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What to Expect on Sunday |
Today is the third and final sermon in the series asking the question, "After Easter, What’s Next?" The question, of course, continues on beyond our three part series in large part because the work of the Kingdom of God goes on. The work of the Kingdom continues on until Jesus returns again, so our role in the work of the Kingdom continues on. Complete one role in the Kingdom and the question to ask is, "What’s next?" The two walking along the road to Emmaus wondered about the answer to that question. They found part of the answer in the recognized presence of Christ with them as they sat down to a meal together. The disciples gathering at a mountain in Galilee pondered that question and found part of the answer in Jesus’ Great Commission to his Church, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Yet the question still hangs in the air as the disciples gather one more time with Jesus and they watch as he ascends into heaven. Our Scripture passage for today, Acts 1:1-11 (read). First of all, it should be no surprise that the question, what’s next, still lingers with the disciples in this final meeting with Jesus before his ascension. The question is always before us. Accomplish something for Jesus? Excellent! Now, what’s next? Keep going, there’s always more work to do. But it’s also no surprise the question still lingers because these disciples have been through a lot. Three years of ministry. Building excitement, then suddenly arrest, crucifixion, death and burial. Then…resurrection! Instruction. Great Commission. That’s a lot to take in. So, still the question lingers, what’s next. In our passage for today, Jesus instructs the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for "the gift my Father promised." John’s baptism with water they understood, to a degree, but baptism with the Holy Spirit? Raises more questions than it answers. And the disciples show a characteristic I can empathize with—the lack of focus, or misdirected focus. We see it in their question, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" Like many others, they were expecting a political answer to their question of what’s next. Surely the Messiah was going to restore the kingdom of Israel to its past glory under David. This Jesus, "Son of David," in the covenantal line of David, surely this Jesus was going to cast out the Roman oppressors and restore the kingdom of Israel. The expectant answer to their question of what’s next is a political solution. But their focus is misdirected. Instead, Jesus tells them that the times and dates are not for them to know and the answer to their question involves waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them—an event we know as Pentecost. And when Jesus says this, their focus gets misdirected again, understandably, as Jesus ascends to heaven before their eyes! One wonders how long they would stand there staring into the sky if it hadn’t been for two angels who come along and redirect their attention to Jesus’ instructions—wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, you will receive power from the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. I can empathize with the disciples, first of all, because they’ve taken in a lot. That’s a lot for any person to soak up in a lifetime, let alone a matter of a few weeks. I can understand their difficulty in focusing on the appropriate task at hand. I can also empathize with their difficulty in focusing because that is a particular weakness for the personality type I come out with on every character test I’ve ever taken. My personality type—I’m being very open here—has difficulty in focusing on the task at hand. What is often said about my personality type is that I can’t fully enjoy an activity I’m engaged in because I’m already thinking about what’s next. By the way, honey, what time is our flight to Atlanta? That’s my personality type. Even at a Rockies game I can lose focus and start wondering about the next activity. I find myself thinking, "This is nice…but I could be doing this, or that." It’s why I have to take Monday as my day off. All the senior pastors I’ve worked with took Friday as their day off. I can’t do that. Even if I had my sermon done by Wednesday I’d still find myself thinking about it through the rest of the week. If Friday was my day off, I’d be out on a golf course somewhere, standing over my approach shot to the green, or standing over a putt, and my mind would be thinking about my sermon. "You know, I’m not sure that illustration there works very well." My golf game is bad enough without that! Every personality test I take points to the same thing. Myers-Briggs, for example. I’m an ESTP if you’re familiar with Myers-Briggs. I don’t have time to explain what that means, but this booklet gives helpful summaries of each personality type. For my type, under the category of "Leadership," it says this: "May irritate team members by…moving from crisis to crisis and failing to finish what they start." Furthermore, it says ESTP’s "Can maximize effectiveness by…developing a stick-to-it attitude even after the excitement has worn off." You see…focus. About "problem solving it says I can maximize effectiveness by "recognizing that the first solution is not always the best solution." And for dealing with stress, I can maximize my effectiveness—at least according to this booklet—by "persevering when things are complicated or boring." And so, and so on with Myers-Briggs. Then there’s the Enneagram. Took that personality test as a part of a small group I was in. Scored a "Type Seven: The Enthusiast" on that one. One of the suggestions this book makes for type seven personalities is "notice how the anticipation and desire for other experiences and things prevents you from savoring what you are experiencing right now. To explore this, you can play a game: take a moment to find something of wonder in your immediate experience. What is the gift you are receiving now." The type seven personality, it goes on to say, when declining toward severe weaknesses with this personality type becomes "less focused and less able to follow through. Many partially completed projects lie in their wake." That’s the Enneagram. In the Smalley-Trent "personality bents" symbolized by animals, I vary between the Beaver and the Otter—characteristics that coincide with the strengths and weakness of a Type Seven on the Enneagram and the ESTP on Myers-Briggs. Like a good Beaver, I jump into various projects with focus and organization. But then, the Otter enters in and the idea of something more fun—going down to the pond and sliding in and out of the water—breaks in…leaving many partially completed projects in their wake. Otters need to learn that deadlines are not guidelines. So, I struggle with focus and can empathize with the disciples’ lack of focus. What time did you say our flight was? Maybe it’s just me and my ESTP, Type 7, Otter personality, but it seems to me, when it comes to the work of the Kingdom and our answering the question, what’s next, it’s easy for all of us to lose our focus. I mentioned last week that I think the Church in America lost its focus in the heyday of the 50’s and early 60’s and stopped going into the world and waited for the world to come to it. Particularly the world that is our immediate neighborhoods and community. We kept our focus on the ends of the earth, but lost our focus on our Jerusalems and we’re paying a heavy price for it. Sometimes we can lose our focus on what the real purpose is to the work of the Kingdom. Like the disciples, we can begin to think it’s all about prestige and restoring our standing in the world. "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?" "Lord, is it now that you’re going to take us back to the way it was in the early 60’s? Lord, is it now you’re going to make Shepherd of the Hills the leading church in our community? What about America, Lord? Is it now that you’re going to strengthen our standing in the world? And, of course, the Kingdom of God isn’t about that. It’s about saving lost souls with the good news of the gospel. Sometimes we lose our focus as to what our role is within the Kingdom. We "professionalize" the gospel by leaving its proclamation to the professionals—the pastors, and the Directors of Christian Education, the Music Ministers and the Youth Ministers—and determine that is not your role. But Christ reminds us, as he tells his disciples, "you" will be my witnesses. All of us have a role in proclaiming the gospel. In fact, the witness to the gospel from one for whom "it’s not his or her job," is the much more powerful and effective witness. And I think that sometimes we lose our focus in the temptation of worldliness. Whether it’s in the pursuit of material things, or the pursuit of approval and status in the eyes of others, we fill up our days with activities toward those objectives rather than toward the objective of being a witness for Jesus Christ. The work of the Kingdom gets pushed aside because of our misdirected focus on our work to get ahead, to climb the social and financial ladder. To effectively answer the question, after Easter, what’s next, we’ve got to have focus—personality difficulties or not. A focus, first of all, on what has been accomplished for us in the Easter story. Victory over sin and death. Freedom from the burdens of our sin and freedom from worry or fear over death. A debt paid that we could not pay…or re-pay. The only appropriate response to that is one of gratitude, and a willingness to answer Christ’s call to engage in the work of the Kingdom. A work where Christ is present with us—Holy Communion and the Great Commission remind us of that. A work that requires us to go where non-believers are that we might share by word and deed the good news of God’s love for them expressed in Jesus Christ. Encouraging them toward faith in Jesus, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. Seeking to maintain our focus through the prompting and empowering of the Holy Spirit. After Easter, what’s next? Only the work of the Kingdom of God in the world…and each of us have a role to play in that work. Let’s take a moment of silent reflection on what’s next in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.
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