A couple of decades ago there was a really popular television show called Touched by an Angel. How many of you used to watch it? It was pretty good, wasn’t it? It was optimistic and uplifting without being overly sugary or sentimental. So think back. Wouldn’t it be great if, just when you most needed help, there would be Monica, or Andrew, or Tess - with just the right word, just the right touch, maybe even a little miracle to guarantee that everything comes together just the way it’s supposed to? And just to make sure you didn’t miss the message, the episode always included the words, “I’m an angel, sent by God, to let you know he loves you.” We look at everything that’s going on in society, we look at all the mistakes people make, and we wish for an angel to make it right, and to help people believe. Because if God would only do that, then surely people would believe in God, and place their trust in him, and turn their lives around.
But that’s not how God chooses to do things. I liked the show, don’t get me wrong. They didn’t mention Jesus, which I always wanted to argue with them about, but it was infinitely better than most of the rest of what’s on TV. The problem is that it encourages us to wish for angels to fix our problems, instead of doing the work ourselves. Kind of like Samantha on Bewitched, anybody remember that even longer ago? Who wouldn’t want to be able to just wrinkle their noses to have the house spotless?
It’s too easy to substitute wishing for doing.
To some extent we’re in the same position as the disciples were back in Jerusalem so long ago. Believers, yes, but wondering what comes next.
[And] they asked him, “Master, are going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?” And he told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when you do, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the end of the world.”
In other words, Jesus was telling his followers that he was retiring from day-to-day management of the firm and that he was turning it over to them to run. What he had been doing for the last 50 days had been the final stage in their apprenticeship. But they still didn’t get it. Maybe when he said, “You will be my witnesses,” they thought he meant they could watch him orchestrate the grand finale.
The disciples had done a lot of training already; he had sent them on at least two mission trips already that we’re told about in the Gospels. The twelve knew how to go out and preach the good news and heal and call people to repent of their sins. But I suspect that they thought all that was behind them, now that Jesus had risen. Surely the hard part was over now, wasn’t it? Surely it was time for Jesus to ascend his throne and sweep away all the ugly, inconvenient, even painful conditions the people had been suffering for so long. Surely Jesus would act now.
And he did. He left.
And they stood there, staring into the empty sky, and suddenly two men in white robes appeared and said, “You Galileans! - why do you just stand around looking up at an empty sky?”
That’s what the angels do in this story. They call the disciples back to their work and reassure them that everything is on track. They don’t do their work for them.
Now, mind you, part of Jesus’ marching orders included waiting for the Holy Spirit. He told them at the end of the first chapter of Luke’s history to “stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” But again, I suspect that what they had in mind was less the infusion of the Holy Spirit than a calling to some high and important position, with all the usual trappings of power. Maybe even an enforcement mechanism.
I may be misjudging them; after all, Luke doesn’t tell us what they were thinking of. And even if they were thinking about high office in Jesus’ administration, we can’t really blame them. After all, we know the whole story, and they didn’t. They didn’t know about the Holy Spirit, and they didn’t realize yet that the good news was for the whole world. They were still thinking in terms of salvation for the Jews alone, and they were still thinking of it in terms of a restored monarchy headquartered right there in Jerusalem.
But once the angels got their attention they did what they were supposed to do. They went back to Jerusalem and gathered together all of Jesus’ followers and prayed, and they also took care of business, appointing Mathias to replace Judas.
And they waited.
And ten days after Jesus had left them the Holy Spirit came upon them, and everything that had been prophesied took place. We’ll talk about that next week, at Pentecost.
But after that, what did they do?
They stayed in the city, and they prayed and sang and listened to the apostles preach, and they broke bread together, and they did all kinds of truly wonderful things, and the church grew, and ... they waited for Jesus.
They had been told.
They had been told to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. But there they were, still in Jerusalem, wondering when Jesus was going to return, waiting for Jesus. It wasn’t until the Jewish authorities started persecuting them that they scattered into the countryside and started telling the Gospel to people outside Jerusalem.
This is Ascension Sunday. This is the day we remember and celebrate two things. The first is that Jesus is in heaven, on the right hand of the Father, praying for us, and defending us against the accusations of the enemy of our souls. This is also the day that we affirm our belief that Jesus is coming again. As the angels said, “This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly - and as mysteriously - as he left.”
But remember that they also said, “Why are you standing around gazing up at the sky?”
Jesus gave us work to do, and the only way we will be ready for his coming is if he finds us doing what he called us to do. Paul calls us ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors are people sent on behalf of a governing body to do business on its behalf. In a way that makes us sort of high-class messengers - we do pass messages back and forth, but we do more than that. We speak Christ’s words for him, but we also do Christ’s work for him.
Did you know that an angel is simply a messenger?
Why do we look around wishing for an angel, a messenger, when what we’ve been entrusted with is so much more important, so much more meaningful?
What we saw Andrew, and Monica, and Tess doing on Sunday nights was more or less what each one of us is called to do. It is more than being simple messengers to the people God puts us alongside. Who do you know that needs a touch from God? A word is good – The Word is immeasurably important. But it carries more persuasive power if it is accompanied by a hand. How do you know that God has not called you to be that person’s "more than messenger" angel today?
When you look around and see all the suffering in the world, instead of asking why God permits it, ask what God wants you to do about it. We are more than God’s messengers. We are Jesus’ hands and feet in the world.
Don’t wait for angels while waiting for Jesus to return. Be ready for Jesus by being someone’s angel.
