Bright ideas, simple reflections — a little light for every step of the way.
What do you do with a bunch of old sermons? Turn them into a blog – refined, condensed, made for today’s world – feel free to use as written, or as fodder for your own message. It’s For you! No permission needed or credit given. (Scroll down for previous posts)
Sunday May 17 – Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
John 17:1-11
Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen and ascended Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
How many of you would say you are at least a little superstitious? My first instinct is to say no. I do not believe in those things anymore, though I did when I was younger. I remember someone giving me a rabbit’s foot for good luck. I kept it in a small box in my closet for years and forgot all about it until I moved out of my parents’ house. When I found it again, I laughed and threw it away.
Still, I think I remain a little superstitious about certain things, and I suspect most of us do. I remember once booking a flight on Friday the 13th and hesitating for a moment, wondering whether I really wanted to travel that day. (I booked it and had a wonderful flight!)
Out of curiosity, I looked up some common superstitions:
- Friday the 13: Bad Luck.
- Itchy Palm: Good Luck.
- Walking Under a Ladder: Bad Luck.
- Breaking a Mirror: Bad Luck.
- Finding a Horseshoe: Good Luck.
- Opening an Umbrella Inside: Bad Luck.
- Knock Twice on Wood: Reverse Bad Luck.
- Tossing Spilled Salt Over Your Shoulder: Good Luck.
- Finding a penny – “find a penny, pick it up all day long you’ll have good luck!”
- Black Cats: Bad Luck.
- Saying “God Bless You”: Good Luck.
Even in the church, we can slip into superstition. A cross necklace can become more than a symbol of faith and start to feel like a good-luck charm. We may even think prayers work only if we say them in exactly the right way. One theory about the superstition of walking under a ladder is that it comes from the Christian idea of the Holy Trinity, since a ladder against a wall forms a triangle and breaking that shape was seen as blasphemous. It is interesting how easily faith and superstition can become mixed together.
In today’s first reading from Acts, we hear about Jesus’ ascension into heaven. At this point in the church year, we have celebrated Christ’s resurrection on Easter and read about his appearances to the disciples and other followers during the forty days that followed. Jesus has promised to send an advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with us and guide us, and in today’s reading he is lifted up and taken out of their sight. The scene feels deeply supernatural.
We do not always place much emphasis on Jesus’ ascension. In fact, on the seventh Sunday of Easter, the lectionary even gives us a choice: focus on the Ascension or on Jesus’ prayer for his followers in today’s Gospel from John.
I think there is a reason for that. In our modern world, many people struggle to believe that Jesus’ ascension could really have happened.
For many people, a rabbit’s foot or avoiding a black cat may seem more believable than the idea of Jesus physically ascending into heaven to be with God. Perhaps it feels too fantastical to us—almost like science fiction.
Even the disciples struggled to take it in. They stood there staring into the sky, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Was he really gone? Was he coming back?
Do we do the same today? Do we find ourselves looking upward, searching for God, wondering where God is amid political unrest, war, financial stress, rising prices, and so much uncertainty about tomorrow?
At last, with the help of the angels, the disciples stopped staring into the sky. They understood what Jesus had been telling them all along: although he was leaving, he was not leaving them alone. God would remain with them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps we need to do the same. We may need to stop looking to the sky—or to our televisions, phones, and computers—for the peace, wholeness, and answers we long for. In these chaotic and confusing times, perhaps we are called to do exactly what the disciples did in their own unsettling moment.
Those same disciples had doubted, speculated, worried, and at times even abandoned Jesus. Yet they finally understood. They stopped staring into the sky, returned to Jerusalem, and devoted themselves to prayer. They devoted themselves to God.
And it changed them completely—and it changed the world. God’s abiding presence, and trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, can do the same for us.
God does not abandon us in our time of need. Trust God’s Word and God’s promise to be with you in all that you are facing right now. Cast all your anxiety on the one who cares deeply for you—our Redeemer, our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
God's Yes + My Amen 