take hold of the gift you have been given, and trust in the Gospel alone for your salvation and your Christian life, rather than going on like before, looking just to yourself. Do you decide to confront your sinful nature head-on, rather than making excuses to sin? Do you confess the unpopular truth that God still sticks to those things called the Ten Commandments, and that Jesus did everything to save you? There is nothing to fear as you live in this sinful, hateful world, and deal with sinners, including yourself. For no matter how often you have stumbled and fallen, and though you do not see Him, your Jesus is still here to pick you up, and the promises of His Word guarantee it. Why stand and look intently up at the sky? Why look for your Lord in those secondary places where you won’t find Him? He’ll come again, and with glorified and restored sight, you will most certainly see your Lord soon. But in the “in between” time you have been given, look to His Word, His baptismal font, His altar table, His called servant of the Word with forgiveness on his lips—these are the places you’ll find Jesus now. They are the constant fountain and lifeblood of the Church and a more than adequate answer to the question, “Now what?”

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Acts 1:12–26 Let another take his office
Ps. 1 Blessed is the man who walks not… like a tree planted by rivers of water
1 John 5:9–15 He who has the Son has life
John 17:11b–19 that they may be one as We are