Easter 7A 2008

- Supernatural belief: to believe God is separate from the Universe. "Out there". This was the thinking in Jesus' day.

-Apostle's creed....... he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; He ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
-The upper room is that special place of prayer that each Christian must find.

- *Sermon: Great ways are ascending ways: ignorance to knowledge; evil to good, doubt to faith, physical to spiritual, etc. Lindy

- With nothing but a promise and a prayer, those eleven disciples consented to BE the church, and nothing was ever the same again, beginning with them. The followers became leaders, the listeners became preachers, the converts became missionaries, the healed became healers, and the disciples became APOSTLES, witnesses to the Risen Christ… and SO, they STOPPED looking up toward heaven, and looked at each OTHER instead. And THEN, they got ON with the business of being the church. Barbara Brown Taylor

-“He’s no longer restricted to or confined to our dimensions of time or space, as he was in his historical lifetime.” Marcus Borg

-Pantheism: God is immanent and transcendent...around us, within us, and we are within God.

- Joseph Campbell goes on to say: But if you read "Jesus ascended to heaven" in terms of its metaphoric connotation, you see that he has gone . . . not into outer space but inward space, to the place from which all being comes . .. . to the kingdom of heaven within. The images are outward, but their reflection is inward . . . It is a metaphor of returning to the source . . .

-The ascension is about returning to the source. The disciples keenly sensed Jesus' departure and return to God. In going to God, to the source of all that is, the disciples also felt power flowing from God through Christ to themselves.

SERMON: THE GREAT BEYOND. A sermon on replacing the word "Up" with the word "Beyond" Lindy (Idea from a sermon by B.B.Taylor)

-- But if you read "Jesus ascended to heaven" in terms of its metaphoric connotation, you see that he has gone . . . not into outer space but inward space, to the place from which all being comes Joseph Campbell

---Pantheism: God is immanent and transcendent...around us, within us, and we are within God.

--The Luke-Acts narrative isn't a 'beam me up' story. Rather, it conveys Jesus' lordship and freedom from space-time limitations Borg,

- Earth crammed with heaven, each common bush aflame with God. Yet only he who sees takes off his shoes. E. B. Browning. (Awe),

-Where do we get the nerve to offer tidy explanations of God, etc? How can we believe that our language is adequate. If we could feel ourselves speeding through the Universe….would we still pester God about tomorrow's weather? BBTaylor

-- In my opinion, what's wrong with much of our religion is that it's generic. We can make it mean whatever we want.

-God is greater than my imagination; wiser than my wisdom; more dazzling than the Universe; as present as the air I breath and utterly beyon my control BBTaylor

- Etymology of Greek word for human means Upward-looking. (No longer four legged looking down). Lindy

- Too often we try to bring God down to our size and make Him conform to our level. J.B.Phillips

-God is often compared to stones: monuments, temples, ageless, everywhere, endures

-- See beyond the fly specs on the window. When you read the Bible get beyond the fly specs

-We experience God in three ways: as something beyond; something among something within Buechner

-No matter how hard we try, we cannot seem to get God to respect our boundaries. BBTaylor

-Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you...1Cor. 6:19

-The book of Hebrews calls Jesus our Great High Priest. In the Hebrew religion the High Priest was the only priest with authority to go into the Holy of Holies where the presence of God dwelt. He did this to bring the blood of atonement before God and to intercede on behalf of the people of God. Jesus is our

High Priest....He is interceding with the Father asking for our protection and guidance-

- This prayer of Jesus is part of the farewell discourses, capturing Jesus' feelings toward those he leaves behind.

- This prayer is actually 'The Lord's Prayer" for he is giving it himself, where as the Lord's Prayer is what he taught US to pray

- Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. Franciscan mantra.

Great ways are ascending ways: ignorance to knowledge; evil to good, doubt to faith, physical to spiritual,

-It has been said that there are some people who are “so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good.”

- We have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless...in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

- "There are cracks, cracks, in everything, that's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen

- When you come to church next Sunday, don't come looking for God but bring God with you! From movie, Color Purple

- Sometimes life is when that kaleidoscope through which we peer at life shifts suddenly and everything is reordered. The kaleidoscope never quite shifts back to where it was. Loren Eisley

-Not, God is where heaven is but heaven is where God is. (Heaven is where God is; hell is where God isn't) Lindy

- He left us as salt. He left us as yeast. He left us as light. We wait for Him when in actual fact, he is waiting for us! (to act!)

1. Billy Sunday, formerly a baseball player for the Chicago Cubs, received the call to become an evangelist. In the early part of the last century, he held spellbound great throngs of people with his simple gospel message. It was Sunday's practice to pray for the leaders of a community, where he was about to have a campaign. At one point, he wrote to the mayor of Columbus, Ohio, and asked for the names of those whom he should be praying for. The mayor sent Billy a copy of the the phone book.

2. Not all of your ascension stories agree in the details. But the basic outline is there in all. A loved one dies. Sometimes you feel a presence of the one you loved hovering. Sometimes you hear that person's voice very clearly, not in a haunting way, but as if that person was still with you, speaking to you. Sometimes that presence, the remaining spirit of the one you love, stays until everything in your life seems to be put in order. Then when they know everything is all right, they leave. Dan Chambers

3.By the power of the Spirit of God, a Mexican priest took communion to the people of a town whose church was overrun with soldiers. They shot at anyone who came near, but the priest came forward to enter the church. They shot at the ground around his feet, and overcome with fear, he started to leave, but then stopped, came back again, and moved forward while the town watched. His courage, which was not his alone, inspired others to fall in step beside him until there was a collection of unarmed people moving toward the church. The startled soldiers no longer had the will to do them harm so great was the complete helplessness of the power that was evident among them. So the soldiers stood aside and the people shared the communion of our Lord, something that moments earlier had been impossible made possible by the power of God alone. Amen.

4. The American flag has a nickname. It's called "Old Glory." When someone wants to show their patriotism, they wave "Old Glory."Salvation, like patriotism, was a demonstration of glory. But this was not the glory of parades or waving dignitaries or confetti-filled streets. It was a demonstration of power from powerlessness. It was glory shown on the cross. It was a glory that showed the love of the Father for Son. word-sunday

HUMOR

-He who spits at heaven, gets it in the eye. Sheen.

-Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. Mark Twain

- In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better. Ellen Degeneres

-Parody on “Foot prints in the sand”. One night I had a wondrous dream. One set of foot prints there were seen. The foot prints of my precious Lord but mine were not along the shore. But then some stranger prints appeared. I asked the Lord, “What have we here?” These prints are large and round and neat but Lord, they are too big for feet. My child he said in somber tones. For miles I carried you alone. I challenged you to walk in faith but you refused and made me wait. You disobeyed, you would not grow; the walk of faith you would not know. So I got tired, I got fed up and there I dropped you on your butt. Because in life there comes a time when one must fight and one must climb. When on must rise and take a stand…or leave your butt prints in the sand.

-South of Hell

CHILDREN

1. Talk about Ascension Sunday and why it is so hard to believe in this day and age and then use this children's sermon to show how we feel about God in modern times: There is an invisible thread which connects us to God.

-How long do you think it is. (very short...God is with in us)
-How strong? (unbreakable)
-What's it called (love, God, Spirit, etc.)
-What happens when we do not acknowledge it? Nothing?, emptiness? lost, ...(We can't break it,)

God still loves us, God not just UP but EVERYWHERE.) Lindy

2.Have you ever had a row for leaving dirty footprints? Or have you ever tried to cover up your footprints

so that no-one knows what you were doing. Footprints can get us into trouble… and they can also be very helpful… you can follow footsteps... In Jerusalem you can visit the place where Jesus left his last footprint here on earth. Some say you can see the shape of Jesus' foot in the rock. The place has been a special and holy place for nearly 2,000 years, and there have been various buildings at the site - originally a small chapel with no roof built in the 4th Century (Note: Originally Byzantine - then 12th Century octagonal Crusader reconstruction with additional fortification, then - and to present day - Moslem mosque - Muslims also observe the ascension of Jesus) It is interesting to know about the places where Jesus was… places where people can say - "Jesus was here". Place of the ascension reminds us that Jesus was taken up into heaven to be with God - but he can still leave his footprints - marks that say - "Jesus is here" . NOW, it's OUR footprints… all the things we do leave a mark - sometimes a bad one… hopefully good ones… and other people will see our footprints and say, "Jesus is here". Talks to Children

3. Discuss balloons and what you can do with them. (make animals, water fights, tie to ankle and play "Stomp the balloon". Then mention helium balloons and how much fun it is to see them fly out into space BUT, first you have to let go!! Talk about what Jesus had to let go of before he left the disciple and what the disciple had to let go of when they "let" Jesus go. If the children are old enough you could talk about the things we have to let go of when we ascend to higher or better ways.

Idea from Sermons4kids

PRAYER PHRASES

-help us to die and rise with you to new life both now and forever.

-O God we give thanks that you are a part of us and we are a part of you.

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