Sunday May 4, 2008

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! One can never tire of that statement of fact for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And today we celebrate Jesus in all His glory. Jesus ascension into heaven marks the final, crowning glory only to be topped when He comes again on the Last Day. The celebration of our Lord’s Ascension is to see Jesus as our King, Ruler, fully God, seated at the right hand of the Father. We rejoice in the power and majesty of the Christ.

Thinking of this concept this last week I was reminded of the Lord’s Prayer and the final statement we make in this prayer, “for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” In this prayer we recognize who God is, who Christ is – the supreme being of the universe. But if you look in the Gospels and see Jesus teach this prayer, this part isn’t there. Where did it come from and why do we use it?

When Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray He was focusing in on a model of prayer for their daily lives. When we speak the Lord’s Prayer together in worship we are taking it from a personal prayer to a pray of the whole body of Christ. And so the church has framed this prayer in a way that brings us together as a community of worshipers. The final statement in this prayer, often called a doxology (praise words), has been added based on an Old Testament prayer at the dedication of the Temple. King Solomon had finally built a magnificent temple for the worship of God. At the dedication King Solomon, world renowned and powerful, prays that the Temple would be a way to give honor and glory and praise to the True King, the Almighty God. In Solomon’s prayer we find words very similar to what we use at the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer. We use these words, like Solomon, to pay respect to the True King and True God of all creation.

Jesus is our King. He is at the right hand of God the Father because of His death and resurrection that has won for us and the world salvation. Every tongue that confesses Jesus as Savior also knows Him to be the one at the right hand of God and knows of His promise that He is always with us. The God of all creation loves and cares for us and is always with us! That is a reality!

But our text, especially the Acts passage, warns us of a subtle danger of becoming to “heaven focused.” The reality of Jesus as our Savior and King will never change. The disciples witnessed Christ's glory as He ascended in to heaven and there stared up for a long time. Angels came and told them, Why are you staring into heaven, Jesus will come back.” It was a reminder of what the task was before them – being witnesses to the world of Jesus Christ.

Jesus told them that they were to bear witness to Jesus beginning in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria and then to the ends of the earth. It was like laying out a compass and saying go in all these directions. The task of the disciples and the church ever since is to bear witness to Jesus, to tell the world that our Lord and Savior has won for us forgiveness and eternal life. But sometimes we are like the disciples and we want to just “stay in the moment”, just stay separated from the world in our sanctuary of worship instead of going into all the world.

Let me illustrate. Here are four people representing our congregation. When I ask them to join hands and make a circle they do and face each other. This looks like a good image of a community. They are joined hand in hand making a circle that looks like they care for each other. But where is their focus of vision? It is focused inward at each other. At first this seems good, we care for each other. But it isn't where the church is supposed to be! Jesus said go to the world, go to those on the outside, go to those who are dying without Christ. That is a reality we need to be clear about – without Jesus people are going to hell! We have the promise and it is always true – Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He will never leave us. But there is a world that doesn't know where to turn for salvation.

Let's take our circle of four people. Lets turn them around and join hands again. They are still making a circle, they still are joined together, but now there focus is outward. You could say that they are “covering each other's backs” (Christian support of fellow believers) but their focus is on the outside, on the world. That is where Jesus wants our focus, and our life's work, with those who need to know about Jesus.

I have been refocusing the ministry areas that I am involved with and I have been trying to find a focus statement, something that will guide everything that I do. The one that is forming for me is building relationships with our community. This statement allows me to think through all the possible ministry opportunities and to focus on what is really important, bringing others to Jesus.

Our Renew 2009 is wrestling with how are we going to face the next 45 years of ministry. How are we going to re-energize the mission of Mount Olive? I think this statement will help, building relationships with our community. It will focus our mission statement: Reach, Care, Build, on how we need to focus our resources, talents, time and effort. To grow, to follow Christ, we need constantly be outward focused on our community, Eastridge, Aurora, Denver metro area and to the ends of the earth.

Like the second circle – we will always be together, the body of Christ. Christ has promised that He is always with us. That is a reality we need never doubt or focus all of our energy on (inward focused). By facing outward, by thinking about building relationships with our community, we will grow. Focusing only on maintaining what we have is the slow road to death. Focusing on the future and how are we going to bring others to Jesus will allow us to grow. It is the mission Jesus left with us – to bear witness to the whole world of the love Jesus has shown to us.

May be be outward focused, may we find ways to build relationships with our community, may we stop staring into heaven and trust the reality of Christ presence with us as we go into all the world. Amen.