Welcome to our Service for Sunday the 14th of April. Absence and Presence.

Welcome to our Sunday morning service at  Clevedon at 10 am. Watch the live stream on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxBzxjBb3xU8ra2NHwvD_9A

You can find the Reading and Reflection for today, below:

Acts 1:1-11

1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

“He was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

I just want to try a little experiment this morning

I’m just going to leave……

…Now I’m back

Now if I hadn’t come back, what would you have done?

Maybe someone would have come looking for me? Or a capable person would have jumped up and suggested that we move on to our final hymn?

What do we do now that he’s gone?  Somehow you would have managed.

And the other thing, is that you might remember this event.  That was the day Martin, or the minister, disappeared, and didn’t come back.

Without wanting to sound at all arrogant, you might remember the absence more than you would remember anything else that happened as part of our service today.

And you would also remember what happened in the absence. What happened next. How you managed.

There are two particular points in our story today: The anxiety of having Jesus leave. And the wonder at discovering that his work would continue.

I don’t know if you agree with me or not, but it possible that absence and presence are the two most important events in our lives?

How are we going to manage now that she’s gone? What are we going to do now that he’s here?

A baby arrives. A grandparent departs.  How are we going to manage with this arrival? This presence.  How are we going to cope with this departure? This absence? The loss? 

I wasn’t before, and now I have become a father. A new identity comes into being.

I have become bereft, I no longer have my parents, and something changes.

I remember when we went through those lockdowns. We had these two things happening. There was a powerful sense of the absence of routines, of known order.  And the presence of something else. A threat that touched us all.

Absence and presence change the future.

In small ways that happens a lot to us. 

Have you ever been really pleased to welcome friends and then almost equally as pleased to farewell them?

For some reason I always remember that saying: fish and friends go off after three days.

Arrivals, departures. Absence and presence. The most disruptive and the most important times in our lives.

This morning’s reading is about these things. These most important things.  And they all involve us in the most intense emotions we can experience. Shock at his departure. Amazement that his work continues.

We’ve heard stories since Easter:

Meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus; Hearing his voice from the shore when the disciples had been out fishing; In this locked room where Thomas finally gets to see the risen Christ touches his scars and confesses 'my Lord and my God.'

And Jesus says “blessed be those who have not seen and yet believe.”

The story is spreading. More and more people believing without seeing.

One of the simplest messages of the ascension is that an encounter with Jesus is no longer tied to a specific point in history or geography or among a particular cultural or religious group. Jesus can be discovered, known, everywhere.

Jesus says “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

There is a warning there isn't there? That a message that was so vibrant, transforming, a simple fellowship of passionate followers of Jesus, has now been subverted by organisations, institutions, business and cultures.

However, we might describe this time, one of the most important messages today is that the Good News of Jesus can’t be contained.

It can’t be fixed into a particular place or time or culture.  It can’t be contained or owned by any one group or race or church.  It’s this Holy Spirit thing.

Just two week  ago we hear about Jesus fixed by nails on the cross as he was executed on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Everyone understood what that was about. We’ve nailed him down. Fixed him. There is no moving from that cross. Hate, fear, death, there is gravity - a terrible unrelenting force at work.

Now. Not lifted up on a cross but lifted up above the clouds for the whole world. From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.   And the promise of the Holy Spirit.

We hear a story, a remarkable story about Jesus’ ascension. And in our age, we want to know more. I need to know details. I need to check with Google.

And we can find ourselves down a track which is a bit like seeing a wonderful painting and then getting into an argument about how the artist held her paint brush.

The story today is about awe and wonder and holy mystery and majesty. Jesus rose. Jesus's work continuing in his absence.

How can that happen? 

This is beyond words. From the cross to the clouds. Being overcome with something so much bigger that we could have thought or imagined.

The Holy Spirit working through you and me. Witnesses to Jesus.

This message is being told to us as an overwhelming miraculous discovery.

9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight

We can’t explain – but it’s such an event that from now on we see things differently. Everything that happens from now, even the hard things, even the absences, that we are facing, we see through a new lens, a new way of looking. A promise of the Holy Spirt. A promise of a new heaven and new earth. 

Gazing, gazing. After loss. But something powerful happens in the story.

Jesus says "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight

While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? He will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

There is a future and a direction and purpose here.

You will be my witnesses. 

You will be my witnesses now.  Right now. Eyes not looking up, but looking around. Seeing the places of need. Seeing the opportunities to witness.

I was talking to Lynette on Wednesday. For many people, and especially younger families, this is a pretty unsettling time. The need for food parcels has increased. The anxiety over job losses and redundancies.

Not gazing heavenward in some otherworldly hope, but now eyes firmly affixed on those who stand about us.

We have actions that express our love and concern. We have words of encouragement and assurance. And we have a faith in Jesus, who continues to be present for us and with us, even in the toughest of times.

We join with those surprised, shocked, first followers in Galilee.  Believing now that God's glory and power, the very Holy Spirit, can become real and manifest in the things that link us to all people. People in this part of Auckland, and to the ends of the earth.

AMEN